‘Nakhoda Mosque,’ Calcutta, 1944, photograph by Glenn S Hensley. Photograph Courtesy: Hensley Photo Library, University of Chicago, The Digital South Asia Library. Chapter 5 THE CITY OF COLLEGES: THE BENGALI-MUSLIM1 IN COLONIAL CALCUTTA

Sipra Mukherjee

A hint of an education and next he’ll be suffixing a ‘Khan Sahib’ or prefixing a ‘Syed’ to his name. Mohammad Yaqub Ali, Jater Barai.2

Calcutta has, for the past hundred years or more, been looked upon as the city to which thousands have travelled for education and employment. The founding of the Calcutta Madrassa (later Alia Madrassa) in October 1780 and the Calcutta University on 24 January 1857 by Warren Hastings, by the incorporation of an Act of the Legislative Council, established Calcutta as the centre of education in the east. These institutes of higher education attracted students from all over Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Orissa and many other states. Education, in the changed context of the post- Mutiny period, was the route through which many discovered the tools to create a new, and more desirable, identity. It was the key of access to employment, and thence to privileges that had been till then closed to many. With its numerous schools and colleges set up by either the Christian missionaries3 or the native wealthy landlords and later the government, with its mercantile promise and its colonial institutions of power, ‘no other Indian city dominated its hinterland as completely as Kolkata dominated Bengal’.4 People from the far-flung rural regions of Bengal journeyed to this distant centre of power, braving the terror of thugs and enduring the lack of proper inns along the way, the extremes of weather, the discomforts of transport. With a letter of recommendation from a distant relative or influential friend, he trekked, hiked and rode his way to Calcutta. This essay looks at the function of the city in shaping the education of the Bengali-Muslim around the beginning of the twentieth century. It attempts to trace how the city attracted hundreds from , brought them 112 Calcutta Mosaic geographically nearer to the centres of political power, gave them access to the printing presses and publishing houses of North Calcutta, and enabled them to establish their identity as Bengali and Muslim, simultaneously. Though it is the babu, the middle class, upper caste Hindu bhadralok, who is the most commonly associated figure with nineteenth century Calcutta, the Bengali-Muslim population resident in Calcutta was not negligible. In the 1830s, the Bengali-Muslims ‘numbered about 45,000 – one-third of the city’s total Bengali Hindu population’.5 This aggregate, however, did little to enhance the position of the Muslim community at large, since the majority of this population was poor and belonged to the labouring class. Yet, a small though influential ashraf 6 Muslim society did exist within the city of Calcutta. According to the 1872 census, 20 per cent of Calcutta’s population was Muslim.7 As Debasis Bose writes, by 1856, there were at least 28 thoroughfares in Calcutta named after Muslims.8 However, unfortunately he says, the linguistic identity of these stalwarts has not been ascertained. This was particularly difficult within the precincts of the city because within a generation or so of residing in Calcutta, the Muslim would adopt the Urdu culture completely. Most Muslims, whatever their ethnic origin, aspired to the culture of the upper ashraf class who were Urdu-speaking and more North Indian than Bengali in their cultural orientation. Despite this, among the many influentials whose social positions are corroborated by the street names, were two Bengali-Muslims recognizable by their titles, Noor Muhammad Sarkar and Sooker Sarkar. Though most Bengali-Muslims were engaged in family occupations like tailoring, selling fruits and vegetables, working as cooks in rich Bengali households or driving carriages,9 there were also the hakims, the maulvis, the munshis and the vakils. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a self-conscious and educated Bengali-Muslim middle class began to form within the city. The changes that were to be wrought in the system of public education over the coming decades of the 1900s were largely due to the efforts of this community.

The Bengali-Muslims and the Ashrafs Though the Bengali-Muslims were lesser privileged, considered socially inferior, and keen to imitate the Urdu-speaking ashraf, the twentieth century saw a transformation in their character and stance – a change that was gradually revealed in the increasing role they played in the planning, controlling and imparting of education – a sphere that grew intensely political from around this time. Following the Islamization of the Bengal Muslim community that occurred in the latter half of the nineteenth The City of Colleges 113 century, it often became impossible to distinguish the Urdu-speaking Muslims from the originally-Bengali-but-now-Urdu-speaking Muslims of Bengal. Both their personal and family names show signs of Arabicization.10 Abdul Karim describes how school registers were often used as the instrument for recording this change of surname.11 Many among the Bengali-Muslims adopted the Urdu culture of the ashrafs and preferred Urdu as the medium of instruction for their children.12 The Islamization encouraged Muslims to view Bengali with ‘contempt and perhaps disgust’ and consider Urdu the ‘language of their jat’.13 This distaste for Bengali was aggravated by the fact that the Bengali language itself, with its Sanskritized words, was viewed as being peculiarly Hindu. The belief that adopting the Islamic languages would grant them an easier entry into the ashraf circles prompted many who used Bengali at home to embrace the Urdu culture. Some of the Muslim families who came to Calcutta were originally distant relatives of the royal families of East Bengal. But there was a larger number which, though belonging to the ashraf class, did not belong to the Urdu-speaking community. However, since a vertical movement through the class structure was possible in the Muslim community, unlike the more rigid caste-bound society of the Hindus, many families ‘rose’ to the Urdu-speaking class either through prosperity or marriage. The Report of the Muslim Female Education in the Metropolitan City of Calcutta writes: ‘Although Bengali was the language of the district population, yet it was found, that Bengali-Muslims settled in the metropolis became bilingual and eventually adopted Urdu within a few generations.’14 It was thus almost impossible to differentiate the Bengali-Muslims from those whose mother tongue was Urdu. This inclination of the Muslims of Bengal to be counted among the Urdu-speaking population was a consequence of the belief in the ‘basic contradiction between Bengali and Muslim identities’ and this ‘appears to have been accepted by all Bengali- Muslims, Bengali-Hindus and even the British’.15 When The Mahomedan Observer wrote, ‘The Bengalis have at last succeeded in extorting a firman against cow-killing from the ruler of Bengal’,16 the writer was equating the Bengali with the Hindu. Thus, the findings of the 1911 census of the city of Calcutta which showed an abnormal increase over 1901 in the number of Urdu-speakers within the city and its suburbs, was attributed to ‘the attitude taken up by a large number of Mussalmans with regard to their language. They insisted that they spoke Urdu and were strongly averse to the entry of Hindi, considering that the former meant the language of the Mussalmans and the latter the language of Hindus, though as a matter of fact, in a large number of cases, neither community spoke either Hindi or Urdu, but Bihari.’17 114 Calcutta Mosaic

