Zafar Agha, a journalist of four decades, and Editor-in-chief of the National Herald, passed away in Delhi in the early morning of March 22. He was 70.
Zafar Agha began his career as a journalist with the Link Magazine in 1979 and remained active in the profession for more than 45 years. For over 45 years, his contribution was immense and he worked with the Patriot, Business and Political Observer, India Today as Political Editor, ETV and Inquilab Daily. In recent years he was with the National Herald group as Editor Qaumi Awaz and later editor in chief of the National Herald Group.
Zafar Agha was more than just an erudite print journalist. He also served as a member and later as officiating chairman of The National Commission for Minority Educational institutions till 2017.
Zafar Agha was born in 1954 at Allahabad and studied at the Yaaadgaar Hussaini Inter-College and Allahabad University. He remained an Allahabadi, loved the city of his birth and the flavours of small town Uttar Pradesh. He was a student of English literature and it is at the Allahabad University that he was drawn into the progressive student movement and remained allied to left and democratic politics through his life. Agha who was active with the Delhi Union of Journalists had started as a teacher of English in Surat, before joining The Link Magazine in Delhi in 1979. His last rites in the form of the Namaz e Janaza were performed at Dargah Shah e Mardan, ( B.K.Dutt Colony) Jor Bagh at about 1.30 P.M and the and the burial at 4.pm at the Hauz Rani graveyard adjacent to Press Enclave, Saket.NewDelhi
Zafar was not simply a senior colleague, but a comrade in arms be it in our collective journey during the launch and survival struggle for the pioneering Communalism Combat, or our justice work as activists in Mumbai and Gujarat (launching Citizens for Justice and Peace). He was also a founding member of Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy in 2003. Anguished by the turn of events in India that impacted Muslims most brutally, Zafar Agha refused to wear his Muslim identity on his sleeve though he was a proud flagbearer for the best of traditions from within and without. For us at CJP he stepped in during moments of crisis, standing solidly as an anchor in so many ways.
Zafar Agha’s journalism and work was about issues that affected millions of Indians and as many from the Muslim intelligentsia, progressive and committed, he experienced both anguish and alienation in recent decades. When he lost his wife to Covid, and himself became so ill that he found it difficult to manage, his response was to shrug off his own troubles and turn and look outward. Never seeing himself as only a Muslim but part of this vast land, his words of anguish (and humiliation) uttered only to close friends reflected what he felt but did not share widely.
“For the first time in my life I felt I was a Muslim, a defeated and humiliated Muslim. It was not the India of my dreams and my beliefs” – Zafar Agha
For your solidarity and vision, adieu Zafar, you will be sorely missed.
– Editors