The Founder Of A ‘Mini-India’

Context: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s ideas on religious unity and education for national integration are still relevant.

Major contributions of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

• An iconic social reformer: Pioneer in promoting Western–style scientific education by founding modern schools and journals and organising Islamic entrepreneurs.
  • In 1875, founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, the first Muslim university in Southern Asia. It later became Aligarh Muslim University.
• As a freedom fighter:
  • Education as tool for national integration: He believed that if we desire prosperity and development of nation, we should strive for a national system of education to educate our people in science and technology.
  • Led society during the period of rapid transition from Mughal rule yielding to British imperialism.
  • Laid out his vision for Hindu-Muslim unity: He wished to unshackle Hindus and Muslims from medieval thinking towards broad-mindedness, reason and progress.
• Leader of social harmony:
  • Inclusive approach: When he established madarsa in Ghazipur, he elected Raja Dev Narayan Singh as patron of the school. Sanskrit was one of the five languages taught at this school.
• As a religious reformer: He laid the foundation of comparative religious studies and revived the spirit of Dara Shikoh’s philosophy, that is, to bring major communities of India together by finding commonalities in their religions and assimilate them as a one mighty stream

Present day relevance of ideas of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

• As a guiding light: Principles of ‘nation first’ and ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, emphasise on Sir Syed’s rational, progressive and scientific mindset.
  • During times of rising fundamentalism, Sir Syed’s rational and scientific outlook to religion holds the guide to a prosperous future.
• Prioritise education – Success of AMU: Apart from drawing students from 26 other countries, it has students from 31 States and Union Territories and thus represents India’s multi-religious, multi-racial and multi-lingual character.
  • With new National Education Policy, role of education in national integration has been rekindled.