Table 1: Distribution of Linguistic Groups in Calcutta and its Suburbs in the Years 1901 and 1911 Language 1901 1911 Bengali 494,420 512,579 Hindi 353,786 365,339 Urdu 27,627 70,558 English 28,979 28,430 Source: Census of India, 191118 The ratio of the Hindu–Muslim population in the city began to change rapidly with the Muslim community gradually awakening to the needs of English education. The inflow of Bengali-Muslim students into Calcutta increased, and with this also changed the ratio of the Urdu–Bengali speakers within the Muslim community itself. Despite the quotient of glamour that the Urdu ashraf culture carried, Bengali students were finding it difficult to master the increased number of ‘new’ languages that the syllabus demanded. In 1902, the Bengali-Muslim periodical Islam Pracharak writes that the load was unusually heavy on a Bengali-Muslim boy because as a Muslim he would have to learn Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Bengali and English: ‘While the Hindus have to learn only two or three languages, the Bengali- Muslims have to master five...’ and therefore, ‘many are now abandoning three of our traditional languages (Urdu, Persian and Arabic) and preferring to educate their children in only Bengali and English to prepare them for the world’.19 Though most Bengali-Muslims accepted the superiority of the Urdu culture, the practical difficulties involved in learning a syllabus of such huge proportions sometimes discouraged students. The desire to see one’s child grow up as a ‘good Muslim’ (acquainted with Arabic to ‘read the Quran correctly’, with Persian so as to be well versed in national culture and etiquette, and with Urdu so as to be able to ‘converse with urban, aristocratic Muslim’20 ) was therefore tempered by the realization that emphasis on Islamic languages would greatly increase the burden and impede the advancement of general education.

Dynamics within the Community There was a difference within the Bengali-Muslim community in their attitudes towards the available education. The rural ashraf, especially those who were relatively prosperous, preferred an education that gave emphasis on religion and Persian culture. In 1869, for example, more than three- quarters of the students of the Arabic department of the Calcutta Madrassa were children of petty landholders, talukdars, munsiffs, kazis and munshis, who came mostly from the districts of East Bengal. They continued to view education as a consecrated privilege, leading to pure knowledge, The City of Colleges 115 rather than as a secular means of learning. Rafiuddin Ahmed writes that the ‘weakness for the Islamic languages’ had always been present in the countryside.21 The Bengali writer Rajsekhar Basu or ‘Parashuram’ satirizes this fondness in the character of Maulvi Bachhuiruddi: He, Bachhiruddi, was no ordinary mortal. He was an aristocrat of noble lineage. Mughal blood flowed in his veins. Though people called him Bachhiruddi, his true name was Medram Khan. His father’s name was Jahabaaz Khan, his grandfather’s name was [...] their original home was not in Faridpur, but in the Arab lands, – what is called Turkey. There everybody wore lungis and spoke Urdu...22 The urban and suburban families of somewhat better means, however, were attracted to the more secular education and the English classes.23 The popular image of the culturally rich, sharif Muslim was built on the urban, aristocratic, Urdu-speaking Muslim. In reality though, under the pressures of the new economy, the urban Muslim was fast changing. Many of the Muslim Government officials and members of the Bar had left the city of Calcutta subsequent to the abolition of Persian as the Court language.24 The status of the Madrassa Alia had declined and Mr Chapman, the Acting Principal of Calcutta Madrassa observed that though ‘the Arabic department’s roll strength had increased and the syllabus standardized, yet its popularity had eroded a good deal...’25 In 1853, there was even a proposal (that was finally rejected) to close down the Madrassa. In 1882, Syed Amir Ali, speaking before the Craft Commission asserted that from 1860–1870, Muslim education had deteriorated and that Arabic and Persian departments were no longer attracting students: ‘In 1855 the number of students offering Arabic and Persian was 150 to 200; in 1860 it dropped to 30 only; in 1868 there were 10 or 15 students reading Persian in the Anglo-Bengali Dept of Hooghly Madrassa.’26 This was after reforms of a relatively radical nature had been carried out in 1853. These changes were in accordance with the suggestions of a Committee formed after agitation by the Calcutta Madrassa students in 1851. The enquiry committee which submitted its report on 4 August 1853, recorded that besides the Arabic Department and the English Department of the Madrassa, an Anglo-Arabic department had also been functioning since 1849. It recommended that these departments be closed and an Anglo-Persian Department, with sufficiently qualified teachers, be opened.27 It was also recorded that many among the Muslim ashraf preferred to send their wards to St Paul’s School or the Parental Academy where the syllabus was more ‘modern’. Students, after completing the 116 Calcutta Mosaic

