The importance of dissent

Syed Mahmood: Colonial India’s Dissenting Judge

Author: Mohammed Nasir & Samreen Ahmed

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages:  274

Price: Rs 699

The problem with biographies is that they either tend to be hagiographies or hatchet jobs. In Syed Mahmood: Colonial India’s Dissenting Judge written by Mohammad Nasir and Samreen Ahmed, however, the authors make it clear that their book is neither a hagiography nor an apologia, and a hatchet job it certainly isn’t.  It is, to my mind, a well-balanced biography of a man, who was a judge, educationist, teacher, philanthropist, linguist and poet — a polymath of the kind that the 19th century produced in some numbers, and who are very rare today.

Syed Mahmood was the first Indian to enrol as a Barrister at the Allahabad High Court, and then became the first Indian judge of that court. Had these been his only achievements, he would, on their basis alone, merit tomes written about him — about his judicial performance, about his life and times, about his background and his life generally. However, he was more than just a Judge. He was, as the title of the book says, a dissenting judge. 

Dissent is one of the most important rights that a person can have, as it gives perspectives other than those which are mainstream, or self-serving, or populist.  Perhaps for the judiciary, this applies with even greater rigour —the need to apply the law justly and equitably is, after all, one of the pillars on which the judicial system rests.  One such shining example is Justice H R Khanna, who is still remembered for his courageous dissent, at great professional cost, in the ADM Jabalpur case. 

Justice Mahmood was more than a dissenter, he was a judge who, according to Justice J S Verma, sowed the seeds of judicial activism more than a hundred years ago in his judgments on issues such as the concept of a fair trial, torture of prisoners to extract confessions, and so on.  Justice D Y Chandrachud is quoted as saying that Mahmood’s dissents show strength of character and values. Such is the power of dissent based on logic, common sense, and a proper appreciation of law, that the “dissenting judge” is remembered for the right reasons even a hundred years after his death.   

But the books reminds us that Mahmood was more than the dissenting Mr Justice Mahmood — he was the 15-year old boy whose recitation of an original Persian ghazal pleased Mirza Ghalib; he was the 20-year old man who, while at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in his first year tied for first place in the English language paper; he attended literary gatherings with Tennyson and Carlyle and attended story-telling sessions by Dickens;  he was the man who could quote, with equal ease, from the Ramayana, Firdausi or the works of Tennyson. He knew Sanskrit, Roman, Greek and other languages, putting that knowledge to use in his judgments later in his career. 

One could argue these are all learned achievements, perhaps partially attributable to the privileges available to him as the son of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan — the founder of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).  What of Mahmood, the man?  One of his contemporaries, speaking of his charitable nature and habit of helping people in need, tells us that “Mr Mahmood seems to have acted on the theory that money was earned only to be given away…”.  Another said, “He is one of the finest men I ever met, both inside and out...”.  The book tells of how after having donated his extensive law library to the MAO College (AMU), he refused to have the library named after him.

The authors tell us, in some detail, about Mahmood the educationist, whose experiences at Cambridge shaped the manner in which learning was imparted at MAO College. He was as involved in the setting up of that institution as was his famous father, and was the first joint registrar of the institution.   

Having been appointed as an officiating Judge of the Allahabad High Court four times between 1882 and 1887, before being permanently elevated to that post, a clash with the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Sir John Edge, led to Mahmood resigning as a judge after a short tenure of less than seven years at the age of 43 in 1893.  A loss to the development of jurisprudence in India, this, however, gave him time to write his seminal book A History of English Education in India. He also devoted time to managing the affairs of MAO College, first as secretary, then president, and then visitor to that institution.

Syed Mahmood died a premature death at the age of 53 in 1903, having led a life described by his great-granddaughter as “…a strange blend of triumphs and tragedy, the triumphs are as dazzling as the tragedy is dark.”

This exceedingly well-researched book is well worth the time taken to read it. 

The reviewer is a lawyer practising in Delhi