By Dr Shakeel Samdani,
As we prepare to celebrate in 2017 the 200th anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of the Aligarh Muslim University, there are moves to belittle his invaluable contribution. There is no denying of the fact that Sir Syed contributed immensely in the field of education, agriculture, legislation and journalism but for many, his main mission represented by the Aligarh Movement has not achieved desired result.
If it is so, it means that some where we have gone wrong.
Sir Syed had founded the MAO College, the flag bearer of the AMU, not just for teaching or learning but also for taking up the community and social work. Another factor was to produce concerned leaders, who may take the community forward. If the AMU continues to be an ordinary university, his mission remains unfulfilled.
Education policy of Sir Syed had two main concerns: First, to educate the shattered Muslim masses in western scientific education and the second, to produce law abiding good citizen.
The Sachar Committee Report – Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee was appointed by UPA – 1 – no doubt, is an authentic document on the backwardness and deprivation of the Muslims. There is another aspect to it to. It has a political angle also. The Report convinces the Muslims that without government patronage, indirectly meaning political class, the Muslims are doomed. But have the Muslims or Muslim leadership realized that this is the best way to turn Muslims dysfunctional and rob their initiative is to make them lose confidence and ask for government (or say political class) patronage?
It’s very dangerous and I am surprised, why Muslim intellectuals have failed to note this fact?
Patronage of government or political class means their management. And remember that the best business enterprises when managed by the government went sick. How can then the government assume responsibility for developing a community, a far more complex composition than an enterprise? Government patronage makes a community government dependent and robs of its honour and initiatives.
A look at how some communities, far more disadvantaged than Muslims, have developed without any government patronage can be an example – the rise of Gounders and Naidues of western Tamil Nadu, Ezhavas of Kerala, Patels of Gujarat and Ramgadias of Punjab. They were all socially and economically deprived in more than one sense but they rose in industrial and business activities. Studies of these communities show that they have moved ahead because they did not seek any government patronage or allow the government to patronise them.
They turned their community linkage into social capital instead of vote banks to serve the interest of political class. We have to stand on our own. And that was also Sir Syed’s message.
Sir Syed had much interest in legislation and enactment of laws. That is due to fact that Sir Syed fought to re-gain respect and rights and powers in British India within legal and Constitutional parameters. Today we need the same strategy. We cannot achieve our goals and rights by shouting on streets but by adopting legal and constitutional ways.
Sir Syed himself was from legal background. It was due to this reason he understood importance of the legal education at that time when in fact nobody had given much importance to it. He established the Law department in MAO College way back in 1891.
Legal education, which is part of wider education not only produces effective lawyers but also awakens citizen and community leaders. It is time that we concentrate on the legal education due to certain facts and compulsions. Muslims need good lawyers to plead their cases but more than that, Muslims need legal education to know their rights. They must know how to achieve them.
It is my humble plea that we encourage our children to take up legal education in more impressive way. Legal education is the most effective tool by which Muslims can achieve dignified status in Indian society and take legal remedies of the injustices heaped upon them.
As I said earlier, Sir Syed had not founded this institution just for education but for wider community welfare too. If we are to celebrate 200th birth anniversary of Sir Syed in 2017, then we have to achieve a respected place in Indian society by that time. In addition to focusing on implementation of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report, we will have to focus on taking up challenges and initiatives for empowering us with legal education in a big way.
(Author is a senior faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.)
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan: Lighthouse of the Society