ME AND MAULANA: A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION OF WAHIDUDDIN KHAN - John M. Butt

bird in the sky. I have never ever been so happy and excited in my life like that night. It was the happiness of freedom.” A true nationalist, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honour, in January 2021. In January 2000, he had received India’s third-highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan. He received the Demiurgus Peace International Award, under the patronage of the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. In 2009, he received the National Citizens’ Award. Maulana Sahab, a vegetarian by choice lived a simple life and believed in inter-faith cooperation, dialogue and coexistence of various religions. He was one of the first Muslim scholars to urge the community to give up the claim over the disputed Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya. To give expression to his mission of peace, he founded the Centre for Peace and Spirituality in 2001. The website https://www.cpsglobal.org/ set up to spread the mission says: “From his early years, he showed a voracious appetite for modern knowledge, spending entire days in the library. As a result he became well versed in both classical Islamic learning and modern disciplines. His extensive research led him to conclude that the need of the hour was to present Islamic teachings in the style and language of the post-scientific era.” “In 1992, when the atmosphere was so highly charged throughout India due to the Babri Mosque incident, he felt the necessity to convince people of the need to restore peace and amity between the two communities, so that the country might once again tread the path of progress.