IN THE NAME

OF ALLAH
The City School
• revision session
• Class: Grade 10

• Topic: section 1 (Sir Syed

Ahmed Khan)
 Learning Outcomes
By the end of the topic students will be able to

Describe the main events of the

given topic .
Explain the contributions, reasons
and importance of Sir Syed Ahmed
Khan.
 SIR SYED AHMED KHAN:
• Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was born at Delhi on 17th October in A.D.
1817 in a highly respectable family. In A.D. 1839 after completing
his education Sir Syed entered the services of East India Company
and rose to the post of Judge. During the rebellion of A.D. 1857 he
served the British with devotion and loyalty and saved lives of many
British women in MERUT.
• Taking the side of the British during the War of Independence did
not make Sir Syed very popular with some Muslims criticized him
as traitor, nor did it make Sir Syed happy to be labeled a traitor to
his own people. He refused the British offer of an estate as a reward
and began to work actively towards reconciliation between the
British and the Muslim community. Retiring from service in A.D.
1876, he worked as a member of Governor General’s Legislative
Council from A.D. 1878- 1883.
 Reasons of his work
• – The Muslims were the race who needed regeneration, rebirth of
their former broadmindedness and tolerance, which had been long
forgotten and replaced by a sad isolation from every sphere of life,
leading only to the path of stagnation.
• The previous Muslim rulers had now been degraded to the status of
slaves under the British Raj mainly because they were a threat to the
British existence in the sub-continent. They devised a plan to subdue
them and also the honor and pride of their past glory. This
oppression became more evident after the War of Independence for
which they were blamed, punished and cut off from the society, and
thus the Muslims reached the lowest ebb of their economic and
social culture.
• The Muslims were also treated badly because their religion Islam
could not be merged into any system of life. Thus, they were not
allowed to practice the religion freely and they were denied liberty
in the society.
• Sir Syed started a lifelong campaign to make the British understand
the Muslims better. He also tried to end Muslim hostility, not only
towards the British, but also towards western ideas, which he felt the
 Educational services
• The Muslims had adopted a bitter attitude towards British
education, which was introduced in all schools and educational
institutions. Sir Syed tried to remove their misunderstanding that if
they acquired the modern education, they would turn against Islam.
According to the Ulemas, the British education would badly
influence their Islam. Sir Syed urged the Muslims to give up their
conservative attitude and for this he made speeches and wrote
articles and books. He established schools and institution in different
areas in A.D. 1866 founded a scientific society at Ghazipur that
translated Persian, Arabic and English Literature in Urdu. Sir Syed
himself went to England to study the educational system practiced in
Cambridge and on his return, he laid the foundation of the Aligarh
College in A.D. 1877 that later turned into a university. Religious as
well as modern education was imparted to students in his college. A
committee was also formed to collect funds for his college. Sir Syed
also founded the Anjuman-e-Taraqi-e-Urdu for the promotion and
protection of Urdu Language. At every stage, he urged the Muslims
to give up their heretical ideas. As a result of his services, many
Indian Muslims started acquiring the modern education and became
competent along with the Hindus to get government jobs and high
posts.
 Social services
There was a great deal of misunderstanding between Muslims and the
British and hardly any interaction. The British held the Muslims
responsible for the war of 1857. Sir Syed wrote a pamphlet on the
“Causes of the 1857 Mutiny” (“Causes of the Indian Revolt”). He took
a considerable risk by writing about the causes of the uprising in this
pamphlet and sent it to the British Members of Parliament. This
pamphlet was not sold but circulated among British officials locally and
in England. British officials resented the work but others appreciated
Sir Syed’s honesty in partly blaming the British for having ignored
Muslim sentiments.
He wrote many essays and issued magazines like “Tahzeeb-ul-Ikhlaq in
which he discussed manners, social behaviour and etiquettes of eating.
He urged Muslims to develop a friendly attitude towards the British
accepting them as their rulers. In his next book, entitled “The Loyal
Mohammadans of India”, he defended the Muslims from the British
charge that the Muslims had been guilty of sedition and disloyalty. He
named various Muslims who have been loyal to the British government
and stated that he wanted the British to end their discrimination and
hostility towards the Muslim community.
 Religious services
In religion he believed in taking a rational approach. In order to
create feelings of goodwill for the Indian Muslims amongst the
British he wrote the translation of the Bible and compared it
with Quranic teachings, showing the similarities between the
two religions. Sir Syed also answered the criticism against
Islam, made by Christian missionaries. He wrote many books
and essays to prove that in every way the teachings of Islam
were in harmony with modern scientific ones. Furthermore, he
made religious education compulsory in all schools he
established. Therefore, with his selfless efforts and dedicated
services Sir Syed revived hope and confidence in the Indian
Muslims and provided a strong base for the Muslim League and
hence, The Pakistan Movement. He died on 27th March A.D.
1898
Beginning of Aligarh Movement (
Political Services)
The Aligarh College was, in many ways, the one institution, which
contributed most to the creation of Pakistan. An entire generation of
Pakistan’s leadership were products of this college, such as Liaquat Ali
Khan, Ayub Khan and many other leaders.
Sir Syed felt that this institution should have his complete attention, in
1876, he retired and settled down in Aligarh. In this year the school was
permitted to become a college but it was affiliated with the university
of Calcutta. Therefore, Sir Syed was not able to change syllabus and
was not very satisfied. He had dreamt of Aligarh becoming the center
of Muslim education in the whole subcontinent. The British
government refused to allow Aligarh College to affiliate itself with a
Muslim university outside the British territory. Finally it happened after
1920. Sir Syed founded this institution because he realised the
desperate need to have more schools for Muslims throughout the sub-
continent.
 Read more…

