ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS IN INDIA
1. Islam as it radiated away from its birth place in Saudi Arabia did evolve and became more aligned to the regional societal requirements as well as became more amenable to local influences which may be seen as a departure from the puritanical construct. Islam’s arrival in India is attributed to the invasion of modern day Karachi by Abdul Bin Qasim in 711 AD in response to Raja Dahir who commandeered an Arab Dhow (trading vessel) and refused to release resulting in the military conquest. However Islam had arrived in a more benign form; it is believed that one of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions Malik bin Deenar came to India’s western coast and built a mosque in 629AD which still exists.[1] Even when Bin Qasim reached India, he declared Hindus and Buddhists as ‘Dhimmis[2]’ or people of the book, the distinction accorded to Christianity and Judaism for their codification of religion in a book. The strain of Sufism took root into Islam in India and under Akbar, it found further credence where in Din-e-Elahi an alternative religion was proffered by the him.
2. However, with the decline of the Mughal empire and the arrival of the British, the relative freedom Islam enjoyed in India was under duress and this triggered a blow back with ulema gravitating to puritanical Islam and as always when Islam is under threat it recoils to its roots in Arabian peninsula. In an historical correlation this is the very time when Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahhab born in Najd in 1703 in Uyainah, in present-day Saudi Arabia along with the Saud tribe started to assert the puritanical version of Islam premised on the belief that there was widespread deterioration in the Muslim beliefs and practices. Many Muslims had fallen into acts considered shirk (associating Allah with others), and returned to the days of jahiliyyah (ignorance or pre-Islamic period). Ibn Abd al Wahhab sought to reform the Muslims under the banner of “true” Islam and get rid of these acts which he considered heretical. Wahhabis do not prefer the term Wahhabiyyah or being called as Wahhabis. They prefer to be called Al-Muwahhidun (the people of monotheism) or Salafiyyun (the Salafis) in reference to the pious predecessors (salaf al-salih). But over time Ibn Abd al-Wahhab followers prefer the more generic term salafiyyun which signifies adherence to the faith and practices of the Prophet and the first three caliphs or Rashidun.
3. The person responsible for import of this strain of Islam to India is Shah Waliullah (1702–62) who had preached similar views, the same was embraced by Syed Ahmad, (1786–1831) of Rai Barally in 1820s to revive and restore Muslim power in India by starting a jihad to overthrow the Sikhs in Punjab and the British in Bengal. It started as a socio-religious movement aimed at improving the life of muslims but metamorphosed to a movement with politico-religious content. It was but natural that Wahabis became enemies of the Raj. Syed Ahmed when prosecuted by British and hunted by the armies of Maharaja Ranjit Singh found refuge in the mountains of modern day Khyber Pakhtun Khwa (KPK) province of Pakistan. He was killed in the battle of Balakot in May 1831 as he was surprised by a Sikh army under Prince Sher Singh. From 1831 to 1857 a large number of such politico-religious organizations attempted to galvanize the Muslims in North India to rise against British and even the first war of independence in 1857 was supported to a large extent by these groups. The assassination of Lord Mayo in Andaman and Nicobar Islands by a pathan by the name of Sher Ali was also attributed to the Wahabi inspiration. The prosecution of the Wahabis by the British triggered the next evolutionary cycle.
4. Muslim scholars across India to avoid prosecution successfully petitioned courts to have the term ‘Wahabi’ outlawed in 1889 across India[3].Thereafter, the (primarily Urdu speaking) followers of Salafi thought in the region came to be known as the Ahle Hadith. Yet, the word Wahabi has been used by groups such as the Barelvis to denounce their opponents (e.g., Deobandis and Tablighi Jamaat) even if they are non-Salafists[4]. In order to provide the etymological construct to Ahle Hadith it may be logical to assume that the Indian version of Salafism has been rechristened so and while the level of violence and vitriol may have been tempered to some extent by the societal realities of India, theological convergence of the groups despite the spatial separation persists.
