Hakim Ajmal Khan

A Man of Exceptions

Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine

Hakim Ajmal Khan: A Man of Exceptions

ISBN: 81-87748-58-3
© Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine
First published: February, 2018
Copies printed: 300

Published by
Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine
Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India
61-65, Institutional Area, Opposite ‘D’ Block, Janakpuri
New Delhi – 110 058
Telephone: +91-11-28521981, 28525982
E-mail: unanimedicine@gmail.com
Website: http://ccrum.res.in

Printed at
India Offset Press
A-1, Mayapuri Industrial Area, Phase-I
New Delhi - 110064

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this compilation are of

their respective authors. The publisher or editors do not take
any responsibility for the same.

ii
 Guidance & Patronage
Dr. Anil Khurana
Director General (I/C), CCRUM

Supervision
Dr. Mohammad Fazil

Editors
Dr. Ahmad Sayeed
Dr. Amanullah

Associate Editor
Mohammad Niyaz Ahmad

iii
 Contents
Foreword v
Preface vii

Introduction: Envisaging Indian Tradition and

Hakim Ajmal Khan 1
– Ahmad Sayeed

Hakim Ajmal Khan between Tradition

and Modernity 17
– Saad Ahmad

Ajmal Khan’s Vision: Retaining and

Re-strengthening Traditional Character
of Unani Medicine 37
– Kunwar Mohammad Yusuf Amin

Hakim Ajmal Khan and Unani Medicine:

Ideas and Arguments
– Farooq Ahmad Dar 53

Hakim Ajmal Khan and Freedom Struggle 79

– Javed Ahmad Khan

Hakim Ajmal Khan and his Ideology 97

– Mohd Fazil Khan

Hakim Ajmal Khan and Arabic Literature 105

– Aurang Zeb Azmi

xi
Hakim Ajmal Khan: The Reviver of
Unani Medicine 119
– Abdul Wadud

Hakim Ajmal Khan and Communal Harmony

in the Light of his Speeches 127
– S. M. Hassan Nagrami

Sharīfī Family: An Introduction 137

– Noman Anwar

Sharīfī Family: A Brief Profile 153

– Azma

xii
 Introduction
Envisaging Indian Tradition and Hakim
Ajmal Khan
– Ahmad Sayeed

Unlike the Western mode of thinking, Eastern thinking

is something in which figures from histories, cultural
icons and societal norms together live their life.
Multiple identities identify each. One thing seems
associated with many other things. The sense of history
and history writing primarily for a historian grown up
in non-Western social set up relates itself to a variety
of subjects. He hardly refers clashes between identities
and cultures instead he narrates an “embedded’’ sense
of belonging which only differs on normative grounds.

Hakim Ajmal Khan (d.1927) is one of those figures who is

considered the product of history as well as a big stake in
Indian society and culture. True, this perception is quite
modern since it brings features of the nation-state and
relates it with a sort of nation-making project, a feature
of modern state. The very sense of history writing based
on Ajmal Khan’s most visible contribution puts him in
a sacred slot of nationalism. But this narrative could be
challenged anytime because of Eastern way of thinking
Hakim Ajmal Khan: A Man of Exceptions

is based on varieties of subjects and multiple identities.

It lacks a fixed denomination where ‘rational analysis’,
‘objectivism’ and ‘judgment’ serve to a certain use of
‘reason’ which Eastern cultures and societies have been
avoiding for so long. On the contrary, the East celebrates
the abundance of subjectivities and a very complicated
structure for objective and moral judgement.

However, the challenge comes from the Western

scholarship. It simply applies “one size fits all
approach” while narrating the Eastern society or what
they call traditional culture. It, obviously, creates more
tensions, for example, seeding the culture vs identity,
tradition vs modernity into a structural complexion, for
general consumption of the knowledge. The modern/
Western scholarship less bothers about ‘embedded
narrative’ instead it projects the scientific/objective/
fixed set of knowledges which rarely addressed rooted-
nature of the existence. By this, one refers relationship
of the society with the local culture where existence and
“forms of the natural” implies a different society than
‘now’. One recognizes it as a plural society in which
modernity hardly had any role worth appreciating.1

The problem of intellectuals in our time leads one to

highlight the ‘resisting tone’ against Western scholarships
as well as the modern way of thinking, but they too come
forward with an ‘adjusting bone’ that leads them to speak
the very language their hearts deny accepting. Unlike
earlier ‘others’, modernity reached us with a power-
centric and materially defined ambition. Hence, it also
brought packages of theories and ideas to understand and
categorize societies in the East or to capture the ‘beloved

