SIR SYED OPPOSED EQUAL RIGHT FOR WOMEN: Lelyveld Eram Agha ALIGARH: It was a lecture on Sir Syed and Womens Education organised by the Centre for Advanced Studies of the Aligarh Muslim University, and the audience expected to hear all about the enlightened views of the varsitys founder in the matter. Professor David Lelyveld, author of Aligarhs First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India, and brother of Joseph Lelyveld, whose book Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle with India was a matter of much controversial discussion in 2011, the year of its publication, had some surprisingly little known things to say about Sir Syeds views on womens rights. Lelyveld disclosed at the beginning that he considered himself a feminist, believing that women should have equal rights as women. He then raised some uncomfortable questions: Why, with all his radical ideas for reform and change and liberalism, including his admiration for European ideas and ways of life, did he (Sir Syed) oppose granting full equality to women? The question was raised in the context of an incident mentioned in Gail Minaults Secluded Scholar: Womens Education and Social Reform in Colonial India. One incident described in the book is of Khans disciple from Lahore Sayyid Mumtaz Ali visiting him with a manuscript of Huqquq-I-Niswan, a text on womens rights. Minault says that as Sir Syed went through the pages of that book, his face reddened and his hands trembled. Finally he tore up the manuscript and threw it in waste paper basket, Lelyveld said. Ali, however, retrieved the book and got it published after Sir Syeds death. The book that so upset Sir Syed called for full equality for women and refutes the standard reasons, both religious and practical, for confining them to a limited set of household roles, Lelyveld said, adding that he was not attempting to judge Sir Syed, only to understand him. As with any issues he addressed in his life, Sir Syed went through shifting ideas and goals: The change in his ideas speak to the changing world he lived in and the balancing of competing goals. As staunch defender of purdah and opponent of womens education - Sir Syed was hardly the man of modern ideas that we usually take him for. The issue is not a personal one, but Sir Syed articulated the dominant male ideology of much of India, Lelyveld said. Lelyveld said the chief purpose of setting up the Mohammaden Anglo Oriental College was to remove boys and young men from the influence of women and the household: Unless boys are kept at a distance from home they will always remain ignorant, worthless and exposed to all sorts of evils. The audience got a new perspective on Sir Syed - in 1876, in an article in the Aligarh Institute Gazette, he accused women of attachment to old customs and irrational practices. In 1882, he testified to the Hunter Education Commission against schools for women; he also opposed allowing the children of courtesans to attend school. Lelyveld said the condition of women continues to be used to justify and excuse imperialist interventions, as in Afghanistan. He also commented on contemporary movements among Muslim women, including Islamic feminism.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 07:18:24 +0000
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