He added, that “society must step in to do what families and Muslim homes are unable to achieve. Most of us live in densely populated colonies bursting at their seams, where it is impossible to pursue studies.” Hamid said he was aware of the divide between the standard of North Indian and South Indian Muslims, saying he has been putting forward solutions for backward areas here “like community reading rooms, which have a steady flow of information on employment opportunities and higher and gainful studies.”

Hamid has not also spared the Muslim leadership of its responsibility. Writing in the Urdu newspaper, Daawat (the mouthpiece of the Jamaat-e-Islami), he said: “Despite the post-independence democratic set-up and secularism in India, the biggest minority here was drowned in deprivation. The leaders didn’t realise that if Muslims remain victims of narrow-mindedness and prejudice, the country’s hands and limbs would be paralysed.”

Taking pot shots at both who have fanned anti-Muslim sentiments and the Muslim leadership, he wrote: “The cold shouldering and prejudice by certain leaders of the country was met by Muslims withdrawing from the struggle of life. Their (Muslim) leaders also never told them that withdrawing from life (zindagi ki lehar) would amount to suicide.”

Underlining that the Ulema had great influence on the Muslims, Hamid said even this did not result in the advancement of education. “The education imparted in Madrasas kept them connected with the faith, but as it emphasized learning by rote, rather than understanding things, those coming out from the average Madrasa were deprived of both, religious and worldly wisdom...In the old days, Muslims were alive because of research (tehqiq), activity (harkat), the spirit of enquiry (justuju) and the thirst for knowledge (aarzoo). With them gone, Muslims have now lost their place of pride in the world of knowledge.”