2
 Introduction

dove’ the golden bird of Asia; India. The already prepared

tools to understand the Eastern society generated severe
conflict; the prospects of war between social position and
political possession increased .2

One is recommended to think modernity’s contribution

to the world only from a vantage point that refers
merely the “scientific shift”; mechanical deliverance to
human need. To this level, modernity’s achievement is
productive and neutral. Notwithstanding this, modernity
from a vantage point, intrinsically social, seemed a failure
with few exceptions. It served the social paradigms since
modernity itself has not played any role that could lead
Eastern societies to the very direction of the “Eastern
progressiveness”. On the same line, it hardly sustained
Indian societies to the “Eastern” direction or “Indian
progressiveness”. Since its quantitative techniques
always understood Indian society as many or more than
one; stagnant because of alien components though not
broken. And this idea always produced such images
which posed threats before the “embedded” or rooted-
nature of existence. It tried limiting Indian imagination
to merely a “despotic society”. One who knows Indian
imagination of the society from this perspective also
refers that the imagination itself shares and contributes
images from Afghanistan, China, and Bhutan to the
politically invented existence of states such as Pakistan
and Bangladesh. Regarding rooted-nature of the
existence, all of them belong to the Indian imagination
of the society. Even in the terminological sense, “the
long history” of the Indian society is about “rootedness”
continuously contributing to the Indian image.

3
Hakim Ajmal Khan: A Man of Exceptions

Ballooning History and the History

Thinking about Ajmal Khan somehow invites to

mention the changing shades of history too. One
should not introduce him with borrowed tokens
acknowledging the development of Western theories or
concepts merely. In a simple sense, one must clean the
so-called “academic fogging” which refers to ‘history
as a battlefield’. Instead, it must be clear and open to
everyone. It should be resistive to manipulative agendas
of modern rationalism at the same time receptive to its
constructive postulations. This leads us to acknowledge
Ajmal Khan, not as a product of history where ongoing
battlefield pushes one to join enemy’s party. Even the
idea of ‘enemy’s party juxtaposed with the sense of
‘historical enemy’ itself is the ‘modern given’.

Ajmal Khan is a product of the history in the sense he

tried to respond a more significant challenge whose
universal agendas (modernity) were in the controversial
limelight. His activities significantly credited the
historical references of Indian traditions and embedded
subjectivities3 found and available in Arab, Turkish
and Persian lands, too. It seemed surprising that he,
on the other hand, appreciated the scientific shift of
knowledge but resisted its application on the very
Eastern social systems. He was well-aware of the
world history of his time and knew the functioning
of the tradition even for the scientific causes. At the
juncture of history known for its challenges, he could
not be convinced that a short-lived rebellious dexterity
is better solutions in all spheres of life which were

4
 Introduction

nurtured under thousand years of traditional take

care. For him, material developments cannot herald a
real revolution. It cannot break the social framework in
which knowledge-functions are purely reconciliatory to
the humanity rather than ‘manipulated humanity’. He
was circulating his ideas about an Indian society known
for its divergence and plurality. For him, India is a
land exemplary for the rooted-nature of development
and progress. It makes one engage with more than
one intellectual front; literary genre and conventional
career. It allows one to celebrate ceremonious wisdom.
It garners new ideas and bestows them to the humanity.
Amid rich mythological productions, modern historical
perspective in the name of rational interpretation often
gets lost since ‘anecdotal trust’, and ‘moral search’
through mythological productions intend to serve the
humanity.4

The prospects of past and contributions to future are

shaped by an awareness of the history. Any attempt
to re-narrate history cannot be launched without prior
understanding of the nature of the people and its attitude
toward historical coheres and its expositions for the
outer world. In view of Ajmal Khan, India cannot be a
gemstone in the scientific treasury of modernity neither
it can be ‘historicized subject’ of one-dimensional
reasoning. In his view, greater India is the real history
one must go through. It is known for its deeply-seated
relations with other greater accounts of the world. It not
only received others on the ground of multi-directional
subjectivities but also exchanged multi-directional
objectivities; science, ethics and morality. In the context

5
Hakim Ajmal Khan: A Man of Exceptions

of this argument, one finds that it is a problem of

modern historical understanding that often balloons
Indian history with complex subjective narratives.5

