Karachi : January 10, 2010
Is it a roadmap for peace?
Book Review
Name of the book
: The Memon Community — Heritage and
identity
Author
: Abdur Razzaq Thaplawala
Reviewed by
: Qaiser P Mufti
Published by
: Memon Book Foundation
Pages
: 241
Sponsored by
: M/s Seatrade (Private)
Limited
To download
the book, which is in four parts in PDF format, please click on the link below and select
"save as"
Introduction,
Part-I,
Part-II,
Part-III.
The book is also available on Author's
website
visit
Memon World
Memon community is a very well-known community in the
subcontinent of India and Pakistan as well as in South Africa, Middle East and
some of the Western countries as a very enterprising business community. It has
made and is making handsome contribution to social service as well as to growth
of industry, trade and business in many countries. When one sees and reads about
this community one feels that Allah Almighty is very generous and benevolent
towards this community as they are usually humble, kind , generous and
charitable. Pakistan, India and many countries in South Africa, Middle East and
USA are filled with examples of mosques, hospital and schools built and operated
by this community. The stalwarts of the community, the progress of this
community, the noble deeds and noble ventures of these god fearing men and women
who due to this nature are prospering in many countries of the world.
Abdur Razzaq Thaplawala
— a prominent member of the Community and regular writer on community’s history,
culture and heritage has been guided for writing this and other books by what
Muhammad Ali Rangoonwala — a well-known businessman and industrialist of the
community once said: “We need to know, our children and grand children need to
know, where our ancestors came from and what they did.”
The book has been
divided into 3 parts. The first part shows the history and heritage of the
community. The 2nd part gives a detailed account to the Author’s visit to his
Birth Place Bantva in 2005. The 3rd part highlights the need of the development
Memoni Language into Roman Script and short Memoni prose and poetry by
well-known writers in Roman Script. The book also contains geography, history
and demography of well-known places in Gujrat Province in India to which the
Memons originally in India belong. It discusses and highlights various
charitable and welfare projects of the community.
One of the most
important is Memon Centre in South London. It contains the photographs of the
messages of Queen Elizabeth, HRH, The Prince Charles and Mr. Tony Blair, Prime
Minister of U.K. It also contains the photographs of different meetings of World
Memon Organization, United Memon Jamaat of Pakistan, etc.
The book includes description of Jamaat and association of the community in
different countries. The speciality of the book its photographs of President
Ayub Khan inaugurating Dawood College of Engineering and Technology. Prime
Minister Mr. Shaukat Aziz inaugurating Tabba Heart Institute. General Pervez
Musharraf Inaugurated National Science Information Centre and Digital Library.
The President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa with the delegates of the World
Memon Organization.
The photographs of
different welfare projects including health clinic Botswana, Memon Colony,
Bangalore, Memon Industrial and Technical Institute, Karachi, Baitul Mukarram,
Dhaka, Mosque built by Memon Community in Nicagura, Central America and the
mosque in Colombo. It also contains a number of photographs of visit of
Quaid-i-Azam to Bantva for collection of Press Fund for Muslim League. The book
is a valuable edition of literature on the Memon community and Mr. Thaplawala
deserves appreciation for writing of the book.
Memon Po!nt