In 1886, Muhammadan Anglo –Oriental Educational Conference was

organized in order to popularize the new educational methods at
Aligarh. This conference became a permanent body and served the very
useful purpose of debating and considering all new ideas.
When the first act of government establishing local councils was
proposed, he strongly advocated separate seats and nominations for
Muslims. Without actually saying it, the fact was that Sir Syed was
advocating the idea of “Two Nation Theory”. Later it was given the
name of Two nation Theory.
It will not be wrong to say that Sir Syed by the time of his death in1898
has already infused a new spirit in the dead soul of Indian Muslims. Sir
Syed Ahmed khan’s Two Nation Theory ultimately became the
backbone of the freedom struggle by the Muslims.
 More …
Sir Syed’s views on what language the Muslims should be taught in
were also controversial. At first he opposed to teaching in English but
later he became an advocate of English as a medium of instruction. It
was Sir Syed’s effort that he tried to understand the spirit and
philosophy of English education. He believed that at that time the
British government was too strong to be shaken. So he never
encouraged the young leaders to challenge them until they become
intellectually strong. He presented the opinion that Muslim’s relations
could be good with Hindus because of the same concern and interest
under the British rule. He was a believer in the need of Hindu-Muslim
relations but often felt that Hindus did not feel the same way. He was
greatly disturbed by Hindu attempts to replace Urdu with Hindi as the
second official language. Sir Syed knew that if it happened, it would
make Hindu-Muslim unity impossible. The election of some local
government body also worried him. The idea of electing people through
majority made him uneasy as the Muslims were in minority.
Timeline Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
• 1817, Sir Syed was born.
• 1837, Joined British government service as at Agra.
• 1841, Qualified for the post of sub-judge at Fatehpur district.
• 1846, Transferred to Delhi as Chief Judge.
• 1854, Transferred to Bijnaur
• 1855, Compiled the history of Bijnaur
• 1857, War of Independence
• 1859, Sir Syed built a school at Muradabad.
• 1863, He built a school and a Scientific Society at Ghazipur.
• 1866, Founded British Indian Association
• 1867, Urdu Hindi dispute
 More
• 1869, He went to England with his son.
• 1875, Established Muhammad Anglo Oriental High School at
Aligarh
• 1876, Retired from Government service
• 1877, His school was upgraded to the level of College. He became
members of imperial council.
• 1885, Congress was formed.
• 1886, University of Edinburgh of Scotland conferred a degree of
LL.D on Sir Syed.
• Held Mohammadan Educational conference
• 1888, He was raised to knighthood.
• 1893, Formed Mohammadan Defense Association
• 1898, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan died.
• 1920, Aligarh M.A.O College was upgraded to the level of
University.
 Past Paper Questions

• Explain why Sir Syed Ahmed Khan tried to

improve relations between Muslim community and
the British? (7) june 2018 Q2(b)
• Were Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s religious views his
most important contribution to the muslim cause
after 1957? Explain your answer. (14)
june2019Q3(b)