Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was not only a frontline nationalist leader but also one of the architects of modern India. His commitment to the pluralist ethos of our freedom struggle is reflected in his profile as the first minister for education, science and culture in independent India. He constantly strived as a minister and as an intellectual to synthesize the Islamic, Indian and the Western ideas into a coherent and single pattern for the newly independent nation. He was one of the few leaders of the freedom movement who, steeped in medieval scholarship and classical learning, transcended the limits of different classical languages and religion. He castigated any kind of narrow outlook, expressed as cultural tradition, as national chauvinism or religious orthodoxy. Most scholars have concentrated on Azad’s political contributions, which are surely important or on his theological acumen as an Islamic scholar par excellence. However, we also need to acknowledge his immense contributions to nation building, particularly in education, science and culture. It is even more significant in the context of Islam today, not only in India but globally.

In 1916, he explicitly asserted his having studied, over a period of a decade or so, the problem in its entirety, and claimed to have developed “a critical-cum-creative insight”[1] in the discipline of education. One of the major early influences on Azad was Ibn Khaldun, the 14th/15th century Moroccan philosopher, historian and traveler. Maulana Azad agreed with him in that what led to stagnation in religious and secular learning was an unquestioning acceptance of theology. He found education to be the sole means to rectifying this error.[2] The curricula in the Islamic madarsas he held were fundamentally narrow, with a significant omission of mathematics, which is the basis of science and technology.[3] Another significant influence, was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who attracted Azad towards modern education and modern science for the Muslims. Azad would later step out of the limits of community-based concerns alone due to his commitment to anti-imperialist and nationalist politics, but he admitted in his writings like Azad ki Kahani that Sir Syed’s writings brought about an intense revolution in his thought, both in his religious as well intellectual life.[4] With the intoxication of Sir Syed’s writings, he went through the stages as in his father’s dictum: ‘The way to apostasy in the present age is through wahhabiyat to nechariyat.’[5]

But Azad was surprisingly in agreement with Sir Syed’s bête noir Jamaluddin Afghani and his disciple Mohd Abduh as well. Azad wanted to imbibe the best from both and in this he found that Afghani was all for modern scientific and technical education and was also critical of those ulema, who urged the community to keep away from anything which has to do with the British. In one of his letters in Ghubar-i-Khatir he comments upon the education system and syllabi in the context of his own education in the late 19th century India, particularly the Islamic madarsas. He wrote: “It was an outdated system of education which had become barren from every point of view-teaching methods defective, worthless subjects of study, deficient in the selection of books, defective way of reading and calligraphy.”[6]

Expressing a sense of relief at the fact that he did not have to depend on these madarsas for his early education, he writes:

“Just imagine if I had stopped there and had not gone in search of new knowledge with a new curiosity what would be my plight! Obviously my early education would not have given me anything except a stagnant mind, a total stranger to reality.”[7]

Azad’s own experience in early education and his break away from the traditional methods is revealing and can be instructive. Present day Islamic enthusiasts need to learn a lesson or two from the insights of a scholar like Azad – both from his writings against conformism and conservatism and his questioning of his own family’s intellectual and religious inheritance. In the same letter he notes:

“Nothing is greater hindrance to the growth of a mind than its conservative beliefs. No other power binds it as do the shackles of conformity….At times so strong is the grip of inherited beliefs that education and environment also cannot loosen it. Education would give it a new paint but never enter the inner belief structure where the influence of race, family and centuries old traditions continue to operate.”[8]

Here Azad gives some clue to an eclecticism that had set in very early in life and would prove extremely useful in his profile as a nationalist leader.

We later find that Azad’s educational perspective was fundamentally Islamic in inspiration, yet he synthesized happily anything of value from anywhere. He was not ‘exclusively an “Islamic” mind or even an “oriental” mind, unacquainted with, or insensitive to, the rich streams of influences emanating from other sources’.[9]

He was deeply impressed by the advances made in the West in the realm of elementary education for children. He was firmly committed to what was scientific in the Western system, and the two factors that most inspired him were the idea of freedom as the technique of education, and an all embracing importance of primary education.[10] He was particularly impressed by Rousseau and was in agreement with him about the innate goodness of man.[11] He even wrote about this in his paper al-Hilal, where he looked upon Rousseau as one who revolutionized the entire intellectual and social life of his age.[12] Azad agreed with Rousseau in his advocacy of the child’s necessity and ability to grasp the truth through his own insight.[13]

