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A Laboratory for a Composite India? Jamia Millia Islamia around the time of partition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2019

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LAURENCE GAUTIER*
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Abstract

This article explores the role of Jamia Millia Islamia—the National Muslim University—in the formation of a composite national identity in India around the time of partition. This institution, born under the dual influence of the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation movements, constituted for its members a ‘laboratory’ for the nation. Through their educational experiments and constructive work à la Gandhi, Jamia teachers and students sought to lay the ground for an independence that would be ‘meaningful’ not only for Muslims but for the entire nation. In so doing, Jamia members claimed the right for Muslims to be recognized as ‘unhyphenated Indians’, able to speak for the nation. This article thus discusses the efforts of Jamia members to promote an inclusive conception of ‘composite India’ of which Muslims were fully part. At the same time, it highlights the ambiguous attitude of government authorities vis-à-vis the institution. Despite Jamia members’ strong affinities with Congress leaders, notably Nehru, the school received little support from state authorities after independence. Paradoxically, Nehru's government preferred to turn towards another Muslim institution—Aligarh Muslim University—often considered the ‘cradle’ of ‘Muslim separatism’, in order to reach out to Muslim citizens and promote national integration. By exploring the motivations behind this paradoxical choice as well as the complex relations between Jamia and Nehru's government, this article highlights some of Nehru's own ambiguities towards the ‘Gandhian’ legacy as well as to Muslim representation in secular India.

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Research Article
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Modern Asian Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 199 - 249
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

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67 See, for instance, the adoption of Hindi at the Kashi Vidyapith (Banaras): Renold, A Hindu education, p. 96. According to Basu, the National Council of Education in Bengal also recommended the adoption of the language as a vernacular medium of instruction: Basu, ‘National education in Bengal’, p. 60.

68 On the polarization of Hindi and Urdu along communal lines before and after independence, see, for instance, Brass, Paul, Language, religion and politics in North India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Dasgupta, J. D., Language conflict and national development. Group politics and national language policy in India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970)Google Scholar; Farouqui, Ather (ed.), Redefining Urdu politics in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar; King, Christopher, One language, two scripts. The Hindi movement in nineteenth century North India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994)Google Scholar; Rai, Alok, Hindi nationalism (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2001)Google Scholar; Rai, Amrit, A house divided. The origin and development of Hindi/Hindavi (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

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71 The Jamia higher secondary school (New Delhi, n.d.), p. 2. Emphasis mine.

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100 Mujeeb, Dr. Zakir Husain, p. 78.

101 Varkey, The Wardha scheme, pp. 137–148.

102 See the meetings on 23–24 April 1938 and 12 April 1939, Minutes of the Publication Committee of the Hindustani Talimi Sangh (1938–1940), Papers of the Hindustani Talimi Sangh (Wardha), NMML.

103 See the meeting on 12 April 1939, ibid.

104 See the meeting on 23–24 April 1938, ibid.

105 Zakir Husain left HTS in 1948, expressing deep disappointment with the way in which basic education had developed in India. He considered that, in most cases, it had been reduced to mechanical work. Mujeeb, Dr. Zakir Husain, pp. 123–125.

106 Art and craft education.

107 In 1937, Congress ministries recognized adult education as the responsibility of the government. Shortly after, the Central Advisory Board of Education appointed an Adult Education Committee to promote adult education. Bordia, Anil, Kidd, J. R. and Draper, J. A. (eds), Adult education in India: a book of readings (Bombay: Nachiketa Publications, 1973), p. 14Google Scholar.

108 Haider, Naqoosh, p. 137.

109 Annual report of the ITT (1953–54), in ‘Idara Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia—Grant aid in 1954–55’, NAI, ME, 18-2/55-B2.

110 Shafiqur Rahman Kidwai to Maulana Azad, 10 May 1949, in ‘Idara-e Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia, Delhi—Grant for the publication of adult education literature’, NAI, ME, 43-75/50-B.1.

