Allama Iqbal Letter to Mahatma Gandhi, declining the offer of Vice-chancellorship of Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh, 29th November 1920.
Thank you so much for your letter which I received the day before yesterday. I regret very much my inability to respond to the call of those for whom I have the highest respect, for reasons which need not and perhaps cannot be mentioned at present.
While I am a strong supporter of National Education I do not think I possess all the necessary qualifications for the guidance of a University which requires a man who would steer the infant institution through all the struggles and rivalries likely to arise in the earlier stages of its life. And I am, by nature, a peace-time worker.
What Allama Iqbal wrote to Jinnah regarding Nehruvian Socialism : A letter
There is one further point. Situated as we are, political independence must be preceded by Economic independence and in this respect the Muslims of India are far behind other communities of this country.
Their principal need is not Literature and Philosophy but technical Education which would make them economically independent. And it is on this latter form of Education that they should, for the present, focus all their energies. The gentlemen responsible for the creation of the new University of Aligarh will be well advised if they make it an institution devoted mainly to the technical side of National Science supplemented by such religious education as may be considered necessary.
When Allama Iqbal stood up for Bhagat Singh
There is no doubt that in view of the events that have happened in the Muslim world-especially with regard to Arabia and the Holy places— The Muslims of India will consider themselves justified in adopting some form of Non-cooperation, but the religious aspect of the question of Education is, to my mind, still obscure, and I have already published proposals for a thorough discussion of the whole is est conviction aid in norancion on the huria, bu it Education the law of Islam cannot fail to give us a suitable line of action under our present limitation.
Hoping you are well.
