258 DESTINY DISRUPTED
Ahmed's family had adapted to the new order. His grandfather served the
East India Company in positions of responsibility, once running a school
for them and another time traveling to Iran as a British envoy. Twice he
had worked for the Moghul emperor as his prime minister, but the "em-
peror" at this point was just another British pensioner and his prime min-
ister's chief duties were to fill out the appropriate forms to keep his pension
flowing. Sayyid Ahmad's father worked for the company too, and his
brother started one of India's first Urdu newspapers. In short, Sayyid
Ahmad hailed from a high-status, modernist, Western-oriented family, and
he knew something about British life.
His mother, however, was a devout Muslim of legendary piety, re-
spected for her scholarship. She made the boy go to madrassa, and she
equaled his grandfather as an influence on this life, so Sayyid Ahmad grew
to manhood with these two dueling currents in his personality: a heartfelt
allegiance to his own Muslim community and a high regard for British cul-
ture and a longing for the respect of those colonials.
Unfortunately, his family sank into financial trouble after his father's
untimely death. Sayyid Ahmad had to quit school and go to work. He
hired on with the East India Company as a clerk and eventually earned
promotion to subjudge, handling small claims, but this was a minor post
in the company's judicial system: really not much more than a glorified
clerk. He couldn't rise higher because he had never completed his formal
education; he was largely self-taught.
Still he read avidly, all the science and English-language literature he
could get his hands on. He formed reading groups and discussion clubs
with his Indian Muslim friends and organized lecture series on scientific
topics. During the Indian Mutiny of 1857, he sided with the British; but
afterwards he wrote a pamphlet called The Causes of the Indian Revolt in
which he reproached the British administrators for their errors and over-
sights, a pamphlet he sent to government officials in Calcutta and London.
He followed up with An Account of the Loyal Mohammedans of India,
which was translated into English by a British colonel. In this little book,
he tried to resurrect his coreligionists in British eyes by depicting Indian
Muslims as the Queen's most loyal subjects. He also argued that Muslims
could have no jihadist sentiments toward the British and ought not to
have, quoting scholarly religious sources to prove that jihad against the