Syed Ahmad Khan and the reinterpretation of jihād: education, reform, and Muslim modernism in colonial India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15642/jihr.2026.1.1.68-83Keywords:
Syed Ahmad Khan, reinterpretation of jihād, Islamic modernism, colonial India, educational reformAbstract
This article examines the political thought of Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), a leading Muslim intellectual in nineteenth-century India, through his reinterpretation of jihād under British colonial rule. It argues that he did not simply reject armed resistance, but recast jihād as a nonviolent project of intellectual, moral, and educational reform. Using a qualitative historical method based on library research, this study draws on Asbāb-e-Baghāwāt-e-Hind (1858), his Qur’anic interpretations, and recent scholarship on Islamic modernism, colonial India, and Muslim reform. The article shows that his political orientation was shaped by theological reasoning and colonial realities. By placing education at the center of Muslim renewal, Syed Ahmad Khan transformed jihād from military confrontation into a strategy of social empowerment and nonviolent Islamic reform.
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