Hakim Ajmal Khan (1868-1927) from Sharifi family was an outstanding
physician and scholar of Unani medicine, who kept the tempo high.
Ajmal Khan was the scion of the family of physicians who had
long served the Mughal court and after their decline those of regional
princes. Like his father and grand father, Ajmal Khan was an influential
figure in the city of Delhi, respected for his aristocratic standing,
behaviour & renowned for miraculous cures .
Besides this Maseeh-ul-Mulk ,as he came to be known, was a
versatile genius of his time ,he was an acclaimed physician, a statesman
of national stature, a poet of great sentiments, a reformer and an
orator , all at the same time. Ajmal Khan's was an aristocratic style .
He was a patron and a host, invariably in the company of poets and
literary landlords and government servants. His sporting activities
shifted from traditional 'Akhara' (wrestling pit) to billards and
shikar. It has been mentioned that he went along on the hunt but never
actually shot anything, arguing that a Hakim ought not to take but give
life.
Ajmal Khan's most original contribution was almost single
handedly making available some of the great benefits of traditional
medicine. The respectability which the Hakims and Vaids enjoy today is
largely due to his tireless efforts. His efforts were devoted to
reversing the tide of cultural decline in medicine his political
activities were an inevitable out growth of them .
In an introduction to a catalogue of Arabic and Persian
manuscripts he wrote: "Although the sun of Eastern arts and sciences
kept rising in its own time and many nations drew benefits from its
light, now that sun has declined and the age, as is its habit, has given
birth to a new sun that fulfils the needs of the people of the age
...The results of this reversal, which previous nations have already
endured, will happen to us: We will see our former greatness and glory
in the hand of oblivion if we do not take thought to preserve it."
Hakim Ajmal Khan vigorously advocated the causes of Unani
& Ayurvedic systems of medicine .He stressed that two Indian systems
which had served the people well should continue and make progress
without any hindrance. While speaking at the first Tibbi conference he
tried to emphasize the value of Eastern medicine by giving historical
evidence .He said : "It is not I who aim at praising the Unani System of
medicine but the whole world recognizes that the Greek medicine
traveled from Greece to Egypt, then to Spain from where it reached
Baghdad. From Baghdad it came to Iran where it made tremendous progress
and produced great physicians and scholars who in spite of flux of time
still shine and I am confident, they will continue to guide us till
knowledge remains in the world. From there it came to India &
flourished here".
He believed that both systems' the Ayurvedic and the Unani
had entered a period of decline. Indeed that of the former was far
greater and he ventured that it had seen no development for four to five
hundred years. For reforms of content, he turned to western medicine to
learn some techniques, primarily to areas like surgery. It was to
western medicine that Ajmal Khan wanted a Tibb to answer.
Of the groups whom Ajmal Khan found to support his schemes,
the princes more than any other group value medicine intrinsically as
well as for its symbolic value. The Nawab of Rampur cherished Ajmal Khan
personally and supported the institutions he exposed. The ruler of
Bhopal had a state- wide organization of medical care staffed by Unani
trained doctors. The rulers of the princely states almost single -
handedly provided capital for the college that Ajmal Khan founded for
indigenous medicine.
From the very beginning of his career, Ajmal Khan also
attempted to gain respect of the British for his endeavors. "It in this,
his concerns were like those of the Aligarh modernists and other
apologists who required validation of their efforts by the British".
Ajmal Khan's relation to the British was based on a quest
for respect, for 'lzzat' and 'Wiqar'. He sought this respect for
himself, for his family, and for his art. He accepted the family title
of 'Haziqul-Mulk' from the British in 1908. Hailey the chief
commissioner, wrote to the viceroy in 1913.
"He is man whose opinion.. is of great value as he comes
across all classes of men and has a very sound judgment in all such
matters.' Hakim Ajmal Khan is remembered as nationalist and a modernist
Ajmal Khan's complete commitment to Hindu- Muslim cooperation was shaped
by his long and deep experience of the value of cooperation in the
field of medicine.
Through out his life he worked for Hindu-Muslim unity
Gandhiji in a letter which he wrote to Ajmal Khan from the Sabarmati
jail in 1922, writes: "I write to you in your capacity as chairman of
the working committee and therefore leader of both Hindus and Muslims,
or better still of all India. I write to you also as one of the foremost
leaders of Musalman but above all I write this to you as an esteemed
friend.. A staunch Musalman you have shown in your own life what Hindu-
Muslim Unity means".
Ajmal Khan was perhaps the Muslim closest to Gandhi ji. It
is difficult to appreciate the achievement of Hakim Ajmal Khan in
satisfying the standards of two radically different cultures, the
aristocratic and the democratic .As personal physician to a Nawab he was
in a word of affluence, of indulgence of scorn for the undistinguished
multitude and subservience to the great . He could never let it appear
that anything else in the world was important, when the Nawab did not
think it to be so. But he did believe many thing to be important . He
had his old style Matab, where he examined the rich and the poor
patients regardless of caste, creed and religion. While in Delhi, he
never took fees from his patients, gave very cheap prescriptions, and
gave the costly medicines free of cost .But outside Delhi, he charged up
to Rs. 1000/-per day.
In spite of the fact that he was a famous physician, he
sacrificed his comforts for the sake of the poor and underprivileged. On
one occasion when he was about to leave for an outing, a 'Mehtr'
(sweeper) came and informed him that his wife was seriously ill. Hakim
Sahib told his servent to bring his medicine first, and proceeded to the
Mehtr's house.
He, however, left behind him two institutions of
considerable promise. The Tibbia college and Jamia Millia Islamia -
according to Mohammad Ali - one the child of his youth, the other of his
old age.
