Prof Do-a-lot

Though his current predicament8212;the university is closed sine die and students are on an indefinite hunger strike8212;would have felled a lesser man, Hasan, nearly 60, refuses to lose his cool. He has stuck to his guns about not allowing permission to 8216;8216;40-odd hooligans8217;8217; on campus.

This is not the first time Hasan finds himself at the receiving end of student ire. The professor was once on the brink of a physical assault by students on the campus during his tenure as pro-vice-chancellor between 1992 and 1996.

And what was going through his mind at that point? Hasan told his friends, 8216;8216;I coolly put away my glasses and my wristwatch in my pocket and thought, 8216;What a stupid way to die.8217;8217;8217;

THINGS have not deteriorated to such an extent this time round, and Hasan shows no signs of losing his famous cool. One reason could be that he has been seeing some of the 8216;leaders8217; around the campus for as long as two decades!

Humour aside, sympathisers will point out that the ugly turn to the Jamia admission issue came after a long period of relative smooth-sailing for the veteran academic. His vision for the varsity was being realised; he had acquired a grant of 30 million for a state-of-the-art library from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Close on the heels to the king8217;s largesse, HRD Minister Arjun Singh announced his plans of setting up an Arab Study Centre in Jamia. 8216;8216;It was a dream for me. Now it8217;s coming through,8217;8217; an exultant Hasan had told this newspaper then. 8216;8216;This will be the first centre of its kind for any university in the country.8217;8217;

Nor was that the extent of his ambition for the university. He envisioned 11 new institutes for the university, including a dental college and centres for theoretical physics, physiotherapy, basic science and media studies.

Despite the 270-odd vacancies in various disciplines, Hasan8212;editor of as many as 17 books on Islam in India, communalism and Partition8212;was always confident about the future of the university.

8216;8216;It is not the brick and mortar that I am attached to. The composite, secular, liberal legacy of the university is what I believe in,8217;8217; he was ready to remind anybody who cared to listen.

AS the man himself would be the first to appreciate, the ugly incidents of the past week8212;the students8217; agitation, the indefinite strike, the wilful destruction of university property8212;comes with its own irony. Student union elections were held at Jamia after a gap of many years under his stewardship last year. Hasan prided himself on bringing back the 8216;8216;vocabulary of democracy8217;8217; into the campus.

Now, the same student union leaders are demanding his removal.

Those who know the clout and cool of the professor may pity the students. For the professor knows a thing or two not only about the past, but also about the present.