Aligarh Movement

Aligarh Movement Background of Aligarh Movement: After 1857, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was a great reformer of attitudes
and saw that the main hope for the Muslims in India was education. Muslims in general were hostile towards the British, especially after 1857 when they felt that the whole blame for the events of that year had been unfairly placed of them. Many British were of the opinion that the Muslims were disloyal and untrustworthy. Because of this resentment, Muslims deliberately refused to take much part in western education and commerce. As a result they slipped further and further behind in the rapidly developing India. They had fewer jobs in the governments or senior positions in industry of the army because they did not have the qualifications. This made them even more resentful. Sir Syed saw that Muslims would soon be totally dominated by the Hindus, who eagerly acquired western education. Muslims seemed destined to become littler more than poor labourers. Sir Syed tried to reform the Islamic view of science, reasoning and technology by arguing that god had created these, and that they were as much a part of His creation as nature and humankind itself. They would not only get better jobs with a western-style education but would also be better people because they could then play a larger part in developing their country. This was a very brave step, as the teaching of most Muslim leaders was to retreat further into the traditional past. Sir Syed tried to convince people to remain loyal to Britain because the British had brought peace to India. In the 1857 disturbances, he personally intervened to save the British residents in Bundelkhand when the sepoys were intent on massacring them. He felt that one of his main objects was to establish a more friendly relationship between the British and the Muslims, and this he largely achieved so much so that later Hindus claimed that Muslims were being unfairly given more advantages than they were. Above all factors, he saw that the whole key to the future of the Muslims in India was education. To this end, he first set up the Scientific Society of Aligarh, which become, with the support of the governor, the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College, and later still, the Muslim University. Here, while Islamic studies were not neglected, western science and languages were also taught. Contribution of Aligarh Movement: He worked tirelessly to restore relation with the British, his writing, his tireless work and the example he set was convince the British to see the Muslims in a new light. Sir Syed played a major part in bringing about a Muslim revival, largely through the work of the Aligarh Movement. Muslims came to value education as a means of self-improvement and of obtaining better employment. From this came greater feeling of self-worth. Linked to the Muslim revival was greater political awareness. As Hindus sough to take advantage of the poor relations between the Muslims and the British, Sir Syed emphasized the threat to Muslims and developed his Two Nation Theory Once Muslims came to accept the widsdom of this theory, it was only a small step to call for partition. For this reason Sir Syed can rightly be called The Father of the Pakistan Movement.
Sir Syed Ahmad Khans Politics View: Sir Syed felt no bitterness or hostility towards the Hindus, whose religion, customs and culture he said he very much respected. His only fear was that when representative government did come, as it surely would, the interests of the Hindus would always be dominant because of their majority status. It was on these grounds that he opposed Muslims taking part in the Indian National Congress. His fears seem to have been borne out because the 1886 congress had 33 Muslim delegates and 398 Hindus.
Bait-ul-Mal Bait-ul-Mal or public treasury, according to some view, was founded by Prophet of Islam himself when he established Islamic state at Al-Madinah. But this view is not supported by majority of the scholars of Islamic history for the reason that in the reign of the Prophet the income of the state was meagre which never exceeded its expenses and hence the need of Bait-ul-Mal was never felt. According to more current and dominant view, Bait-ul-Mal was first established during the reign of Abu Bakr who succeeded the Prophet in the year 632, A.D. as First caliph of the Islamic state. With the conquests of Iraq, Syria and other countries there was considerable increase in the revenues of the Islamic state which necessitated the establishment of public treasury. However, Bait-ul-Mal took its real shape on permanent footing during the rule of Umar Farooq, the second caliph of Islam. It is during his time that the treasures of countries conquered from former Iranian and Roman empires started pouring into Muslim capital which made the institution of Bait-ul-Mal a powerful and very important department of the Islamic state. It is better to explain the concept of Bait-ul-Mal, as envisaged by early Muslims who founded it, before we proceed to dilate upon sources of its income and heads of its expenses. Every property which belongs to Muslims in general and not to any Muslim in particular constitutes a part of the assets of the public treasury (Bait-ul-Mal). It is not necessary that the property should be actually in the vaults (hirz) of the treasury for it to be considered an asset of the treasury, because the conception of Bait-ul-Mal refers to the destination of the property, not to its actual location. Therefore, every expenditure which must be incurred in the interests of the Muslims in general is a liability of Bait-ul-Mal and when it is made, it is considered to have been made by it, whether or not it has actually been paid out of the vaults of Bait-ul-Mal; this is for the reason that a revenue which has gone into the hands of the public collectors or has been directly spent by them is really a part of the income and expenditure of the Bait-ul-Mal itself, and therefore, subject [2] to the regulations governing the same. The revenues which accrue to the Bait-ul-Mal of the Islamic state have been placed by the classical jurists of Islam under three categories. They are : (1) the Zakat and Sadaqah revenues; (2) the ganimah revenue or spoils of war; (3) the fai revenues such as Jizyah and Kharaj. These revenues have already been discussed in detail in the previous chapter. Since the revenues falling under the second and third category are no longer available to a modern Islamic state, the same would be substituted by the modern taxes. The above mentioned classes of revenue are maintained distinctly under separate heads or titles by the Bait-ul-Mal as the items of expenditure to which they can be allocated are different in Shariah. The Zakat and Sadaqat revenues can be applied to the heads of expenditure as prescribed by the Quran (in its verse 60 of chapter 9) which relate mainly to the welfare of the poor; whereas other revenues are spended by the Islamic state at its discretion to fulfil its multifarious responsibilities such as establishment of law and justice, defence, civil administration, transport and communication, economic development, education and health and social action programme. A full-fledged proper organisation of Bait-ul-Mal existed during the Muslim rule right from the time of Umar Farooq, the second caliph of Islam. Central Bait-ul-Mal existed at the capital of the empire under the direct control of the caliph, whereas at provincial level the Bait-ul-Mal was controlled by the governor of the province. There were no commercial banks or central bank during those times. It appears that all the requirements and needs of the government and the society used to be met by Bait-ul-Mal which supervised public revenues and public expenditure, helped the poor and performed almost similar functions which the ministry of finance performs today. In addition to that, it also performed the functions of a central bank except issue of currency, and control of credit and interest rates which are modern devices.

Aligarh Movement

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Aligarh Movement

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Aligarh Movement

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Aligarh Movement Background of Aligarh Movement: After 1857, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was a great reformer of attitudes

You might also like