Encyclopaedia of Eminent Thinkers: The Political Thought of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

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This volume presents a critical evaluation of political ideology of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Providing deep insight into his life and achievements, it discusses at length the factors and influences that shaped his ideology and perception. It also offers an elaborate discussion on Syed Ahmed Khan's stand on Muslim community as a distinct and separate force, his loyalism to the British rule, his contribution towards educational development of Muslims, and his views on culture and religion.

Dr. Jai Narain Sharma (b. 1951) is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Gandhian Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. He is also Hon. Director of Gandhi Bhawan; member of Board of Studies, Nagpur University, Nagpur and Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi; member of Research Degree Committee of the Department of Political Science, H.P. University, Shimla: General Secretary of Indian Soviety of Gandhian Studies; and member on the Presidium of the Alliance for Sarvodaya. He regularly writes for leading newspapers, and has published more than hundred research papers in professional journals of repute. Dr. Sharma has many books to his credit including "Gandhi's View of Political Power", "Economics of Defence: A Study of SAARC Countries", "Economic Thought of Mahatma Gandhi", "Human Resource Management", "Alternative Economics: Economics of Mahatma Gandhi and Globalisation", "Power, Politics and Corruption: A Gandhian Solution" and "Research Methodology: The Discipline and its Dimensions".

It is because the thought of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan stands out as an important landmark in the development of Muslim thought in the South Asian subcontinent that there is perennial interest in him, and also the need for reassessment. Yet in his own time, he was one of the most controversial figures on the British Indian landscape, and he has been the centre of fierce passions, both among his contemporaries and among more recent historians.

During his lifetime, Sir Syed Ahmed was regarded as an educational reformer by the small class of English-educated Muslims and as a religious heretic by the orthodox 'Ulema', while Victorian England saw him as a Messiah who could end the age-old Muslim resistance in Hindustan and lead the Muslims into rationalism and enlightened Imperial submissiveness.

More lately, the complexities of Syed Ahmed's life and attitudes have been subordinated to the requirements of nationalist ideology in India and Pakistan. Indian historians tend to see him as a communalist and separatist who first propounded the 'two-nation' idea. On the other hand, Pakistani historians tend to see him as the prophet of a nation and the first spokesman for a Muslim homeland.

He has been all things to all men, for he is one of the truly great 19th century figures. He is like a mountain, with many facets and angles, and because he wrote and spoke so much, there are diverse elements in the legacy of this Muslim leader. Men of all shades of religious and political opinion claimed him as the originator of their particular schools of thought. Nevertheless, he was a man who must be seen and judged in the context of his own time and contemporaries, and as the main link between the decaying feudalism of pre-British Mughal Hindustan and the renaissance of modern Muslim India. Over the years, Syed Ahmed's legacy has had a profound influence upon the thought of Muslim India.

**Contents and Sample Pages**