Syed Zafar Mahmood is an Indian civil-servant and former 'Officer on Special Duty' for Indian Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

. On March 9, 2005, the Prime Minister appointed the '

Sachar Committee The Sachar Committee was a seven-member High Level Committee in India established in March 2005 by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The committee was headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar to study the social, econom ...

' to study the "social, economic and educational status" of India's minority Muslim community. Mahmood worked with the Sachar Committee to submit its report to the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

within two years on November 17, 2006. He has since given numerous talks in and outside India on the topic. In his presentations at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

he has commented on the steps forward to bridge the economic, social and educational divide of Indian Muslims. During President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

's 2006 visit to India, the U.S. president convened an interfaith meeting in New Delhi and Mahmood was one of the representatives of Indian Muslims.

Education

Mahmood was educated at

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

where he earned B.Sc. (Honours) in Physics, M.S. in political science, and Ph.D. in Public Administration.

Non-Governmental Work

Mahmood is also the founder of three non-profit organizations: Zakat Foundation of India, Interfaith Coalition for Peace and God's Grace Foundation. Of note, Zakat Foundation of India (founded in 1997) is a non-profit which runs an orphanage for victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots in partnership with USA's One World Children's Fund. The Foundation recently was in the news for adopting the family of the late 11-year-old Shanno Khan. Mahmood's work in regard to these organizations has also been featured on

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and America's

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( NPR). In September 2009, ZFI filed a 'Right To Information' application to question why the Government had rejected the Sachar Committee recommendations to ensure proper governance of Wakf properties. On June 29, 2013, Mahmood was invited as a speaker to 'Young India Conclave' in Gandhinagar, Gujarat along with the state's Chief Minister Sri

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

. Mahmood challenged the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

on his poor records towards Muslims, highlighting anti-Muslim rhetoric on the BJP website, as well as policies that the BJP would need to adopt to appeal to Indian Muslim voters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmood, Syed Zafar Indian Muslims Indian civil servants Living people 1951 births