Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Turks

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was a pioneer of higher education for the Muslims of India after political power passed to the British in the nineteenth century. He was a leader who foresaw with clarity that Hindus and Muslims were bound to seek separate national destinies after the British left India. After the collapse of their own empire, the Indian Muslims aligned themselves with the Ottoman Turks and Sir Syed therefore deliberately chose Turkish models for educational, cultural and even sartorial reform. He was loyal to British rule in India mainly because, though it subdued all Indians, it simultaneously prevented the Hindu domination of Muslims.