ABSTRACT
Sir Syed is still considered a stooge who worked to perpetuate the British hegemony and many excerpts from his books are cited as clinching prove of his unconditional loyalty to the British. There is no denying of the fact that he did eulogise the British rule, but a look at his writings reveals a different story. This untold narrative forms the fifth chapter as it turns attention to the instances when Sir Syed opposed the colonial rule with a sense of conviction. The chapter documents several specific cases in which Sir Syed vehemently criticised the haughty and self-opinionated British officers. It is not that he wrote to the individual erring officers, but he did not wink at criticising the anti-people policies of the government. On the pages of The Aligarh Institute Gazette, Sir Syed emerges as a journalist who vigorously pursued the adversarial role of the journalist, and his writings do not necessarily sew up a laudatory narrative. This aspect usually escapes the attention of scholars.
