April 24, 2005

In the hallowed halls of an institution that still strives to breed the intellectual elite of Indian Muslims, nostalgia and memories abound

It was in February, this year that I came to know that the Sir Syed Memorial Society, Islamabad, was taking a delegation to the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. But since I was not a member of the Society and I really wanted to accompany them there was only thing I could do.

I got in touch with the President of the Society who agreed to take me along, provided I was able to arrange for an Indian visa for myself within the next 24 hours as the delegation was to fly out of Lahore the very next day.

Aligarh and Sir Syed’s movement had enamoured me ever since I was a youngster. Sir Syed’s name was frequently mentioned in our home by my father who had studied way back in 1918 at the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College, the forerunner of the Aligarh Muslim University. Thanks to an old school friend — one of the finest human beings East of the Suez, with whom my friendship has survived 58 years, and the kindness of the Indian High Commission, I was able to get the visa stamped on my passport and join the delegation in Lahore to board the PIA flight for New Delhi.

Our delegation comprised of former Aligarians who had studied at that institution before partition to a few years later and had then migrated to Pakistan. These men and women, in their early and late 70s and 80s looked forward to seeing their Alma Mater, perhaps for the last time in their lives.

The 45-minute flight was routine with Arrival Cards to be filled and the in-flight crew rushing to lay and collect the snack trays in a race against time.

On arrival, after collecting our baggage and going through Customs we got onto the waiting coaster, which was to take us on a three-hour journey to Aligarh. The traffic out of New Delhi on the bypass road that joins the old G.T. Road, is terrible. But an Indian driver rivals the best in the world in this skill. With our delegation clutching the seats in front and praying for a safe arrival, our driver manipulated to go through the maze of traffic and get onto a narrow metalled strip that we were told was the old Grand Trunk Road. We passed through Ghaziabad, almost a suburb of New Delhi now, as the shadows lengthened and night came on. Within the hour we were driving in total darkness, save the lights of the oncoming traffic. Some of the delegates referred to this and were told that due to power shortage all the electricity was diverted to running UP’s industry during the night. In India national priorities take precedence over personal comfort, this is the way that the nation has been groomed and brought up.

We bypassed sleepy towns with beautiful names like Buland Shehar but by now, both the driver and the attendant were as hungry as ourselves and offered us a break for dinner at Khurja, at one of the best dhabas (roadside truckers restaurant) where everything from delicious Shahi Paneer to Shahjahani Biryani was said to be available. A stray look at the dhaba, however, convinced members of our party that it was advisable to battle the pangs of hunger than bear the torments of an upset stomach. On stepping down at Khurja I was reminded of my old friend, now a well-settled gentleman in Karachi of Pathan stock who hailed from this place. Thanks to Pakistan, his connections and intelligence, he had done exceedingly well and advanced from being a mariner to becoming a prosperous business executive.

The road between Khurja and Aligarh became narrower taking us more than two hours to reach the outskirts of Aligarh where the annual exhibition, which is a regular feature of the University’s activities, was being held. One could see the lights of the exhibition dazzling from miles away and once we drew nearer one realized the expanse of the exhibition grounds.

We made a few mistakes in entering the University campus when the old Aligarians with us took over the responsibility of guiding the driver by following landmarks known to them and locating the Guest House where we were to lodge. Unfortunately the topography had changed so much with the new construction and realignments of the roads that the recognizable landmarks of yesteryear had vanished and we ended in dead end lanes. It was after midnight when, through the courtesy of some University students who were up and about till then, that we were put in touch with the faculty members who were directly involved in the arrangements concerning our delegation. One could sense their relief on seeing us. Despite the late hour we were given an exceptionally warm welcome and treated to a sumptuous dinner at one in the morning. It was obvious that hospitality was one of the traditions of the Aligarh University.

Everything about the University emits an aroma of history. The buildings the roads, the hostels the libraries. It seems that somehow time has come to a standstill within the campus. The major contribution to this effect has been that unlike Pakistan there is great emphasis on conservation. It goes to the credit of the successive administrations of the Aligarh Muslim University that they have maintained the unique character of their institution. The buildings constructed during the time of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan for the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College still stand and remain in use today. There has been no pulling down of old buildings and replacing them with monolithic blocks. New construction, wherever undertaken has been on vacant lots within the University area. The guest house to which we retired for the night was the former residence of one Professor Babar. Its huge drawing and dining room was the lounge and the dining hall of the guesthouse. Its lawns spread over several thousand square yards reminded one of the residences left behind by the British in the GOR of Lahore.

