The Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College was founded in 1877 as one of India’s earliest residential educational institutions. It was affiliated first with the University of Calcutta and then with the University of Allahabad. By 1920 the college had grown and expanded into the Aligarh Muslim University | Dawn file photo
Consequently, Sir Syed emphasised a new education of the Word (ilm-ul-kalaam). He opened educational institutions and schools, but — in what could be considered a flaw — kept Cambridge and Oxford as his models and gave the leadership of his institutions to the British. As a result, his policy for educational institutions was limited to being openly patronising of the British, which was undoubtedly a great defect in his scheme. But all this was part of his political thought.
The second major flaw in Sir Syed’s educational scheme was that he did not pay attention to the teaching of industry, handicrafts and technology, although a nation cannot progress economically without technical education. Until the 1930s and 1940s there was no arrangement at Aligarh for the teaching of technology, engineering and medicine.
Even so, Sir Syed’s role in our cultural and intellectual history has been undeniably unique. As for him being a British loyalist, that objection
is not really significant anymore because he turned our intellectual current towards scientific thought, liberating us from a worship of superstition and religious preconceptions. His personality and intellectual steadfastness drew groups of enlightened people round him — even today we refer to them as the Sir Syed School. The man proved to be much more than an individual; he was a movement unto himself.
OPPOSITION
It has been observed above that Sir Syed was politically conservative and socially progressive. But the movement he started also had both political and social effects that led to reactions both against and in favour of the former. In the literary domain there was a notable reaction against him, for example, from the Lucknow school that included Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar and Munshi Sajjad Hussain and which supported old values. The whole Awadh Punch group disfavoured him and his comrades. Some detractors composed poems calling him a new prophet of naturism: “He [Sir Syed] is the messenger of ‘natural religion’/ This natural religion was indeed ‘revealed’ to him/ He alone knows the secrets of the Book, because/ All the esoteric knowledge has been vouchsafed to him/ The evidence of his prophethood is visible to all/ It is visible in the pages of his Tahzeeb-ul-Akhlaq.”
Other notable opponents were the distinguished Pan-Islamist thinker and activist Jamaluddin Afghani and the eminent humorous Urdu poet Akbar Allahabadi. According to Allahabadi: “What our respected Syed says is good/ Akbar agrees that it is sound and fair/ But most of those who head this modern school/ Neither believe in God, nor yet in prayer/ They say they do, but it is plain to see/ What they believe in is the powers that be.”
One of Sir Syed’s disciples, Deputy Nazeer Ahmad, bitterly satirised his mentor in the novel Ibn-ul-Waqt [The Opportunist]. Another disciple, Shibli Nomani, abandoned his mentor and founded another institution, the Dar-ul-Uloom Nadwa. Much was written against Hali’s Muqqadima-i- Sher-o-Shairi that, “it is trampled like the field of Panipat.”
Writers and poets split into two distinct groups, one favouring enlightened, progressive thought while the other favoured obscurantist and past-worshipping ideas. As the noted Urdu poet Ehsan Danish observed in his tribute, Sir Syed Ki Ruh Se [To Sir Syed’s Spirit]: “What was lit by the sparks within your chest/ That secretly burning fire could not grow cold until now/ Your foresight has granted lamps to the future/ Despite which the air is polluted by the smoke of the past until now.”
**All translations from the original Urdu are by Raza Naeem*
The writer is president of the Progressive Writers Association in Lahore, a social scientist, book critic and award-winning translator and dramatic reader
Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, October 15th, 2017