Travelogue: A Musafir (Traveller) To London By C.M.

Naim Oct 17, 2011 Today marks the 194th birthday of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. In 1869, he travelled wit h his two sons to England, from where he sent dispatches about his experiences f or publication in India. Those dispatches reveal a man that is now little writte n about. Today marks the 194th birthday of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. In 1869, he travelled wit h his two sons to England, from where he sent dispatches about his experiences f or publication in India. Those fascinating dispatches from England remained unav ailable to general public until 1961, when Shaikh Muhammad Ismail Panipati edited and published them from Lahore. Now, thanks to Dr. Asghar Abbas, the former Dir ector of the Sir Syed Academy at the Aligarh Muslim University we have a new and different edition. It contains the text as it first appeared in the pages of th e Gazette, to which he has added several previously unnoticed articles. It makes the new book the most complete collection of what Sir Syed Ahmad Khan wrote pub licly about his experiences abroad. *** In February 1869 the Aligarh Institute Gazette, the weekly bilingual journal of what was established in 1864 at Ghazipur as the Scientific Society, excitedly in formed its readers that the Institutes Life Honorary Secretary, Maulvi Syed Ahmad Khan Sahib Bahadur, Subordinate Judge (First Class) and Judge (Small Causes) at Benares, was definitely traveling to England in April 1869. It then reproduced in summary a statement Syed Ahmad Khanhenceforward SAKhad made to the government to obtain leave in order to make that great journey. I am convinced that nothing is more urgent for the purpose of ideally promoting Indias prosperity (falh) and welfare (bahbd) and for giving due strength (istahkm) an d stability (pedr) to the aims of the British governmenta government I am proud to s ervethan an enhancement of good mutual relations between Indians and Europeans. T o achieve that goal, in my opinion, Indians should be encouraged to travel to Eu rope, so that they may directly observe the progress and achievements of Civiliz ation (shyastag) in European countries, and gain an understanding of the prosperit y (daulat), power (tqat), and intelligence (dn) of the English people.[1] They may al so learn, for Indias benefit, the many excellent and useful things that have come about there because the inhabitants of England are so capable (mustaid) in comme rce, and because the countrys wealth and learning are increasingly being used to enhance the functioning of its factories, fields, hospitals and charity homes, a nd the cleanliness of its cities. I therefore desire to go to England in person, and thus set an example for my co mpatriots. I firmly believe that not only would I personally gain from this jour ney but that I would also benefit my compatriots by informing them of my conclus ions from the tripto teach them what excellent things I learn and to encourage th em to follow my footsteps.[2] The journal also informed its readers that the government had kindly granted a s cholarship to SAKs younger son, Syed Muhammad Mahmud (b. 1850)who recently passed i n First Division the Entrance examination of Calcutta Universityto study in Englan d, and that the Life Honorary Secretary was planning to accompany his son, takin g with him also his older son, Syed Muhammad Hamid (b. 1849). [3] By the time SAK set out from Benares on April 1, 1869, the party consisted of fi ve persons: SAK, the two sons, a trusted servant named Chhajju, and Mirza Khudad

ad Beg, a distant relative from Delhi who too had received the scholarship. Thei r first stop was at Allahabad, where SAK called upon Sir William Muir (18191905), the Lt. Governor of the North-Western Province, who had nominated Syed Mahmud f or the scholarship. From there to Bombay the journey took six days and involved trains and bullock carts of various kinds. They embarked on SS Baroda on April 1 0, and reached Suez on April 23. A day later from Alexandria they took SS Poona to Marseilles, and eventually reached London on May 4, 1869. AMRITA SHODHAN On September 4, 1870, SAK and Syed Hamid started back for India, leaving the oth ers in England. SAKs stay in London had lasted seventeen months, and his lodgings i n the city at 21 Mecklenburgh Square now displays a plaque to commemorate that f act. *** We dont know if SAK had been thinking of such a trip prior to January 1869 when t he nominations were announced. Most likely he was, for the above reasons had bee n on his mind for some time. But there was also another matter that, according t o his eminent biographer, Altaf Husain Hali, was causing him much anguish at the time, and ideally required a trip to London.