Book Review: Jamia aur Gandhi (Afroz Alam Sahil)

Review by Naved Ashrafi

Book Name: Jamia Aur Gandhi
Author: Afroz Alam Sahil
Language: Hindi
Pages: 203
Price: MRP Rs. 350/-
Publisher: INSAAN International Foundation, New Delhi
Year: 2019

---

An edited version of this review was published in the March 2021 issue of the Seminar Magazine

In August 2020, the Jamia Millia Islamia topped the tally of central universities in a government ranking issued by the Ministry of Education. Jamia Millia Islamia is a central university situated in New Delhi where the seat of India’s federal government is located.

The university had been a hotbed of chaos and mayhem at the beginning of the year 2020 in the backdrop of a brutal police attack on its campus on 15th December 2019 when Delhi Police—presumably infuriated by the anti-CAA protests—barged in on the campus attacking several students and destroying the university property.

Almost a hundred casualties were recorded along with a huge mental trauma inflicted upon her students, teachers, alumni and well-wishers. Later on 13th January 2020, Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia decided to knock the judiciary for getting FIR filed against the Delhi Police.

Since the passing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in both the houses of the parliament and subsequent assent of the President of India on December 12, 2019, the law witnessed massive protests in every nook and cranny of India.

These protests were unprecedented in their stretch, energy and vigour with major universities and colleges turning out to be massive mobilization centres against government’s discriminatory legislation called Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. Jamia Millia Islamia was one of them.

These protests were projected to take a heavy toll on Modi government. That’s why in a bid to allay the fears of sheer opposition to the citizenship law, treacherous campaigns, propaganda and media trials against Muslims protesters were run; attacks on universities like Jamia Millia Islamia were incepted with the same motive of delegitimizing the protests. One of the BJP ministers even maligned the university calling anti-CAA protests by Jamia students ‘anti-national’. Such campaigns by BJP politicians were not new; in 2008 the erstwhile Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi had also called Jamia students ‘terrorists’.

The right-wing propaganda does not hold water against the axiomatic nationalist past of Jamia Millia Islamia which according to Jawaharlal Nehru is “the lusty child of Gandhian non-cooperation movement”. Afroz Alam Sahil’s Jamia Aur Gandhi (Jamia and Gandhi) is a meticulous account on the birth, progress and culmination of Jamia as a nationalist institution cherished by none other than Mahatma Gandhi in graceful company of stalwarts like Mohammad Ali, Shaukat Ali, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, Hakeem Ajmal Khan, Mohammad Mujeeb, Abdul Majeed Khwaja, Dr. Zakir Husain among others.

Author has toiled very much in delineating the history of Jamia with respect to Gandhi’s association in every ebb and flow of the university. Jamia was established in a response to Gandhi’s call of Non-Cooperation against the British empire. Author has included many correspondences and articles of Mahatma Gandhi, excerpts from CID reports and press reports which inform the reader that Gandhi visualized Jamia as an agency of nationalist struggle paving the way for Hindu-Muslim unity while pledging a robust and stable future of India.

Jamia started as Muslim National University in the mosque of Mohammadan Anglo Oriental (MAO) College, Aligarh on 29 October 1920 with a promulgation of Shaikh-ul-Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan and his Khutba-e-Tasees (Foundation Sermon). He regarded Jamia as a bhapka (extractor) that would extract the [British] poison out of the [nationalist] milk. Later, the university was shifted to New Delhi in Karol Bagh finally getting established in Okhla.

Mahatma Gandhi regarded Jamia essentially as an institution of Muslims of India that would otherwise be open to the people of all religions and castes sans any discrimination, thus auguring well for Hindu-Muslim unity in India. Author has included Gandhi’s answers published on 20 Deecmber 1928 in Young India to a few questions raised by a Muslim reader regarding the principles governing the Jamia, its prospective beneficiaries, its management and funds etc. Gandhi categorically replied that Jamia was founded upon the most liberal tenets and it had been specifically erected for the Muslims but also welcomed people from every religion and caste with an open heart. Gandhi also informed the reader that Jamia had Seth Jamnalal Bajaj as one its trusties who was non-Muslim and that it too had non-Muslims among students, teachers and staff.

