Pak301 Assignment No. 1 - Solution

Solution

Describe the significance and contribution of Aligarh Movement for the revival and regeneration of the Muslims of Sub-Continent.

Syed Ahmad Khan's Aligarh Movement played a significant role in bringing about an intellectual revolution among the Indian Muslims. Thus it succeeded in achieving its major objectives, i.e. educational progress and social reform. His efforts earned Sir Syed the title "Prophet of Education".

Aligarh Movement was the movement led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, to educate the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent after the defeat of the rebels in the Indian rebellion of 1857. It had enormous success and had a profound impact on the future of the subcontinent. Its most significant achievement was the establishment of Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, which later became Aligarh Muslim University.

* Why did Sir Syed advise the Muslims to avoid joining active politics?
Syed advised the Muslims against joining active politics and to concentrate instead on education. Later, when some Muslims joined the Indian National Congress, he came out strongly against that organisation and its objectives, which included the establishment of parliamentary democracy in India. He argued that, in a country where communal divisions were all-important and education and political organisations were confined to a few classes, parliamentary democracy would work only inequitably. Muslims, generally, followed his advice and abstained from politics until several years later when they had established their own political organisation i.e. Muslim League.

Describe the significance and contribution of Aligarh Movement for the revival and regeneration of the Muslims of Sub-Continent. 

The War of Independence 1857 ended in disaster for the Muslims. The British chose to believe that the Muslims were responsible for the anti-British uprising; therefore they made them the subject of ruthless punishments and merciless vengeance. The British had always looked upon the Muslims as their adversaries because they had ousted them from power. With the rebellion of 1857, this feeling was intensified and every attempt was made to ruin and suppress the Muslims forever. Their efforts resulted in the liquidation of the Mughal rule and the Sub-continent came directly under the British crown. 

After dislodging the Muslim rulers from the throne, the new rulers, the British, implemented a new educational policy with drastic changes. The policy banned Arabic, Persian and religious education in schools and made English not only the medium of instruction but also the official language in 1835. This spawned a negative attitude amongst the Muslims towards everything modern and western, and a disinclination to make use of the opportunities available under the new regime. This tendency, had it continued for long, would have proven disastrous for the Muslim community. 

Seeing this atmosphere of despair and despondency, Sir Syed launched his attempts to revive the spirit of progress within the Muslim community of India. He was convinced that the Muslims in their attempt to regenerate themselves, had failed to realize the fact that mankind had entered a very important phase of its existence, i.e., an era of science and learning. He knew that the realization of the very fact was the source of progress and prosperity for the British. Therefore, modern education became the pivot of his movement for regeneration of the Indian Muslims. He tried to transform the Muslim outlook from a medieval one to a modern one. 

Sir Syed's first and foremost objective was to acquaint the British with the Indian mind; his next goal was to open the minds of his countrymen to European literature, science and technology. 

Therefore, in order to attain these goals, Sir Syed launched the Aligarh Movement of which Aligarh was the center. He had two immediate objectives in mind: to remove the state of misunderstanding and tension between the Muslims and the new British government, and to induce them to go after the opportunities available under the new regime without deviating in any way from the fundamentals of their faith. 

Keeping education and social reform as the two planks of his program, he launched the Aligarh Movement with the following objectives: 

1. To create an atmosphere of mutual understanding between the British government and the Muslims. 

2. To persuade Muslims to learn English education. 

3. To persuade Muslims to abstain from politics of agitation. 

4. To produce an intellectual class from amongst the Muslim community

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Assignment No.1

Pak301

Fall 2010

Total Marks: 10

Due Date: October, 25, 2010

Objectives:

To asses students’ knowledge of the subject and to motivate them towards conceptual knowledge and practical application of the subject.

Instructions

   1. Late assignments will not be accepted.

   2. If the file is corrupt or problematic, it will be marked zero.

   3. Plagiarism will never be tolerated.Plagiarism occurs when a student uses work done by someone else as if it was his or her own.

   4. If any assignment is found copied work, no marks will be awarded and the case may be referred to the head of the academics for disciplinary action.

   5. No assignment will be accepted via e-mail.

   6. The file should be in Word doc form; the font color should be preferably black and font size can be 12 Times New Roman.

Guideline:

Try to be genuine and impressive in your approach.

Describe the significance and contribution of Aligarh Movement for the revival and regeneration of the Muslims of Sub-Continent. Why did Sir Syed advise the Muslims to avoid joining active politics?

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SOLUTION:

* Describe the significance and contribution of Aligarh Movement for the revival and regeneration of the Muslims of Sub-Continent.

