Daneesh Majid
New Delhi: The world of social work and academia experienced a loss with the passing of well known Professor H Y Siddiqui. After being admitted to Delhi’s Apollo Hospital for a month, he passed away on Saturday.
A renowned name in the field, institutions all over the country took to social media to express their grief about the former academic who taught for 35 years at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI). After his successful stint there, he briefly spent time at Mizoram University before arriving at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad, in 2011.
Mohammed Shahid, Professor at the MANUU’s Department of Social Work states, “It is not common for such a senior like Siddiqui sahaab to come to a new institution and department. He was one of the main reasons I came to MANUU.”
Being a pioneer in India in the realm of social work, many of Siddiqui’s books are a part of curriculums in academic institutions all over the world. Shahid adds, “He is one of the very few people whose book Working With Communities is used when teaching students in this country. Otherwise for the most part, textbooks authored by foreign academics are used.”
A press release from MANUU states, “His intellectual and administrative abilities are the major reasons that the Social Work department reached new heights.”
In 2015, he was conferred with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Association of Professional Social Workers in India during the third Indian Social World Congress for his selfless services to social work education and its practice.
Shahid feels that without reading two of Prof Siddiqui’s books–Handbook of Social Welfare and Social Work and Social Action are extremely important for all the degree students of social science.
A founding member and current Head of the Department, Professor Shahid Raza also mentions another book which he wrote at MANUU titled Social Work and Human Relations.
Mohmad Iqbal, the first student to earn a PhD from the same department, had the foreword to his book Community and Social Work written by Siddiqui. “The substantive questions and comments he had about my book were proof that before penning the foreword, he took the time to read the text rather than just skim through it,” says Iqbal.
Both JMI and MANUU plan to conduct international webinars on the works and contributions of the late professor.