“We notice in Sir Antony McDonnell’s farewell visit to the M. A. O. College at Aligurh, he carefully avoided the mistake of attributing the origin of the Institution to Sir Syed Ahmed, a mistake he along with others, used to perpetrate before. We have not space at present to set forth all the facts, and as to whom the Aligurh College really owes its existence we may even add to whom Sir Syed owed his own position – but we may just say that it was conceived and carried through to its very details by a European gentleman and editor of influence in those days; that all the proofs of it are existing and handy ; that these proofs were at the disposal of the Indian Daily News some ten or twelve years back;” The Calcutta Review, edited by A. Mackenzie Cameron, levelled this allegation against Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in its July 1901 issue.
In the previous issue, the same journal wrote while reporting the speech of Lord Curzon, “As regards the Aligurh speech there is not much to be said except to draw attention to a mistake made by Lord Curzon, and his pronouncement in regard to “religion” in education. In regard to the mistake, he is not aware that the real originator and “founder” of the College – of whose name, however, he is perfectly aware, as is also Sir Antony Macdonnell, so that they at least cannot honestly still style Sir Syed Ahmed as the “founder,” who was not and is not (for he is still alive to refer to) a Mahommedan, – incorporated religious worship and religion in his plan, but that Sir Syed Ahmed stoutly opposed it, and tried to do without religion, and failed. to meet support, and only after some years of the existence of the College gave way.”
The Calcutta Review was levelling a big charge against the Aligarh Movement and its leader Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. It did not stop there.
In its January 1902 issue, the journal published an article by the alleged ‘real founder of MAO College’. The journal had published an article in the previous issue as well which gave a ‘story’ of the establishment of the college at Aligarh. Interestingly, for the reasons best known to the editor, the name of this ‘real founder’ was not made public.
The alleged ‘real founder’ of the MAO College wrote, “Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s name is a deservedly respected one among Mahomedans in India; and I, who perhaps knew him better, and longer, than anyone else in both his private life and his public work… proceed to furnish the following details of his long career; especially as exhibiting his character, and his connection with the College at Aligarh of which he is supposed to have been the founder both of which have been much mis-understood, and of which the present generation are grossly ignorant.”
The author first talked about Syed’s lineage, education etc. at the outset. The article claimed that a Baptist Missionary and author were behind his ‘success’.
It was said, “Accordingly Moulvi Syed Ahmed, after such light and teaching as he had from the Baptist Missionary, set forth, in print, his own conclusions regarding the Koran. This was the beginning of his public career, or career before the public…. However that be, the publication of his notes and comments on the Koran roused a storm of opposition against him among more bigoted co-religionists, who regarded him as a downright pervert. The result of this was that he became estranged from his own people, and set him still more in the way of European ideas and learning… He thus became known as an earnest and striving man. Then, becoming known, he started a reading room, which, with the help of the surrounding native gentry, was expanded afterwards into the “Aligarh Scientific Institute,” which still exists. This was next to his own modest Bungalow, where I used to often see him on an evening, with his two fine boys standing one on each side of my chair, – for I naturally took an interest in the man who showed such evident signs of advancing himself and the district. It was my earnest desire in some way to bring him forward, the more so as though I worked and resided at distances even as great as Allahabad and Lahore, and even Bengal, I had the editorial charge of the Weekly Gazette which was issued in connection with the “Institute,” and which was called the Aligarh Institute Gazette, being the only “native ” journal then published in the North-West.”
The author wanted to take all the responsibility for the rise of Syed. He wrote, “It was On one of these occasions, and if I remember right-I have, however, the exact time-in June or July of 1866 that I earnestly discussed with the Syed some plan whereby he might be brought prominently forward to the favorable notice of the powers that were. Education even then was ” in the air,” and I had often told him that the system of English Government Colleges could never affect the life and mass of the people. To give the Moulvi due credit, though he had no ideas of his own on this or on many other subjects that we, jointly, took up, he always agreed with me, wherein he showed his wisdom, and also his excellent spirit-of those days-of docility and child-like unquestioning faith and obedience. I had indoctrinated into him a reform in educational methods, and first I propounded it in the columns of the Gazette then, and after, in my editorial charge. I told him it would bring him forward if anything would, and he said he left it entirely in my hands and would do whatever I told him. During a whole year after that, I proceeded to indoctrinate the powers that then were with the same ” True Education Policy for India,” both from Lahore and Bengal in the Press, and afterwards published my views separately and sowed the pamphlet broadcast. The idea met with approval everywhere, from Sir John Lawrence the Viceroy down to the Director of Public Instruction in the North-West, then Mr. Kempson, and a public and official meeting was called in Agra to consider it. As it had first appeared in the Aligarh Institute Gazette.”
