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A Mosaic Undone

A portrait of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, at AMU sparked a national controversy and plunged the prestigious university into chaos

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A portrait of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, at AMU sparked a national controversy and plunged the prestigious university into chaos. But this is only the latest in a string of crises seen in its 143 years of chequered history. DNA looks back to explain what the institution stands for today

A few years after the events of 1857 sealed the Mughal Empire's fate in India, two students of Molvi Mamlook at Delhi Madrassa (now Anglo-Arabic School near Ajmeri Gate) were discussing ways to infuse confidence among the battered and depressed Muslim community. They wanted to promote education as a defence mechanism, but differed completely on its strategy and nature.

Disturbed at the massacre of religious scholars in western Uttar Pradesh's Shamli, Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi travelled to that belt in 1866 and established the world famous Darul Uloom Deoband — the mother of all madrassas dotting south Asia's landscape. His idea was to produce an anti-West clergy and set up a force to attend to the religious requirements of Muslims.

In 1875, another pal Syed Ahmad Khan set up modern English-medium Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College in Aligarh, also in western Uttar Pradesh. The college metamorphosed into Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 1920, 22 years after its founder's death.

Like their founders, the two institutions have remained poles apart in terms of their conduct and response to social and political developments. The immaculately dressed English-speaking Muslims from AMU demanded their share in power. Many supported the demand of a separate nation.

Some 225 km away at Deoband, Muslims with kifaya and skull caps were fiercely opposing the creation of Pakistan. Deoband scholars and students supported the Congress and remained its loyalists till 1992 when Babri Masjid's demolition forced them to find refuge elsewhere.

Khan also had many obstacles to surmount. The primary was Muslims' prejudice against Western education. "Sir Syed had realised that many Muslims lacked reasoning and scientific temperament, and that education alone can ensure their upliftment. He worked with intellectuals from both communities to promote liberal, modern and scientific ideas and thinking," says Rahat Abrar, AMU's Urdu Academy Director. "In 1872, he conducted an essay-writing competition across the country to understand the demands of Muslims in the field of education."

The selection of Aligarh, one of the largest towns in UP in the plains of the Ganga and the Yamuna, was not accidental. "Sir Syed wanted to establish the University of his dreams in a northern Indian city that had healthy environmental conditions. After detailed scientific assessments, he found Aligarh to be the cleanest," says Abrar.

The university, one of Asia's oldest, was modelled on Cambridge University where Khan studied. It is spread over 400 hectares of land, offers 350 courses and has a thriving atmosphere for Urdu poetry and literature. The university has 111 departments, 1,113 staff members and some 30,000 students from India and other countries, including Thailand, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

Many alumni, popularly known as Aligs, have become notable in varied fields, both academic and otherwise. They include India's third President Zakir Husain, Pashtun independence activist Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, former Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, French mathematician André Weil, Assam's first and only female Chief Minister Anwara Taimur and Pakistan's Liyaqat Ali Khan, besides former J&K CMs Sheikh Abdullah and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Dhyan Chand, Lala Amarnath, Zafar Iqbal, Naseeruddin Shah, Javed Akhtar, Habib Tanveer and Mohsina Kidwai also studied at AMU.

The institution has also been a setting for numerous works of fiction. Films set in the university include Mere Mehboob (1963) — directed by HS Rawail and starring Rajendra Kumar, Sadhana, Ashok Kumar, Nimmi, Pran, Johnny Walker and Ameeta. The 1966 film Nai Umar Ki Nai Fasal was also shot on the campus. Aligarh, a film on Ramchandra Siras, a gay professor from the university, was released in 2015 and received a warm response worldwide.

Aligarh Culture

Over the years, the university also developed its own ethos and philosophy, known as Aligarh culture. Male students dress in black sherwani during important occasions. 'Bhaai' is used by juniors to refer to seniors out of love, affection and respect. A junior in front of a senior is never expected to pull out his wallet. Seniors pay bills, even years after they left the university. So the trick is to always have tea in the company of seniors and not pay!

AMU has been a testimony to a quest for reforms in education. It weathered the storms of India's partition and progressed from strength to strength. But a century after it came into being, it is grappling with strife again. A controversy erupted on Tuesday over a portrait of Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah. This was a day after Aligarh BJP MP Satish Gautam wrote to Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Tariq Mansoor and sought an explanation for the portrait of a leader who divided India.

Portrait Controversy

Violence broke out on Wednesday after members of right-wing Hindu Yuva Vahini, founded by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students' organ of ruling BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), entered the campus and burnt Jinnah's effigy. They demanded that the portrait be removed.

AMU students protested, but were lathicharged and teargassed by police. They started a class boycott and began a sit-in at the university the same day for action and an inquiry. On Thursday, Adityanath said he would not allow Jinnah's celebration and called for the removal of the portrait, hanging at the AMU Students' Union (AMUSU) hall since 1938.

