By Aisha Zafar for Twocircles.net
As a nation, we both curse and create stereotypes. We are a judgemental lot, especially when it comes to matters of community. Let us talk about Aligarh Muslim University, an institution often caught in the eye of controversies. I write neither as a patron nor critic of the place, but as someone tired of the innumerable ‘tags’ that it holds. The presence of the word ‘Muslim’ in the name and its placement in the small town of Aligarh greatly affects the institution’s reputation. I write to let people know that there is more to Aligarh Muslim University than burqa-clad women and sherwani-sporting men.
My earlier education ranged from studying in two convents to completing senior secondary from a Tagore school in Allahabad. When I first came to Aligarh Muslim University for my honours, I did not approve of the display of Muslim culture in the place. It was only later that I realised that I never questioned the Christian or the Hindu customs of my respective schools. While the title in the names of my schools never made me think twice, it did bother me in the case of my university. This is reflective of a mentality where we come to associate religion with progress. I eventually understood that the institution’s ‘tehzeeb’ was an expression of its ideals and not an enforcement of a certain belief.
Struggling with its own set of stigmas, Aligarh Muslim University is a place for both learning and leisure. The academic credibility of the institution is already established; the latter is what few know about. The widely held notion that shayari is Aligarh’s sole idea of extra-curricular is false to say the least. The Cultural Educational Centre of the university is home to literary, film, music, drama, eco and hobbies clubs. It is a platform where students from all departments, both genders and all ages come together in order to display their talents. The first ever literary festival of the university, held last year, got an amazing response from all over the country. It hosts various national and international events every now and then with stalwarts of different fields as guests.
Amidst the chaos of controversies, the institution also bears witness to the emergence of various student activist groups. Led by sane voices, they work in order to make the campus more aware and gender sensitised among other things. Campaigns such as ‘Why Loiter?’ which deem women’s leisure time equally important to that of men have been effectively running in the university for some time now. So if your impression of Aligarh Muslim University was that of a ‘Madarsa’; you now know better. The problems that it faces are mainly a result of pigeonholes created and accepted over time. This acceptance of misjudged ideas is exactly what needs to be disregarded to attain a completely modern and secular institution. The change has sure begun.
Aisha Zafar is a third-year Literature student at the Aligarh Muslim University and defines herself by her love of books, food and roads, in varying order.