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The Campaign for a Muslim University, 1898–1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Gail Minault  and
David Lelyveld
Gail Minault
Affiliation:
University of Texas and University of Minnesota
David Lelyveld
Affiliation:
University of Texas and University of Minnesota
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Extract

The campaign to establish a Muslim University at Aligarh is a good example of the confluence of education and politics in modern India. The political motives involved were similar to those that lay behind the founding of the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875: a sense that English education was a prerequisite to enfranchisement. By the turn of the century, the stakes were higher and the interests involved had expanded in number and complexity. The Muslim University movement represented nothing less than an effort to create an all-India Muslim constituency and to carve out for it a decisive piece of political power. It was political both in its attempt to consolidate support to influence specific government policies, and also as a direct challange to British control of the educational access too power.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , March 1974 , pp. 145 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 Beck, Theodore, ‘The Principal's Annual Report for 1898–99’ (‘Principal's Report, 1898–99’), Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College Magazine (Aligarh) (MAOCM),Google Scholar and Aligarh Institute Gazette (Aligarh) (AIG), New Series VII, 11 (15 July 1899), 9–11, 29–31. At this time the two journals were temporarily merged.Google Scholar

2 Syed Mahmud to Beck, 16 April 1898, Aligarh Archives, Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh Muslim University (AA).

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11 ‘Principal's Report, 1898–99’, MAOCM and AIG, New Series VII, 11 (15 July 1899), 1, 11.

12 MAOCM, VII, 12 (1 October 1899), 21. A Beck Memorial Fund was established to aid the university cause.

13 Rafiuddin Ahmad came from Poona. He lived in London where he was founder-president of an expatriate anti-Congress organization, the Muslim Patriotic League.

14 Ahmad, Rafiuddin, ‘The Proposed Muslim University in India’, The Nineteenth Century, XLIV (1898), 915–21.Google Scholar Rafiuddin envisaged colleges all over the Muslim world becoming affiliated to Aligarh, and he saw the project as a British counter to Russia's flirtation with Islam. Ibid. The article was reprinted in MAOCM, and Mohsin ul-Mulk read an Urdu translation of it to the Educational Conference at Lahore in December 1898.

15 Intikhab Report Muhammadan Educational Conference darbab Mujawaza Muhammadan University(Agra, 1899).Google Scholar

16 Ibid., pp. 72–89.

17 Beck, T., ‘The Allahabad University’, MAOCM, III, 4 (1 04 1896), 149; III, 6 (1 June 1896), 236;Google Scholar‘Principal's Report, 1898–99’, MAOCM and AIG, New Series VII, 11 (15 07 1899), 5.Google Scholar

18 One post had been vacated by T. W. Arnold during the financial crisis.

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28 Aligarh Monthly (AM) (Aligarh, English), III, 2 (02 1905), 74.Google Scholar The figure 3,000 is an estimate based on Ahmad, Tufail, Muhammadan College Directory (Badaun, 1914), Parts I and II.Google Scholar

29 Rules and Regulations for the Appointment of the Trustees of the M A-O College, Aligarh… [as] amended … up to … 1907 (Aligarh, n.d.), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

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31 MAOCM, VII, 4 (04 1899), 80.Google Scholar

32 The chairman of the commission, Thomas Raleigh, besides being vice-chancellor of Calcutta university and the legal member of the viceroy's council, was a cousin of Beck's widow. Another member of the commission was Syed Husain Bilgrami (Nawab Imad ul-Mulk), who had been closely associated with Aligarh from the start. The commission heard evidence at Aligarh, including a long testimony from Mohsin ul-Mulk. Mohsin's paper, published as an Urdu pamphlet Tehriri Shahadat Nawab Mohsin ul-Mulk … ki ru b'ru University Commission ke (Agra 1902), virtually ignored the Muslim university schemes.Google Scholar

33 This was in spite of the fact that in England the affiliating system of London university was abolished in 1903.

34 Report of the Indian Universities Commission, 1902 (Simla, 1902);Google ScholarNurullah, Syed and Naik, J. P., History of Education in India (Bombay, 1943), pp. 239–54;Google Scholar and Ashby, Eric, Universities: British, Indian, and African (London, 1966), pp. 73–83.Google Scholar

35 Universities Commission Report, p. 8; see also Orange, H. W., Progress of Education in India, 1902–07 (Calcutta, 1909), pp. 5–7.Google Scholar

