It would hardly be an exaggeration to call Syed Ahmad Khan as the finest and most representative Muslim in the annals of the Subcontinent. Undoubtedly, he was the pioneer of the renaissance and reformist movement. It was he who brought about the social, literary and religious awakening among Muslims. It was he who served as the precursor of a neo-classical movement in Urdu literature and the founder of various liberal institutions. Like Plato and John Dewey, he founded a school for the dissemination of modern education. His was truly a versatile personality.

F.W. Fernau, a German author, in his book Moslems on the March has aptly remarked: "The founder of the Indian Moslem reform movement, Syed Ahmad Khan, was an Indian Civil Servant. He was born in a family with a long tradition of service to Islam. The family had migrated from Arabia to India in the time of the Great Mughals and had given the Moslem rulers in Delhi a succession of capable administrators.

"Syed Ahmad Khan brought back in India after a long stay in England the strong impression that the Muslims must make use of Western science and Western ways of thinking if they were not to be hopelessly submerged. The anxiety grew especially great among the Indian Muslims when they found themselves greatly outnumbered by the Hindus".

The end of the Mughal Empire and the consequent plight of the Muslim masses impelled Syed Ahmad Khan to plant a sapling of knowledge that will, with time grow into a massive tree under whose umbrage the air of Eastern and Western learning will blow freely. It was with this noble intention that a college was founded in 1875 at Aligarh which brought about a cultural and educational renaissance amongst Muslims of the Subcontinent. Sir Syed had the perspicacity and fore-sightedness to realise the benefits of modern education and the wholesome effect that it would eventually have on the lot of the Subcontinent's Muslims. Muslims could not play their due part in society without utilising to the fullest the opportunities offered by the new western culture and education. He was also keen that the institution established by him should impart moral and religious instruction as well as social training. The institution became a true replica of Oxford and Cambridge Colleges. The prestige of the university grew as it came to be known internationally through its scholars and men of learning.

Towards the end of the 19th century, political consciousness was on the rise in the Subcontinent. An astute statesman, Syed Ahmad Khan believed that the Muslims should not venture in the field of politics but assiduously apply themselves to the acquisition of education and learning. Education alone, he believed, would provide a panacea for their ills, sufferings and poverty and raise them to the apogee of enlightenment and higher culture. The Society for the Educational Progress of the Muslims, the Scientific Society and Educational Conference provided the much needed enlightenment for the Muslims and gave an impulse to their intellectual and economic advancement. Syed ahmad Khan gathered around him a galaxy of scholars and intellectuals: organisers like Mohsin-ul-Mulk and Viqar-ul-Mulk, poets and writers like Altaf Husain Hall, Allama Shibli, Dr Nazir Ahmad and Maulvi Zakaullah who played an important role in the reawakening of the Muslims. Syed Ahmad Khan was the first statesman who openly denounced Hindu domination and declared that the Musalmans were a separate nation. He told Sheikh Abdullah, founder of the Women's College Aligarh: "I am not opposed to the independence of the country and self-government. On the contrary, my desire is that the Indians should get rid of the British government gradually. But I am not in favour of the kind of self-government for India as is established in the countries of Western Europe, England and France. In these countries of Europe that I have mentioned people have one religion, one colour, one dress, one culture and one language. There might be other differences among them but there are not such differences as exist between Hindus and Muslims. The Hindus' religion is quite different from the Muslims. Hindus worship idols. There are basic differ-ences in the ideals and in the way of life of the two communities. There is no national or political unity among them either. Thus the establishment of any government on the model of England or France in India where the Muslims are in a minority and there are several differences between the Hindus and the Muslims, will be disastrous, for the Muslims. I am not opposed to the independence of India or to self-government, but I am opposed to that system of government which is the ideal of the Congress. The Congress wants the people of the country without restrictions or reservations to elect a group of their representatives, who by establishing a parliament, would rule the country on the basis of a majority vote. Such a government based on majority vote, will necessarily place all the authority and supremacy in the hands of the Hindus. The Muslims are in a minority, and in any matter that may be entirely opposed to their interests they will not be able to check the operation of the majority vote. And in India, majority government, instead of becoming a democratic government for the Muslims will become a totalitarian government. For the Muslims there would be no difference between such democratic government and despotic government."