He considered planning for education on a national scale more important than national planning in economic and industrial development. Addressing the CABE meeting in 1952 he noted:

“Economic and industrial development creates material goods. These can be used by people in different parts whatever be their source or origin. Education, on the other hand, trains the citizens, and if this training fails to inculcate the right attitudes and ideals or encourages fissiparous tendencies, the security and welfare of the community is at stake. Our reconstruction of national education must therefore aim at creating a unity of purpose among all our nationals and developing in them a common outlook which will transcend and harmonize in an attractive pattern the differences in history, background, language and culture that exist among various sections of the people.”[14]

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Maulana Azad’s commitment to modern scientific and technical education is important to recall today, particularly in the context of Islam, where a debate is being held whether modern science is Islamic enough for the believers or they need to have their own brand of Islamic science. A sizable section of Islamic intellectuals in Euro-American universities as well as Turkey, Malaysia and even India, have been aggressively proposing that modern science is Christian in spirit and inspiration and thus is against the basic Islamic values and fundamentals. The stridency of global political Islam and its reductionism can be seen in the intellectual debates and writings, where all sources of knowledge, including that of science, can be reduced to Quran and hadis.

Maulana Azad had categorically pointed out at several places in his writings, particularly in the Tarjuman, that we cannot expect the facts of history and science in the Quran. Azad did not look for onfirmation of the latest scientific theories in the Quran. “The aim of the Quran, he said, is to invite the attention of man to His power and wisdom and not to make an exposition of the creation of the universe”.[15] Given that the Quran did not anticipate, cannot legitimate many modern discoveries, thje strategy is invented to disaffirm those discoveries, and to divide science itself along cultural lines; that is, to fabricate an Islamic science consistent with the Quran in opposition to a “Western” science unsuitable for Islamic societies because its epistemology is basically in conflict with the Islamic view.[16]

Azad found it fallacious to say that Islam and modern science are contradictory or pursuit of science leads to atheism.[17] While delivering the convocation address at the Aligarh Muslim University, Azad touched upon this issue once again. He recalled the serious obstacles faced by the reformers in the 19th century when they began to advocate the cause of modern scientific education.

“The cry of religion…supplied the opponents of progress with one of their most potent weapons. The path of religion is not in fact opposed to that of reason and knowledge but unfortunately that has often been represented to be so. The usual cry was that Western education was opposed to the teachings of religion and those who held religion dear must therefore adhere to the old tradition”.[18]

He was disgusted with the ulema of the time that were quick to block all progress and reform; as he wrote to Muhiuddin Kasuri: “the ulema are a hopeless lot. To believe that a traditional mind can still give way to regeneration is to believe against the laws of nature. We have no alternative but to ignore the rigid thinking altogether, focusing on the creation of a new mind which requires a radically different variety of literature and apprenticeship.”[19] He firmly believed that “the courses of study had been narrowed down to the point of no return, not to speak of allowing introduction of modern arts and sciences.”[20]

He was not only critical of the prevalent madarsa system of education that kept away from modern scientific education; he equally castigated the Aligarh College “for its intellectual sterility”. Reminded of the great centres of learning, like Cordova, Granada and Baghdad in the history of Islam, he observed the utter impotence and futility of Aligarh in advancing the cause of modern science and philosophy in the Indian Muslim community.[21]

Maulana expected the Aligarh College to pursue modern sciences and philosophy and expressed regret that it did not do so. He was rather critical of the Aligarh group which emphasized modern education aimed at mere employment and not education per se.

Despite his condescension for Aligarh products, Azad initiated a column on scientific matters in his Al-Hilal that express his appreciation of modern science. The first article he wrote was on radium, which was followed by a four part report on Scott’s expedition to the South Pole, where Azad expressed high praise for European devotion to science and the search for truth. By 1914, he was translating articles from Scientific American, the first of which was on Dr Maria Montessori’s educational methods.[22] All this shows clearly Azad’s admiration for modern science as well as Western pedagogy.

