Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Beck and the Indian National Congress

SIR SYED AHMAD KHAN, BECK AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS DISSERTATION SUBMITTED FOR THE M. PHIb DEGREE BY SYED FARID AHMAD Under ihe Supervision of DR. IQBAL HUSAIN ?«d In CoBapat« CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY IN HISTORY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) — -, 1989 iî'v'O"' ^|.JV' -.^^ .V \?^\ I^^ i^5Q .. ;.\ v^y •%;t.- ,--./'• i i i -A HON! r.?i DS1658 CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY TELEPHONE 5548 DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNI\ ERSITY ALIGARH-20:002 8 August 1989 This is to certify that the dissertation on "Sir Syed Ahmad FQian, Beck and the Indian National Congress" submitted by Mr. Syed Farid Ahmad is the original work of the candidate and is suitable for submission for the award of M.Phil. Degree. 9(pUA^. (Iqbal Husain) ' Supervisor A Note on Spelling The spelling of 'Syed' on the front page has not been retained in the text where he has been spelt as 'Saiyed'. Both thf.se spellings are actually correct and are used frequently. The need for preferring 'Saiyed' over 'Syed' was primarily owing to the fact that this was how the word was spelt in contemporary usage, including by Sir Saiyed himself. The spelling in the title page was the preference of the Committee of Advanced Study and Research. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i-ii ABBREVIATIONS iii INTRODUCTION iv-xi I. DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL THOUGHT OF SIR SAIYED 1-26 AHMAD KHAN (1857-1885): (i) Impact of the Rebellion of 1857 on the Muslims in North India; Sir Saiyed's views on the Rebellion. (ii) Muslim's response to Modern Education. (iii) Urdu-Hindi Controversy. (iv) Sir Saiyed on the Self Government. (V) Sir Saiyed on the Ilbert Bill. (vi) Sir Saiyed's views on the Indian Civil Services. II. MODERN EDUCATION AND SIR SAIYED: (i) Modern Educational Institutions and the Muslims. (ii) Impact of Journey to England on Sir Saiyed. (iii) Saiyed's return to India and his involvement in Modernization of the Community. (ivj Establishment of the MAO School/ College; Structure of the College, policy and financial basis of the MAO College. III. BECK'S IMPACT ON SIR SAIYED AND TEffi MAO COLLEGE: 54-72 (i) Theodore Beck join's MAO College: His Contributions. (ii) Influence of Beck on Sir Saiyed and MAO College. fiiij Beck and Sir Saiyed Ahmad. IV. SIR SAIYED AND THE NATIONAL POLITICS (1885- 73-113 1898): (i) Sir Saiyed on India; views of some Indian and Pakistani Historians on Sir Saiyed's political ideas. (ii) Sir Saiyed's reaction to the establishment of the Indian National Congress. (iii) Sir Saiyed and the Nationalist Muslims. Annexure I 114-122 Annexure II 123-131 Bibliography 132-139 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With a sense of utmost gratitude and indebtedness, I consider it my pleasant duty to acknowledge the kindness, advice and help which I received from my esteemed teachers, colleagues and friends This acknowledgement should begin by profusely thanking my parents who have always been a constant source of encouragement and a pillar of strength for me. Next to be thanked is my Supervisor Dr Iqbal Husam, Reader, Department of History who has been a constant source of inspiration for me. I can never forget the good will and care with which he examined my work and allowed me to have latitude in respect of views. I am very gratefu] to Prof. Irfan Habib, Co-ordinator, Centre of Advanced Study m History, my esteemed teacher for his kind cooperation and insightful suggestions. Thanks are also due to Prof. Zamiruddm Siddiqi, Chairman, Department of History, for showing a keen interest in my work. Also helpful has been the encouragements of Prof. Shireen Moosvi for which I am very grateful to her. I am indebted to the authorities and staff of the National Archives of India, New Delhi; U.P. State Archives, Lucknow; Research Library, History Department, A.M.U. Aligarh; Sir Syed Room of Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh; and the Aligarh Archives for allowing me to use their manuscripts and collections. Thanks to a great degree are due to the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi for their grant of fellowship which facilitated the completion of this dissertation I am grateful to Miss Sumbul Halim Khan for her under taking the difficult task of proof-reading. My thanks are also due to my other research colleagues, especially Farhat Hassan, Nadeem Rezavi, Javed Akhter, Javed Hassan, Afaq Basheer, Najaf Haider, Shabbir Siddiqi, Mrs. Ruqqaiya Hassan, Miss Seema Singh, Miss Fatima Imam, Hassan Imam, Zeeshan Izzat, Faiz Habib. I owe a special gratitude to my friends Ahsan Reza, Fatheh Faiyaz, Muzzafar Islam, Waqar Ahmad, Mohd. Afzal, Mohd. A. Jauhar, Akhter Reyaz for their so very un-grudging cooperation Last but not the least I am thankful to Mr Suhail Ahmad (M/s Micro Services Centre) for word-processing my dissertation