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The Aligarh Movement was the push to establish a modern system of Western-style scientific education for the Muslim population of British India, during the later decades of the 19th century. [1] The movement's name derives from the fact that its core and origins lay in the city of Aligarh in Central India and, in particular, with the foundation of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. [2] The founder of the oriental college, and the other educational institutions that developed from it, was Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. He became the leading light of the wider Aligarh Movement.
The education reform established a base, and an impetus, for the wider Movement: an Indian Muslim renaissance that had profound implications for the religion, the politics, the culture and society of the Indian subcontinent.
The failure of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 saw the end of the Mughal empire and the succession of the British. The Muslim society during the post mutiny period was in a deteriorating state. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan found the Muslim society to be educationally, socially and culturally backward. He blamed the prevailing education system for the degrading state of the Muslim society. [3] This led Sir Syed to initiate a movement for the intellectual, educational, social and cultural regeneration of the Muslim society. This movement came to be known as the Aligarh movement after Sir Syed established his school at Aligarh which later became the center of the movement. [4]
The Aligarh Movement introduced a new trend in Urdu literature. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and his association left the old style of writing in the Urdu language, which was rhetorical and academic, and started a simple style which helped Muslims to understand the main purpose of the movement. Sir Syed Ahmed was the central figure behind this awakening.
The prominent members involved with the movement have included.
The chief detractors of the Aligarh Movement were the conservative Ulemas of the time who blamed Sir Syed for promoting Western ethics and customs among the Muslims. [3] The Deoband school was also opposed to the Aligarh Movement. [73] Sir Syed and the movement was ridiculed in the Awadh Punch by his detractors like Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar, Munshi Sajjad Hussain and Akbar Allahabadi. He was also opposed by Pan-Islamist thinker and activist Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī. [74]
The Aligarh Movement has made a weighty and lasting contribution to the political emancipation of Indian Muslims and their leader Malik Muhammad Adil Taj. [75] The movement had a profound impact on the Indian society, particularly on the Muslim society compared to the other powerful but less adaptable movements of the 19th century. It influenced a number of other contemporary movements to a great extent that it caused the emergence of other socio-religious movements during the 19th century. The impact of Aligarh Movement was not confined to the Northern India only, but its expansion could be seen on the other regions of the Indian sub-continent during the 20th century. [76] The annual Educational Conferences held in different parts of the country played an effective role in the promotion of education among Muslims and directly or indirectly influenced the growth of institutes like Aligarh Muslim University, Osmania University, Dacca University, Anjuman-i-Tarqqi Urdu, Jamia Millia Islamia, Dar-ul-Uloom Nadva, Lucknow, and Dar-ul-Musannfafin, Azamgarh. [77] By the early 1900 Aligarh Movement became the progenitor to a number of socio-religious movements like the Urdu movement, [78] the Khilafat Movement [79] and the Pakistan Movement. [80]
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, also spelled Sayyid Ahmad Khan, was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India.
Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Munir Nawaz Jang, also known as Syed Mehdi Ali, was an Indian Muslim politician. He was a close friend of Syed Ahmed Khan, was involved in the Aligarh Movement and was one of the founders of the All India Muslim League in 1906.
Nawab Wiqar-ul-Mulk Kamboh was an Indian Muslim politician and one of the founders of All India Muslim League. Nawab Mushtaq Hussain or Nawab Wiqar Ul Mulk was also the maternal uncle of Sir Ziauddin Ahmed, a mathematician and pillar of the Aligarh Movement.
SirZiauddin Ahmad was an Indian mathematician, parliamentarian, logician, natural philosopher, politician, political theorist, educationist and a scholar. He was a member of the Aligarh Movement and was a professor, principal of MAO College, first pro vice-chancellor, vice chancellor and rector of Aligarh Muslim University, India.
Syed Sir Ross Masood bin Mahmood Khan, was the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University starting in 1929.
Maulvi Abdul Haq was a scholar and a linguist, who some call Baba-e-Urdu. Abdul Haq was a champion of the Urdu language and he demanded for it to be made the national language of Pakistan.
Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu was an organisation working for the promotion and dissemination of Urdu language, literature and culture in British India.
The All India Muhammadan Educational Conference was an organisation promoting modern, liberal education for the Muslim community in India. It was founded by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, also the founder of the Aligarh Muslim University. All India Mumammadan Educational Conference was the origin of the All-India Muslim League. The Muslim League was born in the 20th session of All India Muhammadan Educational Conference, which was established by Syed Ahmed Khan in Aligarh in 1886. Muhammadan Educational Conference used to hold its annual meetings in various cities where, by the co-operation of local Muslims, steps were taken for the progress of education.
The Scientific Society of Aligarh was a literary society founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan at Aligarh, India. The main objectives of the society were to translate Western works on arts and science into vernacular languages and promote western education among the masses.
The Urdu movement was a socio-political movement aimed at making the Urdu standard of the Hindostani language as the universal lingua-franca and symbol of the cultural and political identity of the Muslim communities of the Indian subcontinent during the British Raj. The movement began with the fall of the Mughal Empire in the mid-19th century, fuelled by the Aligarh movement of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. It strongly influenced the All India Muslim League and the Pakistan movement.
Syedna Tahir Saifuddin School, better known by its initials STS School, and by its former name Minto Circle, is a K–12 semi-residential high school under Aligarh Muslim University at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. Established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental Collegiate School in 1875, it later evolved as Aligarh Muslim University and is one of the five senior secondary schools run by the university.
Abdul Majeed Khwaja was an Indian lawyer, educationist, social reformer and freedom fighter from Aligarh. In 1920, he along with others founded Jamia Millia Islamia and later served its vice chancellor and chancellor.
Syed Afzal Ali was a person from Bulandshahr. Four of his sons were bestowed with the title of Khan Bahadur by British India, a rare distinction in a family of Indian history.
Raja Jai Kishan Das Chaube, CSI, Rai Bahadur was an Indian administrator and close associate of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, founder of Aligarh Muslim University.
Aligarh Muslim University is a public central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College became Aligarh Muslim University in 1921, following the Aligarh Muslim University Act. It has three off-campus centres in AMU Malappuram Campus (Kerala), AMU Murshidabad Centre, and Kishanganj Centre (Bihar).
Sahibzada Aftab Ahmad Khan was an attorney and educator. He was a former vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.
Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College was founded in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, initially as a primary school, with the intention of turning it to a college level institution. It was inspired by the Cambridge education system. It started operations on Queen Victoria's 56th birthday, 24 May 1875.
The Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union (AMUSU) is the official Students' Union of the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. The Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union is the university-wide representative body for students and is autonomous in nature. It works according to their own Constitution written by Amin A. Bulbuliya. It is primarily responsible for building and preserving a healthy political culture and an atmosphere of open debates on the campus. Students are kept informed about the public meetings, discussions and other issues through pamphlets and notices.
The history of Aligarh Muslim University begins with the Aligarh movement, which was a movement to establish a Western style of education for the Muslims of British India. The movement was pioneered by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who founded the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College in Aligarh. Sir Syed retired at Aligarh, and undertook the charge of raising funds for the college, and supervising the construction of the campus.
The university that [Sir Sayyid] founded in the town of Aligarh ... not only provided the Pakistan movement with its leadership but, later, also provided the new country of Pakistan with its first ruling elite ... Aligarh College made it possible for the Muslims to discover a new political identity: Being a Muslim came to have a political connotation-a connotation that was to lead this Indian Muslim community inexorably toward acceptance of the 'two-nation theory'