WF 40 Years

40 Years on ………. 15 October, 1976 to 15 October, 2016
A Personal Reflection of an Inspiring Journey
Part 1: The Genesis of WF – That’s how it was then.
By: Hasnain Walji (Former Secretary General, Vice President and President 1978 – 2003 )
The official date of the establishment of the World Federation is October 15 1976. However,
the genesis is almost a year prior when in October 1975, when a delegation from Africa sat
down with some elders form Uganda and a group of young Khoja accountants and lawyers on
the red carpet of the Hammersmith Imambargah in London.
As the assistant Secretary of London Jamaat, along with the then Mukhi Saheb Anverbhai Jagani
and Anverbhai Pirbhai, our duty, on that dull and damp October day, was to ensure that the
delegation were suitably nourished, Khoja style, with steaming hot chai and samosas. As we
poured them endless cups of tea, amidst the smoke from Rothmans Cigcrettes, I overheard this
motely group ponderously reflecting on the predicaments our Community had found itself in
the wake of the 1972 Uganda Exodus. Over a thousand souls had now scattered across the
globe trying to make a new life in these faraway places. Apart for London and Peterborough,
most communities in UK and North America were yet to establish Jamaats Imambaagahs. Yet
the Community spirit was strong as mumineen as roiled out carpets from the trunks of their
cars to sit in rented warehouses, basements or any place that would give them an opportunity
and be spiritually uplifted through the recital of Dua e Kumail on Thursday nights. For Living in
city or town without a Jamaat, a Khoja individual was like a fish out of water and these small
gatherings became the oasis of spirituality in the new land we found ourselves.
As I caught snippets of their conversations, an example that has stuck in my mind almost 40
years on, was how the Mulla Asgher, then based in Kenya, had to coach volunteers over a
crackly landline (No Skype in those days) phone in USA as they attempted gave Ghusle mayyit
to a Community member who had the misfortune to die in that remote corner of the world.
Little did I realize then, that history was being repeated. It was just hundred or so years ago
when the first lonely migrants had arrived in Lamu and Zanzibar and grappled with similar
challenges of making a new life in foreign lands. This time round, the Khojas were once again
struggling to settle in Europe and Americas. The challenges were similar as were some
occupations. In the UK, the East African ‘dukawalla’ had a new name: “tobacconist”, but the
game was the same.

The decades old London Based “Ithnaasheri Young Men’s Union” which used to hold Majalis at
the East Africa House (Cumberland Placce in Marble Arch), had morphed into what we now
know as London Jamaat. At the Hammersmith Imambargah, bought with meagre resources,
laboriously garnered by elders, championed with extraordinary zeal by the Late Haji Habibbhai
Walji, creative tension soon manifested itself between the newly qualified London based young
professionals as they engaged with the older and experienced leadership of Uganda Jamaats
who longed to recreate the Uganda Experience. But all of us agreed that the sweetest part of it
all was the rich condensed milk pink sherbet on Ashura Day after the spicy Khichdo, (Daal
Chawal on Ashura came later) as the young and the not so young Jamaat members learnt to
accommodate each other. We would still have continued the Khichdo if we knew the
egalitarian history of khichdo! t may surprise you to note, that Its origins come from the
practice of Jamaats in Kutch and Kathiawad, (in the pre Khoja Pilwa era) where Khichdo was a
communal meal cooked in the Khoja Dheg. The rich brought the meat and the poor brought the
grain. This way everyone felt that they had contributed to Niyaz. It is a vagary of history that the
khichdo was elevated to a celebratory meal. But then I could write a tome on the vagaries of
Khoja History!
The leaders form Africa, Late Mulla Asgher, Late Abdul Rasul Lakha. Murabbi Hassan Bhai Jaffer
amongst others impressed upon the UK based leaders in attendance like Late Hasni Bhai
Dharamsi, Habb M Habib, Late Husein Nathoo and Nazir Jessa, amongst others, to help
replicate the structure of Africa Federation formed in 1946, to form a World body to address
the needs and growth of Khoja Shia communities in the USA, Canada, UK, UAE, Far East and
elsewhere. The action point that resulted was to form a small team to begin to write a
Constitution and then call a constitutional Conference within a year. Soon the London based
team of led by Habib M Habib in consultation with some leaders in Africa got to work. Of
course, armchair critics got to work too. They gingerly opined that Mulla Asgher, the then
Chairman of the Africa Federation wanted a bigger ‘Chair’ for himself.
Fast Forward to a year later October 15 1976 - exactly 40 years ago today - the group met again
at the Hammersmith Imambargah. Except this time, they were joined by delegates from Africa
Federation and the newly formed Jamaats of Peterborough, Birmingham, Leicester, Toronto
Los Angeles and New York. The Vision was lofty. Boldly the 60 dedicated delegates took upon
themselves help and serve this nascent organisation to attend to the community’s financial,
spiritual and educational needs globally.
‘Let me begin at the beginning. The concept of the World Federation dawned upon us by the
events in Uganda.’ So began Marhum Mulla Asgherali M.M. Jaffer’s inaugural address at the
First Constitutional Conference. Interestingly, of the three-day Constitutional Conference,
almost a day was spent on a noteworthy debate. “To call ourselves Khoja or not - that was the
question” Hours of passionate discussions took place on the merits of identity, closed
membership and the scope of service.

