Rooh Afza, a sweet, ruby-red drink, is a beloved staple in India and Pakistan. This concentrated syrup, typically mixed with water or milk, not only delights the tastebuds but also nourishes the soul, playing a key role in celebrations and summer festivals across communities in both countries.
This herbal drink – created by Hakeem Hafiz Abdul Majeed – is more than just refreshment. It evokes love, warmth and joy in a region currently experiencing deep communal tensions, mutual distrust, strained diplomatic relations, ethnic strife and religious fundamentalism.
A traditional healer, pioneer of Unani medicine, philanthropist and visionary, Majeed invented Rooh Afza in Old Delhi in 1907, during British rule.
After India’s partition in 1947, one of his sons, Hakeem Muhammad Saeed, moved to Pakistan, while the other, Hakeem Abdul Hameed (1908-1999; known affectionately as Hakeem saheb), remained in India.
They established Hamdard factories in both countries, producing herbal medicines and drinks that continue to thrive today.
Hakeem saheb was the founder and first chancellor of the Jamia Hamdard University (JHU).
A tireless advocate for philanthropy, healthcare and education, Hakeem saheb was himself a skilled and compassionate physician in Unani medicine.
Interestingly, his ancestors hailed from Kashgar in what is today Xinjiang, China – another region known for its wealth of herbs and traditional medicine – and migrated to India during the reign of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam.
In 1993, he founded the Hamdard Public School in New Delhi. Other numerous institutions he established over the years that continue to contribute to the nation’s inclusive culture and traditions include the JHU, the Hamdard National Foundation, the Hamdard Education Society, the Hamdard Study Circle, the Hamdard Institute of Historical Research, the Ghalib Academy, the Centre for South Asian Studies, the Business and Employment Bureau, the Hamdard Charitable Trust (established in 1948) and the Hamdard National Foundation (founded in 1964).
Jamia Hamdard University
Established in 1989 and inaugurated by then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the sylvan surroundings of the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road in Delhi, now known as Hamdard Nagar, the JHU is a landmark institution in the heart of the national capital. The Ministry of Human Resource Development awarded it ‘institute of eminence’ status in 2019.
The JHU’s administration is feverishly engaged in the preparation for the university’s foundation day event scheduled for Saturday (September 14).
Hakeem saheb’s descendants, Hammad Ahmad and computer scientist of repute M. Afshar Alam, are the current chancellor and vice-chancellor of the university respectively.
“Preserving the legacy of Hakeem saheb and carrying it forward are an exercise in nation building,” Alam told me.
Usha Prasad, in-charge of the archive at the JHU, was working overtime to piece together the correspondences, literature and manuscripts associated with the Hamdard tradition to showcase them at the September 14 event when I met her.
If Hakeem saheb devoted his life to building educational, healthcare and other philanthropic institutions, India as a state and its civil society, as well as the international community, rewarded him for his yeoman service.
The government of the day awarded him with the third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, in 1992. He was awarded the Avicenna award in 1983. He was posthumously awarded the IRCICA Award for Patronage in Preservation of Cultural Heritage & Promotion of Scholarship in 2000 by the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture in Istanbul.
Hamdard’s vision
Saeed, Hakeem saheb’s younger brother who migrated to Pakistan and carried the legacy of Hamdard to his new country, writes in ‘Hakeem Abdul Majeed Volume’, preserved at the JHU archive:
“It was the wish of our father – a calligrapher and devout adherent of Quran Sharif – that Hamdard should ultimately become internationalised and should be turned into a truly welfare organisation, it should spread beyond the bounds of the sub-continent and serve as a system of medicine alongside allopathy. (In the Arab world, Kuwait has accorded recognition to this fact and this fact has also been recognised by the World Health Organisation).
“Our aim is to safeguard Hamdard from the vagaries of individuals and the welfare factor should never [be lost] sight of, however adverse the circumstances and whatever nature of the storms and stresses it might have to face”.
Welfare and service to humankind were part of Hamdard’s vision at its very inception.
Nalin Verma is professor of practice at the Centre for Mass Communication and Media Studies at the Jamia Hamdard University.