111 Ibid.

112 Nehru to Diwakar, 13 April 1950, SWJN, Vol. 14, Part II, pp. 33–34; Nehru to Principal Secretary Kesho Ram, 5 August 1958, SWJN, Vol. 43, S. Gopal (ed.) (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 319–320.

113 Annual report of the ITT (1953–54), in ‘Idara Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia—Grant aid in 1954–55’.

114 Annual report of the ITT (1954–55), ibid.

115 Shafiqur Rahman Kidwai to Maulana Azad, 10 May 1949, in ‘Idara-e Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia, Delhi—Grant for the publication of adult education literature’.

116 Datla, ‘A worldly vernacular’, and Datla, The language of secular India.

117 In his famous article, ‘Can a Muslim be Indian?’, Pandey analyses the expression ‘nationalist Muslims’ to show that Indian Muslims, no matter what their political orientation may be, continued to be seen primarily as ‘Muslims’. As such, they were considered as ‘hyphenated Indians’, whose loyalty to the nation remained forever suspect. I use the expression ‘unhyphenated Indians’ to show that many Indian Muslims refused to be considered as less Indian than non-Muslim Indians as a consequence of their religious identity. See Pandey, ‘Can a Muslim be an Indian?’.

118 Mujeeb, Dr. Zakir Husain, p. 32.

119 Hasan and Jalil, Partners in freedom, p. 60.

120 Ali, Zakir Husain. Life and times, p. 120.

121 According to Metcalf, religious identity was ‘overwhelmingly important’ at Aligarh, but religious life was, by and large, ‘attenuated and flat’, especially after Sir Syed's attempts to renew religious thought were rejected and religious instruction fell into the hands of the defenders of a more traditional conception of Islam. Metcalf, Islamic revival, pp. 325–330.

122 Lelyveld, David, Aligarh's first generation: Muslim solidarity in British India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), pp. 327–348Google Scholar.

123 Ibid., p. 72.

124 Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 9.

125 Jamia teachers also made arrangements to teach Hindu philosophy to their Hindu students. Hasan and Jalil, Partners in freedom, p. 73.

126 Lelyveld and Minault, ‘The campaign for a Muslim University’, p. 188.

127 Quoted in Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 9.

128 The Jamia higher secondary school, p. 7.

129 Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 16.

130 Metcalf, Islamic revival. This focus on textual sources and ‘correct’ practice was not unique to Muslim reformists. Parna Sengupta has shown how Western missionaries’ emphasis on reading shaped the conception of modern religious instruction in India across religious groups. Sengupta, P., Pedagogy for religion. Missionary education and the fashioning of Hindus and Muslims in Bengal (New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2012)Google Scholar.

131 The author uses this expression to refer to the Companions of the Prophet, in a book entitled Sitare (‘stars’), presented in Payam-e-Taleem, November 1944, p. 2.

132 Payam-e-Taleem, December 1928, p. 6.

133 Ibid.

134 Ibid., p. 16.

135 Vice-chancellor's annual report, Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 8.

136 Mujeeb, Dr. Zakir Husain, p. 72.

137 Vice-chancellor's annual report, Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 8.

138 Mujeeb, Dr. Zakir Husain, p. 89.

139 Ibid.

140 Tanvir, Agra Bazaar, p. 9.

141 Ghulam Haider, who studied at Jamia in the 1950s, remembers, for instance, a ‘ferocious maulana’, a teacher of Islamic studies, who, according to him, had a strict interpretation of sharia principles. Haider, Naqoosh, p. 386.

142 Tanvir, Agra Bazaar, p. 9.

143 Vice-chancellor's annual report, Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 8.

144 Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 12.

145 Jamia Millia Islamia (Delhi: Alliance Press, c. 1940s), p. 6.

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147 The constitution of the Jamia Millia Islamia, pp. 2–3.

