Were the religious views of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan his most important contribution in developing the

cause of Muslims during the nineteenth century? Why?

Originally Answered: Were the religious views of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan his most important contribution
in developing the cause of Muslims during the nineteenth century? Explain your answer.?

He believed that relations with the British could be improved by improving the understanding of
Christianity by Muslims. He tried to overcome this by writing Tabyin-ul-Kalam, in which he pointed out
the similarities between Islam and Christianity.

He was also aware that the British knew little about Islam and was offended by a book he read in Britain
on the life of the Prophet and as a result he wrote his own work correcting the many errors he had read.
However he contributed many other things. He attempted to improve the position of Muslims through
education.

In 1863 he founded the Scientific Society at Ghazipore. He wanted to make scientific writings available
to Muslims by translating them from English into Urdu. He established a Muslim college which led to the
Muslim-Anglo Oriental College in 1876. This became the University of Aligarh which became important
in Pakistani history as providing an education for many of its future leaders.

He also made a contribution in politics. He believed that Muslims would never win any election because
of the Hindu majority population. He therefore advocated separate seats and a separate electorate
which was the forerunner of the future demand for a separate homeland. He wrote a number of books
following the War of Independence in which he tried to show the British that the Muslims were only
partly to blame and that there were many who were supporters of the British government.

He suggested that the British should try to understand Muslims better. He gave an explanation of the
word ’Nadarath’ in an attempt to remove the misunderstanding of the British about the Muslims.

What are the services of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan?

Sir Syed Khans services are multiple. Let’s divide them as follows:

 Services in improving relations between British and Muslims.

Firstly to improve the relations between Muslims and British, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan wrote various books
to soften the heart of British. In 1860, he wrote ‘The Loyal Mohammedans of India’. Through this he
named various loyal Muslims and tried to prove that British viewpoint of Muslims being disloyal was
incorrect. Moreover he also ‘Essay on Causes of Indian Revolt’. He clarified that factual reasons for the
War of Independence of 1857 in order to uplift the blame that Muslims were behind that war.

He also clarified the word Nadarath to British who considered it as an insult. Sir Syed elaborated that it
was from Arabic word Nasir that means a helper and thus was a reflection of a positive image for British
in the eyes of Muslims.
To encourage the growth of western education, Sir Syed took various steps such as:

He wrote a journal Tehzib ul Ikhlaq which contained articles of influential people who agreed with Sir
Syed’s views on education. Therefore, a intellectual growth began.

In 1863, he established the Scientific Society at Gazipur. It ensured that the writings in English, Arabic
and Persian were available in Urdu so large number of Urdu speaking Muslims could understand them.
Similarly, he published a journal in 1866, Scientific Institute Gazette.

Moreover he established various educational institutions such as a school in Moradabad in 1859 and a
school in Gazipur in 1864. He also is the founder of the great M.A.O college who served to teach many
important personalities of Pakistan.

Lastly, he made a Muhammadan Educational Conference in 1885 to raise the standards of education for
the Muslim educational institutions.

To create a political awareness among Muslims, Sir Syed informed Muslims that upon democracy,
Muslims will always be at the mercy of Hindus. This was because the Hindus were greatly larger in
number and thus would win every election.

This is the reason, he came up with his Two Nation Theory following the Hindi Urdu Controversy.

Why did Sir Syed Ahmad Khan establish the Aligarh Movement?

Sir Syed had 3 central aims of the Aligarh Movement. The 1st aim was to improve relations between the
British & Muslim community. Since, the Muslims were highly blamed for the War of Independence, the
British stopped trusting them. On the other hand, Muslims also didn't accept British as rulers I said that
they are foreign invaders because of which the relations between the Muslims & British increased. SSAK
thought of solving this problem by removing British doubts about Muslim loyalty & Muslim doubts about
British intension.

The 2nd aim was to improve the social & economic positions of the Muslims by encouraging them to
receive western education & take up posts in the civil service & army. Since Muslims weren't accepting
western education, their education went into decline & Muslims were mostly illiterate so, they didn't
get much jobs either. To solve this problem, encouraging them to wards western education became very
important.

The 3rd aim was to increase the political awareness of the Muslim community in order to make them
aware of the threat to their position from the Hindu policy of cooperation with the British. It was very
important to make Muslims aware about the Hindus as, the Hindus were playing it smartly & were trying
to gain control over India & though many of their works seemed to be good, there was something about
it that was supporting the Hindus.