Education and Modernisation of Muslims in India

Since mid-nineteenth century the Muslim leadership had been devising ways and means for such a change as might be acceptable to the community and compatible with the changing need of the time. They sought modernization of the Muslim community without relinquishing the religious heritage. Hence they have been struggling for preservation of the separate cultural identity and traditional religion although traditionalism, religiosity and separatism are considered to be an obstacle to modernization. As education is the prime mover of change in the world of ideas, they made it instrumental in introducing modernity and thereby in bringing about the desired social change and political socialization of Muslims. This book offers a vivid insight into the evolution of National Muslim University Movement and establishment of the Delhi College and the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. For the first time, history of an educational institution has been penned down here systematically with the help of original letters and unpublished office records. This book provides an indepth analysis of the conflicting orientation of Muslim mind and its manifestation in social life, political process, and educational movements that have a bearing upon the community problems, i.e., separate identity, position of women, inter-community relationship and so on. As some elements of social system impinge on the polity and social changes give direction to political process, a critical evaluation of social development has been done for a clear perception of political interactions. In this context, a theoretical insight of Islmaic values and traditions which came in conflict with modernism, has also been probed into. An outstanding feature of this book is that based on sampling, it also concentrates to analyse the attitude and behaviour of the educated Muslims as well as their Hindu counterparts in an attempt to measure the degree of social and political modernity therein. The learned author gives some important suggestions for accelerating the pace of modernization and development among the Muslims.