Chapter 2 # Muslim Renaissance-

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan: 1817–98

Exercise
Q1. Why was Sir Syed worried about the state of the Muslims after
the War of 1857?
Ans: In 1857 the War of Independence, Muslims had lost their
economic, social, and religious standing in the subcontinent. They had
refused the education offered by the British and had receded into the
background. He wished to bring the Muslims out of their backwardness
to join the fast-changing world that the West symbolized. Sir Syed
wished to change all that and his slogan for the Muslims became
education, education, and education.

Q2. Explain the importance of Sir Syed's writings on the Muslim

community in India.
Ans: Sir Syed wished to change the attitude of the British rulers towards
the Muslims who were mostly blamed for the 1857 War. He wrote a
pamphlet 'The Causes of the Indian Revolt'. Next, he wrote 'The Loyal
Muhammadans of India' in 1860, relating stories of those Muslims who
had helped save British lives in the 1857 War and who had loyally
served the British rulers.

Q3. How did he improve relations of the Muslims with their British
rulers?
Ans: He improved the relations of Muslims with their British rulers by
his writing. He wrote a pamphlet 'The Causes of the Indian Revolt'
pointing out to the British that the Muslims should not be blamed
entirely for the revolt; a substantial amount of blame had to be taken
by the rulers themselves whose policies had aggravated the situation. It
was brave of Sir Syed to do this as he was a government officer but he
sent copies of the pamphlet to the members of parliament in England.

Sir Syed also wrote a commentary on the Bible, pointing out the
similarities between Islam and Christianity to remove Muslims'
reservations about working closely with their British rulers.

Q4. Explain the background of the Two-Nation theory of Sir Syed.

Ans: The Hindi-Urdu controversy (1867) Made Sir Syed revise his views
politically. Urdu was a common language for both Hindus and Muslims.
He was shocked by the Hindu insistence on Hindi written in the
Devanagari script replacing Urdu as the language of the courts and
administration.
The reaction of the Hindus to Urdu and the politics of the Congress
brought him to the conclusion that the Hindus and Muslims would
always take different paths and not come together. The idea of India
having two nations (Hindus and Muslims) was born and grew into
Sir Syed's, Two-Nation Theory.

Q5. Explain how Sir Syed brought about a renaissance or rebirth

among Indian Muslims.
Ans: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's efforts in the nineteenth century that led the
way for the reformation and progress of the Muslims through 'rebirth of
learning' and education.
He started his famous journal 'Tehzib-ul-Akhlaque' through which he
called on the Muslims to shed their conservatism and move to a higher
plane of thinking both individually and collectively-only then would they
live with dignity and honour. The journal encouraged the Muslims to
think creatively and pursue education to improve socially, financially,
and spiritually.
Q6. What was the importance of the Mohammadan Educational
Conferences?
Ans: In 1875 came his final and long-lasting achievement, the
Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh. At M.A.O. College, Sir
Syed combined a residential system of university education. It provided
scientific learning in both English and Urdu along with religious
instruction. Studies were supplemented with extra-curricular activities,
moral training and character building.

Independent thinking was encouraged by means of societies and clubs.

The Siddons Union Club was modelled on the Cambridge Union Society,
which trained students in the art of public speaking and leadership.

Q7. What were the steps taken to improve education of the Muslims
in Sindh?
Ans: Sir Syed Ahmed khan set up the Madressa on a British public-school
pattern which would impart English education. On 1 September 1885,
the Viceroy of India, Lord Dufferin laid the foundation stone of the
Madressa-tul-Islam School.

The principals of the school were British and its teachers and students
were asked to focus on education alone with co-curricular activities
taking place in the spare time of the students. Madressa provided
scholarships to deserving Sindhi and other students and was affiliated
with the University of Bombay for its Matriculation Certificate.

Q8. How was the Sindh Madressa-tul-Islam set up?

Ans: In 1885, Sir Syed had offered Madressa-tul-Islam to the Muslim
community in Sindh. He visited M.A.O. College to see for himself how
the college functioned and decided to repeat the experiment in Sindh
on the same lines. The institution set up was the Sindh Madressa-tul-
Islam at Karachi in 1885.
Q9. What was the role of Darul-Uloom Deoband?
Ans: In 1866, Darul-Uloom Deoband was set up as an educational
institution for both traditional and progressive education for Muslims.
Deoband as it came to be called was a response to the Western
education of the British rulers. The curriculum was called Dars-i-Nizami
but English education was also offered to those students who wished to
pursue it.

Darul-Uloom Deoband expanded its facilities to house various

departments of study like law, medicine, religious teaching, calligraphy
and crafts—a library, mosque, hostels, kitchen and an administrative
block. It is situated a few kilometres from Delhi and its degrees are
recognized by the present government in India.

Q10. What improvement did Nadvat-ul-Ulema bring into its

curriculum?
Ans: In 1898, Nadvat-ul-Ulema at Lucknow, following in the footsteps
of Aligarh Muslim University, made changes in its curriculum to reform
the education system followed in the Arabic madressas. It also brought
together the different factions of Ulema.

Compulsory teaching of English was started in 1905, and Hindi and

Sanskrit were also part of the curriculum. Other subjects included
philosophy, history, geography, logic, and Arabic language and
literature.