DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68024#0114
106
education of Arabic sciences (imparted there) was oE so useful a character, that all Mahomedan
youths of good and respectable families of India and Bengal felt an ardent desire to join the
Mudrussah in order to be educated there, and many succeeded in attaining a high standard of
Mahomedan learning. But now-a-days there exist neither such learned men, nor do people feel
any necessity of joining the Mudrussah. We have just now learnt that the Mudrussah is
going to be reorganized. Therefore we, the Mahomedans of these parts, hoping greatly to
secure our future good, most respectfully solicit that if Government pay a little attention to
this affair, and appoint learned and fit persons to be teachers in the Mudrussah, and if books on
Mahomedan law, on the principles of Mahomedan law, &c., and other books calculated to give
a high erudition in the Arabic sciences, be taught, as formerly, we will feel the greatest desire,
and consider it a necessity to send our children and relatives to the Mudrussah; and we will
be highly thankful for the favor and bounty of Government. And for this act of kindness
we shall ever pray most sincerely.
[Translation from Urdu.]
To the Members of the Commission on the affairs of the Calcutta Mudrussah.
Gentlemen,
We, the Mahomedan inhabitants of Mozufferpore, in zillah Tirhoot, being members of the
Scientific Society of Beliar, and natives of this part of the country, most respectfully beg to
express our sincerest thanks for that great kindness which you have shewn towards us by
causing a notice to be inserted in the columns of the Door been of the 18 th August 1869, and
thereby permitting us to express our opinions on the subject of the organization of the Calcutta
Mudrussah. If we would let such a favorable opportunity to express our sorrows to the just
rulers of our country slip away from our hands, then when shall we be so fortunate as to get
another suitable occasion to represent them.
Gentleman, you are fully aware of the wretched and most miserable state in which the
Mahomedans have fallen of late, and are falling day by day. But due deference requires of us
that we should attribute our fallen state and want of success in the world to nothing else but
to our own carelessness and love of ease. “ Whatever has befallen us is owing to our own
misfortune, or else your kindness is equally accessible to every one.” Nevertheless, we cannot
abstain from bringing to your notice that when the late Governor-General, Mr. Warren
Hastings, in 1781, laid the foundation of the present Calcutta Mudrussah, his main object was
that the Mahomedans of India, who had from a long time been the receivers of kindness at the
hands of the former kings of the country, and on whom high posts in the administration had
continued to be conferred, should also, under the British rule, obtain respectable posts of a
similar nature by the acquirement of learning and proper qualifications. The result of this act
of justice was, that through the liberality of Government learned men of high attainments
were appointed on high salaries as Professors of this Mudrussah, and students Hocked from dis-
tant places to the metropolis ; and, having acquired a high proficiency in all the learned sciences,
were appointed to the high posts of kazees and law officers in the different zillahs and cities
and in the provincial courts, as well as to the high posts of kazee-ul-kozat. The law officers
latterly received promotions to the posts of sudder ameens and principal sudder ameens. Those
who were not so fortunate as to obtain such distinctions were still, on account of their high
acquirements and ability, held in great respect in their own community, and their co-religionists
received a high education under their able tuition. It was on account of this that the Maho-
medans daily became more and more improved and civilized. The people in general, after
receiving such a good education, were enabled to acquire both worldly and religious wealth and
honor, and thereby lived happily and prayed for the welfare and prosperity of the British
Government.
From the time that the system of imparting education in the Mudrussah was changed, and
that Mudrussah from which a large class of the community derived benefits, and the blessings
of which reached the whole of the Mahomedan community throughout India, and to which
students from distant places repaired to acquire learning and accomplishments,—that Mudrussah
dwindled into a mere muktub, or grammar-school. Especially since the posts of kazees and law
officers were abolished from the country, the Mudrussah lost all its former grandeur and glory,
and the regard of the people for it began to diminish. The respectable Mahomedans began to
keep themselves away from the Mudrussah in the same proportion as they formerly considered
it their glory to get admitted into it, until at last there now remained only a few learned
teachers and but a small number of students of respectable parentage. Of these latter, too,
there is not even one student who possesses qualifications sufficient to entitle him to obtain a
post of small emoluments,—not to speak of those of a higher order. For these reasons the
lamentable condition of the Mahomedans is becoming every day more and more distressed and
miserable.
