Azad’s initiation of a column on scientific matters shows his true 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 what he saw as European devotion to science and the search for truth. By 1914, the year in which, incidentally, Indian Science Congress was also founded, Azad was translating articles from Scientific American, the first of which was on Dr Maria Montessori’s educational methods.30 All this clearly shows 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. While speaking at a symposium in 1951, Maulana Azad clearly spelt out the compatibility of East and West: ‘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’. Maulana emphasizes this further in his address when he says:
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.31
INSTITUTIONALIZING ART AND CULTURE
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.’32 In one of his letters he wrote, ‘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 into the affairs of our daily life.’33 It was this commitment of Azad’s that prompted him to set up many of India’s art and culture academies and museums soon after the attainment of freedom.
While addressing the Museums Association of India, Azad 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 for linking up our art heritage with the spread of education.34 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 himself an accomplished musician who had undergone proper training to play the 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; he disagreed even with his father’s perception of the religion in this regard. 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.35
He expresses a fervent love for music: ‘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.’ Again, ‘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
(Question not the pleasure of the sin of love;
The damn thing could not be forgotten even in paradise)
The attitude expressed throughout the letter stands in stark contrast to the Wahabi and Talibani perversion of Islam.
While engaging with music, Azad was following a well-established Islamic tradition, which has been marginalized by certain sections during the later centuries of Islam. Even Imam Ghazali in the eleventh century devoted a chapter to music in his Ihya Ulum al-Deen where he says that there is something wrong with the man or woman who does not like music: ‘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.’36 Azad’s letter is replete with instances in history when music was central to Islamic culture. Referring to the Mughal period, Azad wrote,
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 die art at their feet.37
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, though 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 the human genius. It is surprising that the Arabs showed interest in all the arts and sciences of India, except music. Though Al Beruni did not pay any attention to Indian music, that was the time, Azad says, when Indian musical instruments were being played on the streets of Ghazni. Rebutting all those who dub music 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’.
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 if excessively indulged.38 While digging the trench around Medinah in preparation for battle, the Prophet and his companions sang songs (Bukhari Muslim).39 It is clear that music is anathema only for the myopic, bigoted, spoilsport apostles of self-righteous Islam and regrettably, many Muslims have succumbed to their vicious campaign against this significant cultural expression.
Soon after he joined the interim government, a 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, where he said:
You perhaps do not know that I have always taken a keen interest in Indian classi
cal music and at one time practiced it myself. It has, therefore, been a shock to me to find that the standard of music on the 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.40
He even proposed finding time himself to advise the concerned person in charge of the programmes and suggest ways of improvement. There can be no doubt about Maulana Azad’s commitment to matters related to arts and aesthetics.
It was this commitment of Azad, which prompted him to institutionalize Indian art and culture in the 1950s. He was conscious that the colonial government had deliberately ignored this aspect that therefore needed to be looked after in Independent India. Within a short span often years, he established most of the major cultural and literary academies we have today, including the Sangeet Natak Academi, Lalit Kala Academi, Sahifya Akademi as well as the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. While setting up these academies, Azad was clear that all these institutions of creative talent needed to be autonomous and free from official government control and interference. He categorically pointed out at the First All India Conference of Letters that
even a National Government cannot, and should not, be expected to develop literature and culture through official fiats. The government should certainly help both through 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.41
The Indian Academy of Dance, Drama and Music was inaugurated on 28 January 1953. Azad said at the inaugural function:
India can be proud of [a] 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. His cosmopolitan and international vision is reflected in this comment:
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.42
Maulana Azad’s internationalism and humanism, particularly relating to art, is aptly reflected in the speech he delivered while inaugurating 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.
He began his address by emphasizing the fact that the paramount need of the modern age is a closer understanding between the people of different countries of the world. Science 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 messenger of peace and goodwill among nations. Cultural contacts, according to Azad, predate the birth of modern science, despite few means of communication and transport. ‘Today,’ Azad says, ‘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.’43
CONCLUSION
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, as I have tried to bring out briefly, occupies a key position in the educational, cultural and scientific development of independent India. He used the egalitarian Islamic spirit to democratize modern education, taking it beyond religious and caste constraints. We find that he institutionalized crucial Indian sectors like education and culture and laid the foundations of a future network of scientific and technological institutions. His role needs to be remembered today, particularly in the context of global Islamism, which is cutting at the root of early Islamic eclecticism. We also need to recall Azad’s emphasis on the original spirit of engagement with the Quranic text, available to all believers in the early centuries of Islam. He refused to accept the canonized Islam; instead, he used his independent reasoning or ijtihad to interpret the faith. As we have seen, his engagement with the issues of education, science and culture transcended the limits of Islam; he never felt constrained as a believer. Instead, he saw immense possibilities within Islam, which allowed the pursuit of modern science as a legitimate human endeavour. He was not aware of all the problems involved in the tension between science and religion, but he arrived intuitively at the solution that each had its values which must be preserved.44 I strongly feel that global Islam today needs Azad’s robust eclecticism and pluralism to keep itself both intellectually and politically relevant.
6
Conclusion
Articulating for Islamic Science: An Essentialist Project
These are dangerous times and anything with an Islamic tag is bound to attract attention and even fear. The colossal tragedy that struck the US on 11 September 2001 once again put Islam at the forefront of world affairs. I have not discussed here the politics of 9/11 or the events that have followed since then. As a historian of science, I had been uncomfortable with the growing trends of sectarianism in defining knowledge, more specifically science, by some scholars during the last few decades. I must admit that 9/11 was surely a peg which prompted me to delve into issues that do not seem to be as immediately threatening as political and social turmoil. However, these essentialist formulations of knowledge have been going on simultaneously along with the rise of fundamentalist political Islam, fuelled by the boom in oil and later the Iranian revolution in 1979. I have attempted to question the possibility of Islamic science as a distinct epistemological category, which is being pushed by some Islamic scholars since the late seventies. I do not see Islamic science and modern science as binaries. Modern science has a cross-civilizational character and its Eurocentricity needs to be questioned and exposed. But one cannot imagine replacing Eurocentrism with Islamcentrism. Both of them are equally undemocratic categories.
Before coming to the issue of Islamic science, let me also refer here to the intractable problem of modernity and Islam. While we tend to essentialize science as Islamic and wean it away from modern science (we should not overlook the fact that modern science is one important component of modernity), we ignore the fact that modern science itself owes so much to Islamic tradition and so modernity should not be alien to Islam. It is unfortunate that some ideologues within Islam tend to set up Islam and modernity as binaries, always in confrontation with each other. There is a concerted campaign to widen the gap between Islam and its believers and modernity and its proponents. In the postcolonial context, the problem gets all the more complex as the decades of colonization and its trauma comes in handy to foment antagonism. I feel that Islamic science is also an outcome of such skewed thinking amongst some intellectuals and thinkers within South Asia and elsewhere.
If we look at the articulation of Islamic science by its proponents like Hossein Nasr, Naquib Al Attas, Maurice Bucaille, Ismail R. Al-Faruqi, Ziauddin Sardar and several others, we find that the issue for them is more theological than scientific. Science is dragged into theological niceties where Islamic science itself looks like an issue to score a theological debating point
. Moreover, most of them believe that only those can properly cultivate Islamic sciences who are inspired by the faith and values of Islam. Its exclusivism becomes obvious when it is said that:
Islamic science is an integral part of Islam as a complete way of life, the only framework within which it can be defined; it cannot be inculcated in isolation from the mainstream of the Islamic intellectual and moral landscape. Islamic science that is [a] subspecies of Islam (and not of science) generates a worldview within the overall framework of Islamic values.1
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