36 For enrolment statistics see Bhatnagar, History of the M A-O College, p. 186.

37 Morison, Theodore, ‘A Mahomedan University’, The National Review, XXXII (1898–1899), 243–8.Google Scholar

38 He argued that there should be Hindu, Muslim and Parsi universities in India, since such institutions would combat the irreligion prevalent amongst western- educated Indians, and would be likely to attract private Indian philanthropy. Morison, T., History of the M A-O College, Aligarh (Allahabad, 1903), pp. 30–3.Google ScholarHowever, as a member of the legislative council, Morison offered no opposition to the Universities Act of 1904, which embodied the recommendations of Curzon's Universities Commission. AM, II, 4 (04 1904), 27–31.Google Scholar

39 AM, III, 1 (01 1905), 7.Google Scholar

40 In 1903, the distinguished Persian scholar, E. Denison Ross, principal of the Calcutta madrasa, visited Aligarh and helped Morison to work out the scheme. Ross took the line that the British should patronize an ‘intellectual revival’ of Muslims by encouraging the study of Arabic. The scheme called for a staff consisting of Ross, two Egyptians from al-Azhar, two Persians, three Indian maulvis, and six fellowships tenable for five to seven years. Only graduates would be taught, and they would ultimately find posts in various Indian universities and the British consulates and embassies in the Arabic-speaking world. English officials could use the school to learn Arabic, and the institution would maintain an Arabic library and publish scholarly editions of Arabic texts. Ross to Miller, and Morison to Miller January 1904, Educ September 1904, 275/5, Uttar Pradesh Secretariat Records, Lucknow (UPS).

41 Ibid.

42 The Statesman, 26 January 1904, in Ali, Syed Riza, Essays on Moslem Questions (Allahabad, 1912), pp. 25–32.Google Scholar

43 Khan, Habibullah, Hayat-e-Aftab, pp. 54–8.Google Scholar

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45 Memorandum by La Touche, 6 February 1904, Educ September 1904, 275/5, UPS.

46 H. H. Risley to La Touche, 14 May 1904, (demi-official), Ibid.

47 Note by Harcourt Butler, 12 March 1906, Educ April 1906, 275/5, UPS.

48 Hyder, Sajjad, ‘Should All Reform Wait for a Muslim University?’, AM, I, 9 (09 1903), 1–6.Google Scholar

49 The Dawn Magazine, 08 1911, pp. 89–90.

50 Mohsin ul-Mulk did not allow him to deliver his speech at the 1903 Educational Conference, but he was able to publish it in a British periodical.Google ScholarAli, Mahomed, The Proposed Mohamedan University (Bombay, 1904), p. 2.Google Scholar

51 Hydari, Akbar, ‘A Mahomedan University for India’, East and West, 30 08 1904, pp. 765–73.Google Scholar

52 ‘…a Mohamedan University only means a larger Aligarh’, Mohomed Ali told the Conference.

53 Ali, Mohamed, The Proposed Mohamedan University.Google Scholar

54 Student enrolment in the college and school was 661 in 1905, 816 in 1906, and 955 in 1910. Bhatnagar, History of the M A-O College, pp. 244, 325.

55 By the end of 1910, only about Rs 270,000 had been collected, of which about Rs 145,000 were in hand, the rest having been spent in paying the college debts and completing the college buildings. Government had made large grants for the Arabic and science departments, but even so, the total fund was less than half the ten lakhs set as a goal in 1898. Towle, J. H. (Principal), ‘Annual Report, 1910–1911’, M A-O College, Aligarh, Calendar, 1911–12, p. 3.Google Scholar

56 The Simla delegation of 1906 was led by the Aga Khan and Mohsin ul-Mulk; its address was drafted by Syed Husain Bilgrami; Aftab Ahmad Khan and Archbold, Aligarh's principal, acted as intermediaries. See ‘Simla Delegation, 1906 file’, AA.

57 Enquiry Report 1907, pp. 4–14.

58 AIG, New Series IX, 34 (23 08 1909), 1–19.Google Scholar

59 During Mohsin ul-Mulk's tenure there was a continuous criticism of the trustees for not asserting themselves.

60 When the board of trustees was increased to 120 in 1909, the Old Boys Association requested the right to send fifteen representatives; they got five. AM, VII, 5 (05 1909), 9.Google Scholar

61 Ikram, S. M., Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan (Lahore, 1966), p. 150.Google Scholar

62 Enquiry Report 1907.

63 AM (Urdu Section), IV, 1 (01 1906), 34–41.Google Scholar

64 Report Committee Tahqiqat muta'aliq b'Old Boys Association Madrasat ul-'Ulum Aligarh (Aligarh, 1917), pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

65 Ibid., p. 17; cf. Khwaja, Abdul Majid, ‘Salana Report…Old Boys Association’, Ruidad Old Boys Association (OBA), 1918, p. 52. Old Boys Lodge, Aligarh Muslim University.Google Scholar