Syed Ahmad Khan's Aligarh Movement played a significant role in bringing about an intellectual revolution among the Indian Muslims. Thus it succeeded in achieving its major objectives, i.e. educational progress and social reform. His efforts earned Sir Syed the title "Prophet of Education".

Aligarh Movement was the movement led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, to educate the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent after the defeat of the rebels in the Indian rebellion of 1857. It had enormous success and had a profound impact on the future of the subcontinent. Its most significant achievement was the establishment of Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, which later became Aligarh Muslim University.

* Why did Sir Syed advise the Muslims to avoid joining active politics?

Syed advised the Muslims against joining active politics and to concentrate instead on education. Later, when some Muslims joined the Indian National Congress, he came out strongly against that organisation and its objectives, which included the establishment of parliamentary democracy in India. He argued that, in a country where communal divisions were all-important and education and political organisations were confined to a few classes, parliamentary democracy would work only inequitably. Muslims, generally, followed his advice and abstained from politics until several years later when they had established their own political organisation i.e. Muslim League.

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Describe the significance and contribution of Aligarh Movement for the revival and regeneration of the Muslims of Sub-Continent.
The War of Independence 1857 ended in disaster for the Muslims. The British chose to believe that the Muslims were responsible for the anti-British uprising; therefore they made them the subject of ruthless punishments and merciless vengeance. The British had always looked upon the Muslims as their adversaries because they had ousted them from power. With the rebellion of 1857, this feeling was intensified and every attempt was made to ruin and suppress the Muslims forever. Their efforts resulted in the liquidation of the Mughal rule and the Sub-continent came directly under the British crown.

After dislodging the Muslim rulers from the throne, the new rulers, the British, implemented a new educational policy with drastic changes. The policy banned Arabic, Persian and religious education in schools and made English not only the medium of instruction but also the official language in 1835. This spawned a negative attitude amongst the Muslims towards everything modern and western, and a disinclination to make use of the opportunities available under the new regime. This tendency, had it continued for long, would have proven disastrous for the Muslim community.

Seeing this atmosphere of despair and despondency, Sir Syed launched his attempts to revive the spirit of progress within the Muslim community of India. He was convinced that the Muslims in their attempt to regenerate themselves, had failed to realize the fact that mankind had entered a very important phase of its existence, i.e., an era of science and learning. He knew that the realization of the very fact was the source of progress and prosperity for the British. Therefore, modern education became the pivot of his movement for regeneration of the Indian Muslims. He tried to transform the Muslim outlook from a medieval one to a modern one.

Sir Syed's first and foremost objective was to acquaint the British with the Indian mind; his next goal was to open the minds of his countrymen to European literature, science and technology.

Therefore, in order to attain these goals, Sir Syed launched the Aligarh Movement of which Aligarh was the center. He had two immediate objectives in mind: to remove the state of misunderstanding and tension between the Muslims and the new British government, and to induce them to go after the opportunities available under the new regime without deviating in any way from the fundamentals of their faith.

Keeping education and social reform as the two planks of his program, he launched the Aligarh Movement with the following objectives:

1. To create an atmosphere of mutual understanding between the British government and the Muslims.

2. To persuade Muslims to learn English education.

3. To persuade Muslims to abstain from politics of agitation.

4. To produce an intellectual class from amongst the Muslim community

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Another solution:

Part A

Aligarh Movement:
The founder of Aligarh Movement was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. After the War of Independence 1857 Muslim were badly suffered by the British. The British thought that Muslims were the main cause of this war. They made every attempt to ruin the Muslims. In order to safe the Muslims Sir Syed Ahmad Khan came forward. For doing this he started Aligarh Movement. The main objectives of Aligarh Movement are as under.
1. To remove the misunderstanding between the British and Muslims and to put them on the right path of Quran and Sunnah .
2. To gave the modern education to the Muslims of the Sub-Continent.
3. To keep away the Muslims from taking part in Politics.

Sir Syed attracted many people towards himself. Among them were Nawab Mohsin ul Mulk, Nawab Viqar Ul Mulk, Hali, Shibli, Nazir Ahmad, Chiragh Ali and Mohammad Hayat. Due to Aligarh Movement he was able to build Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental in 1875 which was then raised to college level at 1877 and to University level in 1920. Sir Syed later clearly stated that the Hindus and Muslims of the Sub-Continent are opposite nations which had their own social and political rights. This is called Two Nation Theory and due to this later Pakistan came into existence

Part B:
Sir Syed avoids the Muslims from taking parting active Politics and told to concentrate on their education. He strongly advised the Muslims not to involve themselves in the Politics because the politics of that time were only working for the Hindu rights. They pay no attention to the Muslims of the Sub-Continent. Muslims generally follows his advice and keep themselves away from the politics but later when their own Political Party, Muslim League, was established they took part in that.