TeaThe acronym AMU stands for Aligarh Muslim University, but for all intents and purposes, it stands for Allah Miyan University, a divinely appointed sanctuary where the thought of reform is considered sacred. Naturally because it is effectively a successor state to the Mughal Empire on the lines of Awadh, Bengal and Hyderabad. Descended from the Muslim conquerors, the thousand-year-old ruling class – the Ashraf – has been endowed with its own principality to look back on its imperial past and fantasize about its revival. These lotus eaters are maintained by the Indian state, which pays for their reverence from the Consolidated Fund of India.
The AMU Amendment Act 1981, Section 5(2)(c) states that the object of this university is “to promote the educational and cultural advancement of the Muslims of India”. Although money is accepted, issued and spent in the name of Indian Muslims; Historically, the Ashraf Muslims of Uttar Pradesh, mainly from its western part, have exercised ownership rights over the institution. No wonder, in its hundred-year history, every Vice-Chancellor, except one, has come from the small group of Ashrafs. Most of them from western UP, a few from eastern UP, and three from their southern cousins, the Muslim elite of Hyderabad. This is not a coincidence. There is a pattern. This is a result of how the institutions of power are structured in this princely state. Its Executive Council, Academic Council, and Court are cuckold clubs where everyone belongs to everyone else.
If the Indian state spends hundreds of crores on a university in the name of Indian Muslims, then why should the Ashrafs of UP rejoice? Why shouldn’t AMU’s power structure reflect India’s diversity by including different regions, sub-regions, classes, castes and linguistic groups in its governing bodies? Why should a Bihari or a Bengali, a woman or a Pasmanda, a Hindu, even a Dalit (highly favored by Muslim narrators), be an unimaginable prospect as the Vice-Chancellor of this University? Why should the selection pool be so small that no more than a couple of possible names are found?
This historic institution, India’s second largest residential university, carries a heavy burden of history. If reforms are allowed, it can shed the burden of its past, and emerge as the National University of India. But Indian secularism, as established during the Congress rule, did not allow it to rectify itself. Muslim communalism has been institutionalized in the form of Indian secularism. It has two main totems: Muslim Personal Law and Aligarh Muslim University. The mere idea of reform in both can irk the secularists, and rob them of their vote bank.
For better integration and mainstreaming of the Muslim community, the Muslim Personal Law, a symbol of separatism, needs to be radically reformed to incorporate contemporary ideals of gender justice. However, the process must begin with an overhaul of the power structure in the institution, which is no longer intellectually alive, but was once the “Arsenal of Muslim India”.
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How to modernize AMU
Let’s start from above. As mentioned, almost all the vice-chancellors of AMU have come from a very small subset of a sub-region, i.e. the Ashrafs of western and eastern Uttar Pradesh. There is an imperative about it given the composition of AMU’s Executive Council and Court. While the government selects and appoints the vice-chancellors of all universities, the executive council of AMU prepares a panel of five names, three of which are sent by the court to the government, which appoints one of the three as vice-chancellor. bound to. ,
Thus appointed, the Vice-Chancellor has absolute power in all matters including admissions and appointments. His – no feminine or gender neutral pronoun can ever be used in that case of a woman – emergency or discretionary powers cover everything under the sun of AMU. Each incumbent has been most extraordinary with its use. Hence, the need of the hour is to make the Vice-Chancellor of AMU like any other Central University, depriving him of his extraordinary powers, and depriving the Muslim community of its aura of Amir-ul Momineen and Khalifat-ul Muslimeen .
But, will the Indian state, which is still operating within the appeasement framework of Indian secularism, bite the bullet, and reform a university where it puts in More money than all other campuses except Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Like reforming the Muslim Personal Law, reforming the administrative and academic system of AMU is the proper domain of the state. With regard to personal law, hypocritical liberals can advance their clichéd argument that reform must come from within Muslim societies. But AMU has been created by law, and Parliament has to set things right by enacting a new AMU Act. The supreme body of the university, known as the Court, should be abolished; And the structure of the Executive Council, the de facto governing body, should be reformed so that it is no longer a closed club of siblings, cousins and in-laws. It consists of people holding administrative positions in the university who owe much to the emergency or discretionary power of the vice-chancellor – from their recruitment, confirmation and promotion to their subsequent promotion to administrative status.
Both these measures are essential to modernize AMU on the lines of other Central Universities. University Grants Commission (UGC) rules should apply to it like they apply to other universities. Any resort to Muslim exceptionalism must be exposed as it serves a small section of Ashraf and not the Muslim masses. The network of power and patronage, which is at the root of the identityist and separatist discourse, has to be broken.
The Indian state under Nehru reformed Hindu family law, but left Muslim personal law untouched. Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has been a constitutional ideal which has not been considered practical by any government. Similarly, when BHU was reformed, AMU was left to Ashraf’s class-cabel to enjoy forever. Under the Narendra Modi government, the time has come to rectify these anomalies of the past. The road to UCC goes through UGC.
Ibn Khaldun is a student of Bharati Islam, and views Islamic history from an Indian perspective. He tweets at @IbnKhaldunIndic. Thoughts are personal.
editor’s Note: We know the author very well and only allow pseudonyms when we do this.
(Edited by Prashant)