'SIR' SYED AHMAD KHAN 17th October
'SIR' SYED AHMAD KHAN
17th October
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was a feudal-casteist person. He was an icon of the Ashraf (high caste) Muslims and looked down upon the subjugated caste Pasmanda Muslims with contempt. After the popular anti-colonial insurrection of 1857 he started collaborating closely with the British colonial regime in order to secure the interests of the Ashraf classes.
The ideas of Sir Syed laid down the foundations of ‘Muslim nationalism (communalism)’ and inspired the notion of an exclusive Muslim identity. The discourse of Muslim communalism produced a legitimating vocabulary for Hindu communalism (as it seen later by Hindu MahaSabha) and strengthened it further. The symbiotic relationship between these contending communalism's eventually found its logical culmination in the Partition of Hindustan and creation of Pakistan.
Consequently, the ‘Hindu-Muslim’ binary was solidified at a great cost to the Pasmanda-Bahujans of the subcontinent. The Hindustani ruling class has consistently employed communal euphoria and violence as an instrument to repress the social justice demands of the subjugated Bahujan (working class) castes across religions. Hence, if one is serious about social justice politics then one has to think beyond the trappings of the ‘Hindu-Muslim’ discourse and identify the key historical figures that manufactured it.
The Pasmanda (working class Muslims) activists pronounce Sir Syed Ahmad Khan guilty for being the chief architect of the regressive politics of Muslim communalism. The Pasmanda people don’t consider Sir Syed to be their icon by any stretch of imagination. As has been the practice in the last few years the celebrations on the occasion of his birth anniversary (October 17) will be resisted and boycotted this year too.
Extra :
Couldn’t say it better, Syed Ahmed (titled sir by Brits for his loyalty to Raj) was nothing but a complete British tool, representing the elite (less than 1%) of Hindustani Muslims - mostly nawabs and those pass out from British educational institutes - he was opposed by great Muslim Scholars and working class Muslim men of his time.
For those who are unaware of him - it was Syed Ahmed who established “All India Muslim League” who later started Pakistan movement OR so called two nation theory in Hindustan - that results the partition of Hindustan as Brits wanted.
Courtesy: Khalid Anis Ansari
