SIR
SYED AHMED KHAN - MODERN HISTORY
News: Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s 125th birth
anniversary: His record on women’s rights
What's
in the news?
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Sir Syed Ahmed Khan is rightly lauded for
propagating modern education among Muslims and advocating several reforms for
the community. But he is also faulted for siding with the country’s colonial
rulers and doing little for women’s education.
Sir
Syed Ahmad Khan
Early
Life:
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Born on October 17, 1817, in Delhi to a
wealthy family that was close to the Mughal court.
Education
and career:
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He also received an honorary law degree
from the University of Edinburgh
later in life.
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He was a widely read person and studied
books on mathematics, medicine, Persian, Arabic, Urdu, etc.
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He worked as a civil servant, journalist,
educationist, social reformer and historian among others.
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He served the British administration
before the revolt of 1857.
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The 1857 revolt was one of the turning
points in Syed Ahmed’s life and he penned a pamphlet titled "The Causes of the Indian Revolt"
to explain the reasons of the revolt from a “native perspective”.
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He is regarded as one of the founders of the Two-Nation Theory which says that Hindus
and Muslims cannot be one nation.
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Sir Syed was knighted by the British in 1888.
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The British government bestowed upon him
the Order of the Star of India in 1869.
Death:
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He died on 27 March 1898 in Aligarh.
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The biography of Sir Syed, Hayat-e-Javed
(1901), was published three years after his death.
Role
as a Social Reformer:
Transformation
in the Education sector:
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Sir Syed is, first and foremost, known for
his pioneering role in transforming educational opportunities for Muslims.
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He realised that Muslims could only make
progress if they took to modern education. For this, he started the Aligarh movement.
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He established many educational institutes
to spread education, the most notable of which was the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (MAOC), which he founded in 1875.
This was later renamed Aligarh Muslim University.
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He also worked for democratic ideals and freedom of speech.
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He was against religious intolerance,
ignorance and irrationalism.
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He denounced
purdah, polygamy and easy divorce.
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He established the Aligarh Scientific Society, modeled after the Royal Society of
England. This society held annual conferences and published and distributed
scientific literature in both English and Urdu.
Critical
of National Movement:
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In his later years, Sir Syed encouraged
the Indian Muslims not to join the National Movement. He felt that education
and not politics was needed by them.
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He encouraged the forces of communalism
and separatism at this stage.
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He was nominated to the Viceroy’s Legislative Council in 1878.
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He supported Dadabhai Naoroji and
Surendranath Banerjee in obtaining representation for Indians in the government
and the civil services.
Writings:
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He has also written a paper titled “The
Causes of the Indian Revolt” to explain the reasons for the revolt from an
Indian perspective.
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Tahzebul
Akhlaq (Social Reformer in English), a magazine founded by
him, tried to awaken people’s consciousness on social and religious issues in
very expressive prose.
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The Aligarh
Institute Gazette, a magazine published by Sir Syed was an organ of the
Scientific Society.
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He wrote a profound booklet ‘Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind’ (Reasons for the
Indian Revolt of 1857) which cited British ignorance and aggressive
expansion policies as the chief causes of the revolt.
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He also advocated interfaith
understanding. He was also a scholar on Christianity and wrote a book, ‘Commentary on the Holy Bible.