“Irrationalizing Society”, “Irrationalizing

Culture”; and Question of Indian Rationality

Indian image is not something that needed strategic

policies, but it is about the manifestation of traditions
found and lived during a long course of history or
experiences extracted from the very “long history”.
Its author is not but the tradition which includes
the broader context of ideas, knowledge-work; and
knowledge contributions. One must approach Arab
and Persian works of literature where India is always
referred to as a ‘knowledge-based society’. These works
of literature also involve Indian culture and society in
which morality and ethics produce a sound system
capable of carrying the burden of changes. These seem
attracted by a variety of arts such as music, meditation,
medical tradition and war. For them, medical tradition
and war both are a matter of ethics and morality. These
arts have enjoyed an essential place in a social structure
where great histories define the culture and society and
produce great arts. In these cases, one finds not a single
interpretation which considered Indian societies and
cultures; arts and thoughts as irrational. In this sense,
Indian image served to the very embedded subjectivities
seen and practiced in other places of the world.

Now the question arises that what factors served to the

logic of “an irrational society”? What is the “rationality
of a society” or culture? Why one needs nationalism,

6
 Introduction

reforms, revival, struggle, resistance, preservation

(heritage), protection (values), education, production,
reproduction and most importantly tradition related
to health. Answering them all would be an exhaustive
task but arguing based on a productive relativism could
introduce a sound framework.

In response, one sees that looking at “material

relativism” instead of “historical materialism” is more
important than other things. Western progress is the
result of “material relativism” which consequently
justifies its form of power in almost one-third of the
world whether in the form of ideas or structures. It
advocates and propagates its scientific principle as
“proof and claim”. Based on an extensive infrastructure
of the scientific development, the political fronts of
the Western ideas raise questions upon the rationality
of Eastern societies and their way of progression. In
Western thought, the most attractive scientific gizmo
such as evolutionary theory seemed responsible for
changing the ontological course of human knowledge.
It led human to discover its origin from a non-human
source. On the contrary, as above has been discussed
that the direction of tradition, long history; science,
morality and ethics were embedded with other great
histories, knowledges and cultures. These paved a
foundation for Indian rationality to extend its ideas
and arguments. To explain this, one must mention that
these histories communicate more than one subjectivity
equally as it lived with more than one history. Indian
society is featured with multi-functioning subjectivities
as well as multi-layered histories. It is the capability

7
Hakim Ajmal Khan: A Man of Exceptions

of society (Indian) that churns these histories in our

everyday experiences without inviting any risks on
social grounds.6

Looking at the framework of the Indian society, the

most suitable personality who worked on the line of
“progressiveness” to the very Indian direction is Ajmal
Khan. Other personalities such as Gandhi ji, Pandit
Madan Mohan Malviya, B R Ambedkar, Maulana
Azad, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, Muhammad Ali
Jauhar with sub-themed Ulama from different schools
of thought at a very local level, and Sufi authorities all
were contributing, resisting and exchanging ideas with
multi-directional framework for an Indian society.

In the very sense discussed above, Ajmal Khan was

one of the great scientists of Indian society. As he was
a product of histories or multiple histories instead of a
history dominated by a singular narrative, he learned
Indian traditions in which embedded subjectivities
function in its utmost potential. He knew that histories,
traditions and cultures, in an ambiance he is part of, all
were alive and breathe well. As India’s plurality is not
fabricated, it could be an exemplary model to rest of
the world. Anticipating this aspect of Indian society, he
became a staunch believer by spending energies to unify
the traditions, cultures and societies. For him, Indian
rationality is an innate property developed in thousands
of years. It cannot be torn out neither a mechanized
process for “delayering histories” or “quantifying the
subjectivities” could do anything to relatively a different
direction for re-establishing a grand Indian image.

8
 Introduction

To understand the new synergies in the result of modern

thought, scientific achievement and new ideas, his
world tour from Britain to Egypt much helped him. The
world experience led him defining the tradition, eastern
societies, cultures and their heritage in a way that
dwarfed the body of modern knowledge; its scientific
vision and most importantly its following strategies to
rule the eastern body. Despite this, he admired the form
of passion development of science is providing to the
western people. Hence, advocated that step of progress
to be paired with traditional Indian thought.7