66 Ruidad OBA, 1908–12, Ibid.

67 Ahmadi, Aftab Ahmad Khan, Diary, 27 November 1893, AA.Google Scholar

68 Ali, Shaukat, ‘The late Mr Beck and his Pupils’, AM, III, 10 (12 1905), 10;Google Scholarcf. Khan, Habibullah, Hayat-e-Aftab, p. 52.Google Scholar

69 Hewett to Butler, 3 June 1911, Home Educ A August 1911, 1–2, National Archives of India, New Delhi (NAI).

70 AIG, New Series IX, 34 (23 08 1909), 18–19.Google Scholar

71 The Old Boys Association would elect thirty-five out of the seventy-five members. Another thirty would be elected by the old trustees and the rest would be sent by the Educational Conference, the Muslim League, and regional Muslim organizations of Punjab, Bengal, Bombay, and Madras.‘A New Scheme for the Selection of Trustees for the M A-O College, Aligarh’,22 October 1907,Mahomed Ali Papers, Jamia Milla Islamia, New Delhi (MAP).Google Scholar

72 AIG, New Series X, 4 (26 01 1910), 3, 10–11; X, 23 (15 June 1910), 6; X, 22 (8 May 1910), 3–4.Google Scholar

73 Besant to Viqar ul-Mulk, 4 January 1910; Viqar to Besant, 1 March 1910, Educ May 1911, 14. UPS. Viqar ul-Mulk sent copies of this correspondence to the UP government.

74 Towle, ‘Annual Report, 1910–11’, pp. 3–5. The fanfare of this campaign in turn inspired Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya to join hands with Mrs Besant and revive his old scheme for a Hindu university, promising to double or triple whatever the Muslims collected. Note by H. V. Lovett, 15 April 1911, Educ May 1911, 14, UPS. Relations between the Hindu and Muslim university movements were quite cordial, though they had a friendly rivalry over the success of their fund-raising drives. The Aga Khan gave a handsome donation to the Hindu University, which was reciprocated by the Maharaja of Darbhanga, president of the Hindu University Society. See List of Donors in: ‘Muslim University Regulations Committee File’ (MURC), AA; and Collegian, III (1913), p. 292. For the Hindu University Movement, see Sundaram, V. A. (ed.), Benares Hindu University, 1905 to 1935 (Benares, 1936).Google Scholar

75 The Aga Khan told an audience in Karachi: ‘… the next step will be to have a network of Mohamedan Colleges all over India on the lines of the present Aligarh College…Sind will be one of the first to get a college’, Comrade, 27 01 1912, Comrade Selections, p. 329.Google Scholar

76 Towle, ‘Annual Report, 1910–11’, p. 5.

77 us-Saqlain, Khwaja Ghulam, an Old Boy who edited an Urdu journal, ‘Asr-i-Jadid (Meerut), and was then embarking on a political career in Meerut, accused Aftab of maladministration of the college programme. Aftab now withdrew from the Old Boys Association. Viqar, who tried to remain neutral in Old Boy disputes, did not give Aftab unstinting support in his battles with the Ali brothers and other rivals. Aftab reacted publicly by criticizing Viqar, who in turn rebuked Aftab for his arrogant efforts to monopolize power.Google ScholarKhat o Kitabat ma-bin Honorable Sahibzada Aftab Ahmad Khan Sahib o Nawab Viqar ul-Mulk Bahadur (Aligarh, 1910);Google Scholar see also Bhatnagar, History of the M A-O College, pp. 255–6.Google Scholar

78 As a young man, the Aga Khan had visited Aligarh in 1896, and promised Syed Ahmad an annual grant. In 1902 he had spoken in favour of a Muslim university in his presidential address at the Muhammadan Educational Conference, but then he returned to the race courses of Europe. His second visit to Aligarh was in 1904, when he gave a handsome donation to Morison's Arabic studies scheme.

