The Scientific Society of Aligarh was a literary society founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan at

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Koil) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capital, New Delhi. ...

, India. The main objectives of the society were to translate Western works on arts and science into vernacular languages and promote western education among the masses.

History

On 9 January 1862 Sir Syed Ahmad Khan formed a translation society called Scientific Society at Ghazipur with the goal of translating scientific books of English and other European languages into Urdu and Hindi. The first meeting was held in January 1862 under the president ship of Mr. A. B. Spate, the then Collector of Ghazipur. This society was moved in April 1864 to Aligarh and henceforth also known as the Scientific Society of Aligarh. The society sought to promote liberal, modern education and Western scientific knowledge in the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

community in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The society was modelled after the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society, was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encourag ...

. Sir Syed assembled Muslim scholars from different parts of the country and the society held annual conferences, disbursed funds for educational causes and regularly published a journal on scientific subjects in English and Urdu. Many of the essays he wrote during this time were on topics like the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

, plant and animal life, human evolution, etc.

Members

Jai Kishan Das, close

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

associate of Sir Syed served as its secretary from 1867 till 1874. He was also nominated as Co-President of The Society for life. Other active members of the society included Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Nawab Abdul Latif,

Zakaullah Dehlvi Maulvi Mohammad Zakaullah or Munshi Zakaullah (20 April 1832 – 7 November 1910) was a Urdu writer and translator from British India. He wrote ''Tarikh-e-Hindustan'', a fourteen-volume compilation of Indian history in Urdu. Early life and educ ...

Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi Maulvi Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi, also known as Deputy Nazir Ahmad, was an Urdu novelist, social and religious reformer, and orator. Even today, he is best known for his novels, he wrote over 30 books on subjects such as Fiqh, law, Logic in Islamic ph ...

, and Kunwar Luft Ali Khan of Chhattari. The society also appointed two translators; Babu Ganga Prasad was an English translator and Moulvi Faiyazul Hasan was the vernacular translator.

Institute

The Aligarh Scientific Society had a library and a reading room of its own. The books were mainly donated to the Society by different Indian as well as foreign gentlemen. Sir Syed himself donated a large number of books to the library. The Society subscribed to forty-four journals and magazines in 1866. Of those, 18 were in English and rest in Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. It exchanged its publication with similar societies like the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge founded by Pandit Harsokh Rai at Lahore and the

Mohammedan Literary Society Mohammedan Literary Society was a literary society of Muslims in British India. Based in Calcutta, it was established in 1863 and was succeeded by the Muslim Institute of Calcutta in 1930. History Mohammedan Literary Society was founded by N ...

founded by Nawab Abdul Latif at

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

. It also exchanged its journal with the publications of the Bengal Asiatic Society, Calcutta.

Publications

Aligarh Institute Gazette was the journal of the society. It was the first bilingual journal of India.

References

External links

* {{authority control Scientific societies based in India History of science and technology in India 1864 establishments in India Aligarh Movement Scientific organizations established in 1864