Hamid Dalwai

Hamid Dalwai (1932-1977) was a Muslim social reformer in Maharashtra state in India. Born in a Marathi speaking Muslim family in Konkan he joined the Socialist Party, but left it to devote himself to Muslim social reforms, specially to Muslim women's rights. He started Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal. He faced many personal problems due to his reformist views.

He worked as a Marathi journalist. He wrote many books including "Laat" ('The Wave"), "Indhan" ("Fuel") and "Muslim Politics In Secular India". He died at age of 45.

Hamid Dalwai was also perhaps the only reformer in the Muslim community in recent years, with many others claiming to be reformers being just apologists for the community. Noting that the worst victims of orthodoxy were women, he organised a morcha of Muslim women on Mantralaya to demand a uniform civil code. Hamid, who was born in a typical Marathi speaking Konkani Muslim family in Ratnagiri district, is survived by his wife Mehrunnisa, who worked in the Khadi Gramudyog Mandal to keep the kitchen fires burning. Hamid's brother Hussein is a Congress leader in Maharashtra and a former MP, minister and state president of the Samajwadi Party in Maharashtra.