Sayeed Seminary

Sayeed Seminary High School, Cuttack
**ସୟିଦ୍ ସେମିନାରୀ ସ୍କୁଲ, କଟକ**
Sayeed Seminary High School, Cuttack; ସୟିଦ୍ ସେମିନାରୀ ସ୍କୁଲ, କଟକ
Location
	Cuttack, Odisha, India
Coordinates	20°28′00″N85°52′32″E / 20.466754°N 85.875603°E
Information
Former name	Moslem Seminary
Type	Public High School
Founded	August 8, 1913;109 years ago
Founder	Sayeed Mohammed
Staff	10+
Faculty	25+
Grades	Class 4 - 10
Gender	Boys and Girls
Number of students	800+
Language	Odia
Campus size	9.75 Acres
Campus type	Urban
Colour(s)	Blue and White
Affiliation	Board of Secondary Education, Odisha

Last updated March 04, 2023

Sayeed Seminary School is a public school located in the heart of Cuttack city, India.^[1] It was established in 1913 by Sayeed Mohammed, a prominent Odia freedom fighter, scholar and educationist. The school is credited to be the second nationalist school of Odisha and is one of the two institutions bearing the name of Sayeed Mohammed, the other one being Sayeed Seminary Primary School, which is located within the campus of the former.^[2]^[3]

History

A series of events and factors led to the establishment of the school, one being the discrimination that the Indian students were facing in the British administered schools back in the late 19th CE; the second was, under the British government, education wasn't accessible for the general Indian masses, only the children from upper-class families could get an admission and the third being the marginalization of the Muslim community, since Indian Muslims did not accept English as the medium of instruction in educational institutions, they turned away from formal schools and remained illiterate which alienated them from the newly evolving modern society and relegated them to the background. Sayeed Mohammed having studied in Calcutta, which was then the capital of British India and the center stage of colonial politics, had developed a good understanding of these factors.^[2]

The immediate cause, however, surfaced when the British government, in a deliberate attempt to divide the religious communities, introduced a new policy which provided separate reservations for Hindu and Muslim students.^[4] Sayeed Mohammed, who was then the assistant headmaster of Victoria high school vehemently opposed these divisive and discriminatory policies of the British government and organized mass protests against them. Since Sayeed was also a member of Utkal Sammilani and had participated in many nationalist movements before, the British perceived him as a threat and he was thus asked to resign from his post. Sayeed therefore got determined to start a new school where Indian students from all walks of life, communities and classes could access education and nationalist sentiments could be sowed into their young minds. Opportunity presented itself in 1909 when Gopabandhu Das established the first nationalist school of Odisha, the Satyabadi Bana Bidyalaya at Puri.^[5] Inspired by this, Sayeed started working on establishing the Muslim Seminary at Cuttack. He mobilized the muslim community by spreading awareness about the cause initially and then on 1913 he finally founded the school.^[4]

The school formally opened on Friday, the 8th of August, 1913 with 500 students on its roll in a rented building. It was largely dependent on donations. Meanwhile, Sayeed managed to persuade a generous merchant of Madras, C. Abdul Hakeem to donate the present land. Even the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, made a monthly grant of Rs 50 to the institution. A managing committee was formed by Sayeed in 1913 and Maulavi Golam Mohammad, Mohammad Kasim Ahmad Quazi, Kameeruddin Khan, Alla Bira, Mahammad Sayeed Abdus Sakur, Babu Akshay Chandra Ray, Satyabrata Patnaik and Devendranath Ray were appointed as its members. The school strongly promoted the ideas of nationalism among its students; Sayeed had made it mandatory for all the teachers and students of the school to wear clothes made of Khadi in order to support the ongoing Swadeshi movement. He himself wore clothes only made of Khadi to set an example.^[3]

After Sayeed's death, Moulavi Golam Mohammad was appointed as its president and Akshay Chandra Ray, its vice president. The efforts made by Sayeed Mohammed was acknowledged and appreciated by the Secretary to Government of Bihar and Orissa Province, Ministry of Education and such appreciation was notified and published in the Official Gazette dated 1 December 1932.^[3]

After the partition of 1947, its name was changed from 'Muslim Seminary' to 'Sayeed Seminary' in the memory of its late founder, to throw a more secular light at the institution. Sayeed Seminary was recognised as a High School from 1 June 1945 as revealed in the Orissa Gazette No.30 dated 3.8.1945. The school came into the direct payment system from 1974 for teaching staff and from 1977 for the non-teaching staff.^[3]

Affiliation

The school is affiliated to Board of Secondary Education, Odisha

Notable alumni

Sayeed Seminary became a reputed high school in the city, that offered education to both Muslim and Hindu students in Urdu and Odia.^[3]^[4] The school has produced many distinguished alumni including,

Mohammad Mohsin, Film director and actor
Syed Mustafiz Ahmed, Minister

Related Research Articles

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The Odia (ଓଡ଼ିଆ), formerly spelled Oriya, is an Indo-Aryan ethnic group native to the Indian state of Odisha who speak the Odia language. They constitute a majority in the eastern coastal state, with significant minority populations in neighboring Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

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Binod Kanungo (1912–1990) was an Odia author, freedom fighter, Gandhian, educator, social reformer and compiler of the Gyana Mandala, which is the greatest encyclopaedia in the Odia language. He also won the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award for his travelogue Runa Parishodha (1983). He was also a veteran freedom fighter and notable educationist. He was awarded with India's fourth highest civilian honour "Padmashree". He died on 22 June 1990.