[4] It was a highly contentious boo k, A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira (4 vols.; Lon don, 18581864), authored by the same Sir William Muir. Hali contends that SAK had already started working on a rejoinder to Muirs book, and was concerned about th e paucity of relevant books in India. The scholarship awarded to his son, appare ntly, settled the issue. SAK mortgaged his property in Delhi and borrowed ten th ousand rupeesone-half at 14% annual interest, and the other at 8%arranged with a f ew close friends to keep him supplied with additional funds, and set off for Lon don. In England, in addition to many meetings with officials and notables in Lon don, he visited various educational institutions, including the colleges at Camb ridge and a collegiate school for girls in North London, talked to various peopl e on related issues, and thus equipped himself with new ideas that eventually re sulted in his establishing a college at Aligarh. Simultaneously, he tirelessly w orked, using the library of the British Museum and the help of an assistant, on a series of lengthy articles in Urdu in response to Muirs book, which he then had translated into English and published from London in 1870. *** Before his departure SAK had agreed to keep his friends and the readers of the G azette informed by regularly contributing for publication accounts of the progre ss of his journey and his experiences and observations. That he did quite assidu ously. His last such dispatch from London was sent in March 1870, and included a n account of his trip to Bristol and Clifton. By then his social engagements and the demands of his research and writing were overwhelming. Additionally, his di spatches had drawn criticism from those elements among North Indian Muslim elite who considered him a fallen Muslim and a toady of the colonial power. His dear friend Raja Jai Kishan Das, the officiating editor of the Gazette, took up cudge ls on his behalf, but SAK felt that unneeded controversy was not good for the So ciety and stopped. His original ambition, however, had been different. A month after arrival he wro te to Muhsin-ul-Mulk Nawab Mahdi Ali Khan: I wish that the travel accounts as the y are published in the journal should be copied and collected in the form of a b ook. And that you should ask me for more details if you have any question concer ning some matter, and then add to my account. In that manner, the book will bene fit from your corrections and also become more comprehensive. It will then be re ady for publication on my return. I will also bring some excellent drawings of i mportant buildings that will be included in the book. In short, after a revision

, the book will be fully comprehensive.[5] Unfortunately it did not happen. SAK o nly made some minor changes, then reprinted the same articles in his newly found ed journal, Tahzb-ul-Akhlq. Those fascinating dispatches remained unavailable to g eneral public until 1961, when Shaikh Muhammad Ismail Panipati edited and publish ed them from Lahore. Now, thanks to Dr. Asghar Abbas, the former Director of the Sir Syed Academy at the Aligarh Muslim University and an ardent champion of eve rything related to SAK, we have a new and different edition. It contains the tex t as it first appeared in the pages of the Gazette, to which he has added severa l previously unnoticed articles. It makes the new book the most complete collect ion of what SAK wrote publicly about his experiences abroad. *** The Panipati edition contains several appendices that add much to what the dispa tches record. His Appendix 3 consists of selected excerpts from the letters that S AK wrote from England to Muhsin-al-Mulk. Particularly revealing of the man are h is efforts and anxieties concerning his rejoinder to Muirs book. Five months afte r reaching London, he wrote: I am sending you the first essay Be careful. No one s hould know that a rejoinder to William Muir Sahibs book is being written until th e work is finished and published. Our enemies should be kept in the dark, for I do not wish Sir William Muir to know about it before its completion. At that tim e, I shall, inshallah, present him a copy with my own hands. It is most moving to read in the same letter the details of his distress over the cost of the book a nd the paucity of his funds. You should take this letter to Mir Zahur Husain Sahi b; then both of you should take a loan of one thousand rupees from some mahajan. I shall pay the principal and the interest I have also written to my people at D elhi and asked them to sell my books and furnishings, including all copper pots and utensils, and send me one thousand rupees. [6] While he struggled with the du al tasks of writing the book and arranging its publication, SAK suffered an imme nse personal loss when his only daughter passed away in Delhi. He did not mentio n her death in what he was writing for the general public, but the few sentences he allowed himself in a personal note (May 27, 1870) speak volumes: The life-wou nding incident that Destiny brought about in Delhiyou most likely heard of it bef ore I did. You can imagine what pain it must have caused me and to Hamid and Mah mud. You can also imagine the state of my mind at the time. But I thank God no m atter what.