Since political power speaks its language, it never cares

the language of the others neither other politics nor
subjectivities. It declares all forms of rationalities are
not but the fruition of passivity. It advises that a man
sat on the earth or mat cannot think like a man who sits
on the chair. Therefore, the man sits on the chair is more
rational, more active and more performative. He can take
the world on a track where the speed of the mind wins
the scientific-extra-worldly victory through a visible
perceptivity. This ambition of scientific development
plainly declared societies, cultures and thinking process
found and available in the East as irrational. Though
scientific thoughts are not responsible for this, instead,
the parallel appropriation of the normatively modern
ideas used scientific developments for their political
purpose. The most important of them are civility, un-
governability and passivity. In this regard, the imperial
expansion of the British Empire, its colonizing strategies,
its Euro-centric attitude of the power prepared a fertile
ground for anxieties in Eastern societies and cultures.8

9
Hakim Ajmal Khan: A Man of Exceptions

The language of the colonialism was discreetly sensed

due to its civilizational project, political objection and
the very validity of the rationality. It also introduced
(as in India) its form of knowledge, its culture and
pattern of life which were later imposed, in some cases
forcefully. Along with this colonial project, it tried re-
narrating realm of law according to the theories and
concepts which were developed in the heart of Europe;
France, London and Germany. In the case of erstwhile
India/greater India, this was the moment when the
physicality of the external element, its power narratives
and colonialist ambitions unified the spirits of those who
wanted to defend the very tradition of a knowledge-
based society.9 In this episode, three significant themes
define the existence of what we call the ‘modern India’,
namely; nationalism, education and health.

Hakim Ajmal Khan’s experience, vision, knowledge

of traditions, an assertion of the plural society and
beyond this-worldly approach10 reacted on the very
three themes. His performance presently considered as
multi-dimensional is just a glimpse of what he did for
the Indian tradition, often provocatively.

On the level of the first theme, he taught modern

upholders of knowledge that knowledge is a matter of
common good; it must not seep into a geo-centric or
culture-centric requirement of power. Hence, scripting
societies and cultures as irrational or anachronistic or
outdated is a dangerous task. It can generate a risk of
counter-acts and or vindictive narrative. It can produce
clashes between foreign and native cultures or societies

10
 Introduction

too. Instead of imagining a productive and peaceful

world order, this attitude disturbs the order of the thing.
In Ajmal Khan’s view nationalism is also about working
on constructive lines. It is about his ideas which define
nationalist imagination in more than one ways. It can
be seen in most of his literature, social activities and
political moves.

On the second theme, he introduces those things he

learned from modern ideas of the West since it is about
armouring Indian people with education in general.
For this purpose, he established a chain of institutions,
organizations and spaces where one may share and
exchange such thought which makes Indian people, not
a slave of modern ideas but a contributor on the line of
Indian intellectual heritage.

On the level of the third theme, his anticipation

established an example for Indian politics as it belonged
to nationalist struggle, defense of the tradition, society,
culture and heritage. In this case, he re-establishes order
of the multiple histories and subjectivities. To be more
explicit, Ajmal Khan’s defense of the Unani medical
tradition is necessarily not about the Mughalite heritage
(since it cannot be judged on this ground) at first place.
Instead, it is a rare example of plurality contributing
to the very direction of “Indian progressiveness” or
“Indianness”. At the same time, it is also an example of
anti-colonial struggle. To some extent, for researching
prospects, one must look at the role of Indian medical
tradition against the modern canonization of the legal
principles. Ajmal Khan throughout his contributions

11
Hakim Ajmal Khan: A Man of Exceptions

to the medical traditions never forgets to purify the

selfhood of the Indian (Unani-Ayurveda) medical
tradition. In this regard, one must refer his risk for
re-interpretation of the texts of Unani medical canons
which later established his authority for following
generations. Another front worth mentioning is his
attempt to define Unani medical tradition, not as an
imported knowledge as in an age of modernity one
feels to link everything with specific references but he
variously refers the rooted nature of existence is acute,
defines the Unani medial tradition.

