Document page
Pak Studies History IGCSEPDF 27
181 pagesrevision 46928
PDF 27
Page image rendered from the stored file at 110 dpi; it sharpens as you zoom. Outlines are placed from each region’s stored position on the page (596 × 842 pt).
readable
Source of this text: embedded text layer. The better of the embedded text and OCR is kept.
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
(iii) Aligarh Movement
The Aligarh Movement was a 19th-century socio-religious reform movement,
founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 1875, that aimed to revive Muslim society in
British India by promoting modern, Western-style education alongside traditional
Islamic teachings.
In 1867, some Hindus in Banaras started a movement demanding that
Urdu be replaced with Hindi and the Persian script with the
Devanagari script.
Hindus opposed Urdu because it used the Persian script, which resembled
Arabic — the language of the Quran.
The movement quickly spread among Hindus across the northwestern
provinces, with its headquarters in Allahabad.
Muslims reacted strongly to protect the importance and status of Urdu.
The Hindu opposition to Urdu revealed to Muslims that Hindus were
intolerant of Muslim culture and traditions.
The Urdu-Hindi controversy deeply affected Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s views.
Before this, he had supported Hindu-Muslim unity, calling them “two eyes of
the beautiful bride, India.”
The movement changed his thinking and led him to present the Two-Nation
Theory.
Sir Syed became the first to use the terms “My Nation” for Muslims and
“Two Nations” in the subcontinent.
His main aim was to protect and safeguard the rights of Muslims in India.
The Aligarh Movement aimed to establish a modern system of
education for Muslims in British India.
It emerged during the later decades of the 19th century when Muslims
were socially, politically, and educationally backward after the 1857 War of
Independence.
The movement was founded and led by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who
recognized the importance of modern, Western-style education for Muslim
progress.
The movement’s center was the city of Aligarh, located in northern India.
Its main institution was the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental (MAO)
Collegiate School, founded in 1875.
The school was later upgraded to the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental
College in 1877, which eventually became the Aligarh Muslim
University (AMU) in 1920.
The college combined modern Western education with Islamic values,
creating a balanced system of learning.