KOCHI: Did you know that Ashfaqulla Khan, a freedom fighter (whom most of you might only remember because of Kunal Kapoor’s portrayal in the cult film Rang De Basanti (2006)) was a zamindar who left all his wealth and luxury to fight for India during the freedom movement? This and many more such facts and figures are available in the app, Muslim Freedom Fighters, launched by a Hyderabad-based software engineer Syed Khalid Saifullah on Independence Day this year.
“I recently realised that people do not have any idea about most of the Muslim freedom fighters. Even people in our own community too are clueless about those who shed blood to fight for the country,” he says.
Khalid’s idea to create this app stemmed from the flak that the community has been receiving of-late. He wanted to do his bit by showing that India is as much their country as it is any other communities’. “Not just that, if you look at any history text book or books that talk about freedom fighters, the most prominent Muslim leader that everyone seems to know is Jinnah. Everyone pauses for a while to come up with names of other important people. Those we have listed are not just from the Muslim League - they are those who decided to stay back and fight for the country, when they had the option of leaving,” he explains.
How the app functions
This is a free game-based app. The freedom fighters have been classified into categories like Women, Rulers, Martyrs, Moulvis, Advocates, Journalists, Businessmen, Azad Hind Fouj, Doctors, Educationists, Poets, Bureaucrats, Judges and other professions. When a category is clicked, names of the freedom fighters are displayed and when any name is clicked, a picture of the selected freedom fighter and information of him/her pops up. The user can take a test after reading the profile of each freedom fighter.
However, the users can read all the profiles of freedom fighters without taking the test as well.
With limited literature on Muslim freedom fighters available, research was a major hurdle for Khalid. “There were just two books and most of it was in Urdu. Luckily, I chanced upon a book called ‘The Immortals’ by Syed Naseer Ahamed,” he says.
Research of 20 years
The author did extensive research for 20 years on the role of Muslim freedom fighters in India’s freedom struggle, travelled to far off places in the country, met the families of freedom fighters and collected their rare photographs and profiles. “ This book stopped publication after its first run. When I got in touch with him to collate his collection into an app, he was more than happy,” adds Khalid.
Currently, there are 155 levels in the app. “A unique feature about the app is that you can compete with people in your area and/or you can create a group and compete against them. Interestingly, most of the users are from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. “We have 400 plus active users from Tamil Nadu and more than 5,800 downloads till date.”
Currently available on Google Play, the app is only for Android users and has received a lot of appreciation in the reviews section. “As the page has our email address and phone number, some users have even called up asking us to add some of the freedom fighters we missed out.” he says.
With an idea solely aimed to make use of technology in a positive way, Khalid has two main points to address for the future. “We are looking to add details of more freedom fighters. Also, we want to make the app multi-lingual. We’re in the process of making the information in the app available in Hindi and Tamil, and hope to launch these additions on January 26, 2017” he shares.
Khalid says he started this app out of passion and not for monetary gain. “We would love to tie-up with schools or colleges to teach something new to their students. If we are able to bring in the feeling of respect in even one percent of the population, our mission is achieved,” he contends.