148 Mujeeb, Dr. Zakir Husain, p. 94.

149 Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi (Delhi: Jayyed Press, n.d.), p. 8.

150 The Jamia higher secondary school, p. 7.

151 Primary school, pp. 22, 30.

152 Musulmanon ke liye iskouting ki pahli shandar rally. Jamia Iskout Association [The first grand scouting rally for Muslims] (Delhi, n.d.), p. 1.

153 Speech at the All India Muslim Educational Conference, Aligarh, March 1937, quoted in Mujeeb, Dr. Zakir Husain, pp. 84–85.

154 For an analysis of Gandhi's emphasis on sacrifice, particularly in his interpretation of the Gita, see Tridip Suhrud, ‘Gandhi's key writings: in search of unity’, in Brown and Parel (eds), The Cambridge companion to Gandhi, pp. 75–76.

155 Ali, Zakir Husain. Life and times, pp. 43–45.

156 Ibid., p. 80.

157 Mujeeb, Dr. Zakir Husain, pp. 84–85.

158 Pandey, Gyanendra, The construction of communalism in colonial North India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

159 Ibid. Emphasis mine.

160 Basu, ‘National education in Bengal’, p. 61.

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162 Zamindar, Vazira, The long partition and the making of South Asia. Refugees, boundaries, histories (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), p. 21Google Scholar.

163 Kidwai, Anis, In freedom's shade, Ayesha Kidwai (trans) (New Delhi: Penguin, 2011), pp. 66–67Google Scholar.

164 Haider, Naqoosh, pp. 88, 90.

165 Ali Ahmad Khan, one of Jamia's ‘life-members’, left after partition, but it seems that he was the only one to make this decision. The constitution of the Jamia Millia Islamia, Appendix I: List of members of the Jamia Millia Islamia Society.

166 Kidwai, In freedom's shade, pp. 42–43, 48.

167 Over 50,000 of Delhi's Muslims took refuge at the Purana Qila within days. Zamindar, The long partition, p. 34.

168 Ibid., pp. 34–39.

169 Kidwai, In freedom's shade, p. 68.

170 Santosh Chatterjee, ‘We will win peace for Delhi’, Student, 15 Nov. 1947, p. 3.

171 Nehru to Patel, 9 October 1947, SWJN, Vol. 4, Gopal, S. (ed.) (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 134–135Google Scholar.

172 Ibid. See also ‘Record of the twelfth meeting of the Cabinet Emergency Committee’, 16 Sep. 1947, ibid., p. 79.

173 Zamindar, The long partition, p. 29.

174 This is the expression that Anis Kidwai uses to refer to Jamia members in her autobiographical book: Kidwai, In freedom's shade.

175 Anjali Bhardwaj-Datta, ‘Rebuilding lives, redefining spaces: women in post-colonial Delhi, 1945–1980’, PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014, pp. 86–88.

176 Kidwai, In freedom's shade, pp. 206–208.

177 Ibid., pp. 106–107.

178 Quoted in Haider, Naqoosh, p. 453.

179 Zakir Husain, ‘Qarar ya farar’ [‘To stay or to go’], speech given on the occasion of Gandhi's birthday, 2 Oct. 1947, in front of Jamia students, in Hameed, Syeda Saiyidain (ed.), Zakir Husain. Teacher who became president. Centenary volume (New Delhi: Indian Council for Cultural Relations, 2000), pp. 56–57Google Scholar.

180 Quoted in Haider, Naqoosh, p. 458.

181 Ibid., p. 459.

182 According to Hasan and Jalil, arrangements for the teaching of Hindu theology already existed before independence, but it is in the 1950s that official documents mention a course in Hindu ethics. See, for instance, ‘Rajya Sabha-Starred question no. D.989 by Smt Savitri Nigam regarding Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi’, NAI, ME, 13-20/55-A1(U2).