[7] The work on the book continued, and one of the excerpted letters g ives the final account of cost and income: The total income from the sale of the book has been Rs. 1691. Total expenditure was: Rs. 3948. Thus the uncovered cost came to Rs. 2257; it was paid from the loan taken out. Now I dont have the money for the return journey, which will not be possible unless some more money is bo rrowed.[8] Money, of course, was somehow found, and he and Syed Hamid reached hom e in October 1870. Unfortunately, there is no record available of his experience s during the journey back. Muir was still the chief colonial authority in the North-Western Province when S AK returned, loaded with copies of his book. He had called upon Muir before emba rking on the journey, and we can be certain that he called upon him again before proceeding to Benares. We can also be sure that, as promised to his friend, he personally presented Muir a copy of his own Essays, in which he had unhesitating ly stated the following concerning his bosss book: When [that] work appeared, the curiosity it excited among the reading public was only equaled by their impatience to peruse it, but no sooner was it found that the simplest and plainest facts connected with Islam and Mohammed had been strai ned and twisted and distorted, in short, subjected to the Procrustes process in o rder to make them the indices or exponents of the authors prepossessions and prej udices, than the interest created by the announcement of the work fell, instante r, to zero.[9] It may also be added that much later when Muir became the Chancellor of the Univ

ersity of Edinburgh, he quickly conferred on SAK an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, making him the second Indian to receive that honour. *** SAKs account of his experiences on board the two ships and in London is much more informative about him than the persons and places he mentions. One is both surp rised and impressed by his ability to experience and find pleasure in new things and people. The man who, before 1857, had shown keen interest in levers and sta rs and written an extraordinary book on Delhis buildings and ruins, was still ver y curious about machines and architecture. He explored the ship, kept track of i ts progress by jotting down longitudes and latitudes, and took delight in discov ering how he was able to summon a servant at a hotel by just pressing a button i n his fifth floor room. He visited museums, observatories, and palaces, and enjo yed them in his own fashion. Though 52 he still retained much energy and keennes s to observe, experience, and learn. Also attractive is the fact that SAK never appears arrogantly judgmental of nonIndians, and never lets any non-Indian act in that manner toward him. Here is on e telling anecdote. On board the ship from Alexandria, he met a womanno less amazi ng than the Suez Canalnamed Nasiban. A Pathan Muslim from Kanpur, she had worked a s an ayah with many British families, and by her own account had traveled to Eng land twenty-one times with her employers and then returned alone. She speaks Engl ish fluently, and has seen England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Portugal and othe r places in Europe. I said to myself, Bravo Nasiban, you are better than men. One day I was talking to her on the deck when my dear friend Major Dodd came by. He asked the ayah, What is your religion? She replied, Muhammadan. Then Major Dodd, eit her in fun or in sarcasm, said to me, Your qaum. In all sincerity and with a smile I replied, Yes, our qaum; indeed our qaum. Doubtless all human beings are our br others, for we are descended from the same father, and all Muslims are brothers in religion because we believe in one God.[10] Likewise, he unhesitatingly told t he Deputy Commissioner of Delhi, whom he met on board SS Poona, that the existin g British administration in the Punjab and Delhi was despotic and unconstitutional (be-qnn). However, SAK was not dewy-eyed about Islamic history the way it became a fetish a generation later. As his ship passed Sicily and its capital Messina, he wrote only this: Long ago, Muslims ruled Sicily for a long time. But we could not see a ny sign of that rule from the coast, though surely there must be some signs stil l there.