Madrassa education, also sought admission in the Metropolitan College at Lower Chitpore Road.28 The explanation offered was that: ‘Though their urge for English education is not as intense as that of the Hindus, yet the Muslim intelligentsia and the gentry of the society are fully alive to its utility, and this awakening is to be exploited in the proper way.’29 This was the beginning of a new development, entirely different from the situation twenty years back when, between 1826 and 1851, Abdul Lateef and Wahidun Nubee had been the only two junior scholars to be produced from the English class of the Calcutta Madrassa at a cost of Rs 103,794. The class had been a complete failure. Discipline was unsatisfactory and at least two of the staff, an Arabic professor and the English Librarian, were reported practising as hakims in the city during their class hours.30 Regarding the question of female education, both Bengali- and Urdu- speaking Muslims remained conservative in thinking. An interesting incident, which revealed the cautious approach of liberal leaders, occurred at a meeting of the Bengal Social Science Association in Calcutta, where Abdul Lateef was reading a paper on Muslim education: In the discussion which ensued at the meeting, Peary Chand Mitra enquired if similar efforts at female education were underway in the Muslim community as in the Hindu. The reply came from Maulvi Abdul Hakim of the Calcutta Madrassa. He said that the scriptures had ordained education for both boys and girls and to this end many Muslim women were renowned throughout history for their learning. But such education was imparted within the home. It was unthinkable that Muslim girls following the example set by girls in other communities, should go outside the home for education, violating the ‘purda’ enjoined in religion. Abdul Lateef did not say anything.31 Consequent to more debates and developments regarding the Calcutta Madrassa, a Managing Committee was constituted in 1871 for the Calcutta and Hooghly Madrassas.32 This Committee proposed that the Arabic branch of the Madrassa be called Anglo-Arabic Department, among other significant changes. This development however, does not appear to have been appreciated by all the Bengali-Muslims and Mujibur Rahman, referring to the reforms, writes: It appears that the spirit that guided the committee to thrash out the deliberations was aimed at abolishing the classical way of teaching Arabic and Persian, and paved the way for a full-fledged institution to impart education on English pattern [...] this was the view of those who were dressed with western ideas. But the Muslim masses of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa (which constituted Bengal in those days) were rightly of opinion that Islamic The City of Colleges 117

culture and learning would enormously suffer [...] The committee knew the mind and general feeling of the Muslim masses, hence they did not dare denounce the utility of the classical learning...33 Neither were the ashraf Muslims of Calcutta unanimous in their stance regarding the preferred system of teaching. In 1882, in his observations to the High Power Commission for Education, Nawab Khan Bahadur said: ‘That in regard to Islamic culture and religious knowledge, it is essential to learn Persian and Urdu without which a man cannot maintain his position in Muslim society. If possible he must learn Arabic as well which is indispensable for performing religious duties and functions.’ Caught in the centre of these conflicting needs was the Calcutta Madrassa. The relevance of this institution as a centre of study had been rapidly diminishing. As Sir Syed Ahmed said in 1882, the institution ‘neither imparts English education of an accepted standard, nor makes that education compulsory, and the result has been that some three hundred of the Muhammadan scholars reading in it have remained destitute of English education’.34 In 1884, based on the findings of the 1882 Education Commission, the Madrassa students were allowed to attend classes at any Calcutta college, public or private, on a payment of one-third the usual fee, the balance being met by the Mohsin Fund.35 In 1887, the college department of the Madrassa was merged with the Presidency College, the arrangement being that Muslims would pay the same fees as at the Calcutta Madrassa and 35 seats would be reserved for them. In addition, 20 places would be reserved for Muslims in the Hooghly Branch School, 50 in Nawab Bahadur Zilla School, 51 in Krishnanagar Collegiate School, 62 in Jessore Zilla School, 30 in Collegiate School, 50 in Rajshahi Collegiate School, and 10 in Darjeeling High School.36 This opportunity was extensively used by the students, thus confirming the need felt by the Muslims for a ‘modern’ education. ‘As a consequence the number of Madrassa students in the Madrassa college classes never exceeded twenty – and in 1888 it was proposed to close these classes.’37