As an Islamic scholar, he did not see modern science and Islam or even East and West as incompatible. Speaking at a symposium in 1951, Maulana Azad clearly spelt out the compatibility of East and West in the following words:

“The Eastern conception of man’s status is not only consistent with the progress of Western science, but in fact offers an intelligible explanation of how scientific progress is possible. If man were merely a developed animal, there would be a limit to his advancement. If, however, he shares in God’s infinity, there can be no limit to the progress he can achieve. Science can then march from triumph to triumph and solve many of the riddles which trouble man even to this day.”[23]

Maulana emphasizes further in his address when he says that “Science is neutral. Its discoveries can be used equally to heal and to kill. It depends upon the outlook and mentality of the user whether science will be used to create a new heaven on earth or to destroy the world in a common conflagration. If we think of man as only a progressive animal, there is nothing to prevent his using science to further interests based on the passions he shares in common with animals. If, however, we think of him as an emanation of God, he can use science only for the furtherance of God’s purpose that is the achievement of peace on earth and goodwill to all men.”[24]

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For Maulana Azad, no education at any level was complete without art and culture. He repeatedly emphasized the significance of culture and heritage while formulating his educational policies. Inaugurating an art exhibition in New Delhi, he said:

“Art is an education of emotions and is thus an essential element in any scheme of truly national education. Education, whether at the secondary or at the university stage, cannot be regarded as complete if it does not train our faculties to the perception of beauty.”[25]

In one of his letters he remarked: “Beauty, whether in sound, or in face, whether in the Taj Mahal, or Nishat Bagh, beauty is beauty…and it has its natural demands. Pity that miserable soul whose insensitive heart did not learn how to respond to the call of beauty!” While concluding his address at the inauguration of the art exhibition, he said, “I hope and trust that this will not only awaken in all of us a more lively sense of our past, and pride and joy in its ancient traditions, but also lead to a quickening of our sensibility so that we may bring more of beauty and grace in the affairs of our daily life.”[26]

It was this commitment that prompted him to set up most of the art and culture academies, and museums, soon after the attainment of freedom.

While addressing the Museums Association of India, Maulana emphasized the urgent need to establish a National Museum as part of the nation building programme. He urged the conference organizers to keep constantly in view the need of linking up our art heritage with the spread of education. The National Museum, he said, “should be an imperishable record-house for our ancient history and civilization.”

It is not a very well-known fact that Maulana Azad was an accomplished musician himself, having trained to play sitar. In his Ghubar-i-Khatir, the longest letter he wrote, was on the history and art of music, where he writes to Nawab Sadr Yar Jung, “Perhaps, you don’t know that at one time music had been my passion. It engrossed me for several years.” His Islam also did not deter him in this pursuit, where he disagreed even with his father’s perception of Islam. The letter is entirely about aesthetics, especially music; what it means to him personally, what it meant to people in the course of history, and how India’s composite culture is reflected in her music.[28]

While engaging with music, Azad was following a well-established Islamic tradition, which has been marginalized by certain sections within Islam down the centuries. Imam Ghazali in the eleventh century devoted a chapter on music in his Ihya Ulum al-Deen where he says “One who is not moved by music is unsound of mind and intemperate; is far from spirituality and is denser than birds and beasts because everyone is affected by melodious sounds.”[29]

In the aforementioned letter about his love for music, Maulana Azad, in stark contrast to the Wahabi and Talibani perversion of Islam, wrote:

“I can always remain happy doing without the necessities of life, but I cannot live without music. A sweet voice is the support and prop of my life, a healing for my mental labours. Sweet music is the cure for all the ills and ailments of my body and heart.”[30]

He wrote further “If you want to deprive me of all the comforts of life deprive me of this one thing and your purpose will be served. Here in the prison what I miss the most is a radio set.” Lamenting the loss he quotes an apt Urdu couplet:

Lazzat-e-ma’asiet-e-ishq na pooch

Khuld mein bhi yeh bala yaad aayi.[31]

(Question not the pleasure of the sin of love;

The damn thing could not be forgotten even in paradise)

The letter is replete with instances in history when music was central to Islamic culture, and referring to the Mughal period, Azad wrote that “music became a part of the culture of the wise; without facility in music knowledge and culture were considered incomplete. Music became an integral part of the education and upbringing of the children of the nobles and gentlemen. Masters of the art were in great demand in all parts of the country….The youth who came to cities in pursuit of education sought out master musicians in addition to scholars and teachers; they learnt the art at their feet.”[32]