[11] His emotions are stronger, however, when later his ship passes the s mall island of Caprera near Sardinia. He wrote: I was extremely desirous of seein g the straw cottage of Garibaldi, the most chivalrous and brave man of these tim es. It deserves more honor and respect than the largest palaces of todays Caesars . Sadly, because of it was night, I was denied that boon and that blessing.[12] O ne may wonder if it was Garibaldis anti-Papal convictions that appealed to SAKs ow n latent Wahhabism, or the Italians fervent nationalism that had been blessed by the British for their own imperial purpose. SAKs feelings are quite vivid, however, in the incident with Ferdinand de Lesseps , the builder of the just completed Suez Canal, who was traveling on that same s hip. SAK was introduced to him by the ships captain, and could exchange a few wor ds with him in Arabic. Then a reception was held in de Lesseps honour, where a Ge neral Tapp remarked in his speech how it would be more appropriate to name the c anal after its builder. The Frenchman, however, averred in his response that it would mean nothing to him, for he would rather have it called the French Canal. When Syed Ahmad learned what had been said through the help of a friend, he rejo iced: My heart filled with joy at the words of that brave and large-hearted man a nd at the fact of his holding in such high esteem his qaum and its honour. Then I thought of my own qaum, whose people do nothing but feel jealous of each other , conspire against each other, or make boasts among themselves. I felt much grie

f, and realized that it was these bad habits of theirs that had brought them so much misfortune and disgrace. [13] *** In one major respect, SAKs journey to London was quite different from any previou s such travel by an Indian Muslim. Radical improvements in post and transportati on had made it possible for him to stay in touch with his readers while abroadthe y included both supporters and detractorsand retain a lively sense of participati on in what he called qaumi or national affairs in India. As his dispatches appea red in the Societys journal, they brought forth responses from his critics in oth er journals. Abbas is useful in bringing to our attention some of those critique s and the comments that Raja Jai Kishan Das, the interim editor of the Gazette, and SAK published in response. As was his wont, SAK could often hold extreme views and also express them too bl untly. His denunciations of fellow shurafathe Indian Muslim elitebrought him much grief all his life, including when he was in England. One example would suffice. Soon after his arrival, SAK went to Bristol and Clifton and saw the newly finis hed suspension bridge over the river Avon. After describing how it was initially funded by a wine-merchant and how it was brought to completion by the cooperati ve effort of many citizens and engineers, he wrote: Now I most humbly ask my comp atriots, Who are human, these people or we who are mired in our own selfishness? A nd concluded the dispatch by declaring, I saw all the places and all the things a t some length, and was pained to the utmost (dil jalkar kabb ho-gay) when I consid ered how badly and immorally the rich and prosperous people of my country spend their lives when compared to the people here who lead such excellent lives. I ca nnot write more for I greatly fear the frightening thunder from Kanpur. I am als o afraid the highly refined, worthy, noble-natured, well-brought-up people of my country, who consider none as their peer, might take offense. [14] SAK stopped writing to the Gazette for six months. Then, much pressed by the edi tor, Raja Jai Kishan Das, he wrote a long letter in November 1870 that is includ ed in both editions. After apologizing to his friend, he explained: I had heard t hat some members of the Society found my freely expressed views most displeasing . I cannot conceal what I actually experience out of some fear of the members of the Society; nor can I not reveal the truths my heart gains as I travel, for in that case I would be committing the same sin that I accuse of my compatriot Hin dustanis. Hence I thought it was better to stop writing altogether. He then menti ons all the many sites and institutions he had recently visited and the people h e met there, followed by a detailed account of his lodgings in London, the coupl e who ran it, and the two young maids who served his entourage, pointing out the latters good qualities that made them superior in his eyes to most members of hi s own qaum. The letter could not have won him many friends at home, but it contains some sta tements