IOS Calicut Chapter organises Seminar on Thangal Kunhu Musaliar, Educationist and reformer

21 September 2019 at Trivandrum Kerala

Trivandrum: IOS Calicut Chapter organised a seminar on September 21, 2019 at Trivandrum to underline the significant contributions made by the late Thangal Kunhu Musaliar to the social and economic uplift of Muslims of southern Kerala.

This was the first of the three- part series of seminars on some of the prominent reformers in the state who have helped the empowerment of the Muslim community.



Mr. M. M. Hassan, the former Kerala minister who opened the seminar, said that Thangal Kunhu Musaliar was visionary who could not be left out from the history of Muslim renaissance in Kerala. He started as a successful business man but earmarked a major part of his fortune to establish first-class professional institutions in south Kerala. Currently, the institutions and firms built up by him employ more than 100,000 people, Mr. Hassan added.



Dr. P. Nazeer, the former head of the Deptt. of Minority Welfare who delivered the keynote address, remarked that Musaliar’s role was crucial in Muslim educational development. He spent three million rupees from his pocket to start the educational complex in Quilon in 1952 and admitted poor Muslims, who later became great facilitators for social change.



Dr. Kayamkulam Yunus (Member of advisory Board  Kendriya  Sahitya Academy) called him a legendary reformer. He did not pass elementary school, but thought of establishing professional colleges for the benefit of the community. He was not merely an activist, but a scholar interested of Islam. He has written two books on Islamic topics.

Dr. S. Sulaiman (senior lecturer DIET) said that Dr. S. Radhakrishan, the second President of the country, had wished that more people like Thangal Kunhu Musaliar should come for the uplift of people. He was an editor, writer and publisher. His biography (which is available in English also under the title Man and the World reveals a successful reformer who lived ahead of his times.



Prominent academics like Dr. A. Jadeeda (former professor of Arabic, University of Kerala) , Dr. A. Nisarudheen (former head of Deptt. of Arabic, University of Kerala) and Mr. Pulippara A. Muhammad also presented papers highlighting many dimensions of Thangal Kunhu Musaliar.

Ibrahim Moulavi, Trivandrum, representing IOS, presided and Ashik Vallakadavu welcomed the audience.

The second seminar on C. H. Muhammad Koya, former CM and Education Minister of Kerala, will be held on 29th November 2019.