Syed Ahmad Khan
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur (Urdu:سید احمد خان بہا در ) (October 17, 1817 – March 27, 1898) was an Indian educationalist, jurist, writer and politician who pioneered modern education for the Muslim community in India and founded the Aligarh Muslim University. His work gave rise to a new generation of Muslim intellectuals, professionals, politicians and the Aligarh movement to secure the political future of Muslims in British India.
Born into Mughal nobility, Khan earned a reputation as a distinguished scholar and writer while working as a jurist for the British East India Company. His influential booklet The Causes of the Indian Revolt, which analyzed the Indian rebellion of 1857 and criticized British administration, won him great acclaim. It was following the rebellion that Khan grew increasingly concerned of the political future of Muslims. He advocated the rejection of religious dogma and the embrace of Western-style education, culture and scientific knowledge. He founded numerous modern schools and established the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College in 1877, which would become the centre of Muslim intellectual life in India.
Khan organized the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference in 1886 to launch nationwide efforts to promote education, social and political upliftment of Muslims. Suspicious and critical of the Indian independence movement, Khan encouraged closer political co-operation with the British Raj as a means to secure a prominent political role for Muslims. His political leadership would give direction to a rising class of Muslim intellectuals and politicians, although his views are often regarded as having sown the seeds of Muslim nationalism and separatism.
Early life
Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur was born in Delhi, then the capital of the Mughal empire. Many generations of his family had been highly connected with the Mughal administration. His maternal grandfather Khwaja Fariduddin served as wazir in the court of Akbar Shah I. His paternal grandfather Syed Hadi held a mansab, a high-ranking administrative position and the title of Jawwad Ali Khan in the court of Alamgir II. Khan's father Mir Muhammad Muttaqi was personally close to Akbar Shah I and served as a personal adviser. However, Khan was born at a time when rebellious governors, regional insurrections and the British colonialism had diminished the extent and power of the Mughal state, reducing its monarch to a figurehead status.
With his elder brother Sayyid Muhammad Khan, Khan was raised in a large house in a wealthy neighbourhood of the city. At an early age they were exposed to the workings of the state, and raised in strict accordance with Mughal noble culture. Their mother Aziz-un-Nisa played an important formative role in their life, raising them with rigid discipline and with a strong emphasis on education. Khan learnt to read the Qur'an under a female tutor, and received an education traditional to Muslim nobility. Under the charge of Maulvi Hamiduddin, Khan was trained in Persian, Arabic and Urdu and religious subjects. Subsequent tutors instructed him in mathematics, astronomy and Islamic jurisprudence. Khan was also adept at swimming, wrestling and other sports, and took an active part in the city's literary and cultural activities. His elder brother founded the city's first printing press in the Urdu language. Khan pursued the study of medicine for several years, but did not complete the prescribed course of study.
Until the death of his father in 1838, Khan had lived the life of an affluent and cultured young Muslim noble. His family thrown into financial difficulties, Khan ended his formal education, although he would continue to study in private using advanced books on various subjects. Rejecting offers from the Mughal court, Khan entered the British civil service and was appointed sereshtedar at the courts of law in Agra, responsible for record-keeping and managing court affairs. In 1840, he was promoted to the title of munshi. The family's misfortunes intensified with the death of his brother in 1845, leaving Khan as the main bread-winner.
Literary career
While continuing to work as a jurist, Khan began focusing on writing on different subjects, mainly in Urdu. His career as an author began when he published a series of treatises in Urdu on religious subjects in 1842. He published the book Athar Assanadid (Great Monuments) documenting and analyzing antiquities of Delhi dating from the medieval era. This work brought him acclaim and earned him the reputation of being a knowledgeable and cultured scholar. In the following years he would publish numerous books at a rapid pace. In 1842, he completed the Jila-ul-Qulub bi Zikr il Mahbub, and in 1844 he completed the Tuhfa-i-Hasan and the Tahsil fi jar-i-Saqil. In 1852, he published the two works Namiqa dar bayan masala tasawwur-i-Shaikh and the Silsilat ul-Mulk. He published the second edition of Athar Assanadid in 1854. He would also pen a biography of Islam's prophet Muhammad and a partial commentary on the Bible, the first by a Muslim.