that allow us to understand his perspective more correctly. He writes, I dont give those matters any thought that are different in one country from anothe r due to some unshared inherent attribute (khsiyat). I talk only of those ethical and educational excellences and those refinements, perfections, and achievement s that arise from education and training. Then he further explains, General qualit ies, both worldly and religious, have been given by God to Europe and in particu lar to England. By religious qualities I mean that these people fulfill more bea utifully and with more refinement all the concomitants of the religion they beli eve in than the people of another country or religion, And it is due to [two thi ngs]: their men and women are in general educated, and their entire qaum is conc erned to meet their shared goals. If the people of India become well-trained in general then India too, because of its certain inherent attributes, will become a garden, if not better than England then definitely quite equal to it.[15]

The same letter contains another declarationrepeated in various dispatchesthat is commonly not thought of when SAKs ideas on education are mentioned. He writes: The sole reason for all this progress in England is that its learning (ulm) and craft s (fan)everything it hasare in the language of its people. The people who truly des ire Indias good and progress should firmly understand that Indias good depends on only one thing, that its people receive instruction in everything, from the most elevated to the most mundane, in their own languages. These words of mine shoul d be carved in big bold letters on the Himalayas. If India does not get instruct ion in all branches of learning in its own language, India will never gain any s tatus for civilization (shyastag) and refinement (tarbiyat). That alone is true, t rue, true.[16] Another remarkable statement comes near the end of the letter. Responding to the news that the Scientific Society had received some much needed financial aid fr om the government, he tells his friend: The news delighted me and I thanked God. But my dear Raja, never ever give away the Societys and the journals independence. Indias life and death depends on the goodness or badness of the Department of Pu blic Instruction. You must always be judging it justly and honestly, thinking on ly of the welfare of the common man.[17] ________________________________________ [1] Shyastag (lit. worthiness; now commonly means civility) was the word that Sir Sy ed then also used civilization. Later, with a clearer grasp of the concept, he use d the English word in his writings interchangeably with the Arabic tahzb and tama ddun. [2] In his dispatches, Sir Syed repeatedly encourages his compatriots to travel to Europe, and explains how theyas Sunni, Shiah, and Hindushould be able to meet th eir separate needs concerning diet and other matters. [3] Asghar Abbas (ed.), Sar Sayyad k Safarnma: Musfirn-i-Landan (Aligarh: Educationa l Book House, 2009), pp. 2278. Henceforth: Abbas. [4] Altaf Husain Hali, Hayt-i-Jved (New Delhi: National Council for the Promotion of Urdu, 1999, reprint), p. 417. [5] Shaikh Muhammad Ismail Panipati (ed.), Musfirn-i-Landan (Lahore: Majlis-i-Taraq qi-i-Adab, 1961). pp. 22021. Henceforth: Panipati. [6] Panipati, pp. 2489. [7] Panipati, p. 261. [8] Panipati, pp. 2656. [9] Syed Ahmed Khan, Essays on the Life of Mohammed (Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1981, reprint), p. xix. Emphasis original. The Urdu text could be publish ed only in 1887, and was titled: Al-Khutbat Al-Ahmadiyya fi Al-Arab wa Al-Sirat A l-Ahmadiyya, Long neglected, Dr. Abbas published a photo-reprint of it for the S ir Syed Academy in 2003. [10] Abbas, pp. 1012. [11] Abbas, p. 104. Compare it with Muhammad Iqbals Urdu poem on Sicily, written similarly on board ship (1905), which ends: Ill take your gift to India, and make others shed tears just as I shed tears nowthe gift being a reminder of Islams past im perial glory. [12] Abbas, p. 103.

[13] Abbas, p. 100. [14] Abbas, p. 146. According to Abbas, the thunder from Kanpur was a Maulvi Imdad ul Ali, who too was a civil servant in the British administration. [15] Abbas, p. 150; Panipati, pp. 1856. Emphasis added. [16] Abbas, p. 158; Panipati, pp. 1978. [17] Abbas, p. 159; Panipati, pp. 1989. Source: Outlook India URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamicPersonalities_1.aspx?ArticleID =5720

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COMMENTS 10/18/2011 6:40:09 PM Ghulam Mohiyuddin Sir Syed comes across as being quite a remarkable man. His interests were vast, but eventually he settled for what were his true loves, education and social re form. His impact on both was enormous.