Sir Syed's contribution to education remembered

Srinagar, Oct 19: Highlighting the importance of modern and scientific education among Muslims eminent scholars, historians and academicians have validated the relevance of ideas and philosophy of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.

A programme Youm-e-Sir Syed to mark the 191st birth anniversary of the great educationist and social reformer of the 19th century was telecast on DD kashir Channel last night.

Throwing light on the life and achievements of Sir Syed, Vice -Chancellor Kashmir University Professor Riyaz Pujabi said '' Sir Syed pioneered modern education for the Muslim community at times when the entire muslim population in India was in a state of dilemma and opting modern and English education was a taboo''.

Sir Syed faced criticism from the people of his own community but he never gave up and validated the importance of scientific and English education besides the religious one for Muslims which gave birth to new generation of Muslims intellectuals in India ,'' he said.

Professor Punjabi an alumini of Aligarh Muslim University said that there is a need to promote and inform the people about the role Sir Syed played in revolutionising modern education and the hard work he did to achieve the goal.

'' Sir Syed used only two tools to reach the elite class of his times to make them aware about the importance of modern education.

One was his pen and the other was through social interactions with the elite class who then influenced the other Muslim sections of society to strive for knowledge and education,'' said Prof Punjabi.

The Vice-Chancellor said the University is delving with the idea of constituting a Chair in the name of the great visionary after it named one of the gates as Sir Syed gate adding ''it will be a great tribute to the memory of Sir Syed''. In his message to the viewers, former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bashir Ahmed Khan emphasied on the need to have visionaries like Sir Syed in contemporary times when the entire Muslim population is going through a dark phase.

''We are in dire need of a personality like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan who can bring Muslims out of the quagmire of ignorance and poverty.

The Sachar report is a testimony to the fact that the condition of Muslims is very bad even today as most of the school drop-outs are Muslim children and there presence in civil services and other professional streams is almost decemal,'' said the former Chief Justice.

Underlining the role of Sir Syed in promoting education, noted cultural expert Mohammad Yusuf Taing said '' Sir Syed not only contributed to the importance of higher education among Muslims but also promoted Urdu language to a great extent through his books.'' Tracing roots of the great educationist to Kashmir ,Mr Taing said '' There are only few people who know that Sir Syeds mother was a Kashmiri whose name was Azizun Nisa and it is a matter of great pride for all Kashmiris that Sir Syed has a blood relation with our land.'' Speaking on the occasion Qazi Mohammad Amin said it was only because of the tremendous efforts of Sir Syed that the dream of establishing a Muslim University came to life and AMU a real model of that novel dream.

Advocate Majid Jehangir, who found the Aligarh students Union Kashmir Chapter while urging the youth to follow the guidelines and principles of Sir Syed said ''we must implement the teachings of Sir Syed in our lives and follow his teaching in letter and spirit as that would be the only tribute to him.

UNI