The Bengali Initiative The move to make Persian and Arabic optional would come much later when the burden of the many languages on the Bengali-Muslim student was formally acknowledged by the Report of the Committee on Muslim Education in 1915.38 In a near echo of the 1902 Islam Pracharak, the Report said that the burden of five languages was unfair to the Bengali-Muslim and decided that, besides Bengali and English, the learning of Urdu, Persian and Arabic would no longer be compulsory. A deputation of Muslims 118 Calcutta Mosaic submitted a memorandum to the Calcutta University from the ‘Muslims of Calcutta’, signed among others by Fazlul Haq, Maulvi Abdul Karim and Abdur Rahman, and observed that: Though we cannot drop the study of any of the five languages, it is not necessary for every individual boy to study all of them. The Muhammadan boy whose mother tongue is Bengali should receive his primary education in Bengali and should study a classical language, Arabic, Persian or Urdu...39 Some years earlier, in 1908, the Earl Committee in its meeting had commented: Urdu had been accepted to be the mother tongue of the Muslims of Bihar, Chotanagpur, and Orissa.40 In Presidency and Burdwan Divisions of Bengal, the mother tongue of the Muslims is Bengali, but in certain parts of Bengal, as for e.g. Calcutta, Murshidabad and Hooghly they speak Urdu. Therefore at these places, Urdu should be the medium of instruction as is current in Madrassa Alia and its Anglo-Persian Department.41 This formal policy of 1915 was the consequence of years of canvassing, continued through the pages of a number of Bengali-Muslim periodicals, printed in the city. Educated Bengali-Muslims gathered together, and debated whether the effects of ‘modernization’ could be termed Islamic or not. They wrote innumerable articles on the need for education and the consequences of the education system in periodicals which were published from the city’s Baithak Khana Road, Collins Street, the ‘Sealdah Palli’,42 the Colinga Mohalla and the Kareya area. These Calcutta periodicals were the Samachar Sabharajendra (begun in 1831), Jagaduddipak Bhaskar (begun in 1846), Muhammadi Akbar (begun in 1877), Mussalman Bandhu (begun in 1885), Naba Sudhakar (begun in 1886), Sudhakar (begun in 1889), Mihir o Sudhakar (begun in 1895), Naba Nur (begun in 1903), Moslem Hitaishi (begun in 1911) and Kohinur (begun in Kustiya in 1898, but continued in Calcutta from 1911). The first of these periodicals, the Samachar Sabharajendra, was in Bengali as well as Farsi, and the second, the Jagaduddipak Bhaskar, carried writings in Urdu, Farsi, Bengali, Hindi and English. The first entirely Bengali-Muslim periodical was Mir Musharraf Hussain’s Azizun Nehar, published from Chinsurah. The ‘Sudhakar group’ of writers drew the attention of the contemporary literary world as Bengali-Muslim writers who used pure Bengali without any trace of the ‘Mussalmani Bangla’ in their writings. (Their use of pure Bengali, however is even more interesting because they were using the language for a communal purpose. Anxious at the conversions to Christianity that The City of Colleges 119 were taking place among Muslims dissatisfied with their language and religion – two significant markers of identity – the ‘Sudhakar group’ were determined to liberate the moral and intellectual life of their community.) The use of the Bengali language in these periodicals frequently drew remarks of censure or praise from the contemporary Hindu Bengali periodicals. The following comment, quoted in the Bengali-Muslim periodical Mihir (1892) is taken from the contemporary Bengali Hindu paper, Samay: Even a few days ago, the Mussalmani Bangla was unreadable to the Hindus; but with the progress of education, the difference in writing between the Hindus and Mussalmans is fast disappearing. The Mussalmans are writing pure Bangla like the Sanskrit-learned scholars of the Hindus. This is a subject of pride for the land of Bengal.43 It also quotes the Hitakari who writes of Mihir: ‘Grace and lucidity of language is the unique feature of this periodical. In reality, this feature may be found in quite a few Mussalman-written newspapers and journals these days.’44 The Muslim periodical Pracharak had quoted the Hindu periodical Samay: ‘In many essays, if the name of the author is not specified, it is not possible to imagine that the writing flows from the pen of a writer who is of a different religion or different language.’45 Quoted without any apparent feelings of indignation at the openly patronizing tone, this may suggest that such reviews were appreciated by the Bengali-Muslims and that the literary world of the Bengali language was rapidly becoming one which the Bengali-Muslim wanted to claim as his own. Education in Bengali, however, introduced other difficulties. The President of the Rangpur Association, Khan Abdul Majid Chowdhury writes that ‘the Muhammadan parents also do not like to educate their children in Bengali only, as the language is full of Hindu polytheistic ideas and thoughts, and tends to denationalise their youths.’46 Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury,47 in his speech at the Muhammadan Educational Conference held in Calcutta emphasized that an increasing number of Muslim boys were attending ‘the Vernacular schools and that Muhammadans now speak Bengali more correctly than before.’48 When he published this speech, he appended to it an Appendix of 49 pages. In this, he described with excerpts from the question papers and text books the difficulties that the general syllabus posed for the Muhammadan boys: ‘A specimen question illustrative of the fact that in the vernacular School Exam all students, including Mussalmans and Hindus, are generally required to have a thorough consequence with Hindu mythology: 120 Calcutta Mosaic

1895 – Question: Why Bishnupriya Rama (woman who loved Bishnu) lived at the bottom of the sea? History of India by Kishto Chandra Roy – p. 17 – According to the Muhammadan scripture, the Koran, it is not a sin but an act of piety to use force in the propagation of religion. Kabita Sangraha by Ishwar Gupta: Bara sab dhere dhere, chhagal dere, Nere paane ruke, chore ghaare, Koshe dao haare haare thuke. (They are all like big beasts, goat-bearded, Ride on the necks of these shaven-headed And, in full anger, lash them and beat them bone by bone.)49 Nawab Ali Chowdhury’s translation may not be perfect, but the general prejudice inherent in the quoted passages is quite clear.’

The Controversies over Education The activities of the Muhammadan Educational Conference held at Calcutta in 1899 revealed the endeavours of the liberal-minded Muslims to bring madrassas in line with ordinary schools and colleges. Invited by the Bengali elites Syed Amir Hussain Ali and Mirza Shujat Ali Beg, the Conference was presided over by Syed Amir Ali, who differed in his political views from Syed Ahmed.50 A resolution was moved (and passed unanimously) on its first day by Abdul Karim and Dilwar Hossain, the first Muslim graduate from Bengal: Though the suggestions put forward by Amir Ali on behalf of this Conference in 1901 were, except for a relatively minor matter, turned down by the Government of Bengal, the event made the Muslims conscious of their needs. Encouraged by the success of this Conference, they arranged for a Muhammadan Educational Conference on a provincial basis. This was declared an ‘unqualified success, considering [...] that unlike other communities, the Mussalmans have to be moved by a very slow process of persuasion. There were about four thousand delegates present, many of them coming from Dacca, Comilla, Chittagong, Noakhali, Searjganj, Jessore, Pabna, Rungpore, Natore, Calcutta and other places.’51 It is around this time that the Bengali-Muslim middle classes, which favoured secular education and therefore Government-run general schools, began to make their presence felt in the madrassa education system. Their influence in a sphere, which even ten years earlier had been seen as the territory of the Urdu-speaking ashraf, is revealed by the decision of the The City of Colleges 121