79 The Memoirs of the Aga Khan: World Enough and Time (London, 1954), p. 120.Google Scholar

80 Hasan, Shaikh Ali, Tarikh-i-Mahmudabad, III, Part I. Mahmudabad House, Lucknow.Google Scholar

81 Ibid.

82 Half brother of Syed Husain, who for some years had acted as spokesman for Aligarh in London.

83 Dr Ziauddin replaced Bilgrami, who had suddenly died.

84 Butler to Hewett, Simla, 26 May 1911, Home Educ A August 1911, 1–2, NAI.

85 Butler to Hewett, 26 May 1911, Ibid.

86 Shaukat Ali to Mahomed Ali, 30 March 1911, MAP.

87 Comrade (Calcutta), 15 04 and 17 06 1911.Google Scholar

88 Ashby, , Universities, p. 84.Google Scholar

89 Butler to Hewett, 26 May 1911, Home Educ A August 1911, 1–2, NAI.

90 Hewett to Butler, 3 June 1911, Ibid.

91 Indian officials were forbidden to participate in fund-raising or even attend meetings for the Muslim and Hindu universities. Note by P. Harrison, Chief Secretary of UP, to Heads of all Departments, District Officers, etc., 26 May 1911, General Administration Department (GAD) 1911, 271, UPS.

92 Note by Marris, 17 May 1911, Educ 1918, 40, UPS.

93 Viceroy to Secretary of State, 10 June 1911, Home Educ A August 1911, 1–2, NAI.

94 Secretary of State to Viceroy, 18 July 1911, Ibid.

95 Butler to Mahmudabad (demi-official), 31 July 1911, Ibid.

96 Butler to Mahmudabad (confidential), 31 July 1911, Ibid. Butler privately warned that London's scrutiny ‘may mean quite a good deal’, since the India Council with Raleigh and Morison as members, would examine the scheme very carefully; their assent was ‘entirely general and reserved’. Butler to Mahmudabad (private), 31 July 1911, Ibid.

97 Mahmudabad to Butler, 9 September 1911, Home Educ A February 1912, 12–15, NAI.

98 Aziz, an Aligarh old boy had been Viqar ul-Mulk's protégé in Hyderabad, and was now Secretary of the Muslim League. The League had recently moved from Aligarh to Lucknow and was thus no longer an arena for Aligarh's factional disputes.

99 ‘The Moslem University Constitution’, Supplement to Comrade (Calcutta), 24 08 1912.Google Scholar

100 Syed Ross Masud, Syed Mahmud's son, had expressed views similar to Butler's, Comrade, 22 July 1911. He opposed affiliation, emphasizing the special spirit of Aligarh which was so closely associated with ‘the union, the cricket field, and the courts which Sir Syed Ahmad planned’.

101 Report of a meeting between Sir Harcourt Butler and the Muslim University Constitution Committee, Simla, 23 September 1911, Home Educ A February 1912, 12–15, NAI.

102 H. Sharp, Report on the proposed Aligarh Muslim University, 26 September 1911, Ibid.

103 Fifteen years earlier Morison had affiliated a number of secondary schools in the Aligarh vicinity to M A-O College. AIG, New Series II (23 01 1897), 8.Google Scholar

104 ‘One of the hopes entertained about a teaching University was that it would become a genuine seat of learning at which examinations would be subordinate to teaching and in which the teachers, freed from the tyranny of the text book, would carry their pupils with them in their own branches of study. If affiliation of other institutions is allowed, this hope must go by the board.’ Note by Morison, 1 January 1912, Judicial and Public, 1912, 1146, India Office Library, London (IOL), quoted in Ashby, Universities, pp. 393–4.

105 Secretary of State to Viceroy, 23 February 1912, Home Educ A March 1912, 60–2, NAI; see also note of 11 January 1912, J & P, 1912, 1146, IOL, in Ashby, Universities, p. 395.

106 Ashby, , Universities, p. 87.Google Scholar

107 Secretary of State to Viceroy, 23 February 1912, Home Educ A March 1912, 60–2, NAI.

108 Comrade, 12 February 1912, Comrade Selections, pp. 262–3.

109 Muslim Gazette (Lucknow), 18 03 1912, United Provinces Native Newspaper Reports (UPNNR) 1912, p. 306.Google Scholar

110 He was referring to the Regulations Subcommittee appointed in September 1911, with Ziauddin as secretary, two European members of the Aligarh staff, Habib ur-Rahman Khan Sherwani, a wealthy Aligarh landholder who was a well-known Islamic scholar, and Mahomed Ali. ‘The Moslem University Constitution’, Supplement to Comrade, 24 08 1912.Google Scholar

111 AIG, 22 May 1912, UPNNR 1912, pp. 520–1.

112 AIG, 5 June 1912, UPNNR 1912, p. 568.

113 AIG, 12 June and 26 June 1912, UPNNR 1912, pp. 599, 648–9.

114 If anyone had subscribed funds on the assumption that affiliation would be granted, Crewe advised that they should be entitled to a refund.

115 Secretary of State to Viceroys, 12 July 1912, Home Educ A July 1913, 4–12, NAI. But it would not be necessary for the central government to approve the appointment of professors.