“Syed Ahmed was also called to attend the meeting, and among others to formulate any definite plan he might have on the subject. This, of course, he had not, for he had not two ideas to rub one against another on such a high Educational matter, and though I was then nearly a thousand miles away, and extremely busy, he implored me to furnish him with the necessary details regarding the foundation , management, instruction, etc., of an Institution, College, or University, that would meet the requirements of the case. This I did at much sacrifice of my time, for I had not an hour to spare then. I remember it took me a whole week to think out and elaborate all the details so as to carry conviction and be successful both in my object and with Government, as well as the Native Community. This paper carried the day at the meeting, the support of Government was accorded and assured, and Syed Ahmed was directed to go about and collect subscriptions for the purpose. After that the erection and progress of the M. A. O. College, as it was called, are matters of well-known history; only it is not known that in my scheme religion and religious worship were included, and the institution appealed equally to Mahomedans and Hindus. By the time sufficient subscriptions were collected, Syed Ahmed had become a man of some mark, with the effect of entertaining an opinion of his own, that there should be no religion, etc., in the College. At that time I had left India. On my return , after many years, I found the College both suffering in popular esteem from the exclusion of religion, and Hindus almost entirely absent from among the students, and told him he was unwise in having, if only in these particulars, departed from my plan.”
“He (Sir Syed) was then again stationed in Aligarh, being on pension, but in a very much larger Bungalow, and he drove me to and took me over the College – to “my (not his) College” – as he termed it – his name, however, figuring at the gateway as “the Founder.” Then, and years subsequently, on the occasion of my visits to India, he was still only a ” Moulvi, ” I never lost the kindly feeling I had entertained towards him from the first when he was an unknown and unnoticed man, and helped him on still, and finally, saw Lord Dufferin confer on him the K.C.S.I. That – the M. A. O. College, and the being made a “Sir “— was the finale of my acquaintance with the docile, young and obedient young man who “left everything to me.”
The reasoning, which this anonymous author provided for coming out with these allegations were, “On the occasion of my very last visit to Aligarh. I was much disgusted by finding the College used mainly as a training ground for Mahomedan law students-entirely diverted from its true educational purpose ! —and a false sentiment of loyalty to the Sultan of Turkey very much current, It was then, with my sanction , that the statement was set forth in The Lucknow Advocate, and references made in the Indian Daily News and other papers, as to someone else — a European and a Christian gentleman not the Syed – being the true Founder of the College.”
The Calcutta Review went to the extent that it called Sir Syed a mouthpiece of this alleged founder of the College.
The author claimed that his claim was first made more than a decade back and never received any contradictory statement from Sir Syed and his followers. He wrote, “It is needless to say that the challenge thus thrown forward Was never met-there was no ” other side .” The Lucknow Advocate was then, and perhaps is still, the leading native paper of greatest influence in Oudh and the N.-W. P., and a copy of it was specially sent to the Syed. The statement was published in a native paper for the natives to see it, as the matter concerned them, and it was headed by the Editor :- ” The True Origin of the M. A. O. College at Aligarh : A REVELATION, ” as it was !”
The article claimed, “Three persons helped to mould him (Sir Syed) 1. A Baptist Missionary in regard to his ideas about the Koran and the Bible. 2. Mr. Graham, socially, and in regard to knowledge of European ways. 3. The present writer in regard to ideas for the public good.”
Editor had put the note at the end, “If there have been hitherto doubts about the Origin and True Founder of the M. A. O. College at Aligarh, this paper will set them at rest forever. All the documents, letters, etc., to prove the statements made in it have been placed with us, and are open to any notary public for inspection.”
In all probability, this was one of the earliest examples of sensationalism in the journalism practised in India. The fact that nobody took this claim seriously, not even a huge band of the critics of Sir Syed and Aligarh took this up can be used as an argument against the truth in this allegation. Moreover, interestingly and hilariously, Ernest A. Newton, the next editor of The Calcutta Review himself contradicted this claim five years later.
The journal in its January 1907 issue noted, “The Aligarh College, in the existence of which the English people take great pride, does not owe its existence to the exertions of the AngloIndian rulers. It owes its being to the energy of Sir Syed Ahmed, a Mahomedan who did not know even the alphabet of the English tongue. Even now it is managed and controlled and financed by a Board of Trustees who are all Mahomedans.”
It needs further research and inspection of primary sources to understand why a section of European missionaries was trying to claim the establishment of MAO College. In view of the public activities of Sir Syed the claim seems absurd, yet a leading journal tried to push it among the people.