Halide Edib: Jamia’s Friend from Turkey

Jamia Millia Islamia is in itself a milestone in India’s modern history. The formation of the university was the result of unforgettable efforts by many. Halide Edib Adıvar was a famous novelist and women’s rights activist. Said to be one of the most important writers of Turkish literature, Edib was born in Istanbul in 1884. In 1935, she came to India, and delivered a series of lectures at Jamia Millia Islamia, and also donated a generous amount for the university. As a writer and activist, she is known for her efforts for the upliftment of the women in her society. She emphasized the importance of women being on equal footing with men and defined women as “human”, not “female”. Let us remember her for her contributions to the literature and women of her country, as well as her efforts for Jamia.

Credits: Sabah File Photo

When we talk about the history of Jamia Millia Islamia, a lot of events come to our minds. The university was born out of the Khilafat Movement and the Non-Cooperation Movement. The Khilafat movement was launched by the Ali Brothers, namely Muhammad Ali Jauhar and Shaukat Ali Jauhar, one of the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia, in defense of the Ottoman Caliphate, and to influence the British in India during the aftermath of the First World War. Whereas, the Non-Cooperation Movement was started by Mahatma Gandhi to establish self government (Swaraj) in India, through the boycott of British goods, services and institutions, which led to the foundation of Jamia. On 19 January 1935, Mahatma Gandhi delivered a speech at Jamia Millia Islamia, where he, while referring to Halide Edib as Begum Saheba, said about her:

“I do not know whether, while you listened to the story unfolded by the Begum Saheba, you were, like me, drawing a comparison between the history of Turkey and India. I could not fail to draw many parallels between the two stories. No birth comes without agony… I listened to the story of Turkey, I derived hope that, if we modeled our actions according to the Right and nothing but the Right, there would be nothing but a bright future for us all. There is an indissoluble tie that binds India to Turkey, not because we have suffered alike, but because Turkey has a Muslim population which has so much in common with India because of her millions of Muslims, who are flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood and bone of our bone. May Begum Saheba’s coming in our midst result in binding Hindus and Muslims in an indissoluble bond.”

Halide Edib was a pioneer in the emancipation movement of women in Turkey. She became friends with Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, who was one of the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia, while Ansari was volunteering in Istanbul with the Red Crescent Society during the First World War. In 1935, she delivered several lectures in Jamia during her trip to India and was also praised by Mahatma Gandhi. Her lectures were later published under the title- ‘Conflict of East and West in Turkey’. Halide is one of the members of the funding committee of Jamia and she also donated a large amount for the university’s benefit. She also attended the foundation ceremony of Jamia’s new building, after the university shifted its campus from Karol Bagh to Okhla in 1935 and recorded her impressions in her book Hindistan’ın Dair (Inside India):

“The last I saw of Jamia was when its members assembled outside Delhi to lay the foundation stone of their new building. [The students] behaved well…but after a while they became fidgety and began to talk… A little girl of seven restored order. She was a puny creature with sharp black eyes. Her eyes glared and certain ribs felt her sharp elbows stuck into them. She seemed to me a symbol of the modern Indian woman, asserting her rights by proving her ability to make her men behave.”

She devotes an entire chapter in her book to Jamia Millia Islamia’s glorious beginning. In the preface of Inside India, She writes:

“One must study [the] Jamia if one wishes to grasp the forces at work in India. The institution has two purposes. First, to train the Muslim youth with definite ideas of their rights and duties as Indian citizens. Second, to coordinate Islamic thought and behavior with Hindu. The general aim is to create a harmonious nationhood without Muslims losing their Islamic identity. In its aims, if not always in its procedure, it is nearer to [the] Gandhian movement than any other Islamic institution I have come across.”

Credits: NewsClick

Halide received her early education at home, by private tutors from whom she learnt several subjects like European and Ottoman literature, religion, philosophy and languages. After that she was sent to the famous American College for Girls, Istanbul. She carried out studies that gave out importance to women’s education and professional development and also encouraged Turkish women to participate in the nationalist movements and was herself at the forefront. She started her literary life with publishing  articles on women, education and social issues in newspapers and magazines, and later wrote several novels, stories, memoirs, plays and poems. 

Independent female characters were common in her novels, which were mostly about the condition of women in her society. She is considered one of the pioneers of realistic novel in Turkish literature of the Republican Era. For her works, she was awarded the prestigious Order of Charity by the Ottoman Sultan. She also taught at the famous Istanbul University during 1918-19. She became a Member of Parliament in 1950, resigning in 1954. This was the only formal political position she ever held.

As a professor, author, journalist, activist and politician, she worked her finger to the bone. She never hesitated to criticize the backwardness of women in her community. For her contributions to literature and society, she is remembered as one of the most important women in the history of modern Turkey. She passed away due to kidney failure on 9 January 1964 in Istanbul.

Abdullah Khan is pursuing BA Hons. in Turkish Language and Literature from Jamia Millia Islamia.

Edited by: Mukaram Shakeel