183 Article 28(1) of the Indian Constitution.

184 On similar attempts by Bengali Muslim reformers to develop a single system of schooling that addressed the differing needs of religious communities, see Sengupta, Pedagogy for religion, pp. 151–153.

185 Haider, Naqoosh, pp. 153–156.

186 Photo no. 49, ‘Dilli kya hai?’ [‘What is Delhi?’], in Album K, Photo collection, Premchand Archives, JMI.

187 See photo nos. 44, 50, 62, showing the ‘line of time’ designed as part of Jamia's ‘Hindustan ka project’ [‘India's project’], ibid.

188 Sherman, Muslim belonging, pp. 14–15.

189 Qaiser, Resisting colonialism, pp. 315–324. On the establishment of the National Museum and the memorialization of Indian ‘national’ art, see Guha-Thakurta, Tapati, Monuments, objects, histories. Institutions of art in colonial and post-colonial India (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), Chapter 6, pp. 175–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

190 One may think of P. D. Tandon, for instance, one of the leading figures of the Congress right-wing in the United Provinces, who was elected president of the Congress in 1950. For a note on Tandon's politics before 1947, see Gould, Hindu nationalism, pp. 190–192.

191 The report of the University Education Commission (December 1948–August 1949) (Simla: Government of India Press, 1950), p. 55Google Scholar.

192 In 1961, the government appointed an Emotional Integration Committee to ‘study the role of education in considering and promoting the processes of emotional integration in national life’: Bhatt, B. D. and Aggarwal, J. C., Educational documents in India (1831–1968) (New Delhi: Arya Book Depot, 1969), p. 212Google Scholar.

193 ‘List of the 300 new booklets of the series of Post-literacy Adult Education to be compiled by the Idara Talim-e Taraqqi’, in ‘Idara-e Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia, Delhi—Grant for the publication of adult education literature’.

194 In 1947, he made a personal donation of Rs 10,000 to help the Idara resume its activities. Shafiqur Rahman Kidwai to Maulana Azad, 10 May 1949, in ‘Idara-e Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia, Delhi—Grant for the publication of adult education literature’.

195 See his letter to R. R. Diwakar, 13 April 1950, in SWJN, Vol. 14, Part II, pp. 33–34, and his note to Principal Secretary Kesho Ram, 5 August 1958, SWJN, Vol. 43, pp. 319–320.

196 ‘An interim report on the distribution and utility of the social education pamphlets in Hindi published by the ITT, Jamia, Delhi’, in ‘Idara-e- Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia, Delhi—Grant for the publication of adult education literature’.

197 ‘List of pamphlets (published by the Idara Talim-o-Taraqqi)’, ibid.

198 Nehru used this expression in his convocation address at AMU on 24 January 1948, SWJN, Vol. 5, Gopal, S. (ed.) (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 24–27Google Scholar.

199 On Habib's work, see also Irfan Habib, ‘Mohammad Habib’, Aligarh Movement, http://aligarhmovement.com/karwaan_e_aligarh/Prof_Mohammad_Habib, [accessed 30 May 2019], and Sanjay Subodh, ‘Rulers and medieval society. A study of writings of Mohammad Habib’, Journal of History and Social Sciences, 3, 2 (July–Dec. 2012), http://jhss.org/articleview.php?artid=143, [accessed 30 May 2019].

200 See Habib, Irfan, ‘Introduction’, in Habib, Mohammad, Studies in medieval Indian polity and culture, Habib, Irfan (ed.) (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 9Google Scholar.

201 Presidential address, Indian History Congress, 6 December 1947, ibid., p. 19.

202 ‘Aligarh Muslim University—Institute of Islamic Studies—Establishment of’, NAI, ME, 18-6/53-G.3.

