E-Paper
Sir Syed Day: AMU pays tribute to founder on birth anniversary
The 205th birth anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), a philosopher and educationist, who, in 1875, established the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College which is today known as the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), was celebrated on the university campus on Monday
The 205th birth anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), a philosopher and educationist, who, in 1875, established the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College which is today known as the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), was celebrated on the university campus on Monday. Every year, the occasion is celebrated as Sir Syed Day on the university’s campus.
Delivering the Sir Syed Day commemoration address, chief guest prof Tahir Mahmood, former chairman, National Commission for Minorities, called upon the AMU fraternity to spread Sir Syed’s rationality, modernity, manners and amity across the world. “Preservation and propagation of Urdu is also an integral part of Sir Syed’s legacy that needs our attention,” he added.
In the welcome address, vice chancellor, AMU, prof Tariq Mansoor said, “Sir Syed’s ideas of secularism and inclusiveness are reflected in the way AMU operates. The university is a monument of large-hearted tolerance and communal harmony and its portals are open to the students of all communities from its very inception”.
“AMU is marching ahead towards progress and development. The PM, while participating in the centenary year celebrations, called AMU as ‘Mini India’ and praised the contribution of the university in the nation-building, ” he added.
He also drew attention to the rising academic standards of the university and said, “AMU has been accredited with A+ grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 is also being implemented with modifications in syllabus and curriculum”.
“At a gathering in Gurdaspur on January 27, 1884, Sir Syed famously said, ‘O Hindus and Muslims! Do you belong to a country other than India? Don’t you live on this soil and are you not buried under it or cremated on its ghats? If you live and die on this land, bear in mind that ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ is but a religious word. All Hindus, Muslims and Christians who live in this country are one nation,” he said.
Prof Mansoor called for spreading the message of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan for education, free enquiry, tolerance, interfaith understanding and national unity.
On the occasion, the chief guest and the vice chancellor presented the “International Sir Syed Excellence Award 2022” to Barbara Metcalf, noted historian and Professor Emerita of History at the University of California, Davis, USA, who attended the event virtually. The award, which carries ₹200,000, was given for her seminal works on the history of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent, South Asia and Islam.
In her acceptance speech via a video link from the US, she said, “Sir Syed’s modernist interventions preceded those of the Egypt-based modernists who too often are taken as founders of these trends of thought”.
