ASSESSMENTS OF SIR SYED AHMED KHAN

The affairs of a University are by convention rather “universal” in nature. History places us at the juncture where we ask ourselves whether the creation of Aligarh Muslim University or the Banaras Hindu University were saplings of the British Policy of Divide And Rule? The little insight that I have into the Indian History causes me to answer the question in affirmative.

How can a university be either Hindu or Muslim? Provided that the creators are but British Agents.

I here plowshare the little i know about Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.

Sir Syed was a former employ of The British East India Company. He expressed his loyalty towards his employer by using the epithet “ Haramzadgi” for the First War Of Independence, 1857.

To the surprise of the Commissioner at Benaras who had always heard Sir Syed talk about the welfare of the “ common masses”, Hali the biographer of Sir Syed mentions, “ I am convinced that the two communities (Hindu and Muslim) will never put their hearts together in any venture. In the coming years an ever increasing hatred and animosity appears in the horizon”. The change in his stance, the Commissioners mention was rather “abrupt“.

In the year 1869 Sir Syed was awarded the Order Of The Star Of India by the British Government. Almost two decades later, he was knighted in the year 1888. Would he have received such awards had he not been pawn in the hands of the the British Government?

Numerous textbooks cite that Sir Syed only wanted the Muslim to be educated. This is what my history textbook back at school mentioned. Had this been his only endeavour, he deserves exaltation. The speech he delivered at Meerut in 1888 is a contradiction to the aforesaid endevour.

He repeatedly called the Muslims “my nation” and  “ my Mahomedan nation”. Paragraph 8 cites “ It is, therefore necessary that for peace of India and for the progress of everything in India, the British government should remain for many years- in fact forever”

Syed Ahmed Khan shamelessly supported British rule which reduced India the metaphorical “ Golden Bird”, which was a prosperous country under the Mughals to an impoverished nation.

Ersartz, in paragraph 20 he cites that the Muslims must be friends with the British looters for it was the order of the God.

Instead of jointly fighting the white skinned oppressors with the Hindus, Sir Syed advocated supporting and strengthening the British rule.

It is rather unfortunate that our textbooks do not reveal the other side of the coin. 

Dear Papa,

Each of us lesser mortals has one person that we look up to. The one person that inspires us to persevere  and chistle ourselves into better humans. The one person that we aspire to be like.

Mine is my father. You'll seldom find me praising my own pater but the one person that I idolise is him. The word "successful" seems like a circle in a square when I describe him. He is so much more. He's made himself a firm foundation from the bricks that others threw at him.  There is nothing about him that I admire more.

If I could could be half as good as you, Papa, I'd consider myself four times lucky.

Yours Truly,
Mehr

Nomenclature

- Salutations-

At 19, I find it comical to talk about "passion". That too when I'm a history buff and a keen  political reader who goes to a Law School instead of pursuing a Bachelor in Arts.

Two years ago, had I been a painting. I would have been a rousing kaleidoscopic chimera, gushing outbursts of psychedelia. Today I'm nothing more that an insipid Zebra Crossing. A tincture of black and white.

That is the last thing I want to be. That is the last thing I'd like to be.

This account is a verbose version of the soft copies in my head. It is what I am. What I like. What my life is beyond the circumscribed limits of the University.

Whether you like it or not is immaterial.


Mehr.