203 Mujeeb, Mohammad, Indian Muslims (London: Allen and Unwin, 1967)Google Scholar.

204 Azad, Abul Kalam, India wins freedom (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1959)Google Scholar.

205 Prakash, Gyan, Another reason. Science and the imagination of modern India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 208–226CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

206 Shani, Ornit, ‘Gandhi, citizenship and the resilience of Indian nationhood’, Citizenship Studies, 15, 6–7 (Oct. 2011), pp. 659–678CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

207 Abduhu, G. Rasool, The educational ideas of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1973), p. 94Google Scholar.

208 See also ‘Prof Humayun Kabir, Joint Educational Adviser in the Ministry of Education—Broadcast talk on “Our Educational Programme”’, Education department, NAI, F 4-6 /48-G.

209 Abduhu, The educational ideas, pp. 103–104.

210 Azad, A. K., ‘Education and national reconstruction’, press conference, 18 February 1947, in Speeches of Maulana Azad, 1947–1955 (Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1956), p. 7Google Scholar.

211 Shafiqur Rahman Kidwai to Maulana Azad, 10 May 1949, in ‘Idara-e Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia, Delhi—Grant for the publication of adult education literature’.

212 See the chapter on ‘Rural universities’ in The Report of the University Education Commission, pp. 554–590.

213 Ibid., pp. 545–547.

214 Salana report [Annual report]. Jamia Millia Islamia Delhi, 1951–52, p. 17.

215 Annual report of the ITT (1953–54), in ‘Idara Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia—Grant aid in 1954–55’.

216 Shani, ‘Gandhi, citizenship’, p. 668.

217 Sohan Singh, Assistant Educational Adviser, ME, 3 January 1956, in ‘Social education and rural development’—proposal by Idara-Talim-e-Taraqqi', NAI, ME, 18-27/55-B.2.

218 Shafiqur Rahman Kidwai to Maulana Azad, 10 May 1949, in ‘Idara-e Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia, Delhi—Grant for the publication of adult education literature’.

219 Ibid.

220 See, for instance, ‘Visit to Jamia Millia with reference to their proposal for production of literature as stated in their memorandum received in the Ministry, 1 February 1950’, in ‘Idara-e Talim-o-Taraqqi Jamia Millia, Delhi—Grant for the publication of adult education literature’.

221 Annual report of the Vice-Chancellor (1964), p. 13. See also ‘Intention of Dr Zakir Husain of Jamia Millia Islamia’.

222 On these internal tensions, see Mohammad Talib, ‘Jamia Millia Islamia: Career of Azad Talim’, in Hasan (ed.), Knowledge, power and politics, pp. 156–183.

223 Nehru to Azad, 12 Nov. 1952, Premchand Archives, JMI.

224 ‘Recognition of the degrees and diplomas of the Jamia Millia Islamia Delhi’, NAI, ME, 73-216/49-D3.

225 ‘Recognition of the Sr Diploma of Arts[,] Sr Diploma of Crafts of the Institute of Arts Education, Jamia Millia, New Delhi’, NAI, ME, 18-49/56-D.1.

226 According to Abduhu, the budget for education originally corresponded to only 1 per cent of the budget of the central government after independence. Abduhu, The educational ideas, p. 96.

227 Towards an enlightened and humane society. Report of the Committee for Review of National Policy on Education, 1986 (New Delhi: Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, 1990), p. ivGoogle Scholar.

228 Shani, ‘Gandhi, citizenship’.

229 Ibid.

230 Prakash, Another reason, p. 234.

231 On the differences between Gandhi and Nehru, and on Nehru's attempts to appropriate Gandhi's legacy within a state-centric framework, see Chatterjee, Partha, ‘The constitution of Indian nationalist discourse’, in his Empire and nation: essential writings, 1985–2005 (Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2010), pp. 37–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

232 See, for instance, ‘The Jamia Millia’, 10 September 1946, SWJN, Vol. 1, Gopal, S. (ed.) (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 385–386Google Scholar; Note to the Ministry of Education, 9 January 1953, SWJN, Vol. 21, pp. 143–144.