Governing Body of the Madrassa Alia in 1917 – that regarding the teachers’ appointments, duly qualified Bengali-Muslims should get preference. It was only after the Partition of 1905 that a reasonable number of schools and colleges began to be established in East Bengal. Before this, as Muhammad Abdur Rahim writes: ‘the educational development of East Bengal was in total neglect... Most of the educational institutions were centred in and around the capital city of Calcutta.’52 Not much help was received from the ‘Hindu zamindars who had their estates in the Muslim majority districts of East Bengal’ because the zamindars ‘lived at Calcutta and promoted education of Hindu Bengalis in .’53 With the acceptance of Bengali as a rightful language for the Muslims, the earlier equation of Bengalis with Hindus gradually began to recede. Sir Syed Ahmed, on the conflict between the communities and the role of the Congress in 1909, wrote: ‘[...] if you take the population of the whole of Bengal, nearly half are Mahomedans and something over half are Bengalis.’54 That such an equation was not acceptable to the Bengali- Muslims is made clear by many articles. The Pracharak, writing of the 1901 census, says that the eighth column on ‘jati-parichay’ ‘required the Muslim to write Sheikh, Sayyid, Moghul or Pathan – one of these 4 titles. In the rural areas, some of the census officials entered Ashraf or Atrap in these columns’. Protesting against this, the editor writes: Sheikh, Sayyid, Moghul and Pathan – these four titles are not the indicators of ‘jati’. They are merely ancestral titles. Therefore, if the eighth column identified the Bengal Muslims as Bengali, the Punjab Muslims as Punjabi, etc, – then the necessary identification would be served.55 Around 1917, however, the issue of the language of the Muslims was complicated by the other controversy regarding the State language of India. With Gokhale and Tilak supporting Hindi as the State language, the Muslims put forward Urdu as the lingua franca.56 This resulted in a greater importance to the Urdu language and served as an encouragement to the support for Urdu in Bengal. In 1917, the Al-Eslam, in an article advocating Bengali for Bengali-Muslims wrote: That does not mean Bengali Muslims should desist from learning Urdu... Hindu politicians are striving to introduce the Hindi language and the Nagri script [...] on the off-chance that it will become the State language throughout the whole of India when India becomes self-governed. Under these circumstances, is it not the duty of Muslims to attempt to place upon the head of their own language and script (i.e. Urdu language and Arabic script) the prestigious crown of the future State language of India by disseminating it everywhere?57 122 Calcutta Mosaic

However, many articles in the Bengali-Muslim periodicals continued to articulate the claim of Bengali as their mother tongue. In 1918, the Bangiya Mussalman Sahitya Patrika wrote: There cannot be any argument regarding the fact that Bengali is the mother- tongue of the Bengali Muslims. Though some may be infatuated with Urdu [...] both Hindus and Muslims have an equal right to claim Bengali as their mother-tongue.58 This demand for Bengali by the Bengali-Muslims was repeatedly linked to the need to introduce education in their mother tongue in the madrassas: The only way a nation can acquire greatness is through its mother-tongue. Yet, above the madrassas of our country we have written in bold letters, ‘Entry to the mother-tongue is forbidden’.59 The other contentious issue was the introduction of English as a compulsory subject in the madrassas. The D P I’s report of the Madrassa Alia during the period 1902–1907 read: [...] the medium of instruction is Urdu; in five topmost classes lessons are imparted in Persian; besides Arabic and Persian literature Arabic Dept teaches Fiqha, Mantiq, Balaghat, Hiqmat, Theology, Tafsir and Hidith. English is an optional subject which is read by 56 p.c. of the students.60 In 1903, Archdale Earle, who served as the Director of Public Instruction in Bengal from 1906– 08, strongly recommended that English be not made compulsory and that the classical course remain unencumbered by English: ‘we do not wish to prevent students, who so desire, from adhering strictly to Oriental studies’.61 Despite Earle’s view, however, it needs to be noted that the proposal was repeatedly placed before the Committee of the Education Conference from its very first meeting. The Conference on Education held at Calcutta in December 1907, brought together representatives from the five Divisions of Bengal and from the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. (This was during the period of Bengal’s partition in 1905, when the Dacca, Chittagong and Rajshahi Divisions, and the districts of Malda and State of Hill Tippera were joined with Assam to form the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam). The representatives from the Presidency Division (which included Calcutta) were five Europeans and 23 Indian Muslims. Among the Europeans were Chapman and Ross, both associated with the Calcutta Madrassa, the Secretary to the Board of Examiners, and two representatives of the Indian Educational Service. Among the Indians were Ataur Rahman, Maulvi The City of Colleges 123

Ahmad, Lutfur Rahman, Abdur Rahman, Syed Amir Hussain, Shamsul Huda, two representatives of the Central National Muhammadan Association and the Muhammadan Literary Society, a Judge and three vakils of the High Court, Professors from the Calcutta Madrassa and the Presidency College, Barristers-at-Law, and other eminent personalities from the Muslim community of the Presidency. Besides these, there were six members from the Burdwan Division, eight from the Patna Division, two each from the Bhagalpur Division and Orissa Division, and seven members from the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam.62 A compromise regarding the introduction of compulsory English was reached and provision was made for a two-year course in English after a student passed the standard examination of the higher madrassa. It was in this context that a clear difference became visible between the opinions of the representatives from Eastern Bengal and Assam and those from the rest of Bengal. The former, who included Abdul Karim, Abu Nasr Waheed, Kamaluddin Ahmed and Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury, refused to accept this compromise, demanding a thorough change in favour of English education. Regarding this, Archdale Earle reports that: There is a school, calling itself, ‘progresssive’ which aims at ‘modernising’ the madrassas. This school would like to see English taught compulsorily in these institutions, and the courses of studies arranged, so that there should be no difficulty in transferring a student from a madrassa to a high school.63 This group of ‘progressives’ though, added Archdale Earle, was not heeded in Bengal. The ‘archly’ dismissed ‘progressives’ were however not to be defeated easily. The seven members who represented the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam were all Muslims from Eastern Bengal and in 1909–1910, they convened a meeting at Dacca where a new syllabus and curriculum, including compulsory English, was drawn up for the madrassas on modern lines. This syllabus was reluctantly recommended by the then D P I Mr Norton, for introduction on an experimental basis in one selected madrassa. In 1912 occurred the rearrangement of the districts and divisions of Bengal, bringing East and West Bengal together again to form a Presidency. This change in the territorial distribution typically brought about a redistribution of powers as its corollary, and the syllabus suggested by the ‘progressives’ was viewed more favouarably in 1913. This year, the Dacca Scheme of Madrassa education, after some modifications, was given the assent by the D P I. In the junior classes, the subjects taught would henceforth include the Quran, Urdu, Bengali, Mathematics, Geography, History, English, Arabic, Drawing, Crafts and Drill. The senior classes would see a greater emphasis on Arabic Literature, 124 Calcutta Mosaic