116 Memorandum by Hardinge, 15 July 1912, Ibid.

117 Ashby, , Universities, pp. 90–2.Google Scholar

118 Butler to Mahmudabad, 9 August 1912, Home Educ A July 1913, 4–12, NAI.

119 Mahmudabad to Butler, 20 July 1912, Butler Papers, MSS. Eur. 116/53/I, IOL. The authors are indebted to William Crawley for this reference.

120 Mahmudabad to Butler, 12 August 1912, and 13 August 1912, Home Educ A July 1913, 4–12, NAI.

121 The Committee included fifty-four members in addition to all the M A-O. trustees ex officio. Among them were Aftab, the Ali brothers, Shibli Nomani, Rafiuddin Ahmad (now a Muslim League man in Poona), moderates such as Mahomed Shafi and Ziauddin Ahmad, journalists such as Bashiruddin of Etawah, lawyers and politicians such as Wazir Hasan of Lucknow, wealthy merchants from Bombay and landlords from the UP. List of Members of the Constitution Committee, MURC, AA.

122 AIG, September and 25 September 1912, UPNNR, 1912, pp. 851, 899.

123 Letter about proposed establishment of Aligarh University, from one H. M. Ajmal Khan, Haziq-ul-Mulk, to the Private Secretary of the Viceroy, 8 August 1912, Home Educ A November 1912, 7–8, NAI.

124 Muslim Gazette, 18 September 1912, UPNNR, 1912, p. 884.

125 AIG, 4 September 1912, UPNNR, 1912, p. 851.

126 Al-Bashir (Etawak), 24 September 1912, UPNNR, 1912, p. 899.

127 All-India Muslim University ke Muta'aliq Nawab Mushtaq Husain Viqar ul-Mulk Bahadur ki Rai (Aligarh, 11 1915).Google Scholar

128 Stapleton, H. E., ‘A University in the Making’, offprint of Eastern Bengal Notes and Queries, Second Series, I (1920), i–ix; Educ 1919, 384, UPS.Google Scholar Ironically, one of the architects of Dacca university was W. A. J. Archbold, the principal who had been forced out of Aligarh in 1909.

129 Comrade, , 7 October 1911 and 10 February 1912, Comrade Selections, pp. 245–8, 262–3.Google Scholar

130 Comrade, , 2 August 1913, Comrade Selections, pp. 300–4.Google Scholar

131 Zuberi, Mahomed Amin, Viqar-i-Hayat, p. 593.Google Scholar

132 Ali, Syed Riza, A'mal Nama, p. 307.Google Scholar

133 Urdu-e-Mu'alla (Aligarh), 11 01 1913;Google ScholarLeader (Allahabad), 14 03 1913, UPNNR, 1913, pp. III, 239.Google Scholar

134 Report on Conditions at Aligarh, by S. P. O'Donnell, Education Secretary, UP, 13 September 1913. Home Educ A October 1913, 58–60, NAI; Report on the Attitude of Muslims to Government, by R. Burn, Chief Secretary, UP, 17 September 1913, Home Poll A October 1913, 100–18, NAI. Bilgrami had been elected Education Member of the board of trustees earlier in the year after a campaign to get Ali the job was foiled by a threat of the European staff to resign in a body. Muslim Gazette, 12 March, 1913, UPNNR, 1913, p. 238.

135 Mahomed Ali to Sir James Meston, 2 May 1913, MAP.

136 Report by O'Donnell, 13 September 1913, Home Educ A October 1913, 58–60, NAI; Bhatnagar, History of the M A-O College, p. 268.

137 Agra Akhbar, 21 July 1913; Mashriq (Gorakhpur), 12 08 1913, UPNNR, 1913, pp. 772, 863.Google Scholar

138 Muslim Gazette, 16 July 1913, UPNNR, 1913, pp. 741–2.

139 AIG, 20 August 1913, UPNNR, 1913, p. 900.

140 Agenda of Meeting of the Muslim University Foundation Committee, 26 July 1913, MAP.

141 Musawat (Allahabad, Urdu), 7 08 1913, UPNNR, 1913, p. 253.Google Scholar

142 Wazir Hasan became secretary of the League and Riza Ali, Ghulam us-Saqlain and Naziruddin Hasan were other Aligarh graduates prominent in the League. However, the League was not an Aligarh preserve, and at this time was most concerned about the Morley-Minto reforms.

