Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

(1817 – 1898)
• Early Biography Details:
 Ahmed Taqvi bin Syed Muhammad Muttaqi
 Born on 17th October 1817 in Delhi
 Belonged to wealthy and respected family
 Received high quality education
 Developed love for literature
 Father died in 1838, so seek for employment
 His first employment was with the EIC as he became a judge in Delhi
in 1846
 For a time he edited the newspaper published in Urdu and was
deply interested in Muslim history and culture.
 Wrote book on Archeology called Athar-al-Sanadeed
 Historical writing earned him an Honorary Fellowship at Royal Arctic
Society
• Early Biography Details:
 In 1857 he helped many women and children while saving their
lives as a chief judge as Bijnaur.
 He refused British offer
 He was not in support of armed uprising against British
 Role in reconciliation between British and Muslim community
after the war
 In 1862 he was appointed as chief justice in Mooradabad later
transferred to Ghazipur
 In 1864 transferred to Aligarh where he established a college
 Retired in 1876
 Made Aligarh a center of “Muslim Renaissance”.
 He died on 27th March 1898
• Beliefs:
 Not content with position of Muslims in Subcontinent:

 Decline in social and economic status

 More decline due to war of independence
 Reason for decline:

o Alliance of Hindus and British

o Muslims were not taking responsibility of themselves
o Not recognizing British as rulers
 He wanted them to take positive approach and be cooperative

 They had to accept the ideas and education standard of British

• Beliefs:
 He wanted to see Muslims unite and prosper

 Wanted to see improvement in economical, political, religious

fortune
 Made efforts for Muslim’s Renaissance

 Founded Aligarh Movement with aim to:

 Improve relation
 Improve social and economic position
 Increase political awareness
• Work:
1. Improving relation between British and Muslim Communities

Objective / Purpose:
 Improve relationship
The British had put the entire responsibility for the War of Independence in 1857 on the
Muslims.
• Sir Syed wanted to ensure that this false view was corrected.

 Gain English Education

There was a deep-seated resentment of the British among many in the Muslim community
Sir Syed wanted to ensure that the benefits and advantages of British rule, in particular in the
areas of science and technology were embraced by the Muslim community to improve the lives
of the masses.

Reasons
 Consequences of Muslims role in War of Independent
 Resentment of British in the eyes of Muslim community
• Work:
1. Improving relation between British and Muslim Communities
Actions:
 Convincing the British
 Wrote Loyal Muhammadens of India
In this work he defended Muslims and listed the name of those Muslims who remained Loyal to the
British during the uprising.

 In order to convince that the British were wrong to fully blame the
Muslims for the uprising so he wrote a pamphlet “Essay on the Causes of
the Indian Revolt”
In this he pointed the reasons for the uprising. He told that British were unable to understand the Indians.
This Pamphlet was circulated freely among the British officials in India and the copies were also sent to
England were it was studied carefully. Many British thought that he was blaming them for uprising but
others sympathetic and accepted the truth in his words. He also cleared the misunderstanding that
Muslim called the British “Nadarath”, He told that this was no insult but the word came from Arabic word
“Nasir” which means helpers.
• Work:
1. Improving relation between British and Muslim Communities
Actions:
 Convincing the Muslims
 Attempted to Wroie Tabyin ul Kalam to highlight similarities
between Christianity and Islam
 Establish British Indian Association

Sir Syed was aware that the British knew very little about Islam. Indeed,
on a visit to England he was so offended by an English book on the life of
the Prophet (PBUH) that he immediately wrote his own work correcting
the many errors. Sir Syed was aware that Muslim in India knew very little
about Christianity. He tried to overcome this by writing “Tabyin-ul-Kalam”
in which he pointed out the similarities between Islam and Christianity.
• Work:
2. Encouraging the growth of Western Education
 In 1857 Muslim community was subject to discrimination
 British consider them disloyal
 Hindus on the other hand were learning to speak English and acquire

British Education
 In 1871, there were 711 Hindus and 92 Muslims in Government

employment contracts
 Hindu Movement became strong due to Hindus learning British language
 Hindus were confident and Muslims were given lack of respect.
• Work:
2. Encouraging the growth of Western Education
 Sir Syed took important steps to change Muslims attitude towards British

education due to conflict with Ulema

 Setup an Urdu Journal Tehzib ul-Ikhlaq
 This journal contained article of prominent Muslim leaders
 Played an important in creating an intellectual revolution among

Muslim thinkers
 Founded Scientific Society in Ghazipore in 1863
 Major role was to make scientific writings available in Urdu
 In 1866 issued Aligarh Institute Gazette
• Work:
2. Encouraging the growth of Western Education
 Sir Syed took important steps to change Muslims attitude towards British

education due to conflict with Ulema

 In 1594 opened school in Muradabad
 In 1864 opened school in Ghazipore
 He wanted to open a school or university in accordance to the format of

Oxford and Cambridge

 Raised funds for opening Anglo Oriental School
 The school was setup in Aligarh in 1875 on pattern of English public

school offering both Indian and Western education

• Work:
2. Encouraging the growth of Western Education
 The college and school became symbol of Muslim unity
 Many of the future leaders studied from this college
 Like Liaquate Ali Khan and Ayub Khan
 Many other people who studied there played an important
role in Muslim’s Independence
 He further setup Mohammedan Education Conference
 Its aim was raise standard of education among Muslims
 The conference attracted orators and writers.
 In 1920, the college became the University of Aligarh
• Work:
3. Increase Political Awareness
 His journals, essays and pamphlets helped to make good relationship of

Muslims with British.

