A group of 200 passengers boarded a luxury ship this past Saturday evening and cruised off the city coast. They were not usual tourists who, while holidaying in the city, visit the iconic Gateway of India and also go for a joyride on those catamarans tethered to the stonewall of the jetty. They were members of the Cutchi Memon Jamat out on the sea in the balmy evening celebrating the Jamat’s centenary.
The party, which lasted for a couple of hours and included a fun and lavish dinner aboard the cruise ship, is just one of the several celebrations the Jamat has packed until December 12 to mark the important milestone in the Jamat’s fascinating journey.
Beginning with Quran Khwani or recitation of the holy Quran, the celebrations also comprise a Qawwali performance by noted Qawwal Azim Nazan, and the felicitation of some of the senior and distinguished members of the Jamat who are flying in from across the world, from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, Mombasa to Mauritius, Bahrain to Bengaluru. Three members, to be selected through a lucky draw following the felicitation function and a comedy show on December 12 in the city, will be sent for a sponsored Umrah trip to the holy city of Mecca. Though Haj and Umrah are performed in Mecca, these Umrah pilgrims will also visit Medina to pay homage to Prophet Muhammad’s tomb and pray at Masjid E Nabawi or the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.
“This is a historical moment in the life of the Cutchi Memons. While we celebrate, we will also discuss what we achieved in the last 100 years and what we can do for future generations,” said the Jamat President Hafiz Mohammed Irfan Dadani.
Dadani added that, in consultation with Vice-President Mohammed Irshad Abdullah Siddique, Treasurer Sadiq Abdul Karim Bharapurwala, and well-wisher Abdul Bakar Dadani, the Jamat has decided to remember the community’s icons, remarkable individuals, and important institutions.
And when they begin going down memory lane, they will find that the Cutchi Memons are an offshoot of the Memons (another is Halai Memons) who were Lohana Hindus in Sindh (now in Pakistan). A legend has it that the 16th-century Sufi saint Syed Yusufuddin Qadri converted many Lohana Hindu families to Islam. Both the Cutchi Memons and Halai Memons trace their origins to those Lohana families who embraced Islam at the hands of that Sufi saint.
Some philanthropists in the community, including Haji Karim Mohammed Suleiman, fondly called Cummo Seth, founded the Jamat a century ago to keep the community under one umbrella and continue the charitable works it had initiated.
Known for establishing several institutions, they gave to the city many famous and mammoth institutions, including the massive Musafirkhana (the guesthouse near Crawford Market which sheltered Haj pilgrims from across the country in the era when pilgrims boarded ships to Jeddah before the Haj House became functional in the 1990s), Saboo Siddik Hospital, Anjuman I Islam’s Saboo Siddik Engineering College, Minara Masjid at Mohammed Ali Road.
There are around 10 lakh Cutchi Memons across the world, including over two lakhs in India. Out of this, around 20,000 reside in Mumbai.
Basically, a business community, many Memons are becoming professionals like engineers, doctors, and architects, even specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI). “Bengaluru celebrated it last year. We are spread out across the world and many in the new generation have studied to become professionals. They are part of the global citizens ushering in a new era,” said Bengaluru-based septuagenarian businessman Irfan Razack, among those the Jamat will felicitate on December 12.