Partners in Freedom: Jamia Millia Islamia

217 Pages·2006·66.491 MB·English

by  Mushirul Hasan, Rakhshanda Jalil

M u sh iru l H a sa n & R a k h sh a n d a ja lil
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p o r c w o t^
Historians have produced many world too viewed Jamia as a somewhat
different works on the role of shabby crucible where experiments in
educational institutions in the modern education were being carried out
Indian nationalist movement, Yet, Jamia or, at best, a modest, other-worldly retreat
Millia Islamia figures as a mere footnote in from the real world of competition and
their narratives. A product of the anti­ ‘mainstream’ education. Its quamtness
colonial movement, Jamia was nurtured by drew the high-minded who sought
men and women deeply committed to the 'otherness' but kept away the serious
nationalistic cause， to the fostering of student and the professional scholar.
composite cultxtre and a creative synthesis： Recent years have seen a gradual, and
of ‘traditional’ and ‘modem’ learning, Whyy grudging, change in perception. Today，
then, did Jamia get left out when Jamia draws both students and teachers
'honourable mentions1 were being doled out from a wider swathe than ever before. While
in the early days of free India? Why did it it continues to be difficult: to describe, it is
not find a pride of place among 'the temples no longer a recalcitrant child. It has grown
of modem India5? Why was the post-1947 up to become a modern, bustling vibrant
national leadership so reluctant to let the University. But it is a University with a
institution grow? singular difference. It has a paist that sets it
The problem with Jamia is that it has apart from other educational institutions. It
always been a little, difficult to describe. Its has a character and an identity : tha^^ ^
refusal to conform to standard definitions： uniquely its own. More importantly, it has a
has cost it dearly. Jawaharlal Nehra had legacy, a rich inheritance that few
written in 1952: The Jamia does not fit in educational institutions in India can, lay
our normal rules and regulations for claim to.
schools, colleges, universities and the like. I In the pages of this book, we endeavour
suppose that is why it is a little difficult to: to unfurl that legacy and, in so doing, tell a
help it/ And Jamia too has been not a little 伽 ry that has hot been told before. We also
prickly about accepting help, even from the hope to place Jamia^ story in the larger
most well-meaning quarters. For far tap 0 ，111cm 〇[ the nationalist movement,
long, it lived in a shell, hiding its light under untangle the tangled skein of cause and
a bushel, being content in charting its own effect and arouse interest in the historical
trajectory at its own pace and conforming to study of educational centres in India perse.
its own, sometimes whimsical, sometimes When mere words fail us and straight­
idealistic, standards. For far' too long, the forward narration does not suffice, we
reproduce rare and iiever-seeivbe fore Rlillia ：Isiamia) and Dr Shakeel Ahmad
photographs of men and women and places Khan, Äcting-Librarkti， Maulana Äzaü
associated with jamia. These are precious Library, Aligarh Muslim University.
records of Jamia-s role in national life and ： We are especially graterul to Protesspr
its long and tortuous journey. Asghar Abbas for his help in locating pagersè：
The correspondence, personal papers and correspondence dating to the： years
and writings, of some df Jamia's founders ■ preGedmg the birth of Jamia. He allowed
provide the bedrock of our research. In ： ； acGëss to the Syed Ahmed Arcnives.
particular, the writings of M.K. Gatidhi, Ätneeenä Qazi Ansari summarizecl?
Jawalmrlar雜 teu，M;A- AnSari，Moねamqä :: thankMly, Zakir jri[usainJ$； stones. Professor
Ali, Mohammad Mujeeb and Abid Flusaia Shamirn Hanafi, Mr M^soodul Haq, Dr
have? among others, ? not just given； Zaheer Ali Khan:， Mr Mohammad Shakir
bare bones to flesh out Jamia^ story; they and Professor Sheharyar have b： een very
have, far more importantly, cotiyinced us supportive, Sima Sharma and L,K. Sharma
that here Is a story that needs to be told not offered useM suggestions while the book
in part or in driblets but in its entirety.^ ： was in its draft stage. We gratefully
The profiles of Dr Ansari. Ajmal K.tian aま如双ledge thdM啤 and adviee.:
and AJ. Kidwai are based on Mushkul： As for the errors and omissions, tüe t?est
Hasan's Nationalist ■ £onscience: MM. apology we can make is Dr Johnson’s—--
:jinsqnf the Congress and the (1986)； and ’Ignorance, Madam淨伽 ignorance.”
