Pluralist society threatened
K. VIKRAM RAO
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Jamia Millia was a product of the Gandhian revolution, the national liberation struggle and the anti-colonial scheme
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The Jamia is not a minority institution. It has no denomination, religious or otherwise.
The Jamia episode has threatened the pluralistic Indian society. Vote-catchers are twisting facts and, in the process, the splendidly secular Jamia Millia Islamia has suffered. At the same time, however, the nation has revived to its advantage the debate on the twin menace of communalism and terrorism. Thus the patriotic concern for secular Jamia Millia must make the Muslim extremists realise that this Gandhian institution is not for sale or conversion. Jamia founders had
unshaken obedience to the Holy Quran which stipulates: “Hubul Watan, Minal Imaan” (Love for your nation is part of your faith).
For 88 long years, the Jamia Millia Islamia played a nationalist innings. But now it has hit the headlines for wrong reasons. For the uninformed Hindu, the Jamia looks like any other madarsa, preaching Islam. A communal Muslim discerns profanity in it. Such unsound attack on the Jamia Millia Islamia should pain every Indian who believes in a pluralist society, of which the Jamia has been an inseparable part.
Symbol of free thought
When the Indian mind again gets split into the Hindu Muslim camps, let us remember that the Jamia appeared in the Indian almanac as an answer to the Muslim University of Aligarh, which was then deepening religious fissures and promoting Muslim separatism.
The Jamia countered both. It was a product of the Gandhian revolution, the national liberation struggle and the anti-colonial scheme, spreading liberal and nationalist education. It fought relentlessly the creation of Islamic Pakistan and the irrational two-nation theory.
Ironically, India gave birth to two Mohammad Alis. One was Jinnah who called the Muslims a nation and partitioned India. The other was Jauhar who battled against the Muslim League, presided over the Indian National Congress session and suffered in British-Indian jails (I hold a return ticket, he would say on his release).
Mohammad Ali Jauhar founded the Jamia Millia Islamia and was its first vice-chancellor. The Jamia is not a madarasa. It is not a minority institution. It has no denomination, religious or otherwise. It offers no preference or reservation to Muslims.
In recent years, it has organised seven well-attended conferences to debate Islamist terrorism. Its student rolls include many from deep South living and eating with north Indians and Muslims.
Jamia Millia Islamia was the lustre child of Gandhiji’s non-cooperation movement for national liberation in 1920. It was born at Krishna Ashram building in Aligarh. An eye-witness account starts thus: “31 October 1920, two days after the Jamia had been founded, was a Friday, a day when the faithful congregate in mosques for their afternoon prayers. That day, shortly after Fajr or morning prayer, a boy held a green flag reciting the Kalima-i Tayabba (the profession or affirmation of faith) while a small, bedraggled procession marched out of the MAO college. Hakim Ajmal Khan holding his head high, the Ali brothers, and Hasrat Mohani, who had already suffered the rigours of prison life, headed it. They and a motley group of teachers and students set up a camp at makeshift homes in Krishna Ashram.”
Illustrious pioneers
The Jamia Millia Islamia was founded by freedom-fighter Maulana Mahmud Hasan. Fresh from the British Malta jail, Mahmud Hasan imparted lustre and dignity to this first national Muslim university. The foundation committee had many tried and tested freedom fighters like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, Maulana Abdul Bari Farangmahali and Maulana Husain Ahmed Madni.
Since its inception Gandhi was part of the Jamia experiment. To head the Jamia the Mahatma invited poet Allama Mohammad Iqbal. But Iqbal refused because he “had reservation about khilafat and non-cooperation with British rule.” Then came Hakim Ajmal Khan, later Congress president and freedom-fighter, who became the Amir-e-Jamia, its vice-chancellor. Jamanalal Bajaj, Mahadev Desai and Devdas Gandhi were associated with the Jamia. Gandhiji’s grandson Rasiklal studied here.
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