Review: The Many Worlds of Philipsborn: Jamia’s Aapa Jaan

Jews and Muslims are frequently at loggerheads, and the ongoing war between Gaza and Israel is possibly the most terrible episode in contemporary human history. Nevertheless, there are occasional examples of unity and goodwill between the two communities. A Jewish woman born into an affluent German family in 1895, Philipsborn’s life is not only an exception but also an inspiration for scholars and campaigners seeking interfaith connections.

Historian Margrit Pernau, who has written this compelling biography of Gerda Philipsborn, is also the author of Ashraf into Middle Classes in the 19th Century and The Delhi College: The Traditional Elites, the Colonial State, and Education Before 1857. By her own account, she was not too sure if she could write a book on Philipsborn, whom she read about in a Jamia journal at the Zakir Hussain Library in 2012. Fortunately, her initial apprehensions were set aside and we now have this much-needed biography.

Philipsborn, who worked with Jamia Millia Islamia from 1932, the year she left Germany for India, until she died in 1943, is buried in the university’s historic graveyard. Pernau presents a vivid picture of her subject’s life as one sacrificed to the larger cause of building a more just world: “Like the other teachers from Jamia, she took a pledge of lifelong allegiance. Like them, she vowed to work for a minimal salary, barely sufficient for survival and certainly not for any of the comforts she had been accustomed to.”

Philipsborn’s childhood, life in Berlin, the general situation of the world at that time, and of India are all presented. Chapters titled Love and Care: Working with the Children, and Yearning for the Future: A New Education for a New Nation deal with her work at Jamia. Currently Senior Researcher at the Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Pernau’s own association with Jamia began when her husband was sent on a professional posting to Delhi in 1997. Scholars such as Narayani Gupta, Seema Alavi, and Mushirul Hasan became part of her intellectual life. She has continued to study the history of Jamia despite moving back to Europe.

Jamia Millia Islamia is a child of India’s freedom movement and began with the clear goal to nurture Indian nationalism. Set up in Aligarh as the alternative to the then colonial government-controlled Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), it finally moved to Delhi, first to Karol Bagh and then to the Okhla area where it continues to thrive with an expanded campus and a growing number of students from various parts of India and abroad. In the early years, prominent Muslims such as Zakir Hussain, Abid Hussain, and Mohammad Mujeeb, all educated in the West, particularly in Germany, volunteered to lead Jamia in the face of acute challenges. They helped create an inclusive global institution inspired and supported by leaders such as Gandhi, Nehru, and Hakim Ajmal Khan. As a sign of solidarity, Gandhi sent one of his sons to study at Jamia.

It was in Berlin around 1925 that Gerda Philipsborn first met young Zakir Hussain, Mohammed Mujeeb, and Abid Hussain at a party hosted by the younger sister of Sarojini Naidu, Suhasini Chattopadhyaya, and her husband, the leftist political activist, ACN Nambiar. The three men returned to India in 1926 and joined Jamia to help build it during colonial rule and afterwards in post-colonial India. A fascinating account of their first meeting can be found in Mohammad Mujeeb’s biography of Zakir Hussain.

After the devastation of the First World War, a new generation of Germans —particularly women — were looking eastwards to be emancipated from the ills of materialism. Berlin, in particular, was also impacted by a new wave of Orientalism. The works and writings of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore had caught the imagination of the Europeans. It was in such a political milieu that Philipsborn connected with the young Indian students and eventually decided to move out of the West.

A trained opera singer, she also worked in a settlement for Jews from Eastern Europe in Berlin, where she came in touch with Franz Kafka, Gustav Landauer, and Martin Buber. Ending her relationship with her partner Leo Szilard, a distinguished scientist who collaborated with Albert Einstein, she came to India and devoted her life to Jamia Millia Islamia. Though she faced many challenges and political troubles owing to the Second World War, she was well appreciated at the institution.

This book not only illuminates a forgotten chapter of global history, it also serves as a reminder of the limits of narrow nationalism and offers overwhelming evidence of functioning secularism, which is the bedrock of modern civilization. Students and scholars of comparative religion, history, and institution building will find The Many Worlds of Philipsborn: Jamia’s Aapa Jaan a rich source for their work.

Shaikh Mujibur Rehman teaches at Jamia Millia Central University, New Delhi, and is the author of Shikwa-e-Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims (Simon and Schuster, 2024).