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] [Temple University Doctoral Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate Board

Title o f Dissertation. ReThinking Xs 1 am: A Study of the Thought and Mission of (Pleasetype) Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

Author:(Please type)

Irfan A. Omar

D ate o f Defense: November 28, 2000(Please type)

Dissertation Examining Committee:(piease type)

Dr. Mahmoud Ayoub, Chair.Dissertation Advisory Committee Chairperson

Dr. Zarmeer Hasan

Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad

Dr. John C. Raines

Dr. Khalid Y. Blankinship

Read and Approved By: (Signatures)

r . (I

Dr. Rebecca Alpert, Vice-Chair. Department of Religion

Examining Committee Chairpersoa If Member of the Dissertation Examining Committee

Date Submitted to Graduate Board: U - k - o oAccepted by the Graduate Board of Temple University in partial fulfillment o f the requirements for the degree o f Doctor of Philosophy.

Date f ' ~ 0 I U sis/'(Dean of the G raduate School)

RETHINKING ISLAM:

A STUDY OF THE THOUGHT AND MISSION OF

MAULANA WAHIDUDDIN KHAN

A Dissertation

Submitted to the

Temple University Graduate Board

in Partial Fulfillment

o f the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

by

Irfan A. Omar

January, 2001


UMI Number: 9997287

Copyright 2001 by

Omar, Irfan Anis

All rights reserved.

UMIUMI Microform 9997287

Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against

unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road

P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346


byIrfan A. Omar

2001All Rights Reserved


ABSTRACT

RETHINKING ISLAM:

A STUDY OF THE THOUGHT AND MISSION OF

MAULANA WAHIDUDDIN KHAN

Irfan A. Omar

Doctor o f Philosophy

Temple University, 2001

Major Advisor Professor Mahmoud M. Ayoub.

This dissertation is partially an intellectual biography o f Maulana Wahiduddin

Khan. It focuses mainly on Khans interpretation o f Islam with considerable

implications for Indian Muslims as a minority. It attempts to study Wahiduddin

Khans life and intellectual career, beginning with his association with the Jamaat-i

Islam! in the late 1940s, till the present. In this context, it has been my intent to

highlight the ways in which perception of the other has affected the Muslim and

Hindu religious discourse o f the 20th century. Furthermore I purport to show how

this otherization has been contested, on the Muslim (religious) side by Wahiduddin

Khan influenced, as he seems to be, by people like Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Abul

Kalam Azad. This approach then is posited vis-a-vis Abul Ala Maududis view o f the

other whose thought has also influenced a number o f Muslim intellectuals, Khan

iv


included, since his rise to the ranks of Muslim religious leadership in the 1940s. In its

own logic, Wahiduddin Khans approach to Islam constitutes a necessary corrective to

those other theories o f Islam which attempt to explain all religious action in terms o f

external processes determined by essentially political forces.

Wahiduddin Khan views his intellectual approach as m ost suited to finding an

amicable solution to the Hindu-Muslim problem in contemporary India. The

development of his discourse on Islam inevitably leads him to discuss issues such as

secularism, communalism, inter-religious dialogue, and the need for multicultural

social values. Here I examine the symbolic and mythico-historical elements in the

discourse of communalism (both Hindu and Muslim) and the ways in which it has

been countered by secularist-modemists o f the 1950s and 60s and contemporary

religious elite, giving cue to Wahiduddin Khans own solution to the problem o f

communal/religious conflict. In relation to the discourse on communalism,

Wahiduddin Khans view o f pluralism in Islam has been put to test and his theology

o f non-violence and his ideas on peace in Islam are explored in light of recent socio

political developments in contemporary India.

V


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the members o f my committee, Professors Khalid

Blankinship, John Raines and Zameer Hasan, all o f Temple University for their

encouragement, corrections and suggestions. Professor Mumtaz Ahmad of Hampton

University has also been o f great help in pointing out some basic changes to enhance

the ideas and arguments in this thesis. My main advisor Professor Mahmoud Ayoub

helped me with many things, more than I can list here. Here I would like to express

my sincere gratitude to him for his constant encouragement and gende prodding at

the difficult times o f this venture. I shall ever be grateful to him for the many ideas,

comments, and criticisms during the preparation o f this dissertation.

I am very much in debt to the Graduate School for the funding I received in the

form o f the Dissertation Completion G rant In particular Ms. Margaret Pippet had been

a great help in answering questions and other matters pertaining to graduation

procedures. Here I would also like to thank the Department o f Religion for financial

and other forms o f support without which I may not have been able to complete this

dissertation in the time that I did. O f course one cannot go through this Department

without acknowledging ones debt to Professor Robert Wright, the current Director of

Graduate Studies Program, and an excellent teacher and mentor, as well the secretaries,

Ms. Janice Anthony and Ms. Linda Jenkins, for their invaluable help in numerous

vi


departmental and academic matters. In particular I will miss Professor Wrights

innovative teaching methods as well as his jovial personality.

Professor Leonard Swidler has also been a great help during my time in the

Department and I thank him for his moral and intellectual support o f my academic

work in general. He always encouraged me to finish and provided me with many

helpful suggestions for my professional life. I shall always be grateful to him for his

friendship. I am also deeply indebted to Dr. Steven Blackburn of Hartford Seminary,

who dedicated many hours o f his time in order to proofread this manuscript. I shall

always remember his kindness and value his friendship.

