By Tariq Hasan
ALIGARH : Despite the efforts of the AMU authorities to clarify the misgivings which have arisen following some media reports accusing the University of depriving non-Muslim students of lunch in different hostels during Ramadan. The issue continues to simmer. Different saffron organizations have found yet another stick to beat the institution on one pretext or the other. On Wednesday, members of these organizations had announced that they would take out a procession highlighting their anger over this issue which would culminate at the gates of the AMU. The City police however managed to dissuade them from this protest. The protesters handed over a memorandum to the district authorities charging the AMU authorities of compelling all residents of different hostels to observe fast during Ramadan.
The AMU authorities have been repeatedly denying the allegation pointing out that there has always been a provision in different hostels of the University enabling them to apply to the dining room authorities in writing for serving of lunch to all those who do not fast.
The AMU authorities however seem to have been caught unaware by the intensity of the protest and are now busy dousing the fires. The AMU Vice Chancellor has issued written instructions to all hostels for providing lunch and breakfast to all those who do not observe fast if they duly inform the hostel authorities.
The founding fathers of the Aligarh Muslim University had in the late eighteen seventies made special provisions to ensure that the religious sensitivities of Hindu boarders were not hurt on matters pertaining to food served in hostels of the institution. This issue has come into focus more than 147 years after the establishment of this institution because of the ongoing unsavoury controversy over alleged denial of food to non-Muslim students in this University during the month of Ramadan.
According to noted Urdu writer and historian of the Aligarh Movement, Prof. Rahat Abrar, the founder of the AMU, then known as the MAO College, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, was deeply conscious of the fact that Hindu students would join the institution only if their boarding facilities did not impinge upon their religious practices and habits.
Abrar whose recent book in Urdu, “Sir Syed Aur Unke Maasreen” (Sir Syed and His Contemporaries), which highlights Sir Syed’s close association with some of the great Hindu social reformers and educationists of that era, points out that keeping in mind Hindu sensitivities during the initial years of the institution, the MAO College had made special separate arrangements for maintenance of kitchen for Hindu students. This was done by arranging separate bungalows in the campus for housing Hindu students.
Abrar points out that when Raja Mahendra Pratap, who later became one of the leading lights of India’s Freedom Movement, joined the MAO College, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan arranged for a separate bungalow for him and other Hindu students and he was permitted to bring his family cooks for managing the kitchen.
Sir Syed’s wife, Begum Musharraf Jahan wanted to admit their grandson, Ross Masood, in the same hostel. Raja Mahendra Pratap had no objection but Sir Syed Ahmad Khan refused permission to his grandson because he felt that his food habits could disturb other Hindu students.
Abrar points out that for more than a century now, AMU has been following a tradition wherein Muslim sensitivities during the month of Ramadan pertaining to abstinence of food water, prayer and meditation are observed during this period while simultaneously ensuring that no unnecessary inconvenience is caused to Non-Muslim boarders. Under this system, non-Muslim students and also to those Muslims who do not fast were provided access on demand to separate kitchens for providing lunch. This system has been in place for several decades now and there were no problem son this score. There has never been any attempt to prevent or even discourage Hindu students from partaking their lunch during this month.
Abrar said that it is unfortunate that some saffron organizations have now chosen to rake up a controversy which will only lead to straining of communal ties and weakening the bonds of inter-communal relations between students which have withstood the storms and turbulences during a very difficult period of the country’s history.