Subject: History Resource

Class: XI
Chapter: Social and Religious movements CH. 3

Aligarh Movement

Objectives of Aligarh Movement

The main objective of the Aligarh movement was to persuade the Muslim community to acquire
modern knowledge

and the English language. In addition, it had the following additional objectives:

•To build trust between the government and the Muslim community.

•To maintain and promote the political and economic importance of the community.

Outcomes of the Aligarh movement

• The political emancipation of the Muslims in India was highly contributed due to the Aligarh
Movement.

• As compared to the other movements of the 19th century, this movement had more influence on
the

Muslim society of India.

• Many socio-religious movements grew in the 19th century as a result of the Aligarh movement.
During

the 20th century, the influence of this movement was visible in the other regions of the Indian sub-

continent other than North India.

• The growth of institutes including Osmania University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Dacca University,
and

Aligarh Muslim University was promoted by the annual Educational conferences that took place in

different parts of the country.

Role of the Aligarh movement in politics

• Separate politics was encouraged by the Aligarh Movement even though it began as a reform
movement. This movement created a division between Muslims and Hindus. The Indian National
movement was weakened by the sense of separation among Muslims.

• The Muslim community was guided to keep a distance from the nationalistic movements. These
nationalistic movements were initiated in 1885 by the National Congress of India.

• The aspirations of the Muslim community of India were voiced by some of the graduated of
Aligarh
College in the Muslim League. Communalism grew in India as a result of the Aligarh movement.
Instead of positively affecting politics, it turned to promote communalism in India.

Impact of the Aligarh movement on society and education

• One of the most important reformers of Muslims, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, caused the upliftment of
Muslims by favouring modern scientific education. He was against narrow-mindedness and
fanaticism.

• He prompted the Muslim community to the tolerant and broadminded.

• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan wanted the Muslim community to create freedom of thought and develop
acritical approach that he realized would not come from religious education alone. He wanted his
community to upgrade themselves.

• He wanted Muslims to adopt western learning methods since it was the only way toward
achieving
enlightenment. Throughout Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s life, the promotion of western education
among the Muslim community was one of his chief concerns.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

• On 17 October 1817, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was born in Delhi, Mughal Empire. He was the most
eminent Muslim reformist and

philosopher of the 19th century.

• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was born in Delhi, the capital of the Mughal Empire to an affluent and
aristocratic family that had close

ties with the Mughal court. He was educated in the Quran and the sciences.

• He also received an honorary law degree from the University of Edinburgh later in life. He was a
widely read person and

studied books on mathematics, medicine, Persian, Arabic, Urdu, etc.

• His elder brother had set up a printing press in Urdu. It was the first one in Delhi. After his
father’s death, he took up

employment with his brother’s journal as an editor. He rejected an offer of employment from the
Mughal court despite his

family being employed in the Mughal court for generations.

• Sir Syed stressed on the importance of modern scientific education for Muslims to advance their
conditions. He advocated the learning of English. He was also against superstition and evil customs
prevalent in society then.

• He also advocated inter-faith understanding. He was also a scholar on Christianity, and wrote a
book, ‘Commentary on the Holy Bible’.

• He believed that Muslim society could move ahead only if rigid orthodoxy was abandoned, and
pragmatism was adopted.

• He set up many educational institutes to propagate education, the most significant being the
Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (MAOC) which he set up in 1875. This later became the
Aligarh Muslim University. The MAOC was instrumental in the Aligarh Movement of the 19th
century which was an important movement of a renaissance among Indian Muslims. This had
lasting ramifications on the politics, religion, and culture of the country. An unintended effect was
the propounding of the two-nation theory that ultimately led to calls for creating Pakistan.

• He founded the Scientific Society of Aligarh modelling it on the Royal Society of England. This
society

held annual conferences and published and distributed scientific material in English and Urdu. Sir
Syed

knew that orthodox Muslim hostility to modern science and technology will come in the way of
socio-

economic improvement. He also gave rational interpretations of Islamic scriptures. Many orthodox

groups of that time declared him to be a ‘kafir’.

• According to him, modern education was the most important path for improvement in the
condition of

Indian Muslims.

• He called for the study of European science and technology. He pointed out that there was no

fundamental contradiction between Quran and Natural science.

• He founded Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in 1875 to educate Muslims

Criticism on Aligarh Movement:

• Many people were against the objectives of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.
• According to Akbar Allahabadi, a famous poet believed that Sir Syed had caused intellectual
and spiritual harm to the Indian Muslim community.
• He considered that Sir Syed's magazine could not reflect the light which shows the path of
reform but in his sense, it damages the men thousands men.
• Though initially a supporter of Hindu-Muslim unity, he became the pioneer of Muslim
nationalism in India and is widely credited as the father of the two-nation theory, which
formed the basis of the Pakistan movement.
• Sir Syed supported the East India Company during the 1857 uprising, a role which has been
criticised by some nationalists.
• Sir Syed's Aligarh Movement and his desire to open institutions for Western education was
opposed by the orthodox Indian Muslims.
• When the Indian National Congress was established in 1885, he did not express any opinion
about it but later he became an active critic of the organisation and expressed his active
opposition to the Congress.

Page 1 of 3 Turn Over