By Dr M. Mohibul Haque for TwoCircles.net
It would not be wrong to say that Aligarh Muslim University is one of the greatest achievements of Muslims of India. It is amongst the top universities of India according to Times Higher Education Survey and also the ‘the first modernist Islamic institution in the world’ according to H.A.R Gibb. Established in 1875 as Madarsatul Uloom by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan with generous help from the Muslim community, it became the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College in 1877, and subsequently was upgraded into a University in 1920. The University has been the epitome of the hopes and aspirations of Muslims of the subcontinent for almost a century.
It is regarded as the nerve center of Muslim intelligentsia in India and is also credited or blamed (depending on how you choose to look at it) for creating Pakistan. In this sense, the Aligarh Muslim University is perhaps the only educational institution in the world which is discussed not only in the context of changing the course of history but also the geography of a region.
It is believed that the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union (AMUSU) is the first students Union of the Indian subcontinent. It has also been the nursery of the Muslim leadership for decades. Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Hasrat Mohani, Liaquat Ali Khan, General Muhammad Ayub Khan, Sheikh Abdullah, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Azam Khan, Arif Muhammad Khan, Salim Peerzada, and many others are the proud products of this great body. The AMUSU has articulated the grievances of Muslims from all over the world and has been enjoying the faith of the community at large. One of the greatest achievements of the AMUSU in the post-partition India is its organized and successful democratic struggle for the restoration of the minority character of the University from 1965 to 1981. However, in the recent past, the AMUSU seems to have lost its past glory.
Unscrupulous leaders managing to win by exploiting regional sentiments have destroyed the image of this great body. It has stopped playing its traditional role of providing leadership to the Muslims of India. Its frequent and unwarranted interference in the smooth functioning of the University has led to dissolution of the body after every brief interval. The suspension of elections to the body denies students the opportunity to articulate their grievances through their elected representatives. Moreover, the vacuum created by the absence of the Union is filled by the more aggressive and violent elements claiming regional backing, or by the so-called informers, sycophants, or the ‘good boys’. These ‘good boys’ within no time become the ‘bad boys’ deserving all punishments.
The decision of the University administration to hold elections to the coveted AMUSU is indeed worth appreciating. It is important that the present administration declared elections of the Union without there being any kind of pressure on them which imposes additional responsibility on the students and their leaders to maintain calm and peace on the campus. It is always said that the voters get the representatives they deserve. The voters to the AMUSU have to understand the importance of their body and the incumbents they are going to send to it. After the student leader Kanhaiya Kumar’s issue on JNU campus and his amazing leadership skill exhibited during the last few months, the focus of the media and policymakers has shifted to the politics of the campuses of the universities and colleges. Due to this, the AMUSU elections become important. The students all over the country have got a role model in the form of Kanhaiya Kumar who is amazingly articulate and politically mature with impeccable personal integrity. The students of AMU should also elect leaders from amongst them who are articulate, honest, sincere and devoted to the cause of the University and the community. For this, they have to rise above regionalism, sectarianism, communalism and casteism. The voters have to engage the contestants in rational debate on vital issues relating to the community and the country.
The future leaders of the AMUSU will be expected to resist the attempts of the ruling dispensation at the saffronisation of education and abolition of the minority character of the University. They will definitely be consulted by the media to sit in the newsrooms of the TV channels to discuss the issues pertaining to Muslims of India. They shall be expected to give interviews to national and international media on disturbing issues like the radicalisation of Muslim youths, their grievances, and predicaments. The battle for the restoration of the minority character of the University is to be led mainly by the leaders of the AMUSU; therefore, an articulate and mature leadership is the need of the hour.
It should be also kept in mind that the victims of communal riots living in the makeshift tents in Muzaffarnagar, innocent youths languishing behind the bars with serious charges, the victims of natural calamities, the sufferers of violence in Kashmir, and even the people living in Gaza and other parts of Palestine have every right to expect something from the AMUSU keeping in view its role in the past. The secular political parties wait for emergence of political leadership from the vibrant campus of this great seat of learning, so that these leaders can be recruited to play a greater role on a bigger canvas. The emerging Dalit-Muslim unity against the rightist forces awaits a sincere and talented leadership to strengthen and consolidate it and to translate it into a formidable political and social force. A community without a leader is like a ship without radar that drifts aimlessly in the sea.
The author is assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, Aligarh Muslim University