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Book review: Aligarh Muslim University huge impact on Indian Muslims

31st Mar 2022
Book review: Aligarh Muslim University huge impact on Indian Muslims

Bab-e-syed, the gateway to Aligarh Muslim University (Haris H Khan/WikkiCommons)

Aligarh Muslim University: The Making of the Modern Indian Muslims, by Mohammed Wajihuddin, Pages 219, Harper Collins, India. 2021. Paperback. £13.99

This book by a veteran Indian journalist and senior editor of The Times of India is a brief, comprehensive, and well-researched history of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and its impact on Indian Muslims.

Highlighting the purpose of the book, the author, himself an AMU alumnus, says that this book is ‘an attempt to understand how Sir Syed’s movement and his college, and then university, have impacted Indian Muslims.’

Commenting on AMU’s role and its impact on Indian Muslims, one of its famous alumni, who later became President of India, the late Dr Zakir Hussain, once said, ‘The way Aligarh participates in various walks of national life will determine the place of Muslims in India’s national life. The way India conducts itself towards Aligarh will determine, largely, the form which our national life will acquire in the future.’
While there is a long list of AMU alumni who have occupied high posts in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the fact that in 1965 two of its alumni-Dr Zakir Hussain (1897-1969) and Field Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan (1907-1974) were Presidents of India and Pakistan is enough to give an idea of its impact on the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent.

Wajihuddin takes great pains to counter Hindutva propaganda against AMU and its founder being anti-Hindu. He narrates an interesting incident. In contrast to the prevalent tradition in Bismillah (an education initiation) ceremonies, a Muslim child is made to sit on the lap of the elder member of the family.

However, in the Bismillah ceremony of his grandson, Ross Masood, he was placed on the lap of Sir Syed’s Hindu friend, Raja Jaikishan Das (1832-1905). On this occasion, Sir Syed made a speech and said: ‘My community is in dire straits, so I mostly speak about it, but I love other community members, just as I love my own people. When Ross Masood was born, Mr and Mrs Ross gave the newborn boy their name. He became Ross Masood. Raja Jaikishan Das is like my brother. Syed Mahmood calls him “Chacha”, or uncle, and Ross Masood calls him “DadaRaja”. I love my friends and do not discriminate.’

Wajihuddin, like all pre-1990s (when standards of this prestigious institution started falling) – who is pained by the decline of standards in AMU and the fading of the old image of AMU students. He writes: ‘The popular image of AMU boys and girls is fading. And the change is not merely sartorial. It is also the way AMU is perceived. For decades in the last century, AMU remained an epicentre of Muslim politics, a nerve centre of Indian Muslims’ intellectual life. It made or marred the “Muslim destiny” like no other institution.’

But despite this decline, argues Wajihuddin, ‘AMU remains a centre of intellectual life for Indian Muslims.’ He quotes Akhtarul Wasey, Professor Emeritus at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Delhi, President of Maulana Azad University and former Honorary Secretary of AMU Students Union, saying: ‘It is the largest hub of intellectuals in the Muslim world. Nowhere in the world will you find so many educated Muslim minds concentrated in one place.’

Wajihuddin does not stop at AMU’s history. He discusses the Indian media’s biassed and anti-Muslim tirade, Tableeghi Jamat, Jama’at-e-Islami, and the anti CAA movement launched by Jamia and AMU students, and warns that the danger of CAA is not gone, but the sword is still hanging on the heads of the Muslim community.

This is, without doubt, a very well-researched and well-argued book that anyone interested in Indian Muslim politics, the Aligarh Movement, the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan must-read.
With my very limited interaction with the author on some internet forums and social media, I am aware of his strong dislike for some pre-1947 and post-1947 Muslim politicians.

Yet he has maintained the highest level of objectivity and fairness towards them. However, when it comes to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, sadly, he fails to control his cool.

He is not someone who is not aware of the fact that AMU alumni are spread all over the world, including Pakistan. Their love for their alma mater is in no way less than Wajihuddin’s love for this historic institution.

He could have given vent to his uncontrollable hatred on any platform or in another book and should not have spoiled such good work. Unfortunately, to do this, he chooses a well-known apologist, the late Rafiq Zakaria, a writer and former Member of the Upper House of Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha, and the father of Indian American journalist Fareed Zakaria, and quotes extensively from his writings. To ridicule and character assassinate Jinnah, he quotes a joke in which Rafiq Zakaria appears.

By quoting him, Wajihuddin unwittingly berates and belittles a fearless and selfless personality like Maulana Hasrat Mohani. The fact is that Hasrat Mohani, like Mohammad Ali, was a frank person who would not hesitate for a moment to speak his mind. He would call a spade a spade.

This is, without doubt, a very well-researched and well-argued book that everyone interested in Indian Muslim politics, Aligarh Movement, the partition of India and specially the vice chancellors of AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia, must read.

M Ghazali Khan

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