Azad narrates the centrality of music in Islam from the early Abbasid period onwards, particularly emphasizing its role in the evolution of Indian syncretic culture during the medieval centuries. Indian music he claims has much greater depth than any other music. As for Western music, although our ears are not tuned to it, we cannot help acknowledging its greatness. European music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially German music, is an extraordinary example of human genius. It is surprising that the Arabs showed interest in all the arts and sciences of India, except music. Although Al-Beruni did not pay any attention to Indian music, that was the time, Azad says, when Indian musical instruments were heard being played on the streets of Ghazni.[33] Rebutting all those who dub music as un-Islamic, Azad cited examples from Indian history where orthodox and prejudiced courtiers of Akbar like Mulla Abdul Qadir Badauni were expert flute players and Abdul Salam Lahori was as well-versed in music as he was in texts like the Hidaya and Buzduvi. Azad, in this letter, tried to establish that music is not prohibited in Islam rather “music is one of God’s graces; it cannot be forbidden to man because it has been created for man.”[34]

Azad was aware that the Prophet only denounced excessive music or poetry as corrupting, music as such was not prohibited. The thing whose wise and balanced use is an ornament turns into a blot as evil and bad manners if excessively indulged.[35] While digging the trench around Medinah in preparation for battle, the Prophet and his companions were singing songs. (Bukhari/Muslim).[36]

Music is anathema only for the myopic, bigoted, spoilsport apostles of self-righteous Islam and regrettably, most of the Muslims have succumbed to their vicious campaign against this significant cultural expression.

Soon after he joined the interim government, few months before independence, Maulana Azad felt that not enough was being done to promote Indian classical music on All India Radio. He shot off a letter to Sardar Patel, who was formally in charge of Broadcasting: “You perhaps do not know that I have always taken keen interest in Indian classical music and at one time practiced it myself. It has, therefore, been a shock to me to find that the standard of music of All India Radio broadcast is extremely poor. I have always felt that All India Radio should set the standard in Indian music and lead to its continual improvement. Instead, the present programmes have an opposite effect and lead one to suspect that the artistes are sometimes chosen not on grounds of merit.”[37]

It was this commitment of Azad, that prompted him to institutionalize Indian art and culture in the 1950s. He was conscious that the colonial government had deliberately ignored this aspect and that it needed serious attention in independent India. Within a short span of ten years, he established most of the major cultural and literary academies we have today, including the Sangeet Natak Academy, Lalit Kala Academy, Sahitya Academy as well as the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Azad was clear that all these institutions of creative talent need to be autonomous and free from official government control and interference. He categorically asserted at the First All India Conference of Letters:

“[…]even a National Government cannot, and should not be, expected to develop literature and culture through official fiats. The government should certainly help both by material assistance and by creating an atmosphere which is congenial to cultural activities, but the main work of the development of literature and culture must be the responsibility of individuals endowed with talent and genius.”[38]

At the opening of the Indian Academy of Dance, Drama and Music on January 28, 1953 Azad elaborated:

“India can be proud of long heritage and tradition in the field of dance, drama, and music. In the field of fine arts, as in those of philosophy and science, India and Greece occupy an almost unique position in human history. It is my conviction that in the field of music, the achievement of India is greater than that of Greece. The breadth and depth of Indian music is perhaps unrivalled as is its integration of vocal and instrumental music.”

Azad also pointed out that the essence of Indian civilization and culture has always been a spirit of assimilation and synthesis. Nowhere is this more clearly shown than in the field of music. Azad’s cosmopolitan vision is reflected in his in his speech when he says that:

“This precious heritage of dance, drama and music is one we must cherish and develop. We must do so not only for our own sake but also as our contribution to the cultural heritage of mankind. Nowhere is it truer than in the field of art, that to sustain means to create. Traditions cannot be preserved but can only be created afresh. It will be the aim of these academies to preserve our traditions by offering them an institutional form.”[39]

Maulana Azad’s internationalism and humanism became evident in his speech at the opening of the Soviet Art Exhibition in New Delhi:

“Politically, the world may be divided into rival camps. There may be clash of ideologies on the plane of material interests but in the world of spirit, in the creations of art, philosophy, literature and other values, mankind is one. In this field, the creation of any individual becomes the possession of the entire human race.”[40]