AMU has said Jinnah was a founder member of the University Court — its highest decision-making body. "He was accorded lifetime honorary membership of AMUSU in 1938. Around 150 such memberships were also given to other eminent personalities. Traditionally, the portraits of all members are placed on the walls of the union hall," says Shafey Kidwai, a professor at AMU's Mass Communication department. "But it's unfortunate. The portrait has nothing to do with AMU's ideology," says university spokesperson Omar Peerzada. Jinnah also donated money for Jai Kishan Das hostel's foundation on the campus and left a portion of his property in the name of AMU as per his will. The university, however, never received that property.

Others who got AMUSU's lifetime honorary membership include: Mahatma Gandhi, Dr CV Raman, Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad, KM Munshi, HP Moody, Morarji Desai, VV Giri, Jai Prakash Narayan, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Justice Hidayatullah, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Raj Babbar and Ram Vilas Paswan.

On Friday, Internet services were suspended and prohibitory orders issued in Aligarh, 145 km southeast of Delhi, to stop sparks from flying. "We are also being labelled as traitors and Pakistan supporters on social networking sites. How is our patriotism being judged by the presence of a portrait? Our history is testimony of our nationalism," says AMUSU vice-president Sajad Subhan.

Historian Irfan Habib says Jinnah was very popular among AMU students. "He came to attend an event in the early 1940s. I was a student. Students took him from the railway station to the campus in a cart. He received a grand reception," Habib says, adding that Jinnah's portrait is a symbol of a multi-dimensional history. "Raking this issue now is a highly political move," he says.

Gautam has also said that Raja Mahendra Pratap, a Jat icon and an alumnus of AMU's precursor MAO, had donated land for the university, and it should also celebrate his birthday. "The entire controversy was to please Jat voters," says Mohammad Sajjad, a professor at AMU's History department.

Past Tense

Troubles at AMU had started as early as in the 1960s. One day, a section of students, led by their union president, disrupted an executive council meeting and assaulted V-C Badruddin Tayyabji. There was a rumour that a new V-C was being handpicked by the Central government to compromise the perceived minority character of the institution, recalls former AMU professor NR Madhava Menon. "There was no substance in the rumour. Everything had been orchestrated by a few extremist elements to control the institution," he says.

Minority Status

In 1965, Education Minister MC Chagla used this incident to have a law passed in the Parliament that said the university was not established by Muslims. Three years later, the Supreme Court upheld the law enacted against the views of Congress Muslims. In 1981, Parliament retracted this law by enacting the Aligarh Muslim University (Amendment) Act, and declared the university a minority institution.

Twenty-five years later, in 2006, the Allahabad High Court held the Act to be unconstitutional. The then Central government and AMU moved the Supreme Court that is still hearing the case. In 2016, two years after BJP came to power, the Centre told the top court: "We cannot be seen as setting up a minority institution in a secular state".

Biryani Brawl

In February 2016, right-wing activists alleged that beef biryani was being served at AMU's Medical College canteen. Then BJP Mayor Shakuntala Bharti led protests by party workers, demanding the canteen contractor's arrest. However, police later said that there was no evidence to suggest cow meat was served there. "It has become a pattern now. Last month, RSS activists wrote to the V-C for permission to organise its camps on the campus to 'dispel misconceptions' about the right-wing outfit among students of the minority community," says AMUSU president Mashkor Usmani.

In early April, AMU ranked 10th in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The university said it was the best tribute to its founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in his bicentenary year. In less than a month, the 143-year-old institution is passing through one of its most unfortunate times. Abrar believes it will weather this storm, too. "AMU was built brick by brick by the contribution of people from across communities. Its foundation is not as weak to be shaken by a portrait of Jinnah," Abrar says.

THE CONCEPT

  • Sir Syed had realised that many Muslims lacked reasoning and scientific temperament, and that education alone can ensure their upliftment
     
  • AMU has been a quest for reforms in education. It weathered the storms of India’s partition and progressed from strength to strength

SPOT OF HISTORY

1875
Syed Ahmad Khan set up modern English-medium Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College in Aligarh. It metamorphosed into Aligarh Muslim University in 1920.

400
Hectares of land the campus has

350
Courses it offers

111 Departments & 1,113 staff members it has

30,000
Students from India and other countries study here

FAMOUS ALIGS

President Zakir Husain, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Mohammad Hamid Ansari,  André Weil, Anwara Taimur, Liyaqat Ali Khan, Sheikh Abdullah, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Dhyan Chand, Lala Amarnath, Zafar Iqbal, Naseeruddin Shah, Javed Akhtar, Habib Tanveer and Mohsina Kidwai.

OTHERS WHO GOT AMUSU’S LIFETIME HONORARY MEMBERSHIP

Mahatma Gandhi, Dr CV Raman, Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad, KM Munshi, HP Moody, Morarji Desai, VV Giri, Jai Prakash Narayan, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Justice Hidayatullah, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Raj Babbar and Ram Vilas Paswan.

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