Mohammad Mohsin called popularly as Mohsin was an Odia actor, director and producer. In his movie career spanning more than 30 years across Bollywood, Odisha and West Bengal, he has acted and directed in many commercially successful movies. Mohsin made his first Bollywood debut in the movie Naiyya, in which he played the character of Karim. Naiyya was produced and distributed by Rajshri Productions, which was a remake of Odia movie Shesha Shrabana, in which Mohsin played the character of a boat maker.

Kuntala Kumari Sabat (1901–1938) was an Odia poet during colonial India. She was one of the women poets who came into prominence from Odisha during India's freedom struggle. She was multifaceted personality. She was a physician, writer, poet, editor, leader of nationalist movement and social worker. She was honored with Utkala Bharati in 1925.

Hussain Rabi Gandhi was an Indian Odia writer of the late-twentieth century, a politician and a cultural activist hailing from the Indian state of Odisha. Being a founder member of Biju Janata Dal, he served as the general secretary of the party from upon its formation in 1998 till 2005. In 1994 the title of Biplabi Loka Kabi was conferred upon him by the Mayor of Cuttack. He was also awarded with the title of Utkala Jyoti in 1996 by the then Deputy chief minister of Odisha, Basant Kumar Biswal on the behalf of Freedom Fighter's Organisation. Gandhi primarily wrote in Odia language and was bestowed with the Secular India Harmony Award in 1993 by the former President of India, Giani Zail Singh and with the Gangadhar Meher Kabita award in 2015 for his notable contributions to the field of Odia poetry. Hussain served as the President of Odisha Sahitya Akademi (2008–2010). He was famously known as the Gandhi of Korei and was regarded as a bridge between Western Odisha and Costal Odisha. He also served as Lead Member of Smt. Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust (SNSMT).

Sayeed Mohammed was an Indian Odia educationist, freedom fighter and philanthropist. In 1913, he founded the Moslem Seminary at Cuttack, which is regarded as the second nationalist school of Odisha. Sayeed is known for his activism against the British in the early 1900s. He was one of the prominent members of the Utkal Sammilani. In 1922, Sayeed along with Ekram Rasul co-founded the All Odisha Khilafat Committee, in the wake of the Non cooperation movement in India.

Mohammed Afzal-ul Amin, popularly known as M.A. Amin, was an Indian statesman, politician and social worker from Cuttack, Odisha. He served as the general secretary of Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee during Biren Mitra's chief ministership. Afzal-ul was the Vice Chairman and later the Chairman of Cuttack Municipality and also the President of Odisha Mohammadan Association. He played a major role in preserving Urdu language in Cuttack by establishing several lower primary and upper primary Urdu schools in the city. He is also credited for organising various nationalist meetings and for mobilizing the common masses in Cuttack during the Quit India movement of 1942.

Atharuddin Mohammed also known as Athar Mohammed was an Odia military officer, feudatory chief (Samanta) of Madhi and the Dewan of the princely state of Dhenkanal during Raja Dinabandhu Mahendra Bahadur and Raja Shura Pratap Mahendra Bahadur's rule. He was one among the first princely officials to join the Odia unification movement and the Utkal Sabha.

Begum Badar un Nissa Akhtar was an Indian social reformer and educator from Cuttack, Odisha. She is known for challenging the stringent and orthodox societal norms and for encouraging and enabling Muslim girls to receive formal and skill based education from behind the purdah back in the early 20th century. Begum herself was formally educated and hence she took up a job as a teacher in Cuttack to educate young girls. She worked to promote female education and to abolish gender discrimination and gender injustice in the field of education. She is regarded as one among the first female teachers and educationists of modern British Odisha. The Badar un nissa Assembly hall at Sayeed Seminary is named after her.

Godabarish Mohapatra was a story writer and poet in Odia literature. He was also a journalist of Odisha, best known as the editor of "Niankhunta", a monthly criticism magazine, and "Tuan Tuin", a monthly children's magazine.

References

↑ "SAYEED SEMINARY HS – Ward No.17, District Cuttack (Orissa)". schools.org.in. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
1 2 Das, Manas Kumar. NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN ODISHA. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-0-359-78858-3.
1 2 3 4 5 "History of Sayeed Seminary".
1 2 3 scientifique., Gayer, Laurent (1976-....). Éditeur scientifique. Jaffrelot, Christophe (1964-....). Éditeur (2013). Muslims in Indian cities : trajectories of marginalisation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-70308-6. OCLC 1259284452.
↑ "Mahila Bidyalaya. 57", The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions, Routledge, p. 71, 19 December 2016, doi:10.4324/9781315407661-16, ISBN 978-1-315-40766-1 , retrieved 10 July 2022

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[1] "SAYEED SEMINARY HS – Ward No.17, District Cuttack (Orissa)". schools.org.in. Retrieved 10 July 2022.

[:0-2] 1 2 Das, Manas Kumar. NATIONALIST MOVEMENT IN ODISHA. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-0-359-78858-3.

[:2-3] 1 2 3 4 5 "History of Sayeed Seminary".

[:1-4] 1 2 3 scientifique., Gayer, Laurent (1976-....). Éditeur scientifique. Jaffrelot, Christophe (1964-....). Éditeur (2013). Muslims in Indian cities : trajectories of marginalisation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-70308-6. OCLC 1259284452.

[5] "Mahila Bidyalaya. 57", The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions, Routledge, p. 71, 19 December 2016, doi:10.4324/9781315407661-16, ISBN 978-1-315-40766-1 , retrieved 10 July 2022

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