Aligarh's First Generation By David Lelyveld

Aligarh's First Generation By David Lelyveld

Aligarh's First Generation By David Lelyveld Review
The book 'Aligarh's First Generation' by David Lelyveld is a case study of the 'Muhammadan Anglo–Oriental College', today known as the 'Aligarh Muslim University', in its first twenty–five years of inception, i.e., from 1875–1900. The book explores the nature of Muslim cultural identity in India in the nineteenth century, and the changes it may have undergone in the context of colonial rule. It was the period when the first generation of Muslims educated in English graduated from the college. The author begins in the preface by presenting the context of the book by describing the college. "The Muhammadan Anglo–Oriental College was also known as 'Madrasat ul–ulum Musalmanan'. It was a residential ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Its British patrons, who ended up exerting more influence on Aligarh than its founder had intended, hoped that the new college would create a class of educated Muslims who would be more loyal to the British and less inclined to agitation than their educated Hindu counterparts. By 1875, when Aligarh was founded, many British officials were becoming disillusioned with the English educated, Hindu "babu" class. Their shrewd adoption of British po–litical techniques for the mobilization of public opinion, their creation of a powerful and all–too–vocal native press, their campaigns for more civil service places, made them thorns in the side of a government that had hoped that education would turn them into docile and appropriately grateful subjects. Members of the Muslim community, if they could only be persuaded to support the British wholeheartedly, promised to be stauncher allies because–this line of reasoning ran–they needed the protection of the British if they were not to be overwhelmed by the Hindus. It seemed unlikely that English education would tempt them to agitate for representative government of the British type, because in almost every electoral contest, Muslims stood to be outvoted. There is no need to impute sinister motives of divide et impera to the British to comprehend why they sought the favor of leading Muslims and made a show of supporting Aligarh during its insecure early days. The consequence was that Aligarh, unlike most Indian–managed colleges, could count on indulgent government inspectors, regular and sustained govern–ment grants, and still more tellingly, on the support of successive British officials who journeyed to its dusty campus, in the spirit of a pilgrimage, to deliver solemn orations there extolling Anglo–Muslim solidarity. It is worth noting that Aligarh was one of the few appropriate forums for such speeches. They could not conceivably have been delivered

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