The Aligarh Muslim University has 29,000 students on its rolls and employs 2,500 teachers and nearly 7500 other staff. Of these students, 21,000 students live in 16 halls of residence on campus. It has 90 departments and its libraries carry a million books. It has five high Schools (including one for blind students), a medical college, a dental college, a school of nursing, an engineering college, a women’s college and a full-fledged hospital in addition to many institutes, centres and academies focusing on research. From these figures one could see the size to which the University has grown since Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s MAO College became a University in 1920. The University receives funds to the tune of Rs250 crores annually from the Indian government.

The forerunner of the Aligarh University, the Madarasat ul Ulum (the school from which Sir Syed Ahmad Khan started) and the MAO college, did not merely mean the setting up of educational institutions, in reality it meant laying the foundation stone of a country-wide progressive movement in which Muslims would educate themselves and shed the mantle of decadence and bigotry and embrace progressive, scientific and modern thinking. And what of the man who nursed this idea and transformed his dream into reality at a time when Muslims were still recovering from the depths of despondency and licking the wounds of loss of power due to the events of 1857?

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan though a man with a flowing beard was no bigoted Mullah. He was well versed in Quran and Hadith to write his own Tafsir and to turn out a work like Tabin ul Kalam a commentary on the Bible and Torah showing the many similarities between the three great religions. He was a scholar who chronicled the historical monuments of Delhi, in Asrar O Sanadid and yet again conceived and constructed buildings under his supervision like the Strachey Hall which still entice the human eye regardless of the passage of time, all with funds he generated by selling his own property and contributions from the well-to-do and commoner. It is surprising that a large number of contributors for his projects were non-Muslims!

This multifaceted public leader was a member of the Viceroy’s Legislative Council and a Member of the Public Service Commission. For his progressive views on Islam he came to loggerheads with the bigoted Mullah and several fatwas were issued against him, yet the man survived to over eighty years of age without so much as a bodyguard protecting him — single-handedly fighting the slander that was hurled at him.

The Sir Syed House, the residence that his son Justice Syed Mahmud had purchased for him, now houses the museum. Old photographs and personal belongings of Sir Syed are on display. After the passing away of Justice Syed Mahmud, Sir Syed House became known as the English House where the children from the princely states of India who came to study at Aligarh, lived. It saw a period of neglect and abandonment after partition but was eventually purchased, restored and converted into a museum by the Aligarh Muslim University in 1974.

Another important landmark of the Aligarh Muslim University is the Women’s College named after Sheikh Abdullah (affectionately called ‘papa mian’) a convert to Islam. Sheikh Abdullah studied at the MAO College, at Aligarh graduating in 1895. Seven years later he married Waheed Jehan (affectionately called Aala Bi) from a wealthy Muslim family of New Delhi. Sheikh Abdullah following in the footsteps of Sir Syed brought from his own resources a tract of land where the women’s college is now located. The girl students used to live in rented premises till such time that the Abduilah Lodge, the girls hostel was built to house them. Sheikh and Begum Abdullah (parents of the late Begum Khurshid Mirza, the well-known film and TV star who passed away in Pakistan) worked hard in setting up and running the women’s college. The Women’s College and the Abdullah Lodge are living testimonies to the dedication of this couple to the cause of women’s education in the subcontinent.

Many members of our delegation were deeply moved and some of them could not hold back their tears once they found themselves in familiar surroundings of their childhood and their youth. During the visit to the school, one member took us to a spot where he was caught by his teacher doing mischief and saying that he had had the unique honour of punishing two generations both the father (a serving Professor at Aligarh at that time) and the son for misdemeanour. Yet another instance was of a cricketer who had stayed on at the University to become the Captain of its team before migrating to Pakistan who went to the cricket pavilion and saw an old photograph still on display and then took a stroll towards the pitch on which he had bowled, batted and got out many times in the distant past.

The one-week visit ended with the Aligarh Muslim University treating us as royal guests showering a kind of hospitality. Some eyes were misty and everyone was moved when we took leave of our hosts and left the Guest House for the Aligarh Railway Station for the journey back to New Delhi.

A visit to the Aligarh Muslim University should be considered essential for every Pakistani to apprise him or her of what one man can achieve through single-minded devotion to a cause he believes in. The name of Aligarh Muslim University and that of its founder will remain enshrined in history. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s stature as an eminent educationist, scholar and public servant, puts him at the top of the list of the greatest of men produced by the Indian subcontinent.

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