ABSTRACT
Jawaharlal Nehru would have noticed quite a number of familiar faces in the sprawling Convocation pandal. Next to him on the podium was Nawab Mohammad Ismail Khan, vice-chancellor of Aligarh's Muslim University. Adorning the front row of seats in the audience were members of the Muslim landed gentry, including the Nawab of Rampur, Nawab Muzammilullah Khan, Habibur Rahman Khan Sherwani and the Nawab of Chattari. 'Partition was a total catastrophe for Delhi,' observed one of the few surviving members of Delhi's Muslim aristocracy. 'Those who were left behind are in misery. Those who are uprooted are in misery. In Islam in Modern History, W.C. Smith observed: 'The Indo-Muslim community, battered by outward circumstance and gripped inwardly by dismay, has stood disconcerted, inhibited from effective self-recognition and from active vitality.' In the view of Percival Spear, the British historian, it was a misconception to treat Muslims as a monolithic entity with one faith or creed and one political expression.
