Date: 26 January 1910
Location: Aligarh
Speaker: Aga Khan III
Source: Speeches of Aga Khan III – K K Aziz
Full Text
Financial contribution to the College by Princes and leaders appeal to others for funds – the ideal of Aligarh – the question of quantity vs. quality – definition of a good Muslim – the European example of self-sacrifice- annual grant to the College.
Nawab Sahib, trustees and gentlemen, – Allow me first to thank you most sincerely for the kind way in which you have received me here, and for the cordial terms in which you have referred to the services I have rendered this institution. I can assure you that my connection with the College has been from the first, for me, a labour of love, and among the various interests and pursuits that occupy my time none is so dear to me as the services I can render the College. You have suggested in your address that I am one of yourselves and that is so. Unfortunately the wretched state of my health has so far prevented me from doing all I should otherwise do for Aligarh, and above all has prevented me from carrying out my cherished dream of coming and passing a few weeks quietly in your midst every year and conversing freely, not only with the trustees and the professors, but with the students as well. (Cheers). I am glad to see that so many Princes, Nawabs, and leaders have lately contributed large sums of money to the college, but our hopes and dreams, I hope periodical dreams, of a mighty university, worthy of Islam in India, depends on not only every Muslim Prince and leader, but the well-to-do of every town and village to come forward and raise this college to the status of a great university. Gentlemen, no one can offer you b_etter advice than what the present Lieutenant-Governor gave you when he was last here, that the ideal before us is to make this institution a great centre of research and learning and a source of moral influence for the Mussalmans.
The object of this College, and in fact its early claim upon the love and affection of Mussalmans, is that it should be not a mere cramming house to turn out employees for Government service, that necessary but relaxing profession, but to produce men morally and intellectually equipped for developing the resources of the country by becoming captains of commerce and industry, leaders of men and the moral teachers of their people. That being the object in view you must not look to quantity but to quality.
Our community is not only backward, morally, intellectually and materially but even more spiritually; in the true sense Aligarh should not only turn out learned and capable men but good Mussalmans, nor can I accept the definition of a good Moslem as one who is merely a perfect formalist. We want amongst the students that atmosphere of self-sacrifice and true devotion and pity for suffering, that sense of dependence and responsibility towards an infinite power, the light of which can only be known through our emotions and whose influence must permeate every moment of our lives. Islam can only be maintained if there is a revival of such spirit. Then only shall we produce men who will be ready to go not only to try to become leaders of the Bar and members of the Executive Councils, not only the far more honourable and mighty members of society known as founders of art and industry, but men ready to sacrifice every material interest, men ready to go and give their lives to the humble and to the lowly without any visible recompense, or men ready to devote their future to the advancement of pure learning.
As you are all aware I have lived many a year in Europe.
Though the people of that continent are far in advance of us in material comforts and wealth, yet their material superiority is not so evident, nor did it so impress me as the immense numbers who had sacrificed every personal advantage for the advancement of some ideal not only in England but in so-called materialistic France and Germany. Vast numbers in every village and in every district give up their lives to the service of God, of mankind and of knowledge, nor is this light of self-sacrifice confined to the ranks of believing Christians and Jews. Amongst the so-called agnostics and atheists, I have seen a wealth of true spiritual devotion. If only we could infuse a little of this into the hearts of the Mussalmans of India, we should be very different from what we are to-day. Gentlemen, do all you can to bring that spirit into the youths of Aligarh. That way lies salvation.
Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I inform you that I raise my annual grant toRs. 10,000, and I hope that this is but a step towards a still larger grant later on …
Source: The Times of India, Bombay, 27 January 1910.
The Aga Khan paid a visit to the MAO College on 25 January. On the following day the Trustees of the College gave a garden party in honour of the distinguished guest at the College Club, made him a life member of the Club, and presented him with an address of welcome. The Aga Khan’s reply forms the text of this document.
For the MAO College see Theodore Morison, The History of the M.A.O. College, Aligarh, from its Foundation to the Year 1903, Allahabad, 1903; Oscar Browning, Impressions of Indian Trave~ London, 1903, pp. 151-60; Yusuf Husain, Selected Documents from the Aligarh Archives, Bombay, 1967; Theodore Morison, “An Indian Renaissance”, Quarterly Review, April1906; Gertrude Bell, “Islam in India:
A Study at Aligarh’, The Nineteenth Century and After, December 1906; and Aligarh Magazine, special Aligarh number, 1953-4, Aligarh, 1955.