Sir Syed beyond emotional veneration

Sir Syed emphasized the values of compassion, brotherhood and tolerance. He wrote a detailed and moving obituary to mourn the death of a highly respected Vedic scholar Swami Dayanand Saraswati who passed away on October 31, 1883.

Do reverence and emotional attachment to a polymath produce an unseemly tragic narrative? Do the grateful countries, indebted institutions, and the beholden public celebrate his birthday zestfully without conversing with his layered and copious primary texts? Do his writings,  invested with tremendous potential of quickening pragmatism rather than encouraging blind adherence and authoritarian dictates, remain inaccessible and unfathomable? These are not rhetorical or hypothetical questions; they recapitulate the intriguing story of Sir Syed, a seminal figure of nineteenth-century India who is hardly known beyond being the founder of Aligarh Muslim University.

 Sir Syed established a college in 1877, and now it has established its credentials as a premier educational institution in the country. Its alums spread across to celebrate his birthday on October 17 by organizing commemorative meetings and convivial dinners. The University also organizes several programmes and named many buildings after him. The sprawling campus is dotted with his quotations and photographs. AMU set up Sirsyed Academy, which published several books on him and the University persuaded the government of India to release three commemorative postal stamps.

 Sir Syed has become a household name, and emotional veneration not grounded in the informed debate he produced continues to resonate. Years of incessant ritualized remembrance burned up, but his original collected works eluded us. Books aside, Sir Syed’s writings are buried in the periodicals he edited. A long and discomfiting hiatus looms large as his adumbrations offer new insight into understanding our vexed issues. The ubiquity of authenticity avoidance prone and casually edited sixteen-volume collected works of Sir Syed (Ed: Ismail Panipati,  Majlis-e-Tarraqi Adab, Lahore,1955) leaves one discontented. Ismail Panpati’s work is riddled with severe lapses, academic frivolity, and insolence. Several articles carrying the names of other authors and explicitly mentioned translations have been credited to Sir Syed, and his seminal articles have been passed up.

MS Education Academy

 In 2020, AMU celebrated its centenary with a strong sense of academic elation and cultural exultation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also joined the online celebrations and released a commemorative book postal stamp. Still, a well-timed and steadfast tribute eludes Sirsyed. After two years, the University does up the most appropriate and enduring monumentalization by publishing six volumes on Sir Syed collected through academic scrutiny and research acuity. It is undoubtedly a standout and sustained effort undertaken by the Sir Syed Academy. Vice-chancellor Professor Tariq Mansoor seems quite determined to strengthen the cerebral legacy of Sir Syed as he was instrumental in getting two well-documented commemorative volumes on Sir Syed and AMU published by a reputed publisher. The six volumes carry the original articles procured through vigorous research spread over ten volumes that Ismail Panipati hurriedly put together. Last week the volumes were released by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, who pointed out that Sir Syed’s writings can bring deep-seated inertia to ruin and generate inventive thinking.

Sir Syed Academy has digitized 100,000 pages of Si Syed, and a proposal for Sir Syed Chair has been submitted, VC further informed.

People hardly knew that a lot of material had not been included in the Maqalate Sir Syed. Selective and flawed access to his writings prevented people from realizing the frivolousness of the oft-repeated charge against Sir Syed of being the “Prophet of Muslim Nationalism.” One is destined to draw a blank if he seeks to find the traces of a religious zealot in him, no matter how hard he tries.

New collected works reveal that he wrote scores of editorials in his periodical, the Aligarh Institute Gazette, to pay rich tributes to Hindu saints and scholars. By highlighting their contribution to the collective life of India, Sir Syed emphasized the values of compassion, brotherhood and tolerance. A highly respected Vedic scholar Swami Dayanand Saraswati who died on October 31, 1883. Sir Syed wrote a detailed and moving obituary to mourn his death: “It is deeply regretted that Swami Dayanand Saraswati, a known scholar died at 6 am in Ajmer. He conclusively proved that Vedas do not affirm idol worship. I believe that Swamiji described Material as Maya, which is immutable and eternal. His concept of God closely resembled Muslim belief. Of his efforts, a new sect of Hinduism came into existence. We hardly appreciate the emergence of a new sect in religion, but Swamiji tried to stitch up a spiritual bonding based on Jyoti Swarup Nirankaar.”

This aside, Sir Syed paid glowing tributes to many reputed Hindu scholars, journalists, and authors who left an indelible imprint.   He was the first Muslim public intellectual who spelt out the contours of interfaith dialogue instead of engaging in fierce polemics.

Sir Syed Academy’s effort to make the collected works of Sir Syed readily available is worth admiring. One can hope to get it on the stalls as the writings of  Swami Vivekanand, Gandhiji, Tagore, and the like are readily available.

Prof. Shafey Kidwai, a well-known writer, teaches Mass communication at AMU

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