Science, he continued has surely brought people closer and made the world physically accessible but it has not yet invented a machine to bring human hearts closer to one another. Art has the power to do that and can be the greatest messengers of peace and goodwill among nations. “Today when science has knit the world into one compact unit, such contacts are necessary not merely for the enrichment of life but, one may say, for the very survival of humanity.”[41]

Maulana Azad embraced an eclectic Islam, valued a syncretic Indic cultural heritage and cherished the values of science and art that had to be preserved. He may not have been aware of problems inhering in the tension between science and religion, but he arrived intuitively at the solution that each had its values that must be must be preserved.[42]

Notes

1. Ghubar-Khatir, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sallies of Mind, (English translation by D R Goyal), 2003, Shipra Publications, New Delhi p.121.
2. G Rasool Abduh, The Educational Ideas of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, New Delhi, 1973, p.19.
3. Ghubar-Khatir, p.121.
4. Ian Henderson Douglas, Abul Kalam Azad An intellectual and religious biography, New Delhi, 1988, p.51.
5. Nechariyat was an expression used by the detractors of Sir Syed to explain his belief in nature and his followers were thus dubbed as necharis (followers of nature).
6. Sallies of Mind (English translation of Ghubar-i-Khatir), p.104.
7. Ibid, p.105.
8. Ibid, p. 107.
9. K G Saiyidain, Philosophy of Education, in Syeda Saiyidain Hameed, India’s Maulana, ICCR and Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1990, p.64.
10. G Rasool Abduh, op.cit. p.24.
11. Al-Balagh, February 25 1916, pp.10-11.
12. Al-Hilal, August 5 1927.
13. G Rasool Abduh, op.cit. p. 25.
14. Speeches of Maulana Azad, New Delhi, 1959, p. 208.
15. Ian Henderson Douglas, op.cit.p.249.
16. Kaiwar, Vasant, Science, Capitalism, and Islam, South Asia Bulletin, Vol.XII, No.2, 1992, 40.
17. Azad’s letter to Hakeem Mohammad Ali Tabeeb , 11th June 1902 in Malik Ram ed., Khutoot Abul Kalam Azad, vol.1, Sahitya Akademy, (Delhi,1991), pp. 22-23.
18. Speeches of Maulana Azad, Convocation address at the Aligarh Muslim University, February 20 1949, p, 76.
19. Rashid Shaz, Creating a Future Islamic Civilization, New Delhi, 2008, p.66.
20. Al-Hilal, July 29, 1914. In his strident criticism of the ossified system of education Azad wrote : “Today madarsas do exist, teachers do teach, students do learn, and there is also a specific curriculum in practice; but in spite of all this, education has been suffering from the backwardness over which we have lamented to the extent of becoming ridiculous”. Cited after Rasul Abduh, op.cit. p. 62.
21. Rasul Abduh, op.cit. p.67.
22. Ibid.
23. Speeches of Maulana Azad, Inaugural speech at the Symposium on the Concept of Man and the Philosophy of Education in the East and West, New Delhi, December 13, 1951, p. 185.
24. Ibid.
25. Speeches of Maulana Azad, p.48.
26. Ibid.
27. Speeches of Maulana Azad, p.50.Hameed, Syeda Saiyidain, Islamic Seal on India’s Independence-Abul Kalam Azad-A Fresh look, OUP, Karachi, 1998, p.247.
28. Joommal, A S K, Al-Balaagh, supplement to August/September, 1985.
29. Ghubaar-i-Khatir, , p. 259.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid, pp.253-254.
32. Hameed, op.cit, p. 251.
33. Ibid, p.256.
34. Ibid, p.265.
35. Cited in `Is Music Haraam?’ Al-Balaagh, Vol.28, No.1, Feb/March 2003, 5.
36. Letter of Azad to Sardar Patel, February 10 , 1947.
37. Speeches of Maulana Azad, Inaugural address at the First All India Conference on Letters, New Delhi, March 15, 1951.
38. Speeches of Maulana Azad, Welcome address at the inauguration of the Indian Academy of dance, Drama and Music, New Delhi, January 28, 1953.
39. Speeches of Maulana Azad, op.cit. P.199. Speech delivered at the opening of the Soviet Fine Arts Exhibition, New Delhi, March 5, 1952.
40. Ibid, p.197.
41. Ian Henderson Douglas, op.cit. p.278.

(S. Irfan Habib, historian, culture critic, was formerly Maulana Azad Chair at National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi. Courtesy: The Beacon.)