Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the muslim cause in british India

Abstract

This book seeks to outline Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s approach to the Muslim cause in British India. Hailed by his supporters - mainly Muslim nationalists in South Asia - as a great leader, and criticized scathingly by his opponents and dubbed as a ‘toady’ or ‘sycophant’ of the British, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan remains, hitherto, a very controversial personality. Be that as it may, no one can deny his decisive role in shaping his co-religionists’ destiny in the Indian Sub-continent up to independence, namely the creation of Pakistan. He was, indeed, one of those who took the initiative to save Islam and Muslims from further disgrace and deterioration, at a time when the process of the disintegration of the Muslim world was set in motion and the fate of the Indian Muslims had already begun following a downward trajectory. This book also explores his socio-religious reforms, and particularly his fresh orientation over the issue of Muslim-Christian relationship in the light of modern times, a subject deemed very sensitive in the Indian context at the time.