Sayeed Seminary School is a public school located in the heart of

Cuttack Cuttack (, or officially Kataka ) in Odia is the former capital and the second largest city in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the headquarters of the Cuttack district. The name of the city is an anglicised form of ''Kataka'' which literall ...

city. It was established in 1913 by

Sayeed Mohammed Sayeed Mohammed (1891 – 1922) was an Indian Odia educationist, freedom fighter and philanthropist. In 1913, he founded the Moslem Seminary (present day : Sayeed Seminary) at Cuttack, which is regarded as the second nationalist school of Odis ...

, a prominent odia freedom fighter, scholar and educationist. The school is credited to be the second nationalist school of

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sc ...

and is one of the two institutions bearing the name of

, the other one being ''Sayeed Seminary Primary School'', which is located within the campus of the former.

History

A series of events and factors led to the establishment of the school, one being the discrimination that the Indian students were facing in the British administered schools back in the late 19th CE; the second was, under the

British government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...

, education wasn't accessible for the general Indian masses, only the children from upper-class families could get an admission and the third being the marginalization of the Muslim community, since

Indian Muslims Islam is India's second-largest religion, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people identifying as adherents of Islam in 2011 Census. India is also the country with the second or third largest number of Musli ...

did not accept English as the medium of instruction in educational institutions, they turned away from formal schools and remained illiterate which alienated them from the newly evolving modern society and relegated them to the background.

having studied in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

, which was then the capital of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and the center stage of colonial politics, had developed a good understanding of these factors. The immediate cause, however, surfaced when the British government, in a deliberate attempt to divide the religious communities, introduced a new policy which provided separate reservations for Hindu and Muslim students.

, who was then the assistant headmaster of Victoria high school vehemently opposed these divisive and discriminatory policies of the British government and organized mass protests against them. Since Sayeed was also a member of

Utkal Sammilani Utkala Sammilani ( or, ଉତ୍କଳ ସମ୍ମିଳନୀ)is an Indian social and cultural organization. It was founded in Odisha in 1903 by Madhusudan Das and continues in present times. History Utkal Sammilani was founded by Madhusudan ...

and had participated in many

nationalist movements Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: ...

before, the British perceived him as a threat and he was thus asked to resign from his post. Sayeed therefore got determined to start a new school where Indian students from all walks of life, communities and classes could access education and nationalist sentiments could be sowed into their young minds. Opportunity presented itself in 1909 when

Gopabandhu Das Gopabandhu Das (1877–1928), popularly known as ''Utkalamani'' (''Jewel of Utkal'' or Odisha), was a social worker, reformer, political activist, journalist, poet and essayist. Early life Gopabandhu Das was born on 9 October 1877 in Suando ...

established the first nationalist school of Odisha, the

Satyabadi Bana Bidyalaya Satyavadi Vana Vidyalaya (now Satyabadi High School, Sakhigoal) is an Indian school in Sakhigopal, Odisha. It is a pre-secondary and Secondary school, located at Sakhigopal a part of Puri district, in the Indian state of Odisha. It was establi ...

Puri Puri () is a coastal city and a municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state capital of Bhubaneswar. It is also known as ''S ...

. Inspired by this, Sayeed started working on establishing the Muslim Seminary at

. He mobilized the muslim community by spreading awareness about the cause initially and then on 1913 he finally founded the school. The school formally opened on Friday, the 8th of August, 1913 with 500 students on its roll in a rented building. It was largely dependent on donations. Meanwhile, Sayeed managed to persuade a generous merchant of Madras, C. Abdul Hakeem to donate the present land. Even the Nizam of Hyderabad,

Mir Osman Ali Khan Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII (5 or 6 April 1886 — 24 February 1967), was the last Nizam (ruler) of the Princely State of Hyderabad, the largest princely state in British India. He ascended the throne on 29 August 1911, at the age o ...

, made a monthly grant of Rs 50 to the institution. A managing committee was formed by Sayeed in 1913 and Maulavi Golam Mohammad, Mohammad Kasim Ahmad Quazi, Kameeruddin Khan, Alla Bira, Mahammad Sayeed Abdus Sakur, Babu Akshay Chandra Ray, Satyabrata Patnaik and Devendranath Ray were appointed as its members. The school strongly promoted the ideas of nationalism among its students; Sayeed had made it mandatory for all the teachers and students of the school to wear clothes made of

Khadi Khadi (, ), derived from khaddar, is a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as ''swadeshi'' (self-sufficiency) for the freedom struggle of the Indian subcontinent, and the term is used throughout India, Pakistan ...

in order to support the ongoing

Swadeshi movement The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It ...

. He himself wore clothes only made of

to set an example. After Sayeed's death, Moulavi Golam Mohammad was appointed as its president and Akshay Chandra Ray, its vice president. The efforts made by Sayeed Mohammed was acknowledged and appreciated by the Secretary to Government of

Bihar and Orissa Province Bihar and Orissa was a province of British India, which included the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha. The territories were conquered by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries, and were governed by the then Indian Ci ...

, Ministry of Education and such appreciation was notified and published in the Official Gazette dated 1 December 1932. After the partition of 1947, its name was changed from 'Muslim Seminary' to 'Sayeed Seminary' in the memory of its late founder, to throw a more secular light at the institution. Sayeed Seminary was recognised as a High School from 1 June 1945 as revealed in the Orissa Gazette No.30 dated 3.8.1945. The school came into the direct payment system from 1974 for teaching staff and from 1977 for the non-teaching staff.

Affiliation

The school is affiliated to

Board of Secondary Education, Odisha The Board of Secondary Education, Odisha (abbreviated BSE) is a board of education for public and private schools under the state government of Odisha, India. History The BSE was formed under the Odisha Education Act 1953. The board controls and ...

Notable alumni

Sayeed Seminary became a reputed high school in the city, that offered education to both Muslim and Hindu students in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

and

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

. The school has produced many distinguished alumni including, *

Mohammad Mohsin Mohammad Mohsin called popularly as ''Mohsin'' was an Odia actor, director and producer. In his movie career spanning more than 30 years across Bollywood, Odisha and West Bengal, he has acted and directed in many commercially successful movies. ...

, Film director and actor * Syed Mustafiz Ahmed, Minister

References

{{Reflist Schools in Odisha Education in Cuttack Educational institutions established in 1913 1913 establishments in India