143 Comrade, , 3 02 1912, Comrade Selections, p. 404.Google Scholar

144 Muslim Gazette, 15 January 1913, UPNNR 1913, p. 42.

145 History sheet of Mahomed Ali, 1913, Home Poll B November 1913, 149, NAI.

146 Order by H. C. Beadon, District Magistrate, Delhi, 8 June 1913, MAP.

147 Jafri, Rais Ahmad, Sirat-i-Muhammad Ali (Delhi, 1932), p. 227.Google Scholar

148 AIG, 26 June and 10 July 1912, UPNNR, 1912, 637, 679.

149 Bhatnagar, , History of the M A-O College, p. 313.Google Scholar

150 AM, XI, 5 March 1913, 121–6. Dr Ziauddin lectured the students against listening to journalists and falling prey to ‘mean and ungentlemanly’ behaviour. Ibid.

151 History sheet of Azad, 1921, Home Poll 1921, 45, NAI.

152 Comrade, , 23 March 1912, Comrade Selections, pp. 443–5Google Scholar.

153 A lavatory attached to the mosque was demolished to make way for a road. The viceroy finally ordered it to be restored. Minute on the Cawnpore Mosque Incident by Sir James Meston, 21 August 1913, Home Poll A October 1913, 100–18, NAI; The Times, 16 October 1913.

154 Mahomed Ali and Wazir Hasan to Sir James La Touche, 4 November 1913, MAP.

155 Amir Ali to Wazir Hasan, 22 October 1913; Aga Khan to Wazir Hasan, 3 November 1913, MAP. The Aga Khan gave as his excuse that he was not getting to India much these days and that he did not want to stand in the way of the League's development.

156 Note by S. D. Fremantle, Collector of Allahabad, 21 November 1915, Home Poll D December, 6, NAI.

157 Comrade, , 18 April 1914, Comrade Selections, pp. 429–37; Letter to Shaukat Ali signed by 100 Old Boy Government Servants, in Report Tehqiqat Old Boys Association, Appendix II, pp. 135–8.Google Scholar

158 AIG, 3 February 1915, UPNNR 1915, p. 155.

159 Comrade, , 6 June 1914. The association remained subordinate to the Muslim University Foundation Committee, which still had title to the money.Google Scholar

160 Collegian, VIII, 1915, 262.Google ScholarThis meeting of the Muslim University Association was the first time Jinnah visited Aligarh. Ruidad OBA, 1915, p. 54.Google Scholar

161 On the eve of war, Dr Ziauddin Ahmad, the brothers' arch-enemy and then Acting Principal of Aligarh College, admitted that he could not control the student body in view of Mahomed Ali's hold on them. He predicted that, if war were declared against Turkey, 80 per cent of the student body would follow Mahomed Ali's lead. Memorandum by Sir Reginald Craddock, Home Member, 15 October 1914, Home Poll A January 1915, 76–97, NAI.Google Scholar

162 Ali, Muhammad, ‘Ba 'Ali Khidmat Janab Honorary Secretary Sahib Old Boys Association, Madrasat ul-Ulum Musulmanan’, Aligarh, in Ruidad OBA, 1916.Google Scholar

163 Collegian, XI, 10 1915, 8.Google Scholar

164 Ruidad Ijlas Muslim University Association, 15 10 1915 (Aligarh, 1915).Google Scholar

165 Letter to editor, Leader (Allahabad), 11 11 1915, UPNNR, 1915, p. 1168.Google Scholar

166 Ruidad Ijlas Muslim University Association, 15 10 1915.Google Scholar

167 Copy of resolutions passed at Muslim University Foundation Committee (MUFC) meeting, Lucknow, 10 April 1916; Report of the meeting by R. Burn, Chief Secretary, UP, 14 April 1916. Home Educ D May 1916, 1, NAI.Google Scholar

168 H. M. Hayat to Mahomed Ali, 28 March 1917, MAP.Google Scholar

169 The leader of the other old faction, Aftab Ahmad Khan, was also leaving the stage. In 1916 he refused to attend the League, broke with it, formed the Muslim Defence Association, and in 1917 accepted a place on the India Council in London. The two main rivals for power at Aligarh were both frustrated. Yet, with their similar backgrounds, they ended by moving in opposite directions: the Ali brothers into non-cooperation and Aftab into high office under the raj.Google Scholar

170 Both were German Ph.D.s like Ziauddin Ahmad. Dr Bijnori had been one of the students threatened with expulsion after the 1907 strike, had taken part in the Turkish Medical Mission, and had opposed acceptance of the university at the 15 October 1915 meeting. Enquiry Report 1907.Google Scholar