 He earned a reputation of being too moderate.
 Initially, he believed that Muslims must have good relationship with Hindus

as well.
 But his point of view changed later.
 He came up with the point of view of Two Nations Theory
o Both Hundus and British are different from each other
o They are two separate groups in subcontinent
Two Nation Theory
• Urdu was the national language for many years. But Hindus opposed it in Urdu Controversy. This
provoked Sir Syed to make his Two Nation Theory to tell that Urdu had place in hearts of Muslims
and was supported by them and can’t be replaced by Hindu which was the language of the Hindus.
It was important because Sir Syed had realized that Muslims and Hindu couldn’t work together as
the Hindus were not with the Muslims.

• Another reason was that the parliamentary system was not supported by Sir Syed was Hindus were
in more number so they always outnumbered the Muslims and due to this Sir Syed opposed it. Sir
Syed realised that separate electorate was the possible solution to this so in view of his Two
Nations Theory. He made this decision of separate electorate demand for elections for the good of
the Muslims.

• Another reason it was important was that congress spoke of competitive examinations for jobs and
good posts while Muslims were always not given good education so they were also not able to take
good posts as Hindu won all the seats and passed the examinations always. According to Two
Nation Theory Sir Syed suggested it as two separate groups of Muslims and Hindus were not
working for the Muslims at that time so Two Nation Theory was important here as well.
•
• Contribution of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Work:
1. Attempts to achieve a better understanding between the British and the Muslims
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was one of the Muslim reformers. He carefully studied and analyzed the decline of
Muslims in political power, social status and economic well-being. He came to the conclusion that Muslims
were being handicapped because of the misunderstanding which had cropped up between the British and
Muslim rulers, the Muslims opposed and hated the British and everything associated with the British. Muslims
kept away from modern education and English language which the British were trying to enforce in India. On
the other hand the British held the Muslims responsible for the revolt of 1857 and considered them (Muslims)
to be their real enemies. The result of this mistrust was that Muslims were being crushed in every way.
Therefore, Sir Syed tried to remove this misunderstanding by addressing both the British and Muslims. Sir
Syed wrote books and explained to the British that the real cause of 1857 uprising was the wrong policies and
altitude of the British themselves. To Muslims Sir Syed explained that Christians and Christianity should not be
hated. He specially stressed that Muslims should came towards modern education, the lack of which was
causing continual set back to the Muslims of India.
 • Contribution of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Work:
2. Education

Sir Syed gave much importance to modern education and his efforts and contribution to Muslim
education and his efforts and contribution to Muslim education is very important. He opened
schools at several places where he was posted. He established Scientific Society and printed the
Aligarh Institute Gazette. He was visited England in 1869 on his own expenses to observe the
working of British Universities. Most important achievement in education sector was the
founding of M.A.O College at Aligarh in 1877. Sir Syed founded the Mohammadens Educational
Conference whose objective was to discuss and solve the education problems of Muslims in the
sub-continent. His efforts for Muslim education served double purpose. It helped the Muslims
to get good jobs and raised their status in society. It also helped in removing the mistrust
between the British and the Muslims. Therefore education was the most important aspect of Sir
Syed’s services in the Muslims of India.
• Contribution of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Work:
3. Politics
Sir Syed’s advice to Muslims in the political field is also important. He believed that under
the European system or democratic government the Muslims of India would always be at
the mercy of Hindu majority. He suggested separate electorate for Muslims. He advised
the Muslims not to join Congress. He opposed the system of competitive examinations for
government posts because Muslims were much behind the Hindus in education. Sir Syed
strongly opposed the replacement of Urdu with Hindi as court and official language.
4. Religion
In Religion Sir Syed united the Muslims by supporting the “Two Nation Theory” and the
Hindi-Urdu controversy of 1867 in which Hindus wanted Hindi to be the official language
while the Muslims wanted Urdu. He realised the threat to Muslims so united them and
gave them good education.
 Questions
• ‘The “Two-Nation” Theory was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s main contribution to the
development of the Pakistan Movement during the nineteenth century.’ How
far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer [14]
• What was the Loyal Mohammadeans of India? [4]
• ‘Introducing a new approach to education was the main contribution of Sir
Syed Ahmad Khan to improving the lives of Muslim people during the
nineteenth century.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your
answer. [14]
• Explain why Sir Syed Ahmad Khan wanted to improve relations between the
Muslim community and the British after the War of Independence [7]
• Why did Sir Syed Ahmad Khan found the Aligarh Movement? [7]
• Describe the purpose of the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College [4]
• Was the development of a western education system the most
importantcontribution of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in developing the cause of
Muslims during the nineteenth century? Explain your answer. [14]