Taught Man That Which he Knew Not

I had spent the whole evening editing news...the little bit that usually comes in on a festive evening. The diyahs and candles were flickering in their waxy ends, while the pigeons, residents of a corner in my balcony watched nervously. The storm of loud bangs from crackers that had kept me screaming at regular intervals had receded into a distant grumble. People like Narendra Modi and Asif Ali Zardari had finished wishing people and were smiling contently at having promised enough communal harmony. Having spent all of a lit-up evening in front of a laptop screen, I pulled up my jeans and decided to walk for a while. 

The air was a heavy concoction of the winter drought and sulphur dioxide. Charred remains of crackers crunched under my feet as I made my way to Jamia. Buildings glowed as they stood all decked up, their faces alight, their insides dark. The long stretch to Jamia lay deserted, except for an occasional car that zoomed past or a bike with rowdy boys who would make monkey noises for no rhyme or reason. After all they don't need to prove themselves, do they?  

Jamia is a child of the Non Co-operation and the Khilafat Movement of the Indian Freedom Struggle. In the Aligarh Muslim University, which believed in Western education of Muslims to make them British servants and literally so, a part of the Muslim intelligentsia decided that they would not co-operate with the British and yet get a western education in order to free the nation of the alien rule. It had all started as a protest against Aligarh's pro-British inclinations. The founders had started a separate institution inside Aligarh, which later moved to Delhi and classes were held in rented apartments. Jamia projected Muslims as Indian nationalists. The teachers who went to jail often, had absolutely no money and instead of taking salaries, paid from their pockets to keep the institution running. Later with the help of the Indian National Congress, Jamia moved to where it is today and grew bit by bit. While Aligarh propounded the two nation theory, Jamia stood for harmony. When the country was engulfed in communal riots during the Partition, Mahatma Gandhi had observed that Jamia's campus remained "an oasis of peace in the Sahara" of communal violence.

Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Marg, which is named after the first Vice Chancellor of Jamia, is flanked on both sides by the green campus. Jamia stood exactly like it stood last Eid, all dressed up in festive spirit. Rice lights peeped and glowed through every nook and cranny. Little bulbs hung low with the flowers making them glow a pink, orange, red. The life sized statue of Ghalib stood watching over all festivities and had they given him a piece of cloth, he would have started knotting, like he did every time he came up with an immortal couplet. Ba'ab e Maulana Azad and Jahaan e Khusro watched me as I walked past. Maulana Azad's mausoleum and Jamia Masjid stood against the dark, moon less skies, brightening up every now and then to a successful rocket launch. 

If I could, I would drag the politicians of our country today and show them this. Yes, Jamia is a minority institution and yes, we teach Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Islamic Studies and yes, the majority students studying here are Muslims and oh yes, we have Islamia attached to our name...but when has the presence of religion meant the absence of secularism or at least the Indian definition of it? Jamia may lack the grandeur of private institutions but it has something that they can never have...an indomitable faith, that teaches brotherhood, the celebration of another's joy. Jamia still stands as an embodiment of the spirit in which it was established...that it still dreams the dream of a progressive, united nation, that it still makes it compulsory of all its students to choose between Islamiat, Hindu Ethics or Indian Culture and Religion. 

On my way back, I read Jamia's motto inscribed on the wall..."Taught man that which he knew not..." It is actually a part of a verse from the Holy Quran. As it stands a witness to the winds of change, it is a mute reminder to the nation...this is how it was to be. This is how the leaders of this nation had wanted it to be.