^öm .Pluralism^ to SeparMton: Oasbas tn We neither sought nor received any
Colonial Awadh (2004). The chapter financicü assistance from any quarter—
Intellectual Legacies’ is an elaboration of official or private. Moreover, the views
the argument in Mushirul Legacy 〇/-■ expressed in this work are the result of our
an Undivided Nation: India's Muslims Since study and research and do not: reflect the
Independence (1997). Dr Rabat Abrar, PRO, 'offtciaF view.
Aligarh Muslim University helped us ^；；：： Tms is3 in fact, a historian's Diography of
4
source some of the pictures.^Ak did Javed an idea, a movement and an institution that
Aiam at the Nehru Memorial Museum was once called the 'Nationa!. Muslim
Library, and Zehra Rashid, Archivjst, Dr University' but is tciHa^ the Jamia Millia
Zakit Husain & His Contemporaries Islamia.
Archives and Portrait Gallery, Jamia Millia ^ Mushirul Hasan
islamia, Dr byed Jamal Abidi, Assistant* _ Rakhshanda JalU
Librarian, Dr Zakir Husain LiSrary, Jamia 〜 Delhi, 2006

，■ ヤis iiss wwhh ere it all began,' thé public
I relations officer of the Aligarh ぶ:J W ひ外
」L- Muusslliimm University directs us to a
building in a busy thoroughfare. He points
to a structure that housed the Jamia Millia
一^
Islamia in its early days. As we move from
1 ^ 7 ^ A
what was reportedly the Krishna Ashram to
v 曹
the catalogues of the Mauiana Azad
Library at the Aligarh Muslim University,
we are dismayed to find that the
historiography of educational movements
in India is not substantial, and that of Jamia
is negligible. The search at the Zakir riusain
Library at our own university yielded little,
and one began to make sense of the
following exhortation of K.G. Saiyidain, We hope that this book, the first of its kind, Jamm in its early days.
In front of Lai Di朋i .
who had been connected with Jamia since would meet the long-felt need to which
in Alißwrh.
its inception: ^aiyidain, the educationist, had drawn our
attention in 1965. We have endeavoured to
It is the responsibility of every indwuhml) trace the history of Jamia Millia Islamia, a
every community> every institution to rnsess major educational venture that had once
its pust, taking mrey however, that it： does gained fame for its initiatives in basic and
beeyin its owmihomy^ adult education. This has not been an easy
timey the^i the task, partly because of the paucity of source
towards the future with the
materials and partly because Jamia’s history
weight of the past on its back. It behoves us,
_ has been so closely intertwined with the
,;ioi la jbi'ßrt ii bnt l di'iriv anr
〇 freedom struggle and its principal 翁
JiviH iis si/rrr.^ mml nnv Icssoin %
protagonists in the 1920s and J30s. Yet; we
l'ri)n； it'tjnihnr^ uw! ivrnh/rssrs. \\c shouhi
have attempted to cover both these aspects
mu ivorship it Imi üi in mucal jni(ni'>nc'f!i
hy placing Jamia in the national frame as
on it, assimilating whatever is worthy,
irirctiiin whinny；' is nndenn o; ii.;ny〇nhy well as in its local context. In doing so we Facing page:
nr trails to dip one's iviuji Tins chnllnun' have tried to underline how nationwide Jamm Pnmmy cmd '
High Secondmy School
Int t v yon, ns il jhccs n!I oihrr nf/iiYr>iiirs events and processes impacted on Jamia's 九
tha-t also housed the office
in jtjct, ihr whole nation. evolution and ideology. of Dr ZaMir Hmain. —13
Moreover, this book recovers the voices
of certain leading figures who were
passionately devoted to the great Jamia
project from the time of its description, in
1920, as the lusty child of the Non-
cooperation Movement'. They were men of
the highest character, liberal in outlook,
generous and kind in personal relations,
and indefatigable in work. What is more,
they made strenuous efforts, as a biradari or
fraternity, to create nationhood within a
secular paradigm and in ictam their
secularized identity without giving up their prepare an individual for effective
communitarian concerns. participation in society. Real education,
We are interested in the vistas they according to him, could only be successfully
perceived on the horizon, the kind of world imparted in a proper cultural environment.
