In recent years, renewed public debate over India’s past has led many researchers and writers to revisit historical records with greater care. In the course of examining Muslim contributions to India’s development – across administration, education, and public institutions – numerous well-documented examples have surfaced that rarely appear in mainstream narratives.
One such finding concerns the institutional origin of Delhi College. What is widely remembered as a colonial-era institution turns out, on closer examination, to be rooted in a much older educational ecosystem established during the Mughal period. The story of its evolution offers a concrete, record-based insight into how Muslim-supported institutions contributed to the foundations of modern education in India.1
A Centre of Learning Before the Colonial Era
The story begins in 1696 with the establishment of Madrasa Ghaziuddin near Ajmeri Gate in Delhi. The madrasa was founded by Ghaziuddin Khan Feroze Jung I, a senior Mughal noble. Like many institutions of its time, it was supported through private endowments made by its founder rather than through direct imperial administration.2
This form of elite patronage was common in Mughal India, where members of the ruling class supported centres of learning as a civic responsibility. Education was viewed as essential to governance, legal administration, and social order. Madrasa Ghaziuddin functioned as a centre of higher learning during a period when Delhi served as both an administrative capital and an intellectual hub.3
What Was Actually Taught
Historical records indicate that Madrasa Ghaziuddin followed a structured and multidisciplinary curriculum. Alongside Islamic Studies, students were trained in Persian and Arabic, principal languages of administration and scholarship in Mughal India. Instruction also included logic, philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, disciplines required for legal reasoning, governance, and intellectual inquiry.4
Islamic Studies at the madrasa did not operate as isolated theology. Ethical principles such as honesty, truthfulness, accountability, and justice formed part of the intellectual framework. These values were not abstract ideals but practical standards expected of scholars, administrators, and judges trained in such institutions. Historians note that this ethical grounding was a defining feature of Islamic education and remains emphasised in madrasa traditions today.5
The curriculum reflected societal needs rather than doctrinal preservation. It prepared individuals to think critically and administer public affairs – an aspect often overlooked in contemporary portrayals of madrasa education.
Political Change Without Intellectual Collapse
The late 18th and early 19th centuries brought major political upheaval to Delhi. With the weakening of Mughal authority and the British takeover of the city in 1803, traditional systems of patronage declined. Many educational institutions suffered from reduced funding and administrative disruption, and Madrasa Ghaziuddin was no exception.6
However, the complex was not dismantled. British authorities recognised both its strategic location near Ajmeri Gate and its educational potential. Instead of being erased, the site was repurposed, challenging the notion that pre-colonial institutions were universally dismissed as obsolete by colonial administrators.7
The Delhi College Phase: Adaptation Over Erasure
In the early decades of the 19th century, the Ajmeri Gate complex began hosting what came to be known as Delhi College. Operating from the same premises, the institution introduced English education and Western scientific disciplines while drawing upon the existing scholarly environment.8
This phase represented adaptation rather than rupture. Delhi College did not emerge from the rejection of indigenous learning systems but from their reorganisation under new political and intellectual conditions. Indian scholars continued to play an active role, and the institution became a site of intellectual exchange rather than simple replacement.
While Delhi College was later relocated to the Kashmiri Gate area, the Ajmeri Gate campus continued as an educational institution and today functions as Zakir Husain Delhi College, preserving the site’s long academic lineage.9
Translation and the Spread of Knowledge
One of the most significant contributions associated with Delhi College was its role in translating scientific and philosophical works into Urdu. At a time when English education was limited to a small elite, translation became a key mechanism for widening access to modern knowledge.10
Through this process, new technical vocabulary was developed, enabling emerging ideas in science, law, and philosophy to be discussed in an Indian language familiar to a broader population. Historians regard this translation movement as central to the dissemination of modern knowledge in 19th-century North India.11
The case of Delhi College demonstrates that modern education in India did not spread solely through English. It also travelled through Indian languages, mediated by scholars who navigated multiple intellectual traditions.
Rethinking the Role of Muslim Institutions
The history of Delhi College complicates the claim that modern education in India began exclusively with colonial intervention. Long before British reforms, Muslim-supported institutions had already established systems of learning that combined ethics, reason, and practical knowledge.12
This does not imply that pre-colonial education was identical to modern systems, nor does it deny the influence of colonial reforms. Rather, it highlights continuity – an often-overlooked dimension of Indian educational history. Muslim rulers and elites invested in institutions that served society at large, extending education beyond religious instruction into administration, law, and science.
Why This History is Often Missing
The marginalisation of such histories reflects narrowing of public discourse rather than a lack of evidence. Over time, complex institutional developments have been reduced to simple binaries: traditional versus modern, religious versus secular, pre-colonial versus progressive.
Historians caution that such simplifications obscure the layered realities of India’s past. When Muslim institutions are discussed only in theological terms, their civic and intellectual roles disappear from view, limiting informed historical understanding.13
History as Record, Not Rhetoric
The evolution of Delhi College from a Mughal-era madrasa demonstrates that Muslim contributions to India’s development were institutional, ethical, and intellectual. Recognising this history does not require ideological alignment or nostalgia. It requires attention to documented records.
As India revisits its past through research, conferences, and public discussion, cases like Delhi College underscore the value of evidence-based history. The record reveals continuity, adaptation, and contribution – elements essential to any honest account of the nation’s development.
Endnotes
- Percival Spear, Delhi: Its Monuments and History
- Syed Mahmud, History of Muslim Education in India
- Muzaffar Alam, The Languages of Political Islam in India
- Francis Robinson, The Ulama of FarangiMahall and Islamic Culture
- Barbara Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India
- C.A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire
- William Dalrymple, The Last Mughal
- Delhi College archival records (19th century)
- Zakir Husain Delhi College, official institutional history
- Christopher Bayly, Empire and Information
- Oxford University Press studies on Delhi College
- Irfan Habib, Medieval India: The Study of a Civilization
13.Romila Thapar, The Past as Present