‘Muslims Consider the Soil of India as Their Garden Of Eden’ Says Barbara D Metcalf, Recipient of the 2022 Sir Syed Excellence International Award
By
Syed Ali Mujtaba, New Age Islam
20 October
2022
‘Indian Muslims Consider the Very Soil of India
to Be Sacred and for Them, India’s Natural Marvels Were like the Garden Of Eden,”
Said Barbara D Metcalf, The Recipient Of The 2022 Sir Syed Excellence
International Award.
Barbara D Metcalf, the recipient of the 2022 Sir Syed Excellence
International Award.
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The annual
award is given by the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on its founder Sir Syed
Ahmad Khan's birth anniversary on October 17. This year, AMU is marking the
205th anniversary of Sir Syed.
Metcalf,
who attended the event virtually from the US, said “Sir Syed’s modernist
interventions preceded those of the Egypt-based modernists who too often are
taken as founders of these trends of thought.”
Metcalf’s
writing has contributed heavily to the understanding of the history of India
and Pakistan’s Muslim population, especially during the colonial period.
In her
acceptance speech, Metcalf said, that despite constituting a quarter of the
population at the time of Independence and forming a crucial share of the
citizenry in the Republic of India, the history of Indian Muslims has remained
“understudied.”
She pointed
out that ‘scholarly work on Indian Muslims remains essential for telling
India’s history well because just history yields just politics.”
Professor
Emerita of History at the University of California, Barbara Metcalf completed
her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974. Her doctoral
dissertation was on the history of the Muslim religious scholars of Deoband, a
reformist religious seminary founded in the late 19th century.
Referencing
the main ideology of Indian scholars like Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madni of the
Deoband School, Metcalf stated that her studies on the role of Indian Muslims
and Islamic scholars in the freedom movement had shown that the Ulema are a
social group that has “often been subjected to stereotypes just by looking at
their physical appearance.”
She
appealed to historians to “rise above stereotypes and also stressed the
importance of fostering “serious evidence-based history writing in India.”
The
international award, given to Metcalf this year, carries a cash prize of Rs.
200,000, while the national award of Rs 100,000 was given to the Maulana Azad
Education Foundation in New Delhi.
Tahir
Mahmood, former chairman of the National Commission for Minorities and legal
scholar, was the chief guest of the event, while National Archives of India
Director General Chandan Sinha was the guest of honour.
The Aligarh
Muslim University (AMU) bestows a yearly International and National Sir Syed
Excellence Award to noted scholars or organizations that produce seminal work
in the areas of Sir Syed Studies, South Asian Studies, Muslim Issues,
Literature, Medieval History, Social Reform, Communal Harmony, Journalism, and
Inter-Faith Dialogue.
-----
Syed Ali
Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He has taken his undergraduate and
postgraduate degrees from AMU. He was in AMU’s football team.
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/muslims-india-garden-eden-barbara-metcalf-/d/128222
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