Richard Symonds in The making of Pakistan (London 1951) observes: "In politics Sir Syed has stated the Muslims were a nation who could not and must not be submerged in a system of government by majority vote. The Pakistanis rightly claim him as one of the fathers of their country".

The services rendered by Syed Ahmad Khan in the realm of education, society and religion should not make us oblivious of the fact that he was a most distinguished and outstanding writer of Urdu and the creator of a new school of prose. He started his journal Tahzibul Akhlaq for the reawaking and revival of the Muslim nation. He not only exercised a profound influence on the works of Hali and Shibli but a score of other writers who followed him. He wielded a facile and powerful pen like Addison, Hazlitt and Stevenson. His essays are full of vivacity and verve with a limpid and clear style.

As a thoughtful and enlightened writer on a wide variety of subjects encompassing political, social, religious and literary topics he may rightly be called the father of Urdu prose He replaced the verbose and bombastic style of writing with an impressive and themselves full of polished periods and fine diction. He was also the forerunner of a new style of declamation. His most famous book is Asar-al- Sanadeed, dealing with 125 historical buildings of Delhi and its suburbs. This hook was translated in French.

Syed Ahmad possessed a very rich and precious collection of books on all subjects: literature, history, science and philosophy of oriental and Muslim scholars. Allama Shibli and others used to spend considerable time in his library in quest of knowledge and new information. ENen foreign scholars used to study in the library and spoke high-ly of its collection.

In a bid to bring about a social and cultural regeneration of the Muslims in keeping with the essential tenets of their Faith (Iman and Tanhid), and the requirements of a changing world, Syed Ahmed Khan, founded the All lndia Muslim Educational Conference in 1886 which was intended to focus on problems relating education al and social reconstruction during its first twenty years, the Conference served as the only forum for those Muslims who are keen to promote the welfare of their people. But Muslims could not for long remain confined to activities of social reform and educational progress alone. Conditions were fast changing. With education, political consciousness was daunting on the minds of the intelligentsia of the Muslims. The other community was clamouring for political lights and the manlier ill which the agitation was carried out, left little doubt that the Muslims would be the ultimate losers if they did not bestir them-selves on the political front. The Muslims had always been conscious of their separate identity— not only religious social and cultural but also political. Islam is an all-embracing faith, a complete philosophy and code of life, a state concept, a polity, a social order, and a culture.

It is indeed remarkable that even at a time when the politics of India was in a very nebulous state and self-government was not con-sidered to be within the pale of practical politics, Syed Ahmad Khan with his foresight, had sounded a serious note of warning that the British parliamentary system was totally unsuited to Muslims of the Subcontinent. He also upheld the idea of the separate nationhood of the Muslims. With all those factors and new consciousness, the Muslims planned to organise themselves ml the political front. During the Session of the All India Muslim Educational Conference at Dhaka 1906, the leaders of Aligarh Movement laid the foundation of the All-India Muslim League. The Ahgarh Movement created new trends and impulses in the life of the Muslims and promoted cooperation between all groups and races and welded them to recreate and reconstruct an enlightened society. In a nutshell, it may be said that Syed Ahmad Khan's dynamic leadership, foresight and vision laid the foundations of the Aligarh Clement. It was fundamentally a cultural movement aiming at the regeneration of liberal values ht lit-erature, social life, religion and education.

In literature, it created a high sense of clarity of diction, transcendent ideas and observation of nature. The versatility of Hall, author of Musaddas, led to a new trend in literary criticism and reshaped the course of poetic excellence. On the social plane, the Aligarh University made ceaseless efforts for inculcating the higher values of integrity, good behaviour, service to humanity, singleness of purpose and dedication. In the field of education, it stood for the fusion of the cultures of the East and the West and striking a bal-ance between classical and modern knowledge and technology. In religion, it laid emphasis on rationalism and scientific understanding of the Glorious Qur'an in relation to the Universe, interpretation of the forces of Attire and the dignity of man.