they wanted to help create, and the type of The Independent, the Allahabad news­
culture and social organization they paper, stated a couple of days after the
expected from the principles of education founding of Jamia: The echoes of Aligarh
they preached. It was, after all, Dr Zakir victory are reverberating in the bathing
Husain who had stated time and time again ghats of Banaras/ What, they might ask,
that education implied the development lies Dehmd this seemingly innocuous
and the harmonious balancing of one’s sentence? The answer lies in the story that
mental and physical qualities in order to \u' tell briefly for the uninitiated reader.
Our story begins with Mohandas with public interest that the two parties and
Karamchand Gandhi, the Kathiawar-born their leaders who had come through so
lawyer who returned to India in January much together and bore a mass of joint
1915 after twenty-one years in South Africa. responsibilities should present a united
The focus is not on his early campaigns but front to their respective constituencies.
on his Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Bills On 19 July 1918, a week before the
in Delhi in March-April 1919. We narrate reform proposals were submitted, the
this story in order to bring out the Rowlatt Committee report was published. It
significance of his visit to Aligarh in early was debated and passed in the Imperial
October 1920, a visit that triggered a chain Legislative Council in the teeth of
of events on the Mohammedan Anglo- opposition from all the Indian members.
Oriental College (hereafter MAO) campus, This did little to improve the image of the
‘the cherished Cordova of the East’. Raj. Even the moderates, who had pocketed
By 1919, as is well known, the clouds of their pride to defend the indefensible,
World War I had dispersed, raising the pointed out reproachfully that nothing
almost universal hope that peace would could be better calculated to lend colour to
reign in the world. Yet, economic distress the extremists’ assertion that within the
caused by a sharp increase in prices Jekyll of the reforms lurked the old Hyde of
deepened people’s anger against the repression. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the
Government of India. Added to this were chief architect of the Congress-League
the woes of the political classes, notably alliance, accused the government of having
those in the Indian National Congress and 'ruthlessly trampled upon the principles for
I he All India Muslim League. Aggrieved which Great Britain avowedly fought the
ihdiBritain, having just fought a war War". He was an able, cultured and upright
lto make1 the world safe for democracy, had man of gentlemanly exterior and
6 April 1919 is'one of the failed to honour its commitment to demeanour, who was acclaimed by all
most significant dates tklvancini* sclf-yovcmmcnf in Ttulia, they parlies ;is a brillianl lawyer.
m the history of
rejected the ivtbnn proposals of ridwin While the chiefs 〇!' the Allied Annies
Indian nationalism.
A fortnight before, Momagu, Secretary of Stale for India, mk \ debated and disputed ihc \'uimc of ddeated
M. K. Gandhi appealed to Chdmsibrd, the X'icorov. Alk'r I'-MS, ihc and disarmed Germany. Chelmsford's
his countrymen to observe concunvnl Congress and I.caguc sessions government in India loimd ilsdl' incapable
it as a day of ‘humiliation
became a convcnlinn providing public ol. dL、aling*s\viiïly and cHlvlivd》 with rhe
and prayer' in protest
against the so-called lïyuivs an enlarged arena jbr mounting rumbling disconicm and agitalion in \hc
Rowlatl Act. poliiical campaigns.li sccmcJ in accordance rural and lii■卜an aras. Gaiuilii sensed the