education of Arabic sciences (imparted there) was oE so useful a character, that all Mahomedan
youths of good and respectable families of India and Bengal felt an ardent desire to join the
Mudrussah in order to be educated there, and many succeeded in attaining a high standard of
Mahomedan learning. But now-a-days there exist neither such learned men, nor do people feel
any necessity of joining the Mudrussah. We have just now learnt that the Mudrussah is
going to be reorganized. Therefore we, the Mahomedans of these parts, hoping greatly to
secure our future good, most respectfully solicit that if Government pay a little attention to
this affair, and appoint learned and fit persons to be teachers in the Mudrussah, and if books on
Mahomedan law, on the principles of Mahomedan law, &c., and other books calculated to give
a high erudition in the Arabic sciences, be taught, as formerly, we will feel the greatest desire,
and consider it a necessity to send our children and relatives to the Mudrussah; and we will
be highly thankful for the favor and bounty of Government. And for this act of kindness
we shall ever pray most sincerely.
[Translation from Urdu.]
To the Members of the Commission on the affairs of the Calcutta Mudrussah.
Gentlemen,
We, the Mahomedan inhabitants of Mozufferpore, in zillah Tirhoot, being members of the
Scientific Society of Beliar, and natives of this part of the country, most respectfully beg to
express our sincerest thanks for that great kindness which you have shewn towards us by
causing a notice to be inserted in the columns of the Door been of the 18 th August 1869, and
thereby permitting us to express our opinions on the subject of the organization of the Calcutta
Mudrussah. If we would let such a favorable opportunity to express our sorrows to the just
rulers of our country slip away from our hands, then when shall we be so fortunate as to get
another suitable occasion to represent them.
Gentleman, you are fully aware of the wretched and most miserable state in which the
Mahomedans have fallen of late, and are falling day by day. But due deference requires of us
that we should attribute our fallen state and want of success in the world to nothing else but
to our own carelessness and love of ease. “ Whatever has befallen us is owing to our own
misfortune, or else your kindness is equally accessible to every one.” Nevertheless, we cannot
abstain from bringing to your notice that when the late Governor-General, Mr. Warren
Hastings, in 1781, laid the foundation of the present Calcutta Mudrussah, his main object was
that the Mahomedans of India, who had from a long time been the receivers of kindness at the
hands of the former kings of the country, and on whom high posts in the administration had
continued to be conferred, should also, under the British rule, obtain respectable posts of a
similar nature by the acquirement of learning and proper qualifications. The result of this act
of justice was, that through the liberality of Government learned men of high attainments
were appointed on high salaries as Professors of this Mudrussah, and students Hocked from dis-
tant places to the metropolis ; and, having acquired a high proficiency in all the learned sciences,
were appointed to the high posts of kazees and law officers in the different zillahs and cities
and in the provincial courts, as well as to the high posts of kazee-ul-kozat. The law officers
latterly received promotions to the posts of sudder ameens and principal sudder ameens. Those
who were not so fortunate as to obtain such distinctions were still, on account of their high
acquirements and ability, held in great respect in their own community, and their co-religionists
received a high education under their able tuition. It was on account of this that the Maho-
medans daily became more and more improved and civilized. The people in general, after
receiving such a good education, were enabled to acquire both worldly and religious wealth and
honor, and thereby lived happily and prayed for the welfare and prosperity of the British
Government.
From the time that the system of imparting education in the Mudrussah was changed, and
that Mudrussah from which a large class of the community derived benefits, and the blessings
of which reached the whole of the Mahomedan community throughout India, and to which
students from distant places repaired to acquire learning and accomplishments,—that Mudrussah
dwindled into a mere muktub, or grammar-school. Especially since the posts of kazees and law
officers were abolished from the country, the Mudrussah lost all its former grandeur and glory,
and the regard of the people for it began to diminish. The respectable Mahomedans began to
keep themselves away from the Mudrussah in the same proportion as they formerly considered
it their glory to get admitted into it, until at last there now remained only a few learned
teachers and but a small number of students of respectable parentage. Of these latter, too,
there is not even one student who possesses qualifications sufficient to entitle him to obtain a
post of small emoluments,—not to speak of those of a higher order. For these reasons the
lamentable condition of the Mahomedans is becoming every day more and more distressed and
miserable.