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"The Hindus and the Muslims are two different nations. The 1857 revolt was an act of ********. The English should remain in India forever."
Bigoted, Servile, Casteist, Misogynist - revisiting the real Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, missing from our textbooks.
1. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan On Education and his so-called Progressive outlook
There is no contradiction between the Word of God (Koran) and the Work of God. Just as the students of Oxford and Cambridge have to visit the church and attend the prayer regularly, the students [of Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College] will have to offer the congregational prayer five times a day.
An education without religious instruction is a body without soul.
The natives of India when contrasted with the English in education, manners and uprightness, are as like them as a dirty animal is to an able and handsome man. The English have reason for believing us in India to be imbecile brutes.
It is certain the Hindu members will have four times as many [votes] because their population is four times as numerous. Therefore we can prove by mathematics that there will be four votes for the Hindu to every one vote for the Mahomedan. And now how can the Mahomedan guard his interests? It would be like a game of dice in which one man had four dice, and the other only one. In the second place, suppose that the electorate be limited. Some method of qualification must be made; for example, that people with a certain income shall be electors.
Now, I ask you, O Mahomedans! Weep at your condition! Have you such wealth that you can compete with the Hindus? Most certainly not. The whole Council will consist of Babu So-and-so Mitter, Babu So-and-So Ghose, and Babu So-and-so Chuckerbutty.
If the Congress were to rule the country, although they wish to do so in the name of all the people of India, the Muslims could be helpless as they would be in a minority. The Congress program is a race with Hindus with whom we have no chance of success.
2. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan On Class and Caste discrimination and bigotry:
It is very necessary that for the Viceroy's Council the members should be of high social position. I ask you — Would our aristocracy like it that a man of low caste or insignificant origin, though he be a B.A. or M.A., and have the requisite ability, should be in a position of authority above them and have power in making laws that affect their lives and property? Never! Nobody would like it. A seat in the Council of the Viceroy is a position of great honour and prestige. None but a man of good breeding can the Viceroy take as his colleague, treat as his brother, and invite to entertainments at which he may have to dine with Dukes and Earls.
In an address at the foundation laying ceremony of Madrasa Anjuman-e-Islamia in Bareli where children from the so-called 'low-caste' communities used to study, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan said that he finds no use in teaching English to them. "It is better and in the interests of the community that they are engaged in the old form of study. It appears appropriate if you teach them some writing and math. They should also be taught small tracts on everyday affairs and through which they know basic beliefs and practices of the Islamic faith," he told them.
3. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan On the two-nation theory:
The Hindus and the Muslims are two different nations. If separate regiments of Hindus and Muslims had been raised, this feeling of brotherhood would not have arisen. Now, suppose that all English, and the whole English army, were to leave India, taking with them all their cannon and their splendid weapons and everything, then who would be rulers of India? Is it possible that under these circumstances two nations — the Mahomedans and the Hindus — could sit on the same throne and remain equal in power? Most certainly not. It is necessary that one of them should conquer the other and thrust it down. To hope that both could remain equal is to desire the impossible and the inconceivable. It is, therefore, necessary that for the peace of India and for the progress of everything in India, the English Government should remain for many years — in fact forever! This is our true friendship with our Christian rulers, and we should not join those people who wish to see us thrown into a ditch. If we join the political movement of the Bengalis our nation will reap loss, for we do not want to become subjects of the Hindus instead of the subjects of the People of the Book.
4. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan On Allegiance to the British and the Raj:
The 1857 revolt was an act of Haramzadgi [********]. The Mohemadans [in 1857] did not contemplate jihad against the Christians. Those who did were vagabonds and ill-conditioned men. To be faithful to one's salt is to disregard the first principles of our religion.
Loyalty to the British was the religious duty of Muslims. You [Moslems] are only justified in fighting the British if they actively prevent you from exercising your Islamic faith. We Mohammedans live in this country with every sort of religious liberty. We read our Azans as loud as we wish. We can preach our faith on public roads. We make converts of Christians to Islam without any fear of prohibition. Should the necessity arise, the stout hearts and strong arms of the students bred in MAO college would be ready to face bullets and bayonets in defense of the glorious empire to which it is our privilege to belong. We do not want to become subjects of the Hindus instead of the people of the Book [Christians]. The Koran is present for our guidance, which has ordained them, the Christians, and us to be friends. No Mohammedan can deny this: that God has said that no people of other religions can be friends of Mohammedans except Christians. He who had read the Quran and believes it, he can know that our nation [Muslims] cannot expect friendship and affection from any other people.
4th foreign university in GIFT City
