Someone asked me, ‘’Where is everlastingness?’’ The question tugged at my heartstrings. A long sigh of longing escaped my lips. ‘’ In Aligarh’’ was my emotionally charged answer. I left to avoid the volley of ‘’Why’s and How’s’’. Deep inside, a major part of me knew the untold.
Aligarh is a living history. The privileged past smiles at one and all here. The city is proudly and happily married to historicity. The medieval marvel carries the fragrance of the years of its unfolding and unravelling. Is it past existing in present or present showcasing past; I leave that to scholars. History flows. The progression of historical narratives is less-a-concept and more-a-phenomenon. The downstream drift of the past is not rampant and random. It smoothly strategises and perfectly plans its way. It even meanders mindfully. It silently anticipates time ahead and imagines outcomes; humbly carrying the tools and techniques of future making. Who can stop the march of history? Despite mothering the richest of pasts, it is the essence of Aligarh that is passed down generations, not mere historical gospels. Home to distinct and daring soil, Aligarh claws its way out, escapes the columns of the history parade, rises over and above the ever repeating process of mere information transmission. This show is independent thus imperishable.
I had the honour of living in this breathing past. A flimsy Indian city in Western UP representing the typical Ganga-Jamuni culture. It was chosen by the awakened to be home to the majestic MAO College, later Aligarh Muslim University.
Why Aligarh? As I sink in remembrance and yearning, I pay homage to the one who immortalised Aligarh. The gentleman chose a path of thorns over a bed of roses only for a greater cause. A man who became a movement. For the pain he endured and the passion that sustained, undeformed history writes his name in golden. He singlehandedly carried in his Ark the drowning community of the subcontinent. He brought them out of the tempest of ignorance when the shores of progress were nowhere in sight. Crisis creates leaders. Truly said, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan moved against the storm and reached the shores of Victoria Gate (the then entrance to the MAO College). For his vision and mission, this renaissance man was lampooned through cartoons and couplets for being heretic. The theologians declared him an apostate. He was loathed, condemned and derided. He faced the fury of fatwas yet embraced the plan for creating generations of Muslims with a scientific temperament and a rational outlook. His endeavour was establishment of an institution that would create intellectuals and thinkers. The brassbound society misread, misinterpreted and misunderstood him; his metal spirit silenced it. Sir Syed’s socially progressive thought stands in the form of AMU today.
October is the month of merriment in Aligarh. 17th October is a personal festival of Aligs. Founder’s birth anniversary is celebrated as Sir Syed Day in the campus; the AMU alumni throughout the world join the commemoration virtually. Certain unique constituents run through the blood of an Alig, the spirit of SSD is one of those. This historic day is an evening organised to honour him and memorialise his life and legacy. The day begins with an enormous gathering at the Athletic Ground. The event goes live with every activity in his name. The wrapping of the event is unique, Aligarh reverberates with AMU Tarana. Chadar Poshee at the Great Syed’s mazaar by the guest of honour symbolises how people live even after death. The evening is aesthetic and romantic. Multicoloured light-lit campus catches the remotest corner of one’s attention. Ghazal Mehfil brings Majaaz and Mirza Ghalib on the scene. The dinner is the most awaited part. The aroma of delicious dishes in a buffet arrangement adds more festivity to the evening. A swarm of students, dressed to the nines, under the star-lit sky gives the red-carpet-gathering vibes. Time freezes inside the campus; outer world ceases to exist. Mesmerising evenings do not last forever; Aligarh does. The towering will never leave nor will the quiddity of the land; till eternity.
Flipping the rosy page, the news is not good now. I once read and now recall lines from an editorial of a Bombay local daily – “Had Sir Syed been a Hindu, his community would have taken him as a reincarnation of Lord Krishna and worshipped him. Because he was a Muslim, his own community belittled him beyond belief.’’
That day, I paused, was startled, looked around, tried to unwrap the sheet of shame around me, couldn’t succeed, lifted my pen and began writing a sorry letter to God knows who. Written questions and unwritten answers kept swimming in my mind and on the paper.
How is it that an intellectual giant is being venerated only in words? How will the hollow but tall claims of service get translated into reality? To what extent are we excelling in paying mere lip-service? Are we forsaking a man who fought a social rot, was an aristocrat, a first class judicial magistrate, whose begging bowl saw countless doors from Punjab to Bengal? How and why are we not becoming what Sir Syed wanted us to become? Where is the sincere justice to his name and legacy?
Aligarh will last, the name of the Grand Old Man of Aligarh will last. Will our disservice to him too ?
AIMAN SHABIR is an alumna of AMU, currently an intern at Thinksite Services Private Limited