BOOK REVIEW: The Memon Community

Though Abdur Razzaq Thaplawala, the author of the book, 'The Memon community', is a recognised expert in corporate and taxation laws, his bent of mind has been towards history. He had been contributed numberless articles to newspapers and magazines on historical subjects, particularly on the origin and growth of his community.
One could have expected a concise history of the Memons from his pen. Through an earlier book by Mihir Bose, 'The Memons', was published in London but was later reprinted and launched in Karachi by the Memon Book Foundation had colourful and picturesque account, Thaplawala's effort should be taken as more authentic, having been written by one of their own members. Bose is essentially a cricket writer.
The author had been collecting and storing materials on his website and the result is tonness of information on the origin, history and the role of the community in the Khilafat, Independence and Pakistan movements.
After the establishment of Pakistan the Memons had been in the forefront in contributing to its industrial and commercial development and growth, which is worth being written in gold. Even in education, health and welfare fields they have been doing a lot.
After considerable and indepth research Thaplawala, the author and compiler of the book, dismissed weak theories on the origin of the Memon community though he had to base his account on the description given by the Bombay Gazetteer, according to which the Lohari Hindus of Sindh were converted to Islam by Pir Yusufuddin, a descendant of Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani, the saint of saints, in the 14th century.
The new converts were given the name of Momins, who with the passage of time came to be known as Memons. From Sindh (Thatta) they spread to Kutch, Kathiawar, Maharastra, Bombay, South Africa and other parts of the world. According to the author's estimate the present population of the community is one million.
Interestingly Thaplawala reveals, quoting Louis Fischer, that M.K. Gandhi was a cropper in his legal practice at Rajkot and Bombay after returning from England with a law degree.
At this stage a Memon from Porbandar, Dada Abdullah Seth, offered him retainership to look after his court cases in Durban. He spent four full years as assistant to Abdullah Seth, who groomed him as a good lawyer. Seeing the atrocities of the whites against the coloured people Gandhi joined the anti-apartheid agitation there.
He stayed in South Africa for 20 years and earned name as a political figure, later coming to India to become a leader of high stature to be called Mahatma by the Hindu politicians.
A Soviet writer, Sergy Levin, is surprised that the Memons have not gone to a business school yet they have been able to evolve a unique business system. They believe in high turnover and small profits for the overall success of the trade. As mentioned above the community's contribution to the Pakistan Movement has been second to none. They had given hefty sums to the Muslim League and the Press Funds set up by the Quaid-i-Azam.
Believing in the principle of "earning to give" the Memons made enormous and significant contributions towards the industrial commercial, banking, educational and health sectors of Pakistan.
Stephen R. Lewis in his book, "Pakistan's Industrial and Trade Policies", says, "It is a wonder how Pakistan's economy survived at all in the early years? It was because of the entrepreneurial skills of the Muslim community which had migrated to Pakistan from their original homeland in India, prominent among them were the Memons. If Pakistan beat the economic odds then a great deal of credit goes to the Memons".
Among the well-known houses that have played a leading part in the trade and industrial building-up and push-forward of the country are those of the Adamjees, the Dawoods, the Bawanys, the Karims and the Dadas to name only a few, among the prominent personages of the Memon tycoons.
The author wishes to develop the language the Memons speak into a full-fledged Memoni to be written in the Roman script. He has given samples in the book and perhaps his effort may be successful after some years, discarding the presently used Sanskrit or Hindi script.
While Thaplawala's simplicity of language and clarity of diction in the book will be appreciated by the Memons one expects from him an exhaustive version of the book at a later stage when the large number of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors may be removed by requisitioning the services of an experienced journalist.
The printing is fairly good. Even the photographs have come out well for which the Memon Book Foundation of Pakistan has to be given credit.