Brigadier Muhammad Usman: Whom the entire India is proud of

Author: Inayatullah Nanhe

In India, there was a military officer who served in the British Army during the British rule in enslaved India and also served the country after independence. The entire India is proud of his military prowess. Today, July 15, is his 114th birthday. He was born in 1912 in Bibi Pur village of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh to his mother Jameeron Nisha and father Khan Bahadur Muhammad Farooq. He was very brave since childhood. It is said that when he was just 12 years old, he saved a child who had fallen into a well by jumping into the well. Brigadier Muhammad Usman received his early education in Benares, while he went to England for higher education, where he received military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. After that, he returned to India and got a commission in the British Army. At that time, it was not easy for Indians to get a high position in the British Army. But due to his strong command over the Urdu language and his extraordinary expertise, he got the post of officer in the British Army, which was a great recognition of his ability. Along with commanding the Baloch Regiment, he also held several important responsibilities. He rose from the rank of Second Lieutenant to Captain and then Major in the British Army. It was not easy for an Indian to make such a big place in the army of the whites. This is a big thing for an Indian. He was the same Brigadier Muhammad Usman who was tried to be misled by emotional statements and requests to join Pakistan after the country's independence and partition. Not only that, but the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, also wrote personal letters to him requesting him to join Pakistan. Along with this, every tactic was used to play the Muslim card to get him to join Pakistan. When this did not work, he was also offered to become the Army Chief. But Brigadier Muhammad Usman flatly rejected their offer and replied that although he was a Muslim by religion, he was first and foremost an Indian. India comes first, then religion. He said that he salutes his motherland. It is worth noting that after the partition of the country, Pakistan wanted to occupy Kashmir at any cost and had been eyeing it since then. Pakistan started infiltrating Kashmir just two months after partition. It was slowly advancing its army. He was the same Brigadier Muhammad Usman who had snatched Kashmir from Pakistan and merged it with India. The lion, Brigadier Muhammad Usman, who drove the Pakistanis out of Kashmir in the 1947-48 India-Pakistan war, forced the Pakistani army to retreat in the battle of Naushera in 1948, after which he came to be known as the Lion of Naushera. After India's occupation of Naushera, Pakistan was so frightened that it put a reward of 50,000 rupees on his head. Remember that 79 years ago, in 1947, this was a huge amount. Earlier, in the Indian Army, words like Ram Ram, As-salamu alaykum, or Sat Sri Akal were used to show respect to each other. To eliminate religious sentiments in the army and promote patriotism, Abid Hasan Safrani, a close associate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who served in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and then in the Indian National Army (INA), wrote "Jai Hind". Its inception was made by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose during the freedom movement, but after the country's independence, Brigadier Muhammad Usman started the formal beginning of saying "Jai Hind" in the army as an official protocol. While snatching Kashmir from Pakistan, he had won Naushera, but Jhangar was an area from where there was a high possibility of another infiltration by the Pakistanis. For this, Brigadier Muhammad Usman had taken an oath that he would not sleep on a charpoy (cot) until he won this war. When he won Jhangar, his fellow soldiers brought a charpoy and he rested on it. Brigadier Muhammad Usman is said to be a relative of the founding member of Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, Muhammad Mukhtar Ansari, and former Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari. While the late Mukhtar Ansari, who was a five-time MLA from Mo in Uttar Pradesh, and his brother Afzal Ansari, who is currently an MP from Ghazipur, used to call Brigadier Muhammad Usman their maternal grandfather and wrote Brigadier Usman Ansari in programs on his birth and death anniversaries. However, Brigadier Muhammad Usman was not from the Ansari community, but he was a local Muslim who had converted from the Hindu Jat community to Islam over a period. Remember that during the Mughal period, local Muslims who converted from Jats were not taxed or levied on land. Currently, the real descendants of Brigadier Muhammad Usman live in Canada. He was martyred on July 3, 1948, while fighting against the Pakistani army in Jhangar, Jammu and Kashmir. He attained martyrdom at the age of 36. His last rites were performed at the cemetery of Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. Brigadier Muhammad Usman of the 50th Parachute Brigade Regiment, Army No. 219 AI, was posthumously awarded the country's second-highest military honor, the Maha Vir Chakra (MVC), on January 26, 1950. The current young generation, leaders, administration, and government are losing a lot by forgetting Brigadier Muhammad Usman. We should not forget that there was something special about the patriotic Brigadier Muhammad Usman, who sacrificed his life for the country, which is why the country's first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, himself came to pay his respects to his funeral. Not only that, but the then-Governor-General, Lord Louis Mountbatten, also attended the last rites. We, all Indians, cannot forget the sacrifice, martyrdom, and patriotism of Brigadier Muhammad Usman. Finally, I have no hesitation in writing that the Muslim community is being viewed with suspicion in the current environment, which is not correct. Yes, it is true that if one or two Muslims do something wrong, they should be punished severely. Such people can be exceptions. It is wrong to troll the entire Muslim community for this. Just as a Muslim military officer, Brigadier Muhammad Usman, rejected Pakistan's big offer, what bigger example of patriotism can there be? Which all Indians are proud of? From India's independence to date, hundreds, not thousands, of Muslims have given their lives, proving their patriotism in India and bowing their heads before their religion. Therefore, today, we all Indians should, beyond caste, religion, and sect, pay tribute to the martyr Brigadier Muhammad Usman and pledge that we will unite to take the nation forward and make every effort to avoid religious wars.