At 94, an untimely death!

When Ghalib died, Dilli was already dead. In his last years, he was a living man walking in a dead city. Finally laid to rest in the ruins of a city, once called Jehanabad, Ghalib’s suffering can only be imagined.

Noorani died some days back. But years before, his city of law and constitution saw a grand demolition. How much of a torment this man must have endured all these years; leave it to imagination! Happy, the man finally left the world that was no longer his!

But the man who had no mercy for power left us at a time when times have no mercy on us. Looking at his books on the rack, one would wish to bury the tome he produces alongside him, with the belief that his soul, sooner or later, here or heeafter, will have the vengeance. The soil that archives this body will one day throw up the facts; one doesn’t know who lives to watch that whirlwind of dust that will make the towers of falsehood dance like a straw. AG did well by going underground, finally.

There is lots of darkness around these days, Noorani. May you rest in peace, with all your light inside you. But those who know you, read you, or heard you, know it well that you are not the man to rest in peace. You will chase the bad souls in that world too, striking them down with the vehemence you dispalyed for almost a century of your worldly journey.

Those who know Noorani closely have stories to tell about the man and his attitude. How the man wouldn’t hide his discomfort or displeasure with anything or anyone. How he would say what he felt, no matter how displeasing, even inappropriate, it may sound. Some would even label him as snobbish. But A G Noorani is not about those anecdotes, just. In him we could find a profile picture of an urban, educated, confident, public intellectual, coming from an Indian Muslim space. Someone, who knew the world we live in, and faced it upright. How many like him we have now in our midst; probably he was the last man of the tribe.

Noorani shared a special bond with Kashmir, and we all know how and why. He also worked for, and spoke about, the problems faced by the Muslims of India. Not just that, he was a part of the larger civil society of India that believes in democracy, rule of law, and fair play. So there is something to celebrate for all of us in the legacy he left.

But what is that legacy? In a nutshell, regard for facts and work extremely hard to glean them. For the young, Noorani teaches the value of hard work, discipline, and detail. When it came to his own discipline -Law- he was ruthless. He would dig out a detail from under mounds of earth. His lust for legality was total. He would strip everything naked, right in front of a million watchers. When he wrote about matters like Kashmir, constitutional matters, or Babri Masjid, it was a carpet bombing of facts.

He wouldn’t deploy facts on his side, he would side with the facts. That is the hallmark of an intellectual, of a well wisher. In Kashmir, all shades of politics and ideologies shared a bond with him. Unfortunately, each one of them scooped a handful of details that fit their rhetoric. We had a conditional regard for him, and almost no regard for the hard work he did, and the detail he summoned. Our tragedy lingers as our politics remains acceeded to facts, only conditionally.

Noorani just shed the light on a subject, regardless of who appears how in the flood of light. Mercy was evil when it came to critiquing what he found was wrong. He showed no respect for what he thought wasn’t worth respecting. All through his life, even in advanced years, he worked so hard to collect facts and place them to build an argument. If only our students in our colleges and universities took a cue from that. If only our political parties started showing that minimal regard to hard work and facts.

Noorani was an equidistant, and equitable, critique of the radicalism on either side. A man with even-handed disregard for any stupidity committed on any side. From the mountain of work he left behind, we have enough arsenell to fight against the political perversions that have been mainstreamed over these years. Not with a turbulant heart, but with a passioante mind. Our love for facts, and regard for justice, should trnscned everything – even the bitterness that has accumulated over the years.

Noorani emobiodies hard work, scholarship, and the courage to present it cleanly. When reels consume us in all their bitefulness, Noorani teaches us the art of labour. He teaches us what it means to build a case.

A case of exploding facts.