A G Noorani was a walking encyclopaedia with a vast treasure trove of official documents. N. Ram, editor and owner of ‘The Hindu’ newspaper group, once said at a function in his honour in Delhi, “I have a research team of more than fifty people, but whenever I need a reference, I call A.G. Noorani and get the information immediately.”
Qurban Ali*
Friend, philosopher, and guide—these words aptly describe the legendary Noorani Sahib to me.
While signing his last book for me, ‘The RSS: A Menace to India,’ he wrote, “For my good friend Qurban Ali, with the author’s best regards, A.G. Noorani, April 2, 2019.”
In the preface of this book, he wrote, “The debts I have incurred are many for writing this book. I sincerely wish to thank Asaduddin Owaisi, M.P., S. Iftikhar Gilani, Chief of National Bureau at DNA, Qurban Ali, a veteran journalist and committed socialist, and Ravi Nair, Executive Director of SACHR.”
Meticulously written, this book by Noorani Sahib on the RSS is dedicated to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, first Governor General C. Rajagopalachari, first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, and M.A. Ansari, who believed in and dedicated themselves to the India which poet Raghupati Sahay ‘Firaq’ Gorakhpuri described in his immortal couplet, “On the soil of Hindustan, O ‘Firaq,’ caravans from all over the world kept arriving, and thus was Hindustan made.”
At the beginning of the book, a quote by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar offers a very apt comment on the current political situation of the country: “If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost.” (Pakistan or the Partition of India, 1946, pp. 354-5)
In this pioneering work on the RSS, he quoted me and my interaction with the then BJP President L.K. Advani in Bhopal on September 14, 1990.
He writes, “The RSS set Advani on a collision course. A three-day study camp of BJP legislators was held in Bhopal which he inaugurated on September 14, 1990, with an attack on the National Front government. Qurban Ali, a seasoned correspondent, asked whether there were pressures to withdraw support from the V.P. Singh government. Advani saw the point and denied that the RSS had put any pressure on that point, adding revealingly, ‘We certainly do press them for their workers.’” (Sunday Observer, September 23, 1990, p. 241).
Noorani Sahib was determined to complete his work and could not rest until it was done. I would like to mention one such incident from July 2001, during a summit meeting in Agra between then President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
While covering that summit for the BBC Hindi and Urdu Services, I sent reports and interviews daily which were broadcast by the BBC. Noorani Sahib, a regular listener, was keenly following my reports. These reports also mentioned the proposed draft which was to be signed by Vajpayee and Musharraf but ultimately was not.
When I returned from Agra to Delhi, I received a call from Noorani Sahib asking for the draft mentioned in my reports. I explained that I had seen the draft through one of my Pakistani colleagues but did not have a copy.
Noorani Sahib, perhaps thinking I was withholding the draft, became upset and did not speak to me for nearly two years. Interestingly, immediately after this incident, he went to Pakistan to obtain the aforementioned draft and upon returning, published the document along with his article in ‘Frontline’ magazine, which, if signed, would have marked a historic new chapter in India-Pakistan relations.
Walking encyclopaedia
Noorani Sahib was a prolific writer, producing many books on topics such as Indian diplomacy, foreign policy, India-China relations, India-Pakistan relations, the question of Jammu and Kashmir, the merger of Hyderabad with India, the Indian Constitution, the Babri Masjid dispute, RSS, politics of Hindutva, human rights, and more.
He was a walking encyclopaedia with a vast treasure trove of official documents. N. Ram, editor and owner of ‘The Hindu’ newspaper group, once said at a function in his honour in Delhi, “I have a research team of more than fifty people, but whenever I need a reference, I call A.G. Noorani and get the information immediately.”
Noorani Sahib also had a passion for good food. He had extensive knowledge about the cuisines of Mumbai, Delhi, Srinagar, and many other Indian cities and enjoyed dining with a select group of friends.
I often took him to areas of Old Delhi where good food was available in dhabas. He was a staunch non-vegetarian (or “anti-veg” in his own words) and savoured dishes like Nahari, Korma, Biryani, and Mutton Barra with great relish. Once, after a meal at Mohalla Haveli Azam Khan in the Chitli Qabar area of Old Delhi, where we had Shubarati’s famous Nahari, he had the spices packed to take to Mumbai.
After eating, he requested that we go to Chena Ram Sindhi Halwai’s shop in the Fatehpuri Masjid area, where he had various sweets packed. I was surprised to learn that he knew three generations of the shop’s owner.
That day, he was in Delhi to deliver a lecture in memory of the late Asghar Ali Engineer. When I arrived at the Constitution Club in the evening to hear him, he was jotting down the number of Hazari Lal Khurchanwala, a confectioner located in Kinari Bazaar, Chandni Chowk.
He once said very lovingly, “Qurban Saab, Hazari Lal’s Khurchan is very famous; it would have been a great pleasure for me if some arrangements were made for it.” I duly obliged, ensuring his Khurchan would be delivered to him the following morning before his departure for Mumbai in his room at the India International Centre, which was always number 38, his only condition for staying there. He also insisted that when making any request for food, it should be accepted only if he paid for it himself.
One of the luminaries of law, an expert on the Constitution and contemporary history of India, and a prolific writer, A.G. Noorani Sahib lived a full life and passed away on August 29, 2024, at 3:20 PM at his residence in Mumbai after a prolonged illness.
Veteran journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, in a fitting tribute, says, “With his death, India has lost one of its finest legal scholars, historians, political analysts, and human rights defenders—all wrapped in one.”
I would like to pay my respects to the late A.G. Noorani Sahib in these words:
‘Life will go on without you, my friend, but it will be deeply sad and restless.’
May your soul rest in peace, Noorani Sahib!
*Qurban Ali is a trilingual journalist, who has covered some of the major political, social, and economic developments in modern India. He is currently documenting the history of the country’s socialist movement.
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The post In Memory of Late A.G. Noorani first appeared on Kashmir Times (Since 1954): Multi-media web news platform..
The post In Memory of Late A.G. Noorani appeared first on Kashmir Times (Since 1954): Multi-media web news platform..