THE BIRTH OF JAMIA MILIA ISLAMIA UNIVERSITY

The end of 2019 witnessed numerous student protests and agitations all around the country. Why? It was due to the upcoming National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). One educational institute that became the hotspot for vigorous protests and police brutality was Jamia Milia Islamia. Interestingly, the inception of this university also took place as an answer to British rigidity and suppression.

Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

As World War I was ending, the Caliphate, which was the foundation of the Islamic institution saw its slow demise as Mustafa Kemal Pasha led an agitation against the Sultan of Turkey, who was also the Caliph of Islam. Muslims all over the world were conflicted by this series of events, and the effect of this was also felt in India.

Muslims in India were uneasy with the growing problems around their caliphate, and their scepticism against the British for supporting their tumbling foundation created even more trouble. The educated Muslims who were initially favouring the pro-educational ideologies of the British also turned their backs on the British.

In 1919 when the world was facing these major issues, India launched the Non-Cooperation movement in association with the Khilafat Movement. The movement focused on surrendering British given titles, resigning from government jobs, and boycotting government schools and institutions.

As many Indians left the British-supported and funded schools and colleges, they started to realise the lack of Indian institutes that could provide them with good support during such boycotting movements and would assist them to become independent from the British-influenced Western ideals. The issue reached its peak when the Aligarh Muslim University was given the status of a national university.

All the professors and students who were supporting the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement left AMU, and within two months, 18 academia and intellectuals established a new university in the abandoned lands of the AMU. This university came to be known as Jamia (University in Arabic) Milia (National) Islamia. It was the first by-product of a nationwide movement against British imperial rule.

Muhammad Ali Jauhar, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, Abdul Majeed Khwaja, and Zakir Husain were the founding pioneers of Jamia Milia Islamia under the presidency of Mahmud Hasan Deobandi.

With the inception of Jamia Milia Islamia, various students and professors made it their motto that this institute would offer them an alternative to the British-imposed western learning. They believed that this institute would provide progressive education while focusing on Indian Nationalism that would teach them about their own culture, traditions, and the commonality of India. The aim was to integrate Indian values into the mainstream teaching and educational pattern.

The creation of JMI was supported by national leaders like Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi who believed that India was in dire need of an institute that was out of the influential clutches of British teachings and would promote Indian unity and integrity.

And thus, JMI became one of the first institutes that came as a by-product of non-violent rebellion and as an answer to British imperialism. In 1925, JMI was shifted from Aligarh to Karol Bagh in Delhi, and in 1936, the campus of Jamia Milia Islamia officially shifted to South Delhi.

The historical context of JMI showcases reasoning of national integrity and portrayal of cultural identity that was unique to India. However, while looking at the present context and the numerous student protests that took place in response to the NRC and CAA, a question that blatantly arises is how the nature of the society changed and ironically the same national integrity became the reason for students within Jamia to feel unsafe and threatened during 2019 protests.

The logo of Jamia Millia Islamia. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons