Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Aligarh Movement

Before Deeply analysing the aligarh movement deeply, it is more important to note that how in which critical phase sir syed ahmed khan and aligarh movement helped the muslims to raise their standard of life. Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi in his book "struggle for Pakistan" has rightly defined the areas where sir syed ahmed khan made his indelible impacts on the life of Muslims. He defined social, political religion and education those aspects of muslim life in subcontinent, which were never been taken into consideration after the debacle of war of independence in 1857.

But apart from it what sir syed ahmed khan and aligarh movement had done was a miracle. Muslim were in no position or marginalised community after 1857. British Raj was with all its authority trying to keep the muslims away fromt the realm of government. W.W.hunter has rightly given the details about what was being done to muslims in Subcontinent. Muslims were were not able to apply for any job, they were even not eligible to apply for pity positions in any government. 

Muslim educational system in subcontinent which was once a great system of delivering education to muslims by the funding of rich muslims was totally abandoned. Large chunks of lands which were allotted to muslim educational institutions were taken back into custody by British Raj. Moreover, the system was underlined so that nobody, who has acquired education from old muslim madressah was able to play his part in government machinery.

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British government considered the muslims solely responsible for the war of independence 1857. So muslims were socially restricted. Being a muslim was enough to assume that he is a rebel. Moreover, hindus were availing every opportunity to take revenge from muslims of their one thousand years rule. 

In these gloomy conditions sir syed ahmed khan came forward to rescue the muslims. He took his work from the field of education and established many institutions like murad abad madressah , muslim educational society and Ali Garh School which later on was made  Aligarh University in 1920. Indeed Sir Syed selected education as he was very well aware of the fact that unless muslims are educated they can not compete their hindu counterpart. 

His vision of modern education gave a layer of leadership to muslims within their own ranks. Those student who completed their education from aligarh became pioneer of muslims right. They were the leaders of Pakistan Movement.

Moreover, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan provided an intellectual support to the Pakistan Movement. It is said that Sir Syed and Two Nation Theory are interconnected. As it was the Sir Syed Ahmed khan who first time realised during the Urdu Hindi Controversy 1867 that muslims and hindus will not be able to live together.

Sir Syed and Congress both are topics of quite important. As the congress was the first ever political organization and Sir Syed was the first person among the muslims to warn them to not be the part of congress. As his political acumen was helpful to him to anticipate that congress was going to be a hindu party in future.

Sir Syed Ahmed khan tried to patch the differences between British and the Muslims. Through his research work and commentary of the Holy Quran, he tried to prove that Christianity and Islam are more close to each other. He encouraged the  muslims to maintain warm relations with British Rulers.

Apart from all this, establishment of muslim educational conference in 1886 was one of the fantastic ideas of the Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. As where he provided a forum for political activities, there it proved a platform for speed up the educational activities. Indeed Sir Syed played a very wise role to compose a through intellect of the muslims in subcontinent.

Aligarh movement and Pakistan are the transition of each of each other. Because when aligarh movement was being started then it was  a sketch that how the muslims would fight for their country. And When results of aligarh movement started coming then finally muslims were able to get their homeland Pakistan. Indeed Aligharh movement provided every support to Pakistan movement.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and muslim nationalism in South Asia are  two main points of aligarh movement. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan played a dynamical role to awaken the sense of being a separate nation among the muslims of subcontinent. He largely realised the muslims that their cultural and religious orientations are totally different so they should consider them as nation having their roots to the greater civilization of Islam.

Sir Syed ahmed khan is one of the true founder of Pakistan. He through his aligarh movement, which was basically an educational movement, carried out the uphill task of muslim development in subcontinent. History proved that whatever Sir Syed Ahmed khan had done was largely in the interests of the muslims of Subcontinent. Sir Syed and Aligarh Movement will always be remembered as golden chapter of muslim history in subcontinent.