171 Bhatnagar, , History of the MA-O College, p. 325.Google Scholar

172 The Governor-General in Council had the power to remove any member of the teaching staff, to appoint special examiners with regard to any aspect of the university, and to issue binding instructions. The all-Muslim court would be subject to the Governor-General in Council; it would represent the Old Boys Association, the Muhammadan Educational Conference, ulama, Islamia colleges, a guild of Muslim graduates, donors and benefactors, and representatives of the senate. The court had the right to maintain other colleges and schools only within Aligarh itself. Courses of study, examinations and discipline would be under the senate. For details see Revised Draft of Act and Statutes by Bijnori, amended by Wali Mahomed, 1916, and Wali Mahomed, draft bye-laws, 1917, MURC, AA. Cf. Benares Hindu University Act (XVI of 1915).Google Scholar

173 Suggestions by Dr Ziauddin Ahmad, MURC, AA.Google Scholar

174 The oriental faculty was in line with Morison's 1904 scheme, but with undergraduate as well as graduate courses. Bijnori put considerable emphasis on providing for a law faculty which would include advanced study of Islamic jurisprudence. Theology would be compulsory for all Muslims. Original Draft of Act, Statutes and Regulations, Typescript, MURC, AA.Google Scholar

175 Suggestions by Shaikh Abdullah, 1 August 1917, Ibid.

176 Suggestions by Ziauddin Ahmad and Shaikh Abdullah, Ibid.

177 Resolutions passed at MUFC meeting, Aligarh, 8 April 1917, Home Educ D June 1917, 5, NAI.Google Scholar

178 Bijnori, though the drafter of the Muslim University Constitution, had also proposed founding a Muslim college at Dehra Dun, independent of government control and patronage. For this scheme he had the financial backing of Prince Hamidullah of Bhopal, another Aligarh old boy, and Dr Ansari. Mahmudabad to Mahomed Ali, 31 March 1917; Abdul Rahman to Mahomed Ali, 24 March 1919, MAP.Google Scholar

179 Mahomed Ali to Mahmudabad, 6 04 1917, MAP.Google Scholar

180 The committee included among its members Mahmudabad, Mazhar ul-Haq, Ansari, Nawab Ishaq Khan, Prince Hamidullah of Bophal, Jinnah, Bijnori and Wali Mahomed.Google Scholar

181 Meeting of Regulations Committee of Aligarh Muslim University, 25, 27–28 August and 1 September 1917, MURC, AA.Google Scholar

182 The Old Boys Association in its 1918 meeting objected to the proposal to have a graduate electorate in addition to an Old Boys Association electorate for the court, and demanded forty representatives on the court. The same meeting supported Bijnori's Dehra Dun scheme and ignored Mahomed Ali's proposal to establish it in Aligarh. Ruidad OBA, 1918.Google Scholar

183 Note by Sharp, H., 10 October 1917, Home Educ A February 1918, 17, NAI.Google Scholar

184 Along with the Muslim League the Nawab boycotted Montagu's visit to India.Google Scholar

185 ‘The young party … badgered Ishaq Khan till he finally went over to it. Oakden to Butler, 10 February 1919, Educ 1919, 140, UPS.

186 Syed Mahomed Ali succeeded him, in preference to Khan, Hamidullah, Jang, Nawab Sarbulan, Bhatnagar, , History of the M A-O College, pp. 267–8. The old family rivalry at Aligarh was thus carried into the next generation: Syed Mahomed Ali was of Sir Syed's family, while Sarbuland Jang was the son of Samiullah Khan (and father-in-law of Khwaja Abdul Majid). But now the feud had an ideological content as well, since Sarbuland Jang and Khwaja Abdul Majid supported the Ali brothers and, ultimately, non-cooperation, while Syed Mahomed Ali remained staunchly loyal to the raj.Google Scholar

187 ‘Trouble in the Aligarh College and the Resignation of Mr Towle, the Principal and other European Professors’, Educ 1918, 221, UPS.Google Scholar

188 Ross Masud, a member of the Indian Educational Service, grandson of Sir Syed, and son-in-law of Aftab, was defeated on the grounds that he demanded too high a salary and would work too closely with his cousin, the honorary secretary. Oakden to Butler, 10 February 1919, Educ 1919, 140, UPS.

