Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

Sir Walid Fulara

Who:
● He was born in Delhi in 1817 to a wealthy family which took great care to ensure that he
received a high-quality education

○ By the age of 18, he was skilled in Arabic, Persian, Mathematics and Medicine. He
loved Literature.

● In 1838, his father died, due to which he had to find a job

○ He joined the East India Company as a clerk in 1838

○ In 1841, he was made a Munshi

○ In 1858, he was made the Chief Judge of Muradabad

○ In 1876, he retired, following which he focused on the Aligarh Movement

● He was a famous author, writing books and essays such as:

○ Athar al Sanadeed, a book on archaeology, in 1847

● When the WoI broke out in 1857, he was a chief judge who saved the lives of many women
and children during the fighting

○ For this, he was offered an estate, which he refused to accept

● He passed away in 1898 of old age

Overall Assessment:
Beliefs (general):
● The poor status of Muslims was because they were treated as second-class citizens by the
British and Hindus

● The Muslim community had to accept that the British were their new rulers

○ Muslim position could be improved if they adopted a more positive approach

towards the British. Otherwise, the Hindus would continue prospering and they
would continue declining

● He wanted to see an improvement in the Muslims’ economic, social, political and religious
fortunes
 ● The political awareness of Muslims had to be raised in order to make them aware of their
threat to their position from the Hindu’s cooperative approach to the British

Aligarh Movement:
● Started by Sir Syed

○ This movement consists of his social and educational contributions for Muslims in
the subcontinent, many of which were based in Aligarh

● Included in this movement are:

○ The establishment of the MAO College

○ The Scientific Society at Ghazipore, which translated scientific texts into Urdu

○ And his other educational efforts

Aims:
● Improve relations between the Muslims and British by removing British doubts about
Muslim loyalty and Muslim doubts about British intentions

● Improve the social and economic position of the Muslims by encouraging them to receive
Western education and take up posts in civil service and army

● Increase the political awareness of Muslims in order to make them aware of the threat to
their position from the Hindus and their policy of cooperation

Importance:
● He worked tirelessly to restore relations with the British, particularly after the WoI when
they were convinced that Muslims were not trustworthy.

○ His writings helped change their view of Muslims and reduce their doubts of Muslim
loyalty.

● He played a major role in bringing about a Muslim revival.

○ Because of the Aligarh Movement, Muslims came to value education and developed
a greater feeling of self-worth

○ The educational institutes he set up taught many future Muslim leaders such as
Liaquat Ali Khan

● As Hindus were working to take advantage of Muslim’s bad relations with the British, he
presented the Two-Nation Theory and argued against the INC in order to emphasise the
threat of their rhetoric to Muslims.

○ This led to increased political awareness amongst Muslims

○ This is why Sir Syed can be called ‘The Father of the Pakistan Movement’
Clearance of Misunderstandings:
Why did Sir Syed try to remove the misunderstandings between Muslims and British?:
Improvement of Muslims:
● He believed that in order for Muslims to advance, they needed to repair their relations with
the British and accept:

○ The Western education being offered

○ Accept jobs in the civil service under the British government

● If this was not done, they would lag behind, watching Hindus advance while they suffered

War of Independence:
● Muslims were not guilty for the WoI and thus were being wrongly prosecuted

● Instead, he believed the British government’s actions instigated. This view was presented in
his pamphlet “The Causes of the Indian Revolt”, which highlighted:

○ The lack of representation of Muslims in government posts

○ The mismanagement of the Indian army

○ Forcible conversions to Christianity

Religious Differences:
● He believed that Muslims and Christians misunderstood each other’s religion, which was a
cause of hostility

○ He tried to clarify this by explaining the nature of Islam and Christianity and how the
two religions weren’t as far apart as presented

● He also wanted to do away with the belief that the British were foreign invaders who
wanted to convert everyone to Christianity

How did he try to improve relations between Muslims and British?:

● He wrote the Loyal Muhammadans of India, which highlighted the efforts some Muslims
made to save British lives

Explanation of the word ‘nadarath’:

● The Muslims referred to the British with this term, which the British took as an insult

○ He said that it came from the Arabic word ‘nasir’, which meant ‘helper/benefactor’

■ It actually probably came from Persian, the meaning being 'unavailable' as

the British were unavailable for help. However, as this is Pak Studies, we
ignore this
War of Independence:
● He penned a pamphlet ‘Asbab-e-Baghwat-e-Hind’ (Essay on the Causes of the Indian Revolt
which shifted the blame of the revolt from Muslims to British mismanagement. As said
before, it highlighted:

○ The lack of representation of Muslims in government posts

○ The mismanagement of the Indian army

○ Forcible conversions to Christianity

● This pamphlet converted to English and distributed in the British parliament, where it was
highly read

○ While some took it as an insult, it was certainly kept in mind during the making of
future policies

● He also wrote ‘The Loyal Mohammadens of India’ in 1859

○ This highlighted Muslim efforts to aid British women and children during the War of
Independence

Religious Reconciliation:
● Christian Attitude to Muslims:

○ He defended Muslims in his essay ‘Loyal Mohammedans on India’

■ In this, he was angered by British disrespect to Indians and suggested that

they should be consulted during the making of policies

○ He wrote essays on the Prophet to clarify misconceptions the British had and
accusation that he was a warmonger etc.