The seasoned African delegation, joined by the down-to-earth UK delegates leaned towards
keeping it within the Khoja, while the enlightened North American delegation wanted to open it
to the entire Shia world. In the end, the WF Founding Fathers (No females were in sight in those
days!) came up with a characteristically pragmatic solution. The word Khoja would be retained
in the title, to credit the Khojas for initiating it but the membership and services would be open
to all.
The meeting acknowledged that emergence of a Khoja diaspora upon the eviction of Asians
from their Ugandan homes under Idi Amin, the Africa Federation was inundated with requests
from Khojas globally - for Islamic literature, alims, marital advice, educational and other
services. This would now be attended to by the newly formed World Federation. The spirit at
the conference was optimistic and at the same time awe inspiring. Manzoor Kanani as part the
delegation from Africa, who went on to serve as Vice President decades later recalls “ As I sat in
the Conference on that Saturday October 16 1976, I wondered how were we going to do this?
Where would the money come from? Did we really have the capacity to undertake such a
mammoth task?”
Muhsin Dharamsi. then a youthful civil engineer full of vigour, (which remains unabated even
today) envisioned the framework of the organization that he as Secretary General a few years
later, enshrined in the administrative machinery which served us in good stead for years and
established a strong foundation upon which the edifice stands today. His meticulous insistence
on the conduct and documentation of conference was legend as was his color coded filing
system. Over the many years, his penchant for files was such that any free wall at the humble
secretariat at Stanmore would be embellished with shelves and soon one would see files upon
files on it. The running joke at the secretariat was: don’t stand still otherwise Muhsin will build
a shelf in your back thinking it is another wall. But the current humble secretariat office is
grand compared to the first office at Meralis’ in Rayners Lane. Starting from a few box files
housed at the residence of the First Secretary General Anwarbhai Jagani, it progressed to the
bottom drawer of the filing cabinet in the small back room of my Travel Agency on London’s
Holloway Road and subsequently thanks to the generosity of Mahmud P K Merali, offering a
whole room at the subsidised rent of 25 pounds a week , which he sometimes forgave as the
Secretariat could not afford to pay.
As the saying goes – nature abhors vacuum. No sooner it was established, expectations rose
and requests began coming from areas as far off as Vancouver, the Bahamas and Bangkok.
Once established, the World Federation faced two immediate if ambitious tasks. One was to
raise the balance of funds from zero. Along with Khums monies, donations were the primary
source of revenue in the first term, with less than £100,000 received by end of 1979.

Secondly, the Office Bearers realized the need assess each particular situation and to that end
the Late Maulana Syed Amir Husain Naqvi was assigned to tour the Jamaats in America,
Europe, Canada and the Far East and produce a detailed report of each area. Thereafter, with
limited funds, the unenviable job of prioritising requests began.
Strategically, (without even using the word), the WF’s first two terms (1976-79, 1979-1982)
were dedicated to alleviating the abject poverty of the East and the paucity of religious services
and Centers in the West. Removing disease, poverty and illiteracy within India was the pressing
priority. The Khojas of Africa who had hardly ever looked back to where they came from, found
two champions whose personal friendship and the passion to serve the Community, bridged
the chasm across the Indian Ocean. They were none other than Mulla Asgher and Late
Gulamali Bhanji (Bapu). Alhajj aunalibhai Saleh Mohammed, a rare soul who had migrated from
Dar es Salaam to Surat, became the third in this triumvirate to serve the Khojas of India.
In conjunction with the Masoomeen Trust of Bombay headed by Gulamali Bhanji, housing
complexes, madrassahs, masjids, imambarghas and medical treatment camps were funded and
run. After attempts to create an All-India Federation floundered, the Gujarat Federation was set
up in 1979 with the unified objective to uplift the Shias of Kutch and Kathiawad. Initial
temporary relief in the form of handouts soon made way for capital schemes of investment in
housing, education, agriculture and job creation. To alleviate poverty, the first ‘Samuh Lagna’
was organized in 1978., with painstaking efforts by the then Vice President, Late Haiderbhai
Haji. Weddings in a culture steeped in Indian tradition remain crippling burden on poor families
and at hence, at times prevented marriage altogether. The WF and Gujarat Federation
organised ‘Samuh Lagna’ – an event to host multiple weddings at a go at little cost to the
wedding parties, arranging as many as 80 weddings at a time during its early years.
Soon, inspired by our Canadian brethren, and in particular Late Gulamabbas Sajan, the
Zainabiyya Child Sponsorship Scheme was inaugurated in 1981, to sponsor the poor to
educate themselves out of dependence. The ZCSS scheme began humbly, sponsoring 9 children
at the cost of 50 cents per child/day in 1981. Muhsin Dharamsi, who in his inimitable style has
created detailed paperwork for the scheme, at the Rayners Lane secretariat was taken aback
when Mulla Saheb, wagging £500 notes challenged us all “Here – Take this and lets start NOW,
and stop just talking about it.”
In spite of limited resources , but with dogged persistence the WF helped fund many
imambargha projects in the West. Even more pronounced was the need to disseminate Islamic
education to the youth in the West. Indeed the very first committee of the WF was the Islamic
Education Subcommittee, which then became a fully-fledged Islamic Education Board in 1980.
Its brief was to enhance Islamic learning in the west through the provision of Islamic literature,
correspondence courses, training of alims and teachers, reviewing of teaching techniques in
madrassahs and utilising of audio-visual aids.

Today, 40 years on, history testifies, that indeed successive leaderships and at least three
generations of volunteers continue to be true to the mantra “We exist to Serve”. The World
Federation’s accomplishments are a acknowledgement of the vision of the Founders some 40
years ago. The trajectory has had its successes and challenges as we shall review in the
forthcoming instalments of this 40 year journey – That’s how it was then !
To be continued …….. Inshallah
Houston – Oct 15 2016