Badruddin Tyabji

Sir Syed's Attack on the Congress

Badruddin Tyabji's Response to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

The following are collected from Husain Tyabji's biography of Badruddin. From a letter to Mehdi Ali (later Nawab Mohsinul Mulk), dated January 14, 1888:

I confess I cannot understand the reasons which have induced our friends like Ameer Ali, Abdul Lateef and Syed Ahmad Khan to stand aloof from the Congress. I am very much afraid that their abstention is due not so much to conviction as to a desire to stand well with the Government. I have put myself in communication with them . . . to put an end to this unseemly disagreement not only between the Mahomedans and Hindus of Bengal, but even between the Mussalmans of one Presidency and those of another. . .

There was a reproof for the unwarranted statements that the Congress was composed of Bengali Baboos alone, and that no Mahomedans had taken part in it. . . Badruddin pleaded that the Congress was merely an assemblage of all races and creeds for discussion of only such questions as may generally be admitted to concern the whole of India at large. He said:"The question is whether it is not desirable to have such a Conference. We can no more stop the Congress than we can stop the progress of education, but it is in our power by firm and resolute action to direct the course the Congress shall take. . ."

As to the advantages the Mahomedans will gain by joining the Congress, they will gain the same advantages as the Hindus, the Parsees, or Christians and that it is the duty of all people who call India their motherland, to unite together for the purpose of promoting the common good of all, irrespective of the distinction of caste, colour or creed. . .

There are no doubt many valiant Mahomedans in this country whose bravery consists in taunting the Bengalees for their cowardice, but who tremble at the very idea of a frown from a `saheb' and whose political code does not permit them to go beyond saying `yes' to everything that may be put forward by any European. . .

You ask me to explain why some of the Mahomedans have spoken against the Congress. I say that some of them are against it from ignorance of its objects and aims, some from bigotry and fanaticism, some from religious hatred of the Hindoos, some from a desire of winning the good graces of the European officers, some from a fear that their loyalty may be impugned, some from an apprehension that their chances of promotion in Government services, or getting some titles and honours may be lost, some from disappointment that they were not consulted about the Congress in the first instance, some from jealousy of the other leaders who have taken a prominent part in the Congress, and last, some - but very few - from a real conviction that the Mahomedans being numerically and intellectually inferior to the Hindoos will either not be able to take a proper part in the Congress at all, or be overwhelmed by the Hindu majority. It is the last case only which I think is entitled to respect.