Book Review

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The Aligarh Movement and the Making of the Indian Muslim Mind (1857 - 2002) is a long-awaited book on one of the most enigmatic personalities who helped to shape the idea of India. Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, the founder of the Muslim Anglo-Oriental College now known as the Aligarh Muslim University, was what one may call a complete individual, educationist, philanthropist, administrator, leader, and most importantly a self-made man who was, even by today’s standards, staunchly secular. It is perhaps ironical that the challenges Sir Sayyid faced in his lifetime were also in subsequent years, and indeed to this day, faced by the institution he founded.


The university has gone through several twists and turns. There were events that threatened its very existence, sometimes for the lack of funds and at other times because there were people who wanted to see the venerable institution go. Sir Sayyid too faced several challenges. He had to take several tough decisions in life. Some were personal, like his decision to leave his mother behind when he was evacuating the family during the 1857 Revolt. At other times, he was simultaneously fighting the British and opponents of his cause. If there was one part of his personality that Sir Sayyid passed on to AMU it was his resilience. The university might have over the years become the happy hunting ground for politicians and vested interests, but it survives and holds its own despite the odds.


The book provides a historically relevant perspective to the story of Sir Sayyid and the AMU, and brings it up to date.


The author, Tariq Hasan is an Aligarh based journalist. He joined the Aligarh Muslim University in 1965. After a brief stint in industry, he entered the field of journalism in 1975. He has worked with The Pioneer (Lucknow), The Patriot (New Delhi), The Times of India (New Delhi) and the Press Trust of India (PT1). The late Maulvi Samiullah Khan, a co-founder of the AMU and the founder of the Muslim Boarding House of the Allahabad University was the author’s mother’s great grandfather.


The author uses rare archival matter, and but for this book, those documents would have been lost forever. “I began work on this book in 1995. The idea that prompted this venture was to provide the discerning reader a chance to peep through the window of history and catch a glimpse of the nineteenth century movement of the Indian Muslims leading to a sort of educational renaissance. As a journalist, I have covered events at The Aligarh Muslim University for more than two and a half decades for some leading newspapers of the country. I soon realised that, for some inexplicable reason, the study of the social and political ramifications of the nineteenth century movement, popularly referred to as The Aligarh Movement, have been largely ignored by scholars. As a result of this vacuum of serious scholarly work, it occurred to me to bring about a narrative of this movement which could arouse the interest of others, more capable than me, to seek answers from it for some deeply disturbing questions faced by us today.” says Tariq Hasan.