Masud Choudhary (10 April 1944 – 16 December 2022) was an Indian civil servant, educator, social reformer, thinker and an administrator of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

. He was the founding Vice Chancellor of

Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University is a technical university, located outside Rajouri city in the Jammu division of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a state university that is regulated by the University Grants Commi ...

Rajouri Rajouri or Rajauri (; ; ) is a city in the Rajouri district in the Jammu division of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir. It is located about from Srinagar and from Jammu (city), Jammu city on ...

, J&K. He was also the Chief Patron of the Muslim Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust. Choudhary served in the police and retired as the Additional Director of the General Police ( IPS) in 2004.

Early life

Born in a middle-class Bajar

Gujjar The Gurjar (or Gujjar, Gujar, Gurjara) are an agricultural ethnic community, residing mainly in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, divided internally into various clan groups. They were traditionally involved in agriculture, pastoral and nomadic ...

family in Kalaban, a village near

Line of Control The Line of Control (LoC) is a military control line between the Indian and Pakistanicontrolled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but ser ...

in Poonch District in

Masud Choudhary's father, Babu Faiz Ahmed was also an educator.

Biographic Account

The first biography of Dr. Masud Ahmed Choudhary compiled by Ghani Ghayoor and Dr. Shams Kamal Anjum was released at Gurjardesh Charitable Trust auditorium by former Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah on 18 January 2021. The book contains research articles about Masud Choudhary – a living hero of

who created many institutions of literacy to reduce the darkness of illiteracy and to end backwardness and ignorance faced by marginalized groups. He spent his whole life for the betterment of his tribal community and other downtrodden groups. For his lifetime contributions, he was awarded as 'Fakhr e Qoum wa Milat' A Lifetime Achievement Award in presence of tribal elders.

Police career

As a Law Graduate from

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Kh ...

, he began his career in Jammu and Kashmir Police as a Deputy Superintendent of Police in 1967. He served in a number of assignments, as the District Police Chief of

Jammu Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute ...

, Poonch,

Kathua Kathua is a city and municipal council of the Jammu division of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir di ...

Udhampur Udhampur (ˌʊd̪ʱəmpur) is a city and a municipal council in Udhampur district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters of Udhampur District. Named after Raja Udham Singh, it serves as the district capit ...

including

Senior Superintendent of Police Senior superintendent, also police senior superintendent or senior superintendent of police, is a senior rank in police forces used in Brunei, Estonia, Germany, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Lesotho, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and formerly in ...

Srinagar Srinagar (; ) is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary ...

in Kashmir and also as SSP Vigilance Jammu and CID SB Jammu. As Deputy Inspector General of Police he was posted DIG Vigilance J&K, DIG Jammu-Kathua range; DIG Administration PHQ; Director Police Academy, Udhampur;

Inspector General of Police An inspector-general of police is a senior police officer in the police force or police service of several nations. The rank usually refers to the head of a large regional command within a police service, and in many countries refers to the most ...

, Crime and Railway; and, Additional Director General Police in Jammu and Kashmir. He became the first Gujjar of Jammu and Kashmir to rise to the rank of

Additional Director General of Police The Additional Director General of Police (Addl. DGP) is a senior rank in the Indian Police Service (IPS). It is the second-highest rank in the state police forces of India, below the Director General of Police (DGP) and above the Inspector Gener ...

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service (IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became Partition of India, independent from the British Empire. Along with the Indian Admini ...

in 2002. His last position was as

Additional Director General The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is a maritime law enforcement and search and rescue agency of India with jurisdiction over its territorial waters including its contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone. It was started on 1 February 1977 and forma ...

, Headquarters. He retired from the IPS in 2004.

Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University

Choudhary was the founder and

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University located in the border district of Rajouri, 150 km from

. The university came into existence by an Act of the

Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, also known as the Jammu and Kashmir Vidhan Sabha, is the legislature of Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Prior to 2019, the State of Jammu and Kashmir had a bicameral legislature with a ...

in 2002. In 2012, the university awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for his extraordinary contributions to Indian society, especially in the fields of

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

and

social development Social development can refer to: * Psychosocial development * Social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Sustained at ...

. The Community has celebrated this honour across the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Contributions

Choudhary set up the Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust in Jammu in 1989, a voluntary organization established with the objective of improving the condition of the

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

and marginalised community of Jammu and Kashmir. His efforts have won national and international recognition. Other aims of this trust are Preservation, documentation and publication of tribal rare unwritten medicinal and other herbal knowledge, documentation of the tribal cultural heritage and suggesting ways and means of preserving and promoting it, making a study of the tribal

handicraft A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid material ...

s and undertaking measures to revive and boost their handicrafts. Making such exercise income-oriented, giving boost to social and cultural activities by organizing cultural meets besides development of tribal arts and artifacts.

Awards

* Police Medal for Meritorious Service (1985) * Presidents Police Medal for Distinguished Service (1994). * Sher-e-Kashmir Police Medal for Distinguished Service. * Fakhar-e-Qoum by Adabi Sangat Kashmir. * Fakhr-e-Qaum-wa-Millat by Gurjardesh Charitable Trust

References

External links

* '
Masud Choudhary on YouTube
'
Gojri Interview of Dr. MASUD A. CHAUDHARY on YouTubeGujjars of Jammu and Kashmir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhary, Masud 1944 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Indian Muslims Indian Police Service officers Indian social reformers Aligarh Muslim University alumni People from Poonch District, India Muslim Gujjars