Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH :

Lucknow :

These are times of aggressive nationalism we are living in, said vice chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, Faizan Mustafa, where we have started to consider Mughals not part of the country. Mustafa speaking at the grand 200th bicentenary birth anniversary celebrations of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in Lucknow on Tuesday went ahead to say that Mughals were in fact leaders of the first war of independence of 1857 and were considered so by the likes of Tipu Sultan, Tatya Tope and others.

“Mughals were an integral part of India who could not be fragmented from its soul and now we are here in these times of aggressive nationalism where we are having doubts about them. And this nationalism has not only made us target the Mughals, but also recently there were similar talks about Rabindranath Tagore,” said Mustafa who was the guest of honour at the Sir Syed Day organised by Aligarh Muslim University’s (AMU) Old Boys’ Association. Filmmaker Muzaffar Ali was the chief guest on the day, both of whom being former pupils of the university, recounted their time spent at AMU.

Mustafa also cleared that now when criticising the government is equated to being seditious, it was in 1860 after a fatwa (decree) from clerics at Deoband against the British that the law of sedition as a charge was enacted. Mustafa also exhorted his fellow Aligs (as past pupils of AMU are popularly known) that the dream of Sir Syed has not yet been realised with Muslims lagging in both modern education and securing government jobs.

In his brief speech, Mustafa also touched upon the controversy around AMU’s minority status and said, “People say that the minority status was for the college and with AMU a university, it does not stand now. I researched for this when I had to submit in Allahabad high court as AMU’s stand on the case and I found that when Sir Syed laid the foundation of the madrasa it was the university he had in mind and when he gave his first speech in 1877 when the school was raised to the college level, in front of Lord Lytton he said that one day the college would be a university.

Mustafa also said that blaming Sir Syed for the two nation theory was not just wrong but also absurd. “In several of his recorded speeches, he has identified and defined both Hindus and Muslims as not separate identities but one qaum (community) and one nation. Mustafa considered an authority on law also said that reforms in Muslim personal laws were needed and could only be possible through the ideas of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

ON the day, the AMU Old Boys’ Association and its members that had gathered in the city from different parts of the state passed the resolution to raise demand of Bharat Ratna for Sir Syed and to generate funds for a Sir Syed House in Lucknow to carry on his Aligarh movement of education.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / by Yusra Hussain / TNN / October 18th, 2017