By TCN News,
Aligarh: Noted scholar and author of ‘Aligarh’s First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India’, Prof David Lelyveld of the William Paterson University, USA was in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) to deliver an Extension Lecture on ‘Sir Syed and Women’s Education’ at the University Polytechnic Auditorium.
It was in the 1860s that the AMU founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan started taking interest in the liberal ideology of his time and wrote articles arguing about the necessity of women’s education, Prof Lelyveld said in his lecture, organized by the Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History, a release by Dr Rahat Abrar, AMU’s public relations officer said.
Prof. David Lelyveld delivering University Extension Lecture at AMU
“A number of articles by Sir Syed appeared in the Aligarh Institute Gazette on the subject of women’s rights, insisting that women’s education should not violate the rules of parda,” he said.
He also pointed out that on his ship trip to England in1869, Sir Syed had encountered Mary Carpenter, who had travelled to India for women’s education. “The encounter is recounted in his Safarnama (travelogue) and also in an article by Avril Powel, which reproduces the page that Sir Syed contributed to Ms Carpenter’s notebook, in which Sir Syed expressed his admiration for her efforts.”
“At the same time, Sir Syed was noticing that women of Egypt and Ottoman Turkey were attending school and he was impressed by the general level of literacy among the women he countered in England,” he added and further said that Sir Syed, in an article, also urged Indian women to give up old customs, superstition and other irrational actions and beliefs.
He said that Sir Syed lived at a time when male ideology was dominant in Hindus and Muslims of India and pointed out that “even women of the Nehru family were in parda till the early years of the 20th century.”
Prof Lelyveld also said that during Sir Syed’s lifetime, many of his followers including Mumtaz Ali and the first generation of Aligarh students, such as Shiekh Abdullah were brave enough to take up the cause of women’s education. “In 1930, the then Vice chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University, Sir Syed’s grandson, Sayyid Ross Masood, delivered the presidential address to the Muslim Educational Conference in Benaras, in which he spoke eloquently against parda and in favour of women’s education.”
Presiding over the lecture, Lt General Zameer Uddin Shah (retd), the AMU Vice Chancellor, thanked Prof Lelyveld for sharing his research. He said, “Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was very cautious and moved slowly and gradually to establish foundations of this university where Sheikh Abdullah later founded a women’s college.
While, the event was conducted by Prof Ali Athar, coordinator and chairman, Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History; Prof Nazim Ali, Department of West Asian Studies, proposed the vote of thanks, the release added.