English and Mathematics. On 3 July 1914, the necessary order for the implementation of this new reformed curriculum from 1 April 1915 was issued. The Reform Scheme was introduced with the orders from the Government-in-Council that preference regarding grants be given to madrassas that had accepted the Scheme. The Madrassa Alia however was kept outside its purview and it continued, as before, as a centre of Islamic learning. A distinction between the madrassas under the Old Scheme and those under the Reform Scheme aggravated the already strained relationship between the traditional Muslims who favoured an Oriental education, and those who were spearheading the movement for modern, secular education. Though the Dacca Scheme for madrassas had been an effort largely inspired by Bengali-Muslim leaders, an aligning of the Bengali- and Urdu-speaking Muslims as supporters of liberal and conservative education respectively would of course be simplistic. The linking of Government grants and recognition with the acceptance of the new curriculum naturally made it difficult for the madrassas to reject it. This not-so-subtle enforcement of the Reform Scheme by the Government was, in fact, resented by the majority of Muslims.64 Most of the 214 madrassas that existed before the Reform Scheme, of which 11 were Senior and 203 Junior Madrassas, accepted the Scheme. The recognition of at least one madrassa, the Bashiria Ahmadia Madrassa was withdrawn since it refused to come under the Reform Scheme. During 1917–1922, only the Darul-ulum Madrassa of Chittagong and Islamia Madrassa of Noakhali were awarded recognition.65 Gradually, however, over the next decade, a large number of madrassas were established in various parts of East Bengal.66 Through 1922–1927, three madrassas in Dacca, at least six in Noakhali, and four in the Chittagong area were established. The years 1927–1932 saw the establishment of two more in Dacca, seven in Mymensingh, and five more in Noakhali, two in Pabna, one in Chittagong, one in Faridpur, and some more in other districts. In 1931, the Muslim Education Advisory Committee under the Chairmanship of Khan Bahadur Abdul Momin recommended that all madrassas, whether Reform Scheme or Old Scheme, should follow the same curriculum as used in the Middle and High English Schools. The syllabus for the subjects of English, Vernacular and Mathematics should be similar in all these schools and Arabic should be taught through the medium of the Vernacular from Class V. The 1914 Committee on Muhammadan Education had noted that a greater number of Muslims, especially from the eastern rural belt, were attending school. The recent profits reaped from the jute trade were cited as one of the main reasons The City of Colleges 125 for the increased interest in English education. Over the next two decades, a growing number of Muslim students from ordinary rural families began to send their sons to local schools. Muslim education in East Bengal also received tremendous encouragement with the establishment of the Dacca University. This was despite strong opposition from the Calcutta-based bhadralok community who, anxious to safeguard the importance of the Calcutta University, contested the establishment of a new university within Bengal. But the Bengali-Muslims had voiced their dissatisfaction with the largely Hindu-dominated administration and bias of the University of Calcutta. They recognized the need for a university in East Bengal to facilitate higher education among the Bengali-Muslims. A Muslim deputation consisting of A K Fazlul Haq, Sir Nawab Salimullah, Nawab Syed Nawab Ali Choudhury and several other Muslim leaders, met the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge on 31 January 1912. They argued that the partition of Bengal, 1905–1911, had enabled the administration to focus on the education in the districts of East Bengal, a sphere that had seen much progress during this phase. The fear was that the bringing together of the two large Bengal divisions would once again detract attention from East Bengal. The Viceroy promised to recommend the formation of a University in Dacca and on 2 February 1912, the Indian government published a communique, stating the decision of the government to establish the University of Dacca. The Secretary of the State approved this decision. On 27 May 1912, the Government of India appointed the Nathan Committee of 13 members with M R Nathiel, Bar-at-Law, as President to frame the scheme of the new university.67 The Committee published its report in December 1913. The outbreak of the War placed financial restrictions on the Government and in 1916, to cut costs, it decided that the new university should start with four colleges only. The ongoing war however stalled the progress and when, in 1917, the matter was taken up again, it was felt that a report from the Calcutta University would be needed. The Calcutta University Commission, appointed by its Chancellor in 1917, refused to accept the proposal for an affiliating type of university. Its proposed autonomy was also debated, and many educators from Dacca wrote to the Commission arguing that the future university should be autonomous. Among these were Professor F C Turner, Principal, Dr Naresh Chandra Sen, Vice Principal of the Law Department, and Professor T T Williams, all of the Dacca College. In 1921, the Dacca University was finally established as a teaching and residential type of university. However, it was not granted the power to be an affiliating university. Otherwise, it would enjoy complete autonomy and the Governor of Bengal would be the Chancellor. 126 Calcutta Mosaic

Higher education for the Bengali-Muslim outside the metropolis of Calcutta had begun to concretize into a reality.