189 Oakden to Butler, 19 February 1919, Ibid.

190 Bhatnagar, , History of the MA-O College, p. 325.Google Scholar

191 Mahomed, Wali, ‘A brief note on the decrease in the number of students at the M A-O College, Aligarh’, 11 January 1919, Educ 1919, 221, UPS.Google Scholar

192 De la Fosse, the Director of Public Instruction, UP, commented: ‘Nothing but a period of adversity can bring the Trustees to their senses.’ De la Fosse to Keane, 4 October 1918, Educ 1919, 140, UPS.Google Scholar

193 Meston to Chief Secretary, UP, 28 January 1918, Educ 1918, 221. UPS.Google Scholar

194 UP Secret Abstracts, 4 October 1919, Educ 1918, 40, UPS.Google Scholar

195 By then he was in Delhi as Assistant Secretary in the Education Department.Google Scholar

196 K. Maharaj Singh to H. Sharp, 12 December 1919, Educ 1918, 40, UPS.Google Scholar

197 Akbar Hydari had been the chief mover in this, but the detailed work had been carried on by a number of people closely associated with Aligarh, including Ross Masud and Habib ur-Rahman Khan Sherwani.Google Scholar

198 Included on the Lucknow University Committee were Ziauddin, Wali Mahomed, Wazir Hasan, and Archbold, now Principal of Muir Colleges, Allahabad. De la Fosse to Butler, 9 September 1919, Educ 1919, 384, UPS.Google Scholar

199 Keane to H. R. L. Hailey, 22 June 1920, Ibid.

200 The Shia College was opposed by Aligarh leaders, including Mahmudabad—a Shia—on the grounds that it would accentuate Shia—Sunni differences. Despite efforts to compromise by locating it in Aligarh, it was ultimately established in Lucknow with government blessing. De la Fosse to Butler, 9 September 1919, Ibid.

201 Note by Shafi, 22 January 1920; Shafi to Sir George Lowndes, 25 April 1920, Home Educ A 08 1920, 1–7, NAI.Google Scholar

202 In 1920 Mahmudabad acceded to the wishes of his old friend, Butler, by becoming Home Member in the UP government.Google Scholar

203 For some details of this pilgrim's progress see Shaukat Ali to Khaliquzzaman,10 May 1909, Home Poll A July 1919, 2–32; Mahomed Ali to Ansari, 12 May 1919, Home Poll B June 1919, 494–97, NAI;Google ScholarTribune (Lahore), 6 01 1920.Google Scholar

204 Indian Annual Register, 1921 (Calcutta, 1922), pp. 43, 114–15, 194–5.Google Scholar

205 Ziauddin to Butler, 1 September 1920, Educ 1918, 40, UPS.

206 For the provisions of this Act, see Aligarh Muslim University Act, XL of 1920.

207 Letter to Syed Mahomed Ali, 12 October 1920, signed by the All brothers, Dr Ansari, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Mu'azzam Au, Amir Mustafa Khan (Secretary of the Old Boys Association), Musa Khan, H. M., Khan, Mahomed Ismail, and Ahmad, Zahur; reprinted in the Independent, 15 10 1920Google Scholar.

208 Letter from Dr Ziauddin to the parents of Aligarh students, published in Tribune, 21 October 1920.

209 Bombay Chronicle, 28 October 1920.

210 Independent, October 1920.

211 ul-Hind, Hazrat Shaikh, Maulana, Mahmud ul-Hasan, Khutbah-e-Sadarat aor Fatwa-e-Tark-e-Mawalat (Deoband, 1920).Google Scholar

212 AIG, 30 October 1920; Independent, 7 November 1920; Tribune, 9 November 1920.

213 AIG, 1 and 4 November 1920; Bombay Chronicle, 5 Novermber 1920.

214 Bombay Chronicle, 29 11 1920.Google Scholar

215 Ali, Mahomed, A Scheme of Studies for National Muslim Institutions in India (Delhi, 1921).Google Scholar The standard general history of the Jamia is Abd ul-Ghaffar Madholi, Jam'iah ki Kahani (New Delhi, 1965).Google Scholar

216 The fate of the University Fund concerned them more than the desertion of their pupils. Of the 326 students who left Aligarh during non-cooperation, only 125 joined the Jamia; the rest stayed at home. (Aligarh Muslim University Vice-Chancellor's Annual Report, 1921–22, AA.) But the Muslim University Association and the Foundation Committee still controlled the funds. Once the Muslim University Act was passed, the funds would by law be transferred to the university—unless the Association met before this happened and froze the funds. Syed Mahomed Ali to H. Sharp, 6 November 1920; Office-bearers of M A-O College to Butler, 11 November 1920, Home Educ B April 1925, 3–20, NAI.Google Scholar

217 The Begum of Bhopal was chancellor, the Aga Khan pro-chancellor and Ziauddin pro-vice-chancellor. The government made an annual grant of Rs 100,000—which was Rs 88,000 more than M A-O College had been getting. See Maharaj Singh, officiating Education Secretary, Government of India, to Education Secretary, Government of UP, 7 January 1921Google Scholar, Ibid.

218 Mahomed Ali to Mahmudabad, 19 December 1920, Tribune, 23 12 1920.Google Scholar