5. In 1867, a new madrassa was setup in Deoband, by Rashid Ahmad Gangohi and Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanautawiwho. The school’s mode of instruction was inspired by the British mode of teaching and it resembled the modern system of education. Traditionally, the mode of instruction in madrassa is more focused on Teacher- Student relation, where the teacher taught a certain book and at the end adjudged if the student had acquired enough understanding of the book. The Deoband Madrassa, however, transcribed to a more fixed mode learning where the students were expected to study a fixed and comprehensive body of learning. During its early years, the Deobandi school engaged in interfaith debates with Christian and Hindu scholars in peaceful manner and during infancy the creed was funded by Hindus because Deobandi philosophers of those times talked about the unity of Hindus, Christians and Muslims, multiculturalism and opposition to the partition of India, a far cry from its current hardline position and Islamic fundamentalism.
6. The Deoband movement is now one of the most significant strands of Sunni Islam in the world. The loosely affiliated grassroots network of schools has become synonymous with traditionalist resurgence and resistance to Western cultural dominance and its accompanying knowledge economy. The central interest of the Deoband ‘ulema was concerning the practices and beliefs demonstrated at the shrines of revered Sufi masters (’awliya) who embody the mystical facets of Islam (tasawwuf). It is important to note that there are those who dismiss the mystical heritage known broadly as Sufism as not authentically Muslim. However the historical conflict between juridical (shari‘ah) and spiritual (tariqa) tendencies in Islam, is porous. This porous nature also saw the osmosis of ideas from the Salafi schools in Saudi Arabia, while in India only 17% of muslims align themselves to Deoband, it has become the dominant theological power broker.
7. The Tablighi Jamaat was founded by a Deobandi Islamic scholar Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in Mewat, India, in 1926. As its name suggests, Al-Kandhlawi’s goal was to establish a group of dedicated preachers as a Muslim revivalist society, who could revive “true” Islam, which he saw was not being practised by many Muslims. The slogan Al-Kandhlawi coined for his new organisation captured the essence of its activities — “Oh Muslims, become true Muslims”; aimed at revival of faith but based on its core teachings and lifestyle of its early leaders. Also in Mewat where the Tablighi was founded, the Meos Muslims, a Rajput ethnic group, had followed syncretic traditions. Al-Kandhlawi wanted to end it all through dawa (proselytising). He sent his volunteers to villages to spread “the message of Allah”. The group now has presence in 150 countries and 80 millions followers.
8. Inspired by the Deobandi creed, Tablighis urge fellow Muslims to live like the Prophet did. They are theologically opposed to the syncretic nature of Sufi Islam and insist on its members to dress like the Prophet did (trouser or robe should be above the ankle). Men usually shave their upper lip and keep long beard. The focus of the organization is not on converting people from other faiths into Islam. Rather, it is focused on ‘purifying’ the Muslim faith. The organization has a loose structure. The Emir is the leader of the international movement and is always related to the group’s founder Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi. The current leader, Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, is the grandson of the founder. The group also has a Shura Council, which is largely an advisory council with different national units and national headquarters. The Tablighi Jamaat members have declared they are not political. They have also decried violence in the name of religion. They say the Prophet Mohammed has commanded all Muslims to convey the message of Allah, and the Tablighis take this as their duty. They divide themselves into small Jamaats (societies) and travel frequently across the world to spread the message of Islam to Muslim houses. During this travel, they stay in local mosques. The group’s modus operandi is peaceful and it is focused entirely on the Muslim community worldwide. “There is a culture of secretism in the organization, which develops suspicion,” Ajit Doval, India’s National Security Adviser had opined.
[1] https://www.most.gov.tw/india/en/detail/2aa33c74-76a5-4801-9384-c50db054d8dd#:~:text=Islam%20reached%20India%20in%20the,629%20EC%20which%20still%20exists.&text=After%201947%2C%20there%20is%20another,Islam%20and%20Muslims%20in%20India. Accessed on 10 Mar 2021.
[2] When it specifically concerns Hindus, the majority view of modern scholarship is that they have been classified as dhimmis. “The Hanafi and Maliki schools of law, for instance, were willing to include Hindus within the category of ahl al dhimma and give them protection accordingly”. Two Sunni schools of Islamic Law classify Hindus as dhimmis. “Even when Hindus went on worshipping their gods they could enjoy the protection (dhimma) of the Muslim rulers on condition that they paid jizya”.
[3] Barbara Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982) 288.
[4] Julia Stephens, “The Phantom Wahhabi: Liberalism and the Muslim fanatic in mid-Victorian India,” Modern Asian Studies 47 (2013): 22- 52.