233 Letter to Zakir Husain, 16 February 1948, SWJN, Vol. 5, pp. 560–561.

234 See Nehru's letters to Mohanlal Saksena (13 August 1949), to Mehr Chand Khanna (2 July 1949), and to Delhi's chief minister (15 August 1949), SWJN, Vol. 12, S. Gopal (ed.) (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 131–132, 142, 319–320.

235 Sherman, Muslim belonging, p. 122.

236 Ibid., p. 134.

237 Friedmann, Yohanan, ‘The Jam'iyyat al-‘Ulama’-i Hind in the wake of partition’, Asian and African Studies, 11 (1976), pp. 182–184Google Scholar. Likewise, Qasim Zaman argues that the Indian government recognized ‘ulama as ‘legitimate, indeed authoritative, representatives of Muslim popular opinion’. Zaman, Q., Ulama in contemporary Islam. Custodians of change (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 169Google Scholar.

238 Metcalf, Barbara, ‘Observant Muslims, secular Indians: the political vision of Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani, 1938–57’, in Chakrabarty, Dipesh, Majumdar, Rochona and Sartori, Andrew (eds), From the colonial to the post-colonial. India and Pakistan in transition (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 96–118Google Scholar, and Metcalf, Barbara, Husain Ahmad Madani. The jihad for Islam and India's freedom (Oxford: Oneworld, 2009)Google Scholar.

239 Husain, Abid, The Way of Gandhi and Nehru (London: Asia Publishing House, 1961), p. 171Google Scholar.

240 Husain, The Destiny of Indian Muslims, p. 174.

241 Vice-chancellor's annual report, Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 3.

242 Husain, The Destiny of Indian Muslims, p. 7.

243 Ibid., p. 11.

244 See the Report of the University Education Commission (1948–1949) (Simla: Ministry of Education), p. 295Google Scholar. This Commission was headed by Radhakrishnan.

245 Husain, The Destiny of Indian Muslims, p. 11.

246 Ibid., p. 163.

247 Vice-Chancellor's annual report, Jamia Millia Islamia, p. 3.

248 On the efforts of state authorities to contain religious differences after partition, see Bajpai, Rochana, Debating difference. Group rights and liberal democracy in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

249 Jawaharlal Nehru, Convocation address at AMU on 24 January 1948, SWJN, Vol. 5, pp. 24–27.

250 The Ministry of Education clearly conceived of AMU and BHU as a pair: the decision to grant the two institutions central university status was taken at the same time and the two university bills, almost identical, were discussed simultaneously in parliament. See, for instance, ‘Banaras Hindu University, Amendment Act (1951)’.

251 Nehru, Convocation address at AMU on 24 January 1948, SWJN, Vol. 5, pp. 24–27.

252 Zakir Husain to Rajendra Prasad, 19 July 1950, ‘Aligarh Muslim University—Request for additional grant for development’, NAI, ME, 41-90/50-D.3.

253 This is the expression used by Jinnah in the mid-1940s in reference to Aligarh students’ support for the Muslim League. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Speech at Aligarh Muslim University, 10 March 1941, cited in Abbas, ‘Narratives of belonging’, p. 129.

254 Asad, Formations of the secular.

255 Roy, Srirupa, Beyond belief. India and the politics of postcolonial nationalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), p. 18Google Scholar.

256 Similarly, Chatterjee argues that, with Nehru's accession to power, ‘nationalism has now constituted itself into a state ideology. It has appropriated the life of the nation into the life of the state.’ Chatterjee, ‘The constitution of Indian nationalist discourse’, p. 58.

257 Jayal underlines the gap between the ‘strong rhetorical commitment’ of the state and its limited achievements in terms of social policy. Jayal, N. J., Citizenship and its discontents. An Indian history (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), p. 164Google Scholar.

258 See, among others, Sherman, Muslim belonging; Gould, Hindu nationalism; Hasan, Legacy of a divided nation, p. 150.