Apart from a harbinger of communal and social amity, Gandhi regarded Jamia as an instrument for winning the freedom by adhering a non-violent path unlike those violent routes that were followed by schools established by Hitler and Mussolini. Author cites Gandhi’s speech at Hindustani Talimi Sangh (1938),

We have to make of this training school a school for winning freedom and for the solution of all our ills, of which the chief one is our communal troubles. For this purpose we shall have to concentrate on non-violence. Hitler’s and Mussolini’s schools accept as their fundamental principle violence. Ours is non-violence according to the Congress

The book apprises us about the opposition faced by Mahatma Gandhi from Hindu-nationalists on the question of Jamia and how meticulously Gandhi handled it. On 18 January 1928 Hindu Mahasabha leader Dr. B. S. Moonje has raised serious apprehensions on Jamia evolving as a memorial of Hakeem Ajmal Khan. In his letter to Gandhi, Moonje termed Jamia a ‘communal institution’ which would further sever the ties between the two communities. Gandhi retorted Moonje that if any institution had ‘nationalist outlook’ and if it contributed immensely to the nationalist cause then such communal institution could be called a nationalist institution. Gandhi also informed Moonje that being a Muslim institution, Jamia welcomed people from all religion and castes.

Jamia had learnt every lesson of nationalism under the supervision of none other than Mahatma Gandhi. The book tells us that Mahatma Gandhi’s contribution to Jamia was two-pronged, first, arranging the funds and other resources for smooth functioning of the university; second, enabling the students develop a nationalist mindset detached from malice, avarice, aversion and hatred.

To develop a nationalist conscience among its students, Gandhi did every bit that he could do. He would write many appeals for donation to Jamia Fund in his Young India, Harijan and Navjivan. He wrote to Seth Jamnalal Bajaj, Nawab of Bhopal, Madanmohan Malviya, Ghanshyam Das Birla and many others for maintaining a perennial supply of funds. Author has curated excerpts from Gandhi’s speeches in Colombo, Dhaka, Bombay, Bhopal, Gujarat, Madras, Benaras etc. where he informed his audience about Jamia Millia Islamia and asked for funds for Jamia. Some of Gandhi’s excursions to many cities were dedicated solely to raising funds for Jamia, notifies the author. Gandhi followed in practice what he once said to Hakeem Ajmal Khan, ‘If you’re facing a financial crunch, then I am ready to do beg’.

Gandhi’s wife Kasturba, his son Devdas, grandson Rasiklal and Miraben spent their days serving Jamia; and Rasiklal even breathed his last in Jamia. This was a time when Jamia was passing through crises and Gandhi’s concerted efforts to save Jamia were labeled as ‘search for Truth’ by Dr. Zakir Husain who, after the demise of Hakeem Ajmal Khan on 29 December 1927, shouldered on the responsibility of the Jamia. Infact, Jamia was on the brink of extinction in 1924 and it was Gandhi’s endeavor that Jamia could survive.

The book Jamia Aur Gandhi apprises its readers about what Gandhi thought of Muslims involved in the enterprise of Jamia. In a letter to Shuaib Qureshi, Gandhi wrote,

It [Jamia Millia Islamia] seems to be the only institution manned by Muslims which has self-sacrificing workers who are staunch Muslims and equally staunch nationalists

On the eve of laying the foundation of Jamia in Okhla, Gandhi wrote a letter to Dr. Zakir Husain on 20 February 1935 stating,

It is a great idea to have the foundation of the Jamia laid by its youngest child. My congratulations on the originality of the conception. I know that the Jamia has a great future. Through it I expect the seed of Hindu-Muslim union to grow into a majestic tree. I therefore wish every success to the enterprise.

Jamia Millia Islamia came into existence in response to Gandhi’s call of non-cooperation. To Gandhi, any act of asahyog i.e. non-cooperation was an earnest service to God. Jamia blossomed as such a service to God. Afroz Alam Sahil’s Jamia Aur Gandhi is a well-informed exposition on Gandhi’s relation with Jamia and vice-versa. In current fissiparous and communal aura, the book is a must-read as it shatters all propaganda against Indian Muslims and their institutions. The price of the book should be slashed under Rs. 150/- so that a lion’s share of youth could read it and could understand how nationalist journey of Jamia Millia Islamia unfolded in Aligarh and reached a culmination in New Delhi.

---

Naved Ashrafi teaches Public Administration at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.