Acquainted with high-ranking British officials, Khan obtained a close knowledge and judgment about British colonial politics and workings of administration during his service at the courts. At the outbreak of the rebellion on May 10, 1857 northeastern India became the scene of the most intense fighting. In Delhi, the Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar was pronounced emperor of India by the rebel forces and allied Indian rulers. The conflict had left large numbers of civilians dead, and the cities of Delhi, Agra, Lucknow and Kanpur were severely affected. Despite the involvement of the Mughal monarch with the rebels, Khan had remained loyal to the British. He was deeply affected by the violence and the ending of the Mughal dynasty amongst many other long-standing kingdoms. It was during the revolt that his mother died in Meerut.
In 1858 he was appointed sadar-us-sadur at the court in Muradabad, where he began working on his most famous literary work. Publishing the booklet Asbab-e-Bhaghawath-e-Hind (The Causes of the Indian Mutiny) in 1859, Khan studied and listed the causes of the revolt. In his work, Khan rejected a common notion of the time that the conspiracy was planned by Muslim elites, who were frustrated and insecure at the diminishing influence of Muslim monarchs after many centuries of power. Instead, Khan blamed the British East India Company for its aggressive expansion and usurping of monarchies, as well as the ignorance of British politicians regarding Indian culture and politics. Khan ennumerated what he perceived as the weaknesses and errors of British rulers and advised the British to rehabilitate the Muslim political classes to assist in administration. He criticized the Company for being too obsessed with commercial endeavours at the expense of the political responsibilities associated with colonization. A daringly critical work published in a sensitive political environment, Khan received wide acclaim and acceptance even from the British. Studied by many British officials, Khan's points were influential on British policies, especially after the takeover of India by the British Crown ended a century of Company rule.
Educational career
Through the 1850s, Syed Ahmed Khan began developing a strong interest and passion for education. While pursuing studies of different subjects including European jurisprudence, Khan began to realize the advantages of Western-style education, which was being offered at recently established colleges in Chennai (then Madras), Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Mumbai (then Bombay). Despite being a devout Muslim, Khan began to criticize the influence of traditional dogma and religious orthodoxy, which had made most Indian Muslims suspicious and averse to British influences. With the steady decline of the Mughal state and other Muslim kingdoms, Khan began feeling increasingly concerned for the future of Muslim communities. A scion of Mughal nobility, Khan had been reared in the finest traditions of Muslim elite culture, and was aware to the steady decline of Muslim political power and influence across India. The socio-economic future of Muslims was also threatened by their orthodox aversions to modern science and technology. The animosity between the British and Muslims before and after the rebellion threatened to isolate and marginalize Muslim communities across India for many generations. Committed to working for the upliftment of Muslims, Khan founded a modern madrassa in Muradabad in 1859; this was one of the first religious schools to impart scientific and cultural education. Khan also worked on social causes, helping to organize relief for the famine-struck peoples of the Northwest Frontier Province in 1860. He established another modern school in Ghazipur in 1863.
It was upon his transfer to Aligarh in 1864 that Khan began working wholeheartedly as an educationalist. He founded the Scientific Society of Aligarh, the first technical association of its kind in India, modelled after the Royal Society and the Royal Asiatic Society. Khan assembled Muslim intellectuals and scholars of the Mughal and modern era from different parts of the country. The Society held annual conferences, disbursed funds for educational causes and regularly published a journal on scientific subjects in both English and Urdu. Wary of the prospect of political isolation, Khan began co-operating in his work with British authorities, promoting loyalty to the Empire amongst Indian Muslims. After working on plans for a vernacular university, Khan established a homeopathic hospital in Varanasi (then Benaras) on September 25, 1867. Two years later, Khan travelled to England, where he would be awarded the Order of the Star of India from the British government on August 6, 1869.
