Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was perhaps
the tallest among the people who propelled Indian renaissance in the nineteenth
century Like Gandhi, not only did he provide intellectual leadership but also
gave his ideas a concrete shape through his actions. He was indeed a very
fortunate man who could witness the realization of his dreams and ideas in his
lifetime itself. Besides being a thinker, Sir Syed was also a great organizer –
a rare combination of an honest intellectual and a strategist par excellence.
However, while formulating the aims, nature and reach of his educational plans,
some contractions inherent in his thinking appeared on the surface. Here, we
shall try to discuss those confusions, which are in fact contradictions of
ideological nature as they open many a window upon the world-view of Sir Syed,
greatly conditioned by his own background and traditions.
Sir Syed was very much aware of the wider connotations of education as his core
educational philosophy was encapsulated in the title of one of his famous essays
which proclaims that a man acquires all the goodness through education (Insaan
mein tamam khubiyan taleem se paida hoti hin). But on account of social and
political expedience, he seemed to content himself with equating it with a
narrow perspective of 'Naukari' alone which showed in no uncertain terms that he
could not transcend the colonial mindset. While evaluating his educational
conceptions, Rajmohan Ganhi argues that Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College was
not as reformist or modern as his journal The Reformer claim it to be
notwithstanding the college as a vehicle for his ideas, he was it simply as a
place where Musalmans may acquire English education without prejudice against
their religion.
His scheme of education was confined to a limited class/caste group. He also
adopted a partisan attitude in dissemination of education among the Muslims at
large, as he was more inclined towards extending the benefits of education to
the upper and middle classes. Eminent Marxist critic Ehtesham Hussain rightly
asserts that he was more inclined toward 'restoration' of old privileges and
status of the Ashraf who were in the state of wilderness after the decimation of
Mughals and the regional kingdoms.
In fact, in his scheme of things hardly any cognizance was taken of the Muslim
labourers, artisans or other skilled and unskilled groups in the vast agrarian
society. In 1882, while deposing before the British Education Commission, Sir
Syed put-forth his 'contempt' regarding educating the deprived sections of the
society. He even went to the extent of appealing to the elitist consciousness of
the British rulers for with holding the gains of education from the socially
debased groups. To buttress his line of thinking, he reminded the British
government that it were the Badzat Julaha who were in the forefront in the
rebellion against the East India Company's rule in 1857. He didn't forget to
emphasise that Ashrafs were least instrumental in fermenting antagonism against
the Britishers.
His views on female education almost acquire a highly reactionary and
conservative character. He believed that the money spent on female education
would not serve any purpose whatsoever. He was of the firm opinion that the
secular and the cosmopolitan content of education hardly suited the 'needs' of
women in the Indian society. He even emphasized that the teaching of Science,
Geography and History etc. would not lead to the betterment of the lives of
women. Rather he even went on to advise the Muslim women not to touch any
Namubarak (Unholy) book and be contented with Diniyat (Theology) and Ekhlaquiyat
(Moral sciences). Unfortunately under his spell of influence these were accepted
by the generations of our grand and great grand mothers.
In his opinion, the condition of Muslim women was good enough. He argued "don't
bother for their educational upliftment". Altogether, he pleaded to educate only
the Muslim men folk and imagined that this educated lot will play a key-role in
the educational development of the Muslim women as well. In this process, Sir
Syed insisted on restricting them to homes and hearths and remains there fully
dependent on their male counterparts. One is at a loss to understand whether he
has planned a sort of prohibition upon the Muslim women to not to benefit from
any institutional support in the field of education.
Sadly Sir Syed had developed an image of Muslim women as of a lesser human
being. But how unrealistic in his approach he was, it could be seen in the case
of his former colleague and a companion of Aligarh Educational Movement, Deputy
Nazir Ahmad. When Nazir Ahmad wrote his first novel Miratul-Uroos is 1869, Sir
Syed vehemently opposed the subject matter it dealt with. Deputy Nazir painted
the Muslim women as uneducated, rustic and also unaware of their religious,
social and gender responsibilities. Sir Syed was of the view that it was not
good to publicise any inward weaknesses of Muslim society while Deputy Nazir had
projected the in-house and close-door realities of the Muslim elite on which Sir
Syed never wanted any discussion in public.
It may not be untoward if Sir Syed's blatant refusal of access to education for
the Muslim female folk and other deprived sections is compared with the
restrictions imposed upon the 'Shudras' and 'Women' in respect of acquisition of
knowledge in the Manusmriti. In fact, Sir Syed seemed to epitomize the same
perverse trait of our hierarchical social structure.
Sir Syed's attempt at educating the Muslims was hampered by his constricted
world-view and to be more specific, he was rather out of tune with the dormant
aspirations of different deprived sections of the society. His pupils and junior
friends understood this and just after his death, the Muslim Educational
conference laid special emphasis on opening an independent wing of female
education and decided to launch a girls' school in capital towns of every state.
Contrary to the views of Sir Syed, the new curriculum also comprised
Mathematics, Geography, Physics, and History etc. The radical decision taken by
the Muslim Educational Conference balanced the conservative tilt of education
and in fact it marked a significant departure from Sir Syed's professed core
beliefs about education.