Akbar Allahabadi’s mischievous play on ‘Jumman’ was actually a commentary on hierarchies in Muslim society that I have briefly touched upon earlier. These divisions were as rigid as those in the Hindu caste system. Of course, there was a difference between the two. The varna or caste-based system was the social architecture designed by Brahmins. Muslim hierarchies evolved under the feudal system. When Sir Syed Ahmad Khan laid the foundation of Aligarh Muslim University (patterned on Cambridge) in the late nineteenth century, he was quite firm that it was a campus for the ‘Ashraf ’ or genteel,
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