NOTES 1 The term ‘Bengali Muslim’ is used as an acknowledgement of both ethnic and religious identity of that community which is both Muslim and Bengali, and not as a comprehensive term for all the Muslims residents in Bengal. 2 Ali, Muhammad Yaqub, Jater Barai, No place of publication given, 1908, p. 4. 3 ‘The Baptist Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society established many vernacular schools in Calcutta and its suburbs’, Lateef, Nawab Abdul, A Short Account of My Humble Efforts to Promote Education, Ali, Mohammad Mohar, ed., pp. 206–10. No publication details available, pages missing. 4 Gallagher, J A, ‘Congress in Decline1930 to 1939’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1973, p. 596. 5 Banerjee, Sumanta, The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta, Seagull Books, Calcutta, 1998, p. 116. 6 Ashraf (sing. sharif) refers to the upper class Muslim community which traced its lineage to the descendants of the Arab immigrants. 7 ‘In Calcutta itself, Muslims were in a distinct minority, not more than perhaps 20 per cent. Of these the majority were day laborers-cooks, coachmen, and [...] in government service rose from 4.4 per cent in 1871 to 10.3 per cent in 1901 while for Hindus the figures were 32.2 per cent rising to 56.1 per cent during the same period’, Dutta, Krishna, Calcutta: A Cultural and Literary History (Cities of the Imagination), Interlink Books, Massachusetts, 2003, p. 140. 8 ‘Sadaruddin-Dedar Buksh-Alimullah Munshi, Imdad Ali-Golam Sobhan Moulvi, Lal-Budhu-Gulu-Nawabdi Ostagar, Karim Buksh Khansama, Rafique Serang, Anis Barber, Nazir Nazibullah, Sharif Daftari, Imam Buksh Thanadar, Khairu Methar had all lent their names to streets despite their varied social positions. There is, however, indirect evidence of their financial solvency. Even being a scavenger and a tailor respectively, Khairu and Gulu erected imposing mosques’, [banglapedia.search.com.bd], entry on Calcutta at the address [http:/ /banglapedia.search.com.bd]. 9 Siddiqui cites the many areas where the Bengali-Muslims stay ‘bearing names of ethnic character such as, Mominpur, Tantibagan, Churipara, Kasai Bustee, Kasai Mohalla, Patua Para, Patua Tala, Nikari Pada...’, Siddiqui, M K A, Muslims of Calcutta: A Study in Aspects of Their Social Organisation, Anthropological Survey of India, Calcutta, 1974, p. 11. 10 Ahmed, Rafiuddin, The Bengal Muslims, 1871-1906: A Quest for Identity, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1981, p. 113. 11 Karim, Abdul, Some Political, Economical and Educational Questions, Calcutta, 1917, p. 6. 12 Hunter, William The Indian Musalmans, Rupa and Co., Delhi, 2004, p. 173. 13 Bengal Education Proceedings, Calcutta, 1872, p. 78. 14 Muslim Female Education in Metropolitan City of Calcutta, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Education, New Delhi, 1987, p. 8. 15 Murshid, Tazeen, The Sacred and the Secular: Bengal Muslim Discourses 1871- 1977, Oxford University Press, Calcutta, 1995, p. 87. The City of Colleges 127

16 The Mahomedan Observer, 18 January, Calcutta, 1894, p. 28. 17 O’Malley, L S S, Census of India, Vol. 6, Part II, Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, Calcutta, 1913, p. 48. 18 Ibid. 19 Ma’az, Ebne, ‘Musalman Boarding ba Chhatrabas’, Islam-Pracharak, Year 4, No. 9–10, Falgun-Chaitra, BS 1308 (1902). 20 Ibid. 21 Ahmed, Rafiuddin, The Bengal Muslims 1871 -1906: A Quest for Identity, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1981, p. 123. 22 ‘Parashuram’, ‘Birinchibaba’, Kajjali, M C Sarkar and Sons Pvt Ltd, Calcutta, 1986, p. 23. 23 Ahmed, Rafiuddin, op. cit., p. 139. 24 Karim, Abdul, Muhammaden Education in Bengal, Metcalfe Press, Calcutta, 1900, p. 36. 25 Rahman, Mujibur, History of Madrassah Education: With Special Reference to Calcutta Madrassah and W. B. Madrassah Education Board, Rais Anwar Rahman Brothers, Calcutta, 1977, p. 164. 26 Rahman, op. cit., p. 132. 27 Sufia Ahmed writes of these efforts: ‘the only practical results of these efforts at modernisation were the introduction of English as an optional subject in the Arabic department in 1829, and the formation of the Anglo-Persian department in 1854’, Ahmed, Sufia, Muslim Community in Bengal 1884 -1912, University Press Limited, Dacca, 1996, p. 58. 28 This college had been established by a wealthy philanthropist from the Dutt family of Wellington Square, Calcutta, in 1853. The college was allegedly destroyed during the Sepoy Mutiny. 29 Rahman, op. cit., p. 99. 30 Haque, M Azizul, History and Problems of Moslem Education in Bengal, Thacker, Spinck and Co., Calcutta, 1917. 31 Chakraborty, Ashoke Kumar, Bengali Muslim Literati and the Development of Muslim Community in Bengal, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, 2002, p. 58. The text of Abdul Lateef’s paper, ‘Muhammadan Education in Bengal’, may be found in Transactions of the Bengali Social Science Association, Calcutta, 1868. 32 The Committee members included Hon’able Mr Justice Norman, Mr J Sutcliff, Mr H L Harrison, Captain H S Jarret, Prince Md Rahimuddin, Qazi Abdul Bari, Munshi Abdul Latif Khan Bahadur, Maulvi Abbas Ali Khan and Haji Md Zakaria. 33 Rahman, op. cit., p. 111. 34 Appendix to the Report by the North-Western Province and Oudh Provincial Committee at the Education Comission 1884, p. 298. Quoted in Ahmed, Sufia, op. cit., p. 59. 35 For a brief history of the Mohsin Endowments Fund, see Report of the Muhammadan Educational Endowments Committee 1888, pp. 32-5. 36 Khan, Abdul Rashid The All-India Muslim Educational Conference: Its Contribution to the Cultural Development of Indian Muslims, 1886 -1947, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2001, p. 226. 37 Ahmed, Sufia, op. cit., p.59. 128 Calcutta Mosaic

