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I. Pan-Islamism Versus Indian Nationalism: A Reappraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Mushirul Hasan
Mushirul Hasan
Affiliation:
University of Delhi
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Extract

It is widely known, though scarcely recognized, that large sections of the Indian Muslim intelligentsia have been greatly conscious of their fraternal links with their co-religionists in other countries, following their history with interest, deriving comfort in their accomplishments, and lamenting their slow but steady decline. In the nineteenth century, in particular, when Islam seemed to fall on evil days because of the convergence of European Powers on the heartlands of the Muslim world, the heritage of the past stood forth as a symbol of community pride and distinction and the emotional need of most Muslims to vindicate their humiliation was intensified. This was expressed in the adventurist movements of the ‘Wahabis’ in India and Arabia, and the Sanusis in Sudan, the Fulanis and the Mahdists in Nigeria, and the Pan-Islamists in Egypt. At another level, Islam was defended from the polemical and hostile attacks of nineteenth century Western orientalists, and against the intellectual and moral imperialism of the West.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 11 , Issue 1: India and Indonesia from the 1830s to 1914: The Heyday of Colonial Rule , March 1987 , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1987

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References

Notes

1 It was exemplified, for instance, in the following poem:

Ae burq aaj shola-fi shan kyon nahin hai tu

Ae raad aaj garm-i fughaan kyon nahin hai tu

Ae abr aaj girya kunaa kyon nahin hai tu

Darya-i qahr aaj rawaa kyon nahin hai tu

Islam aaj kufr ke narghe men a gaya

Baadal siyah rung ka Kaaba pe chha gaya.

(O the thunderbolt why don't you scatter flames?

O the lightning why thou wailest not?

O the clouds why weepest not thou?

Why is it that the river of curse is a frozen puddle and flows not?

Islam has been swamped and overwhelmed by the Unbelief

And the Ka'aba has been engulfed by darkness.)

Proscribed Publications 8, India Office Library and Records, London. See also 142, 152, 153.

2 Keddie, Nikkie R., Sayyid jamal ad-Din ‘at-Afghani’: A Political Biography (Berkely 1972) 124Google Scholar.

3 Tripathi, R. P., Some Aspects of Muslim Administration in India (Allahabad 1936) 37Google Scholar; Hasan, Mohibbul ed., Waqai-i Manaxil-i Rum: diary of a journey to Constantinople (Delhi 1968)Google Scholar.

4 Akhbar-i-Am, 14 March 1895, Punjab Native Newspaper Reports.

5 Quoted in Hardy, Peter, The Muslims of British India (Cambridge 1972) 177CrossRefGoogle Scholar. W. S. Blunt was told on the eve of his visit to India that he should not say anything against the Sultan of Turkey because his name ‘was now venerated in India as it has not formerly been’. Blunt, W. S., India Under Ripon: A Private Diary (London 1909) 13Google Scholar.

6 Jasus (Agra) 14 July 1906; Al-Aziz. (Agra) 28 July 1906, United Provinces Newspaper Reports.

7 Afghani was in India from 1857 to 1865. He came again in 1879, and spent three years in Bombay, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Calcutta. For details, see Keddie, , Sayyid Jamal ad-Din ‘al-Afghani’, 134–135Google Scholar.

8 Ahmad, Aziz, Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment (London 1964) 55–56;Google ScholarKeddie, , Sayyid Jamal ad-Din ‘al-Afghani’, 167Google Scholar.

9 Rahman, Fazlur, Islam (London 1966) 227Google Scholar.

10 Keddie, , Sayyidjamal ad-Din ‘al-Afghani’, 26. Elie Kedourie has argued that Afghani's reputation and influence was to a large extent posthumous and was the work of disciples, or else of academic writers and publicists ‘eager to discover trends and precursors’ to magnify the importance of their subjects.Google ScholarKedourie, Elie, Afghani and Abduh: An Essay on Religious Unbelief and Political Activism in Modem Islam (London 1966) 3. This is not right, for there is adequate evidence to indicate Afghani's influence on his contemporaries, and greater evidence of his impact on subsequent political and intellectual movements in Muslim countries. Other writers like Aziz Ahmad and Keddie, also write of Afghani's limited influence. According to these people he excited no political or religious influence among Muslims, and his articles, published in an obscure journal of Hyderabad, did not cause any stir at the time. But their own evidence does not warrant this conclusion; in fact, the works of Wilfred Seawen Blunt (1840-1922) point to Afghani's influence. Kedourie's cynical view of Afghani becoming a ‘British agent’ is typical of his attempt to denigrate him and underplay the role of ideology i n politicsGoogle Scholar.