Travelling across England, he visited its long-standing colleges and institutions of technical education, and became well-versed with the culture of learning and educational practices established after the Rennaissance. Khan returned to India in the following year determined to build a "Muslim Cambridge." Upon his return, he organized the "Committee for the Better Diffusion and Advancement of Learning among Muhammadans" on December 26, 1870. By 1873 the committee under Khan would layout proposals for the construction of a college in Aligarh. He began publishing the journal Tahzib al-Akhlaq (Social Reformer) to spread awareness and obtain support for the spread of modern education. Khan established a modern school in Aligarh, and obtaining support from wealthy Muslims and the British, laid the foundation stone of the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College on May 24, 1875. He retired from his career as a jurist the following year, concentrating entirely on developing the college. Khan's pioneering work received great acclaim and support from the British. Although criticized by orthodox religious leaders and Indian nationalists hostile to the British, Khan's efforts reaped the support and enthusiasm of young Muslims, who flocked to attend his schools and college.
Political career
Syed Ahmed Khan's prominence as a community leader also propelled him into the politics of British India, at a time when the Indian political class was nascent. He had supported the efforts of Surendranath Banerjea and Dadabhai Naoroji to obtain representation for Indians in the government and civil services, but his views were strongly affected by the Hindi-Urdu controversy. Arising from the demand of several leaders of the Hindu community of the United Provinces to replace the official language Urdu with Hindi, the controversy sparked clashes and violence between Hindu and Muslim activists, killing many people and spreading disorder across the province. Regarding this demand as an assault on Muslim heritage, Khan was also disillusioned by the violence. During the crisis, Khan had said:
"I look to both Hindus and Muslims with the same eyes and consider them as my own eyes. By the word nation I only mean Hindus and Muslims and nothing else. We Hindus and Muslims live together under the same soil under the same government. Our interest and problems are common and therefore I consider the two factions as one nation."
His words seemed to convey a sense of concern for both communities, expressing the need for harmony, unity and trust. However, in a conversation with the governor of the United Provinces, Khan told him:
"I am now convinced that the Hindus and Muslims could never become one nation as their religion and way of life was quite distinct from one and other... I am convinced that both these communities will not join whole heartedly in anything. At present there is no open hostility between the two communities but it will increase immensely in the future."
Both these quotes are contested by modern scholars who interpret Khan as an advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity and by those who believe he laid the foundations of Muslim political separatism in India. Khan did become increasingly suspicious and averse to political organizations led by Hindus, and advocated loyalty and co-operation with the British. In 1878, he was nominated to the Viceroy's Legislative Council and testified before the education commission to promote the establishment of more colleges and modern schools across India. In 1883, he founded the Muhammadan Civil Service Fund Association to encourage and support the entry of Muslim graduates into the Indian Civil Service, which had recently been opened to Indian candidates. Khan saw Muslim participation in the ICS as a crucial means to empower Muslims in politics and secure their influence in national administration and lawmaking. In the same year, Khan founded the Muhammadan Association to promote political dialogue and co-operation amongst Indian Muslims from different parts of the country, and in 1886 he organized and convened the All India Muhammadan Education Conference in Aligarh. His works propelled him onto centre stage of national politics, and Khan used his position to intensify and expand efforts to spread education and coordination amongst Muslim intellectuals, scholars, politicians and professionals. Khan was nominated as member of the Civil Service Commision in 1887 by Lord Dufferin, and in 1888 he established the Patriotic Association at Aligarh to promote political co-operation with the British and Muslim participation in the government.
Emerging nationalist political organizations and increased revolutionary activities also caused Khan to intensify his criticism of Hindu-led organizations and increase public support for British rule. Khan would become a leading critic of the Indian National Congress, which had been established in Mumbai in 1885. The Congress was a Hindu-majority organization that began demanding increased political rights and freedoms for Indians, yet Khan perceived it as working against Muslim interests. Fearing political domination of Muslims in the Congress, especially if its organization and activities spread nationwide, Khan encouraged Muslims to keep away from the body and continued to criticize it for encouraging the nascent yet increasingly active nationalist and revolutionary movements. Khan began to view Indian nationalism as harmful to Muslim interests, which seemed secure and well represented under the neutral authority of the British. While evoking criticism from Indian nationalists and Congress leaders, Khan's views gained support amongst the rising generation of educated Muslims. Khan's political work and manifesto of objectives for the Muslim community have been generally described as the Aligarh movement. Involving the rising young Muslim community of intellectuals, professionals, scholars and politicians, the movement's key objectives were:
- To create an atmosphere of mutual understanding between the British government and the Muslims.
