Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

Ch:4
The Post-1857 War India and the Work of Sir Syed Ahmed
khan
Introduction:
 Respectable family, Delhi
 Career in the legal system, 1838:by hard work, became a judge, 1846
 Wrote Athar-al-sanadeed,1846
 1857, chief Judge, Bijnaur; saved lives of some European families;
refused a reward for that.
 Unpopular among some Muslims for loyalty towards British.
 Chief Justice in Muradabad, Ghazipore.
 1864, Aligarh; retired in 1876
 Dedicated to the Aligarh Movement/Muslim renaissance, till his
death 1898.

His Beliefs

 Worried on poor conditions of Muslims

 Deterioration since the days of Mughal decline, worsened with
the time
 Penalized by the British after the 1857, as most blame was put on
Muslims, were denied respectable jobs, other tough measures
also
 Muslims, too distanced themselves from the British, considering
them no more than invaders
 Sir Syed believed the Muslims

(i) should befriend the British, as they were the established rulers of
India

36
 (ii) Should acquire modern education in order to compete with
Hindus, & improve their socio- economic conditions by getting better
jobs

(iii) should not join politics, Hindus were organizing political activities
187’s onwards

Services/ Work of Sir Syed

1. Improving relations between Muslims & British

Details:

i. Convinced the British by :

 Writing books, articles, pamphlets e.g. “The Loyal Muhammadens
of India “(defended the loyalty of Muslims) ;Essays on the causes
of the Indians revolt “(analyses the mutiny : insufficient Indian
share in govt , forcible conversation of Indians , poor management
of army , Brit failure to understand Indian mindset); senior British
circles read all this; explained Muslims didn’t use it to insult the
Brit; it was derived from the Arabic word ‘’Nasir” (helper);
Muslims used the word in a positive, mot an insulting way.
ii. Convinced the Muslims
 Improved his image as a sincere Muslim by correcting errors in
the book of Sir Williams Muir about the Holy Prophet.
 Highlighted similarities b/w Islam & Christianity to bridge the gap
b/w Muslims & brit; wrote ‘’Tabayin al Kalam’’ (commentary on
the Bible) convinced the dining together with Christians was not
un-Islamic.
 Founded the “British Indian Association” to improve Anglo-
Muslim relations.
Results/Importance

 Efforts of Sir Syed would bear fruits later

37
 Success of Simla delegation; Sep electorates for Muslims, 1909
Act.

Educational Services:
Why / Reasons:
 Muslims not given modern Brit education
 Hindus began to excel by acquiring modern education; got
better jobs, & improved their image before the Brit, who
started using them to counter Muslims; by 1871, 711 Hindus
against only 92 Muslims in the govt service.
 Growth of Hindu revivalism (Hindu movement) with increasing
number of educated Hindus; they showed little respect
towards Muslims
Details :

 Told Muslims about the Quranic commands to acquire

knowledge.
 Issued “Tahzaid-ul-Akhlaq”, that published articles of Sir Syed
& other influential Muslims to bring about a positive
intellectual change among Muslims.
 1863, Scientific Society, Ghazipore; translation of modern
scientific writings into Urdu; 1859, a school in Muradabad;
1864, another school, Ghazipore.
 1869, visited England, observed Oxford & Cambridge –
dreamed similar institute for Indian Muslims
 On return, fund raising campaign: May 1875, MAO
(Muhammad Anglo Oriental) School, Aligarh; became MAO
College, 1876 & University, 1920; offered modern & Islamic
education.
 Acted as nursery for many important future leaders
 1886, Muhammaden Educational Conference (MEF), to
improve educational standard of Muslims


38
Results/importance:

 Gradual improvement of educational, social and economic status of

Muslims
 MAO collage became a breeding ground for Muslim leaders & MEF
served as platform for political activity of Muslims
 MIL was founded it its 20th session 1906.

Political Services:
i. INC Politics:
 1885 INC formed to convey views of Indians to British
 INC claimed to represent all Indians, regardless of
religion in reality, Hindu dominated party working for
Hindu Raj in India
 Sir Syed’s advice to Muslims to keep from politics of INC
 It could engage Muslims in agitational politics and
damage the relations with British
 INC demanded:
a) Joint electorates for council election along
democratic patterns of England
Sir Syed opposes this because of numeral majority
and better political organizations of Hindus
b) Completive examinations for the civil services in
India
Sir Syed opposes this because of visible
educational disparity between Hindus and
Muslims. Hindus might sweep all seats causing
further problems for Muslims,
c) 1867 Hindu demanded Hindi it be the official
language replacing Urdu; Sir Syed opposed to this

39
 because of Arabic/Persian scripts of Urdu and its
association with Muslims; Hindi reflected Hindu
aim of ruling India in future
To counter INC politics, he founded the United
Patriotic Alliance in 1893, it became The
Mohammaden Defense Alliance.

Importance/Results:

 Founder of Two Nation Theory

 Predicted the separation of Hindu and Muslins in the future, after the
1867 language controversy, and after the other demands of INC
 Two Nation Theory would gradually become valid and lay basis of
struggle for separate Muslim homeland – the Pakistan Movement.

40
41
Q. Why did Sir Syed try to improve relations between the Muslims and the British? [7]

Ans. Muslims became the target of the British anger and wrath after the
1857 war. Hindus had very cleverly put the blame on Muslims and it was
easier for the British to punish a minority. British had replaced Muslims as
the new rulers of India but Muslims still carried a sense of imperial pride
due to their glorious past. It was important for them to accept the
drastically changed scenario of India. He also tried to change the British
mind in favor of Muslims. For this he wrote two pamphlets: Essays on The
Causes Of Indian Revolt and Loyal Muhammadans of India.

