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Recently Jamia Millia Islamia celebrated its centenary
History of Jamia
Originally it was established at Aligarh, in the United Provinces in 1920 and became a Central University by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1988. In Urdu language, Jamia means ‘University’, and Millia means ‘National’.
Conception
- Under colonial British rule, two dominant trends joined hands and contributed towards in the birth of Jamia.
- One was the anti-colonial Islamic activism and the other was the pro-independence aspiration of the politically radical section of western educated Indian Muslim intelligentsia0
- In the political climate of 1920, the two trends gravitated together with Mahatma Gandhi as a catalyst.
- The anti-colonial activism signified by the Khilafat and the pro-independence aspirations symbolised by the non-cooperation movement of the Indian National Congress helped to harness creative energies and the subsequent making of Jamia Millia Islamia.
Foundation
The Foundation Committee met on 29 October 1920. It comprised of the following members:
- Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari (Delhi)
- Mufti Kafayattullah (Delhi)
- Maulana Abdul Bari Farang Mahali (UP)
- Maulana Sulaiman Nadvi (Bihar)
- Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani (UP)
- Maulana Husain Ahmad Madni (UP)
- Chaudhury Khaleeq-uz-zaman (UP)
- Nawab Mohammad Ismail Khan
- Tasadduq Husain Khan (UP)
- Dr. Mohammad Iqbal (Punjab)
- Maulana Sanaullah Khan Amritsari (Punjab)
- Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew (Punjab)
- Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (Bengal and Bihar)
- Dr. Syed Mehmood (Bengal and Bihar)
- Saith Abdullah Haroon Karachiwale (Sindh, Bombay and Hyderabad)
- Abbas Tyabiji (Sindh, Bombay and Hyderabad)
- Sait Miyan Mohammad Haji Jaam Chhotani (Sindh, Bombay and Hyderabad)
- Maulavi Abdul Haq (Sindh, Bombay and Hyderabad)
Timeline of the university
- On 22 November 1920, Hakim Ajmal Khan was elected the first chancellor of Jamia. Mohamed Ali Jauhar became Jamia’s first Vice Chancellor, as Allama Iqbal could not accept the offer made through Gandhiji. It also elected a syndicate and created a syllabus subcommittee.
- The known freedom fighter and Muslim theologian, Maulana Mehmud Hasan, laid the foundation stone of Jamia Millia Islamia at Aligarh on Friday, 29 October 1920.
- In the year 1925 Jamia shifted to Delhi with help of Mahatma Gandhi
- On 1 March 1935, the foundation stone for a school building was laid at Okhla, then a non-descript village in the southern outskirts of Delhi.
- In 1936, all institutions of Jamia, except Jamia Press, the Maktaba and the library, were shifted to the new campus.
- In 1962, the University Grants Commission declared Jamia a ‘deemed to be University’. Soon thereafter, the School of Social Work was established in 1967
- By a Special Act of the Parliament, Jamia Millia Islamia was made a central university of India in December 1988.
Source: The Hindu
