AMU At A Glance
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, one of the architects of modern India was born on October 17, 1817 in Delhi. Sir Syed created an institution which, first as M.A.O. College and then since 1920 as Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), became the source of an amazing range of talent in all fields of life. In one of his lecture Sir Syed stated: “The main reason behind the establishment of this institution, as I am sure all of you know, was the wretched dependence of Muslims, which had been debasing the position day after day. Their religious fanaticism did not let them avail the educational facilities provided by the government schools and colleges. It was, therefore, deemed necessary to make some special arrangement for their education. Suppose, for example, there are two brothers, one of them is quite hale and hearty but other is diseased. His health is on the decline. Thus it is the duty of all brothers to take care of their ailing brother bear the hands in his trouble. This was the very idea which guided me to establish the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College. But I am pleased to say that both the brothers get the same education in this college. All rights of the college appertaining to those who call themselves.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru correctly saw the spirit of Sir Syed's mission when he stated in his autobiography: “So, to this education he turned all his energy trying to win over his community to his way of thinking. He wanted no diversions or distraction from other directions. Sir Syed's decision to concentrate on Western education for Muslims was undoubtedly a right one. Without that they could not have played any effective part in the building up of Indian nationalism of the new type, and they would have been doomed to play second fiddle to the Hindus with their better education and far stronger economic position. The Muslims were not historically or ideologically ready then for the bourgeois nationalist movement as they had developed no bourgeoisie, as the Hindus had done. Sir Syed’s activities, therefore, although seemingly very moderate, were in the right revolutionary direction.
The establishment of M. A. O. College was described by Lord Lytton as an epoch in the social progress of India. Several decades later Sir Hamilton Gibb characterized the college as the first modernist institution in Islam. Our alumni have made significant contributions in various walks of life in the history of the Indian subcontinent. They have excelled in their respective fields and have been able to reach to the top of the ladder including becoming Presidents of both India and Pakistan. A snap shot of some of our alumni who we are proud of are mentioned below; there are many more who have achieved great success in life and excelled in their fields that we may have missed inadvertently and due to limited space.
Freedom Fighters and Political Leaders
What should one think of a university which has produced freedom fighters like Maulana Mohammad Ali, Jauhar Shaukat Ali, Hasrat Mohani, Raja Mahinder Pratap, Syed Husain, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and Mohammad Yunus. The historic freedom movement like Khilafat movement and Aliagh Movement was started here.
Renewed Leaders
Zakir Husain - President of India
Mohammed Ayub Khan - President of Pakistan
Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan - Prime Minister of Pakistan
Ahmed Said Khan - Prime Minister of Hydrabad
Sheikh Abdullah - Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir
G.M. Sadiq - Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir
Mir Qasim - Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir
Abdul Ghafoor - Chief Minister of Bihar
Shafi Qureshi - Minister of State for Railways
B.P. Mauriya - Minister of State for Industry
V. A. Saiyed Mohammad - Minister of State for Law
Educators and Scholars
Aligarh seems to have been a perennial source of talent and can boast of having the Scholars of the stature of Abdul Haq, Abdul Majid Daryabadi, D. D. Kosambi, K.M. Panikar and Haroon Khan Sherwani and educationalists like Babar Mirza, Zakir Husain, Ghulam Sayyedein, Mohammad Habib, Hadi Hasan, Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah and Mumtaz Jehan Hyder. Aligarh has been the proud alma-meter of poets like Fani, Josh, Majaz, Jazbi and Ali Sardar Jafri and men of letter like Sajjad Hyder Yaldram, Zafar Ali Khan, Sadat Hasan Minto, Ismat Chughtai, Qazi Abdul Sattar, Rasheed Ahmad Siddiqi, Ale Ahmed Suroor and Raja Rao. The ?mehfils? of Aligarh still reverberate with the poems of Waheed Akhtar, Sajida Zaidi, Zahida Zaidi, Ravindra Bhramar and Shiv Shankar Sharma Rakesh. Aligarh men and women made the distinction at the highest levels of the national ladder e.g. Minister of education, Chief minister of West Bengal and Orissa and Indian Ambassador to U.S.S.R., Nurul Hasan; Chairman of the University Grants Commission, Satish Chandra; Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission and Governor of Bihar State, A. R. Kidwai; Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia, Masood Husain Khan; Director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, Rais Ahmed; Rector of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Monis Raza; Director-General, Department of Oceanography, Zahoor Qasim; Indian Ambassador to Syria, K. A. Nizami; Secretary in the Central Government, Mahmood Butt.
