Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

In Context

• Recently, a book on Sir Syed Ahmad Khan namely, “Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Reason, Religion and Nation” has been released by eminent scholar and critic Shafey Kidwai.
  • Also, 17th October 2021 marks his 204th birth anniversary.

About Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

• Early Life:
  • Born on October 17, 1817, in Delhi to a wealthy family that was close to the Mughal court.
  • Education and career:
    • 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.
    • He worked as a civil servant, journalist, educationist, social reformer and historian among others.
    • He served the British administration before the revolt of 1857.
    • 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”.
  • He is regarded as one of the founders of the Two-Nation Theory which says that Hindus and Muslims cannot be one nation.
  • Sir Syed was knighted by the British in 1888.
  • Death:
    • He died on 27 March 1898 in Aligarh.
• 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
  • Sir Syed is, first and foremost, known for his pioneering role in transforming educational opportunities for Muslims.
  • He realised that Muslims could only make progress if they took to modern education. For this, he started the Aligarh movement.
• He also worked for democratic ideals and freedom of speech.
• He was against religious intolerance, ignorance and irrationalism. 
• He denounced purdah, polygamy and easy divorce.

• Critical of National Movement

• 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.
• He encouraged the forces of communalism and separatism at this stage.
• He was nominated to the Viceroy’s Legislative Council in 1878. He supported Dadabhai Naoroji and Surendranath Banerjee in obtaining representation for Indians in the government and the civil services.

• Writings:
  • He has also written a paper titled “The Causes of the Indian Revolt” to explain the reasons for the revolt from an Indian perspective.
  • 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.
  • The Aligarh Institute Gazette, a magazine published by Sir Syed was an organ of the Scientific Society.
  • 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.
  • He also advocated interfaith understanding. He was also a scholar on Christianity and wrote a book, ‘Commentary on the Holy Bible.
  • 

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

      Source: Firstpost