so carefully and diligently. ^v^"v£^<:Sî\U^J? August, 1989 (SYED FARID AHMAD) iî ABBREVIATIONS AA : Aligarh Archives. ICS : Indian Civil Services. MAO : Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental. MAOCM Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College Magazine. MAL : Maulana Azad Library. MEC : Mohammdan Educational Conference. MF : Microfilm. NAI : National Archives of India. NWP : North-West Provinces. NWP & 0 North-West Provinces and Oudh. NWP & 0. Pr. : North-West Provinces and Oudh Proceedings. Pr. INC . Proceedings of Indian National Congress, SAL : State Archives Lucknow. TA Tahzib-ul-Akhlaq. Tyabji Papers : Badruddin Tyabji Private Paper Collection. INTRODUCTION Tiie present work, as is evident from the title, 'Sir SaiyeJ Ahmad Khari , Beck arid the Indian Nat ion al C<nigr ess ' Gono^rns an important pliase; of modern Indian ^listory. This pha:e (1858-1898) is rxtrfmely crucial. During this period Indi'nn modern educated intelligentsia began to give proof of its maturity and competence to understand the evil aspects of the alien rule. The post Mutiny era in India is thus full of political activities which ultimately led to the foundation of the Indiari National Congress. Now the Indian nationalism began to flow ma direction set by the early Indian Nationalists But during the same period, the British policy towards India al.bc^ considerably changed. The Muslims, who were generally distrusted and experienced hostile attitude from the government now began to experience patronage (1871) from the government officials. The Hindus who were much advanced educationally and economically, were now by and large unfavourite for their political demands. The promoters of the Raj became more and more alarmed when the Indian National Congress was founded. They now resorted to the policy of Divîde and rule' more effectively. - V- Unfortunately tor Muslims m India specially of North India, the period between 1857-1871 was extremely difficult. Their failure to over-throw the alien rule with the help of the]r fellow countrymnn invited the wrath of the British In that period, Sir Saiyed Ahmad, a loyalist, emerged on the scene and worked hard to save the Muslims from total ruination. But the Muslims m North India generally did not Ilk*- the British riile They were averse to modern education Tlie ulev>.^' who had played active role m the rebellion strongly support t^d an anti-British attitude In thib atmosphere, Sir Saiyed began to persuade the Muslims to obtain modern education, profess loyalty to the British and abstain from political activities fearing total destruction of the Muslims. The psychological impart of tlie situation on Sir Saiyed was such that he would not allow any momentary idea of going against the policy ot the tiritisli His loyalism to the Raj was beyond question In this situation of Sir Saiyed's mental state, Theodore Beck arrives in India as Principal of Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College m 1883. Sir Saiyed's deep concern for the community and loyalism to the Raj now combined together -VI- Soon after the establishment of the Congress (1885) the British high officials were alarmed. Dufferin, the then Viceroy, took the lead in criticising the Congress policies. Sir Saiyed already held a view that the community's interest was not in politics but to obtain modern education. Naturally, he endorsed Dufferin's views. Beck took full advantage of it and began to use the columns of Aligarh Institute Gazette . In the present monograph, an attempt has been made to study Sir Saiyed and Beck in relation to the National Politics. It is not claimed that the problem has not been studied so far. The period has been studied by many scholars. The present study has been made in the light of new material which has now become available. The study is divided into four Chapters: The first Chapter deals with the development of Political thought of For details see, Leiyveld, David: Aligarh's First Gener at ion , Gopal, Ram: Iridian Muslims - A Pol it ical History (1858-19'^7) , Hardy, P.: The Muslims of British India, Jain, M.S.: The Aligarh Moi'ement , Manglori, Tufail Ahmad, MussalmanC â Roshan Mustaqbil , Mohammad , Shan: Sir Syed Ahmad hhan. A Political Biography, Nizami, K.A.: Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Robinson, Francis: Separ at 1sm among Indian Muslims, Seal, Anil: The Emergence of Indian Musiims; Competit ion and Colloborat ion m the late Nineteen Century, Zakaria, Rafiq: Rise of Muslims in Indian Politics. -vii- Sir Saiyed. An attempt has been made in this Chapter to analyse the impact of the rebellion of 1857 specially on the question of the survival of the Muslims and his interpretation of the rebellion. The discussion also covers the Muslim response to the Modern Education highlighting Saiyed Ahmad's views in this regard, 'in addition, attempt. has also been made to retrace the 'language controversy' (i.e. the Urdu and Hindi) and Saiyed's opinion on it.

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