11 Ahmad, Aziz, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857–1964 (London 1967) 129Google Scholar.

12 Hourzni, Albert, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798–1939 (Oxford 1970) 118–119Google Scholar.

13 Mitra, H. N. ed., The Indian Annual Register (IAR) I (1923) 921Google Scholar.

14 Gordon-Polonskya, L. R., ‘Ideology of Muslim Nationalism’ in: Malik, Hafeez ed., Iqbal: Poet Philosopher of Pakistan (New York 1971) 115–116Google Scholar.

15 Ahmad, , Studies in Islamic Culture, 67.Google Scholar For Afghani's influence on one of Azad's devoted followers, see Ghaffar, Abdul, Jamaluddin Afghani (Delhi 1941), in Urdu. Afghani's stay in India is referred to on pp. 12-13, 16-17, 35-37. See alsoGoogle ScholarSchimmel, Annemarie, Gabriel's Wing: A Study into the religious ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (London 1963) 21Google Scholar.

16 Pirzada, S. ed., Foundations of Pakistan I (Karachi 1970) 547Google Scholar.

17 Hourani, , Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 118Google Scholar.

18 Kecklie, , Sayyidjamalad-Din ‘al-Afghani’, 155, 159-160Google Scholar.

19 Ibidem, 160.

20 Pirzada, ed., Foundations of Pakistan 1, 545–546Google Scholar.

21 Watson, W. J., ‘Muhammad Ali and the Khilafat Movement’ (Unpublished M.A. Thesis, McCill University 1955) 64Google Scholar.

22 Ali, Muhammad, His Life, Service and Trial (Madras n.d.) 151Google Scholar.

23 JAR II (1923) 30Google Scholar.

24 Hasan, Mushirul, Mohammed Ali, Ideology and Politics (Delhi 1982) 115Google Scholar.

25 Ibidem.

26 7 August 1926, Moonje Dossier, Pad No. 35, National Library, Calcutta.

27 S.R. Mayers to A.G. Shirroff, Deputy Commissioner, 25 February 1921, GAD, F. No. 50, 1921, Box No. 135, UPSA. All subsequent references unless otherwise stated, are drawn from the same file.

28 Nehru, Jawaharlal, An Autobiography (London 1941) 76Google Scholar.

29 See note 27.

30 Siddiqi, M. H., Agrarian Unrest in North India: The United Provinces 1918-22 (Delhi 1978) 149Google Scholar; Sumar, Kapil, Peasants in Revolt: Tenants, Landlords, Congress and the Raj in Oudh (Delhi 1984) 146–165Google Scholar.

31 This idea was beautifully summed up in the verses of Mohammad Haider, a school-teacher in Pilibhit. He wrote:

Jama do gaum ka sikka baja do deen ka danka

Mohamed, Shaukat-o-Gandhi kepairokar ho jao

Swadeshi se karo raghbat bidesi se karo nafrat

ki jis se muflisee ho duur aur sardar hojao

(Let the respect for the nation be restored

And the trumpet of the faith heralded

Follow Mohamed (Ali), Shaukat and Gandhi

Adopt all that is swadeshi and shun that which is from outside

So that you may remove poverty and achieve self-reliance.)

Proscribed Publications 43. Also, see the collection of poems in Bulbulan-i-Hurriyat in Proscribed Publications 4 7. The collection was published by the Khilafat Committee in Jaunpur.

32 Police Dept., F. No. 51-N, 1921, UPSA: Note by Lakhte Husain and Jagannath, 28 January 1921.

33 Home Poll. B.January 1919, 160-163, NA1.

34 WRDI (January 1920), Home Poll. Deposit, February 1920, 52, NAI.

35 Zahur Ahmad to G.N. Misra, 26 July 1920, F. No. 18, 1920, AICC Papers (Suppl.), NMML.

36 Tribune 13 October 1929; Fateh (Delhi) 1 July 1920; Shradhanand, Swami, Inside Congress (Bombay 1946) 68–70Google Scholar.

37 Hayat, Abul, Mussalmans of Bengal (Calcutta 1966) 37Google Scholar.

38 Bombay Chronicle 3 June & 16 August 1937.

39 Hardy, Peter, The Muslims of British India (Cambridge 1972) 227–228CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Leaders March 1939.