Assessing Syed Ahmad Khan's Reformist Agenda Mushirul Hasan IN the 1860s, Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-98) made a tryst with his co-religionists to change their image in the eyes of the colonial government, sensitise them to the importance of western education, and persuade them to change their lazy habits. Today, a century after his death, this would appear to be a rather limited agenda. But it was not so then. Cast in the mould of a crusader, Aligarh's grand old man met with stiff opposition and encountered numerous difficulties in forefronting a liberal, reformist agenda in the public discourses.