38 Report of the Committee appointed by the Bengal Government to Consider Questions Connected with Muhammadan Education, Calcutta, 1915, para.94. 39 Report of the Calcutta University Commission 1917-1919, pp. vii, 212, Calcutta 1919–1920. 40 According to the Government Circular No. 1639/T G dated 14 September 1902, and No. 908 dated 23 February 1904, all students should be taught in their mother tongue. 41 Rahman, op. cit., p. 151. 42 Mohammad Akram Khan in his speech at the Third Bangiya Musalman Sahitya Sammelan, referred to the journal Muhammadi Akbar, published from Sealdah, the suburb of Calcutta, in the 24 parganas, as the ‘Sealdah Palli’. Quoted in Hossain, Talim, ed., Muslim Bangla Samayik Patra, Pakistan Publications, Dacca, 1966, p. 18. 43 Samay’s article entitled ‘The Views of this Newspaper on Mihir’. Quoted in Rahim, Munshi Abdur, ed., Mihir, Feb. 1892, p. 41. 44 Ibid. 45 Mia, Madhu, alias Ahmed, Munshi Moezuddin, ed., Pracharak, 1899, page number torn off. The quote is from ‘Samay’, 8 Agrahayan, BS 1307. 46 Khan Bhadur Abdul Majid Chowdhury to Govt of Bengal, 30 November 1902, Para.1, Bengal Education Proceedings, September 1903. Quoted in Ahmed, Sufia, op. cit., p. 25. 47 Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury, educated at Rajshahi Collegiate School and at St Xavier’s College was a signatory to the Simla Address, Vice-President of the Muslim League’s 3rd Session, founder-president of Muslim Bengal Federation, 1921, and father of future Prime Minister of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Bogra. 48 Chowdhury, Syed Nawab Ali ‘Vernacular Education in Bengal’, (speech delivered at the 13th Session of the Muhammadan Educational Conference, Calcutta), W Newman and Co. (Caxton Press), Calcutta, 1900, pp. 18–19. 49 Ibid., pp. 2, 3, 47. 50 ‘After the death of Syed Ahmed, the Conference was supported by many Muslim leaders who had previously opposed it for one reason or another’, Khan, Abdul Rashid, op. cit., p. 50. 51 The Moslem Chronicle, 9 April 1904. 52 Rahim, Muhammad Abdur, Muslim Society and Politics in Bengal 1757-1947, University of Dacca, Dacca, 1978, p. 138. 53 Footnote 1, Government Records, quoted in Mallick, A R, British Policy and the Muslims of Bengal 1757-1856, Dacca, 1962, pp. 277–82. 54 Ahmed, Sir Syed, ‘An Indian Mussalman’, Part 1 of ‘Indian Mussalmans and Indian Politics’, The Hindustan Review, January, 1909, p. 52. 55 ‘Aadamsumari o Mussalman’, Pracharak, Chaitra, BS 1307. This editorial is referred to as ‘significant’ by Abdul Kadir in his essay on Pracharak in Hossain, Talim, ed., op. cit. 56 As Mustafa Nurul Islam writes, ‘[...] tinged with communalism, the Hindi-Urdu controversy finally became a political issue, Hindus identifying with Hindi and Musalmans with Urdu. Thus the advocacy of Urdu began partially to symbolise The City of Colleges 129

Muslim nationalism’, Bengali Muslim Public Opinion as Reflected in the Bengali Press, 1901-1930, , Dacca, 1973, p. 195, Footnote 49. 57 Islamabadi, Manirazzaman, ‘Bangiya Musalman o Urdu Samasya’, Al-Eslam, Year 3, No.6, Aswin, BS 1324 (1917). 58 Ali, Syed Emdad, ‘Banga Bhasa o Musalman’, Bangiya-Musalman-Sahitya- Patrika, Year 1, No.2, Sraban, BS 1325 (1918). 59 Ahmed, Mozaffar, ‘Banga Deshe Madrassar Shiksha’, Bangiya-Musalman- Sahitya-Patrika, Year 2, No.3, Kartik, BS 1326 (1919). 60 Rahman, op. cit., p. 163. 61 Earle to Government of Bengal, 10 June 1908, Para.22, Bengal Education Proceedings, August 1908, quoted in Ahmed, Sufia, op. cit., p. 65. 62 ‘Appendix A: List of Persons who attended the Muhammadan Educational Conference, held at Calcutta in December, 1907’, Ahmed, Sufia, op. cit., p. 295. 63 Earle to Government of Bengal, 10 June 1908, Para.12, Bengal Education Proceedings, August 1908, quoted in Ahmed, Sufia, op. cit., p. 66. 64 This was echoed by Fazlul Haque’s statement in 1939 when, speaking at the Prize Distribution Ceremony at the Madrassa Alia, he said that the discrimination in matters of grants between the madrassas of the Old Scheme and the Reform Scheme was entirely unacceptable. 65 Rahman, op. cit., p. 185. 66 Around 17 new madrassas were established between 1922–1927, and around 30 between 1927–1932. These numbers vary slightly among the books or periodicals consulted. 67 The other members of the committee were G W Kichler, Director of Public Instruction, Bengal, Dr Rash Behary Ghose, Advocate of the High Court, Calcutta, Nawab Syed Nawab Ali Chowdhury, Nawab Sirajul Islam, Ananda Chandra Roy, Pleader and Zaminder, Dacca, Mohammad Ali, Aligarh, H R James, Principal of Presidency College, Calcutta, W A T Archibald, Principal of Dacca College, Satis Chandra Acharji, Principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta, Lalit Mohan Chatterjee, Principal, Jagannath College, Dacca, C W Peake, Professor Presidency College and Samsul Ulama Abu Nasr Muhammad Waheed, Superintendent of Dacca Madrassa.