Contributions to the Book

Contributions to this book can be featured a collective

endeavour most of the time as a textbook on Hakim
Ajmal Khan. Despite this, papers contributed to this
volume helps to refloat the thematic variation of Ajmal
Khan’s views. Inspired by new and creative ideas, one
might be interested in to re-introduce the heavyweight
personality and knowledge-based contributions to
a society based on knowledge too. This happened to
us when the conference was organized and received
appreciation from a few highly-trained academicians.
In comparison to our Urdu volume, this volume seemed
on a long run academic production which is another
achievement on Hakim Ajmal Khan in the book form.
I chose paper on tradition and modernity by Saad
Ahmad as conceptual framework mentioned in the
paper looks at Ajmal Khan, not by his personality only
but he introduces the broader discourse of the time.
Thus, he discovers Ajmal Khan from a viewpoint that

12
 Introduction

could engage one in future. Other aspects in following

chapters could be contextualized with the specific
aspect of Ajmal khan's contribution. In this way, each
paper reviews the specific attitude of the Unani tibb,
society and Ajmal Khan's influence. Papers presented
by Prof Kunwar Mohammad Yusuf Amin, Prof Javed
Ahmad Khan and Dr Farooq Ahmad Dar discuss
historical junctions as Prof Kunwar Mohammad Yusuf
Amin engages one to be with traditionalist approach
along with adoption of a reconciliatory stand in the
field of the experimental method of science, together.
Prof Javed Ahmad Khan evaluates the momentary
aspect of the Indian nationalism. It overshadowed by
figures such as Ajmal Khan and influenced the local
narratives of anti-colonial struggle. Dr Farooq Dar
argued the role of medical traditions in 'intensifying'
the nationalist tension where Ajmal Khan played a
key role. Dr Azmi highlights the importance of the
Arabic literature, an integral part of Ajmal Khan’s
literary sense and contribution. Dr Noman Anwar
and Dr Azma focus on the technical approach to
introduce Ajmal Khan and literature produced by him
by accessing materials not available to the broader
academic audiences. Contributions explaining Ajmal
Khan’s view of education, communal harmony,
ideology, method, clinical practice and health are
remarkable both in terms of specificity and creative
articulation.

References
1. Jung, Dietrich, Petersen and Sparre, S L (2014), Politics
of Modern Muslim Subjectivities: Islam, Youth,

13
Hakim Ajmal Khan: A Man of Exceptions

and Social Activism in the Middle East, New York:

Palgrave Macmillan, pp.7-9.
2. Cohen, S Bernard (1983), “Representing Authority
in Victorian India”, in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence
Ranger (1983), (ed.) The Invention of Tradition,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.164-69.
3. The term “embedded subjectivities” is an expression
leads us to imagine reflectivity or subjective
reflections prevalent in Indian society. It has multi-
level representational arrangement. It interrogates
one-dimensional reasoning which somewhere
misrepresented mental; social and political capability
of the people from Eastern societies. I thank Mr Saad
Ahmad, the research fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru
University who introduced the practical relevance
of the term, hence, this introduction intends to argue
Hakim Ajmal Khan and his worldview responsible to
expand Indian image and views on synthesis such as
the traditional-modern scientific line on the one hand
and social-political, national and educational line on
the other hand.

4. Tambiah, S J (1985), Culture, Thought and Social Action:

An Anthropological Perspective, Massachusetts:
Harvard university Press. Zimmer, Heinrich (1953),
Philosophies of India, London: Routledge Kegan Paul
Ltd, pp.1-16.

5. Marwick, Arthur (1989), The Nature of History, (third

edition), London: Macmillan Education Ltd, p.12.

6. Tambiah, S J (1990), Magic, science, Religion and Scope

of Rationality, Massachusetts: Harvard university
Press.

14
 Introduction

7. Qarshi Hasan M (1928), Tazkira-i Masīh al-Mulk,

(Mushīr al-Atibbā, Masīhal-Mulk Number), Lahore:
Karimi press, pp.19-70.
8. Pollock, Sheldon (1993), “Deep Orientalism? Notes
on Sanskrit and Power Beyond the Raj”, in Carol A.
Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer (1993), Orientalism
and the Postcolonial Predicament: Perspectives on
South Asia New Cultural Studies, Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.Kshitimohan, Sen
(1929), Medieval Mysticism of India, (translated from
Bengali by Manmohan Ghosh with an introduction by
RabindraNath Tagore) London: Luzac and Co, pp.2-34.
Marwick, Arthur (1989), The Nature of History, (third
edition), London: Macmillan Education Ltd, p.12.
9. Anwar, Zahid (2008), ‘Indian Freedom fighters in
Central Asia (1914-1939), JRSP, Vol.45. No.3,pp. 147-
156. “Deep Orientalism? Notes on Sanskrit and Power
Beyond the Raj”.
10. Stolorow, R D, Atwood, G E and Orange, D M (2002),
Worlds of Experience: Interweaving Philosophical and
Clinical Dimensions in Psychoanalysis, New York:
Basic Books.

15