- To persuade Muslims to learn English education.
- To persuade Muslims to abstain from politics of agitation.
- To produce an intellectual class from amongst the Muslim community.
Khan's work and views attracted many well-known Muslims such as Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Nawab Viqar-ul-Mulk, who would subsequently help found and organize the All India Muslim League in 1906. Most graduates of the Aligarh schools retained Khan's suspicion of the Congress during the Indian independence movement. The League would fully embrace Khan's vision and objectives, demanding separate and special representation of Muslism in institutions of government, as well as separate electorates for voting in elections. The League would promote political co-operation with the British, despite the failure of similar efforts to bridge the gap with the Congress.
Death and legacy
Syed Ahmed Khan was knighted by the British government in 1888, and in the following year he would receive an LL.D honoris causa from the Edinburgh University. He lived the last two decades of his life in Aligarh, working hard to promote the college and affiliated schools, as well as organizing and guiding Muslim political and social development activities across the country. His speeches, vision and leadership would inspire many young Muslim students and his contemporaries. Khan remained active and at work throughout his final years, but succumbed to illnesses and his old age and died on March 27, 1898.
Khan is widely commemorated in both India and Pakistan today. While the university he founded remains one of India's most prominent and prestigious institutions, and a centre for Muslim intellectual culture, he is also the namesake of the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology and the Sir Syed University in Pakistan. While hailed for his work promoting the education and socio-economic upliftment of India's Muslims, he is also regarded by many as a founding father of Pakistan. Khan has also been commemorated in Turkey, Egypt, Afghanistan and Iran for being one of the most important Muslim leaders in modern times.
Criticism and legacy
Although hailed as a great leader, Khan is criticized by many for encouraging Muslim separatism and communal divisions. Khan's school of thought is held responsible by several historians and Indian nationalists for preventing the co-operation of the Congress and the League in working for national independence. Khan's alleged endorsement of the incompatability of the Hindu and Muslim communities is blamed for eventually giving rise to the demand for a separate Muslim state of Pakistan. He is defended by some modern historians and Aligarh scholars as mainly anxious to secure fair representation and political rights for Muslims, otherwise firmly believing in a united India for all its different peoples. While criticized by Indian nationalists for his advocacy of British rule, which served to substantially divide Muslim political loyalties. However, Khan's position was not unusual as most Indian politicians of the era had not developed or endorsed the vision of complete political independence.
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan is widely regarded as the father of the 20th century Muslim intellectual, scholarly and political class of India. The rapid expansion and fame of his college would lead to the granting of university status, and it would become the Aligarh Muslim University. Becoming a centre of Muslim intellectual and political life, the university would train many future Muslim leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Maulana Shaukat Ali and Liaquat Ali Khan. Muslim philosophers and leaders such as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Sir Muhammad Iqbal would be deeply impressed by Khan's modernism and emphasis on education. Aligarh graduates would become the central leaders of the Khilafat struggle of the 1920s, seeking the preservation of the caliphate following World War I. Many Aligarh graduates would go on to endorse and work for the Pakistan movement in the 1940s. The university he founded remains one of the most prominent educational institutions in India today.
See also
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References
External links
AMU Students
- Biographical pages
- "Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898)". Story of Pakistan.
- "Sir Syed Ahmad Khan". Pioneers of Freedom.
- "Sir Syed Ahmed Khan". Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology.
- "Sir Syed Ahmad Khan". Cyber AMU.
- Articles
- "Sir Syed & Aligarh by Professor Ziauddin Ahmed". AMU Post.
- "Sir Syed: Reformer Par Excellence by Sheikh Ali". Islamic Voice.
- "Aligarh Movement by R. Upadhyay". South Asia Analysis Group.
- "Sir Syed Ahmad Khan-Man with a Great Vision". Islamic Research Foundation.
- Misc
- "Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (pics)". Webshots.
- "Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's Descendants". The Wisdom Fund.