Artists & Film Personalities
Even among film personalities Aligarh is not to be left behind. It has given to the country among others Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Begum Para, Renuka Devi, Talat Mahmood, Shakeel Badayuni, Sahir Ludhianvi and Naseeruddin Shah. Noted film director Muzaffar Ali of Umrao Jaan fame is the product of Aligarh. Poet Shahryar and film scriptwriter and poet Jawed Akhtar ; both Aligarians, gave a new trend to the lyrics for film songs and film writing respectively. The most outstanding, however, was late Rahi Masoom Raza, an eminent writer in the film and TV world. He was the dialogue writer of numerous films and of the TV magnum opus Mahabharat.
Sports and Athletics
AMU has produced some well known sports personalities some of whom have led the national team in Hockey and Cricket.. Ghouse Mohammad learnt his tennis at Aligarh and Wazir Ali, Nazir Ali, Lala Amarnath, C. S. Naidu and Mushtaq Ali their Cricket. Among Olympic hockey players, Mohammed Jafar, Masood Minsha, Ali Sayeed, Inamur Rahman, Govinda and Zafar Iqbal played for India; Abdul Qayyum, Sayed Ali, and Anwar Ahmad Khan for Pakistan and Doraswamy for Malaysia. Afsar Husain was the national yachting champion.
In a Convocation address to the University graduates in 1949, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad said “So far as Muslim of India are concerned, one can assert without fear of contradiction that the man who played the most important role in this struggle is the presiding spirit of this university. The battle was fought here in Aligarh and Aligarh is the visible embodiment of the victory of the forces of progress. Here developed the new schools of research, interpretation and reconstruction of Muslim thought. You must remember that this glorious heritage is yours and it is for you to revive the past splendor of Aligarh. The inscriptions which have been carved on the walls of your Strachey Hall may fade with the passage of time but the inscriptions which Aligarh has written on the modern period of Indian history can never fade. Future historians will discover in Aligarh one of the main sources which has contributed to the evolution of modern India. Your duty is to regenerate those old traditions and to create in your University an atmosphere of research and enquiry into all the spheres of knowledge and preach the gospel of large hearted tolerance and of pure morality”. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad February 20, 1949.
Journalism
Aligarh’s first generation inspired by its founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan took up the profession of journalism in a big way. It produced a number of eminent journalists including Moulana Zafar Ali Khan, Moulana Mohammad Ali, Moulana Hasrat Mohani, Khwaja Ghulam–us-Saqlain and Qazi Abdul Ghaffar. These men played a significant role in raising political consciousness amongst Muslims as well as building up public opinion against British imperialism.
Shoeb Qureshi did his graduation from Aligarh and then joined the Oxford University. He later played an important role in the freedom movement and was actively involved in the khilafat movement for a long period. He was the Editor of the historic newspaper the “Harijan” brought out by Mahatma Gandhi.
In the present era, numbers of Aligarh Alumni have been occupying prominent positions in the field of journalism. They include Haroon Rashid, Editor-Daily Inquilab (Mumbai); Vicaruddin Qadri, Chief Editor Rehnuma-e-Daccan (Hyderabad); Aziz Burney, Editor Rashtriya Sahara (Delhi & Lucknow) and Usman Ghani, Editor Qaumi Awaz (Lucknow).
A number of AMU Alumni have been associated with the world’s premier news service BBC. They include Viqar Ahmad, Raaz Moradabadi, Deepak Tripathi, Pervaiz Alam, Qurban Ali, Obaid Siddiqi, and Salma Zaidi.
In the print media, a galaxy of old Aligarians has been occupying top positions the world over. They include Haider Ali Kazim, Executive Editor, Arab News; Tariq Ghazi, Managing Editor, Saudi Gazette; Ahmad Ali Khan, Chief Editor, Dawn, Karachi; Ghayyur Alam, Editor, Dawn; Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad, Editor, Muslim Times, Sydney (Australia); Farhan Nizami, Editor, Journal of Islamic Studies, Oxford, and Shakir Husain of Gulf-Today, Sharjah.
Professor Dilnawaz A. Siddiqi and Professor Ahmadullah Siddiqi are engaged in teaching Journalism and Mass Communication at the great temples of learning in United States of America.
Among the new journalists who have emerged today in the field of English journalism in India are Askari H.Zaidi, Kalpna Jain and Tariq Hasan (The Times of India), Faraz Ahmad (The Pioneer), Abid Shah (The Statesman), Osama Manzar and Pradeep Saxena (The Hindustan Times), A.M.Khan (PTI), Sohail Haleem (UNI), Javed M.Ansai (India Today), Ehsan Fazli (The Tribune) and Ghazanfer Ali (report Arab News, KSA).
Aligarh alumni have also registered their presence in the electronics media. They are on the staff of Zee TV, Star TV, and Door Darshan.
(Excerpts from an article by Dr. Raziuddin and Syed Rafat Husain, Aligarh Alumni Association, Washington DC)