■ This was catalyzed by his reading of a negative account of the Prophet’s life
a fellow scholar wrote - “The Life of Muhammad” by Sir William Muir

● Muslim Attitude to Christians:

○ He wrote a book (Tabyin ul Kalam) in which he pointed out the similarities between
Christianity and Islam

○ He wrote “Ahkam-e-taam-e-Ahle-Kitab:, in which he told Muslim ulemas that it was

fine to have their lives adjusted educationally and socially by other followers of the
book (Christians)

● He established the British Indian Association to increase cooperation between the two
parties
Educational Status of Muslims
Why did Sir Syed try to improve the educational status of Muslims?:
Position of Muslims
● He believed Muslims needed proper access to modern research in order to prosper

○ This is why he founded a translation society

○ He also established a Muslim school in order to teach them

● This was necessary to have capable future leaders and for the general status of Muslims in
society

Competition with Hindus:

● He didn't want to see the Hindus progressing in every field through acceptance of western
education, instead he wanted the Muslims to compete with them

○ If Muslims remained uneducated, they would never prosper. He knew that with
education came political, social and cultural reforms that would solve their
problems.

Relations with the British:

● He wanted to improve Muslim relations with the British, which had been soured by the War
of Independence

● By gaining Western education, Muslims could prove themselves politically, thus removing
misconceptions about themselves

How did Sir Syed improve the educational status of Muslims?:

Promotion of Education:
● He set up the Tahzib ul Akhlaq

○ This contained articles from prominent scholars which emphasized the importance
of education.

○ It played an important part in bringing about an intellectual revolution amongst

Muslim thinkers

● He created the Mohammedan Education Conference in 1886

○ Its aim was to raise education standards amongst Muslims

○ It had many committees and sub-committees across the nation and played a major
role in establishing a political platform for Muslims in the days before the Muslim
League.
 ○ This centralized educational sources so that now, Muslim all over India could avail
them even if they didn’t have access to the schools he set up

Access to Research:
● In 1863, Sir Syed founded the Scientific Society at Ghazipore. It converted scientific writings
from English, Arabic and Persians into Urdu, thus making them more accessible to Muslims

● He also taught English in his schools so Muslims could read books directly from the source

Opening of Schools:
● Opened two schools:

○ One in Ghazipore in 1864

○ One in Muradabad in 1859

● In 1875, he opened the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental School in Aligarh. It was later changed
to the MAO College in 18777 and the Aligarh University in 1930.

○ This college offered both Western and Indian education, though Islamic education
was also provided.

○ It was set up on the English public school system which he observed during his
travels to the nation

○ It became much more than an educational revolution; it became a symbol of Muslim

unity that produced many of the future leaders of Pakistan

Political Services:
Why did Sir Syed try to improve the political status of Muslims in the subcontinent?
Democracy:
● He believed that a traditional democracy would not work in India as Muslims would not have
enough representation and thus would continually be oppressed

○ Thus, reserved seats for Muslims which were filled via separate electorates were
needed

Participation:
● Muslims should protect their interests and counter INC propaganda by participating in
politics themselves

○ They should do this in Muslim parties which would not manipulate them to anti-
Muslim causes
Two-Nation Theory:
● He was the first person to present the Two-Nation Theory, which suggested that Muslims
and Hindus were two different nations living in one country

○ Due to this, they should be treated differently

How did Sir Syed try to Improve the political status of Muslims:
Two Nation Theory:
● At first, he thought that everyone living in India was Indian and that Urdu was their language

● However, after the Hindi-Urdu controversy in 1867, in which Hindu organizations protested
that instead of Urdu, Hindi should be the national language, his opinion changed

○ They disliked Urdu because it was established during the time of the Mughals and
thus associated it with that empire.

● Due to this, he realized that in reality, there were two different nations living in one country
and should, therefore, be treated differently.

○ He discussed this idea for the first time in 1868 with Lord Shakespeare

● He also started defending Urdu literature, founding ‘Anjuman-e-Tariki-e-Urdu’, which

worked for the protection of Urdu

INC:
He countered the growing influence of the INC

● When Congress was formed, it originally was supposed to represent the views of all
communities in India.

○ However, it soon became apparent that it was a Hindu-dominated body working to

establish Hindu superiority

● This party asked for democracy.

○ Sir Syed opposed because there were four times as many Hindus as there were
Muslims and they would thus win every election, with Muslims having no
representation at all

● They also asked for competitive examinations for appointment in the government office.

○ This would not work because Muslims were generally uneducated and would thus
have an unfair disadvantage, so he asked for seats to be reserved until the Muslims
got sufficient education

United Patriotic Alliance:

● He created the United Patriotic Alliance

● He encouraged Muslims to join this instead of Congress.

○ He believed that if they joined the Congress they would take advantage of them due
to their lack of education