Syed Mahmood

In the late 19th century, Justice Syed Mahmood, son of the great social reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, and the first Indian judge of the Allahabad High Court, became an icon of judicial resistance to British colonialism at the apex of British power across the world. Appointed to the High Court at the remarkably young age of 32, he displayed during a tenure of just six years that law without a conscience was merely a facade for the perpetration of injustice. A number of his dissenting judgments became a template for reference by future generations.

Outside of law, his largely invisible but wide ranging intellectual corpus engages with questions related to colonial transformation of education and its reconciliation with Muslim identity, national integration and religious tolerance. His role in the making of Aligarh Muslim University, presently celebrating its centenary, was notable, but survives only as a footnote in history.

This book chronicles the triumphs and tragedies of Syed Mahmood’s life, and his contribution to shaping the consciousness of modern India. It succeeds in exhuming a seminal figure from the dust of history, and demonstrates how the past continues to speak in the present.