Formation of Muslim elites in British India: Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College

After the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858, also known as the Sepoy Revolt or Uprising, and the end of the Mughal Dynasty, India became under the direct rule of the British Government, and there were a considerable number of Muslim political intellectuals who sought to reform and revitalize Islam in India and as a whole. The responses were various and the debates would surpass geographical boundaries, anticipating questions which are relevant even nowadays, like gender relations, new forms of religious institutionalization and the role of religion in politics. The aim of this paper is to analyze the thought of Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) and the educational impacts of his Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, also known as the Aligarh Movement.