Sir Syed knew that Muslims could hope for an improved socio-economic
status only by making friends with the British who had complete political
control of India. If Muslims distanced themselves from the British, they
would continue to remain a backward and poor community. By improving
relations with the British, Muslims had a better opportunity to get better
jobs.

Moreover Hindus had already started improving their relations with the
British because for them it was only a matter of changed rulers. They began
to acquire modern British education which most of the Muslims considered
un –Islamic. Sir Syed knew that this would cause a growing social and
economic disparity between Hindus and Muslims and this would bring
more troubles for the Muslims. He wanted Muslims to change their
orthodox views about the British and their modern education system.

Q. Why did Sir Syed advice Muslims to acquire modern British education?
[7]

ANS. British had replaced the old Indian education system by their modern
education in English . Sir Syed knew that all modern scientific research work
42
was in English, and therefore, English was going to dominate the world.
Unless the Muslims acquired modern British education, they could not get
better jobs, and therefore, could not hope for improving their socio-
economic condition. After the War they had been denied any respectable
post in India and this further added to their miseries.

Muslims also lagged behind Hindus in almost all walks of life as the latter
had already started equipping themselves with the modern education.
Hindus, therefore, were fast becoming prosperous , rich and advanced.
They were dominating the post-War India acting in a clever and wise way
by accepting the culture and customs of the new rulers. Muslims,
therefore, needed to compete with Hindus in order to ensure their survival
and dignity in India. Educated Muslims had a better chance of being in the
good books of the British who hardly trusted them.

Sir Syed also told Muslims that it was vital to get modern education if they
wanted to develop political awareness and insight. Though in the beginning
Sir Syed discouraged Muslims from participating in politics with the
emergence of the Hindu dominated INC and its pro-Hindu policies, he had
to change his views. Therefore, he wanted Muslims to beware of the clever
policies of the INC and realized that they too had to be political alert and
vibrant in the British India.

Q. Was the Two Nation Theory the most important contribution of Sir
Syed Ahmad Khan towards the welfare of Muslims? (14)

Ans: Sir Syed was a great reformer. His views about the possibility of the
parting of ways of Hindus and Muslims became known as the Two Nation
Theory. He opposed the Hindu demand of making Hindi as the official
language because by this demand the future Hindu aims of ruling India
became apparent. He also opposed two more demands of INC in the 1880s:
competitive examinations for the civil services and the joint electorate for
the elections of the legislative councils. He knew that Muslims, being less
educated and politically less organized, would not be able to compete with
the Hindus in the examinations and elections. He; therefore, advocated a
43
system of separate electorates for Muslims and a fixed quota for Muslims
in the competitive examinations. Sir Syed initially wanted cooperation
between Hindus and Muslims but his views soon changed when he realized
that the INC only claimed to represent all Indian communities where as in
reality it worked mainly for the Hindu interests.

Sir Syed also tried to create awareness among Muslims by convincing them
to accept the British as the new rulers of India and so, it was wise to make
friends with them. He highlighted the similarities between Islam and
Christianity by writing ‘Taba’yeen-al-Kalam’. In another book he proved
that it was not un-Islamic to dine with the Christians. He wrote a book in
response to Sir William Muir’s book ‘Life of Muhammad’ that contained
some objectionable remarks about the holy prophet.

While convincing Muslims sir Syed worked to convince British about

changing their stance regarding Muslims. He wrote two pamphlets shortly
after the war of independence. In ‘Essay on the Causes of Indian Revolt’ he
proved that Indians alone were not responsible for the revolt but British
too were to blame for their failure to understand the Indian mindset. In
‘Loyal Muhammadans of India’ he defended Muslims and proved that they
were as loyal to the British as any other community in India. He also
explained the word ‘Nadarath’ by proving it was an Anglicized form of the
Arabic word ‘Nasara’ (Christians) that was derived from the root word
‘Nasr’ (help) and thus proved that Muslims did not use the word in a
derogatory way.

Sir Syed’s educational work was also very important. He wanted to improve
social condition of Muslims and to create political awareness among them.
For this Muslims needed to acquire modern British education. He set up a
series of institutes, issued magazines and wrote books. In 1859, he opened
a school in Moradabad, another school in Ghazi pore in 1864 where he had
founded the Ghazi pore scientific society in 1863. In it modern Scientific
writings of the west were translated into Persian and Urdu. In 1866, he
issued the Aligarh Institute Gazette from Aligarh to encourage Muslims to

44
acquire modern education. He visited England in 1869, and decided to set
up an institute for Muslims after observing the Cambridge and Oxford
Universities. In 1875, he set up the MAO College, Aligarh where both
western and local education were imparted. This institute produced many
prominent leaders like Liaqat Ali Khan and several workers of the Pakistan
Movement. In 1886, Muhammadan Educational Conference was
established in order to launch a campaign for raising educational standard
Muslims. It held regular meetings in several cities. Articles for the purpose
were published in the journal “Tahzeeb – ul –Akhlaq”.

If viewed objectively, it may be concluded that Sir Syed’s Two Nation

Theory was his most important service as it laid the bases of Muslim
Nationalism that eventually evolved into the Pakistan Movement in the
1940s. ML launched this movement on the ground of inherent differences
between Hindus and Muslims that had been predicted by Sir Syed.

45