My utmost thanks go to my family and friends who have been waiting to hear

from me for the last ten years that I have finally graduated from school and that I am

ready to take on the responsibilities o f the real world. I am particularly thankful to

my parents, and my uncle, Professor Riaz Umar without whose support I would not

have taken up the project in the first place. I am also thankful to have the friendship

of Rajiv Mallikarjun, who has been a constant source o f support and encouragement

at every step o f this endeavor. Fifteen years o f collaboration cannot be acknowledged

that easily in this brief space but suffice it to say that without him I would not be who

I am at the present moment. The same goes for my long-time friend Shakeel Ahmad

of Calcutta, who has been waiting for me to finish my book and has been very

patient through and through. My brothers Khorrum Omer and Faizan Om er have

always been supportive in every matter and have been very generous and kind

throughout the years, especially since I came to the United States in 1989. Theyvii


provided me with much needed support in obtaining research materials from India

and have always been most hospitable and helpful.

As always Carolyn and Gottleib Sperl o f Hartford were most welcoming to me

each time I returned to Hartford Seminary library for research. W ithout Carolyns

help in research as well as her friendship and support in general, I would have missed

out on an essential aspect o f American life: hospitality with cultural sensitivity and

Christian graciousness. While in Hartford I had also benefited from the friendship

and trust o f Zawawi Rahman (d. 1997) o f Malaysia and Ahmad Altaf. Here I would

also like to acknowledge Gary Young and Nancy Yamamoto (d. 1992) without whose

help I would not have been able to come to the United States for graduate studies.

Many other friends who have helped along the way are, Murtiyati Sutanto,

Sadiyyah Shaikh, Ching Jen Wang, Ashraf Kagee, Benita von Behr, Alexander

Hoener and Violet Litde. I am particularly grateful to Wan-Li Ho, Douglas Berger,

Sarra Tlili and Ben Hardman for their suggestions on various parts o f this paper. My

friend Khaja Kaleemuddin has been a constant source o f support over the years. My

sincere thanks also go to Maulana Wahiduddin Khan himself for coundess number o f

hours he spent with me for interviews and general discussion. His son Dr.

Saniyasnain Khan provided much needed updates and information concerning new

writings on and about Maulana Khan and other details about the Centre in New

Delhi. In the end, all praise belongs to God for helping me understand that attempts

at the acquisition o f knowledge are not easy; that they require, along with lots o f

money, a great deal of patience and perseverance.viii


Respectfully Dedicated To

SHAYKH MUHAMMAD UMAR

IN MEMORY OF THE LASTING

seventy-days

ix


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT................................................................................................................ iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................... vii

D E D IC A T IO N ......................................................................................................... ix

CHAPTER

1. IN TR O D U C T IO N ........................................................................................ 1

2. HISTORICAL AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT O FISLAMIC M ODERNIST REFORM IN IN D IA ................................. 23

Islam in India: A Brief Survey..................................................................... 25Islamic Modernist Reform: 1757-1958 ...................................................... 31The Khilafat Movement and the Rise o f Muslim Separatism................. 61

3. TH E AL-RISALA MOVEMENT: RESTATING TH E MISSIONO F ISLAM................................................................................................... 68

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan: The Man and his Mission........................... 69The Al-Risala Movement............................................................................... 75Religion as a Basis for Peace: Khans Theology o f Non-Violence.......... 88A Nationalist) Maulana?.............................................................................. I l l

4. ISLAM AND THE OTHER: TH E VIEWS O F W AHIDUDDINKHAN & ABUL ALA M A U D U D I....................................................... 123

Wahiduddin Khan and Abul Ala Maududi............................................... 126The Politics o f Interpretation..................................................................... 134Khans Call for a Return to the Islamic Self.............................................. 149

x


5. SECULARISM AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM IN INDIA: AMUSLIM PERSPECTIV E..................................................................... 156

Secularism in Modem Ind ia ....................................................................... 157Current Debate and the Muslim Perspective........................................... 167Islam and Indian Secularism........................................................................ 174Some Major Problems with Secularism.................................................... 184

6. TH E CHALLENGE OF COMMUNALISM A N D THE MUSLIMRESPONSE.............................................................................................. 191

Communalism in Independent India......................................................... 193Hindu-Muslim Conflict: Origins and Causes........................................... 205Muslim Indians or Indian Muslims?........................................................... 219Unity in Diversity: A Foundation for Pluralism...................................... 233

7. INDIAN MUSLIMS AND TH E QUEST FOR INTER-COMMUNALHARMONY............................................................................................... 236

Islam and Pluralism..................................................................................... 237Cultural Amnesia: Why Cant Muslims be a Good Minority?............... 246The Vision o f a Multicultural Ind ia ............................................................ 250Khans Call for Dialogue............................................................................ 256

8. CO N CLU SIO N ......................................................................................... 264

BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................... 272

APPENDICES

A DEATH SENTENCE O N MAULANA W AHIDUDDIN KHAN 303

B LIST OF AWARDS: MAULANA W AHIDUDDIN KHAN 304

C A L -R IS A L A URDU AND ENGLISH: SELECT TITLEP AGES.... 305

xi


CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Muslims have to see that the entire Indian civilization is part ot' their heritage. True, but the Muslims are heir not only to the totality o f Indian civilization in the national context but also to the totality o f the Islamic civilization, especially in the religious context ...[Hence] they are as much Indian as any other community in India.

Mushir-ul Haq, Islam in Secular India

Muslims are the largest minority in India and also the second largest Muslim

community in the world after that of Indonesia. Muslims o f India form a significant

part of the Islamic world. Their life and thought are of interest in more ways than

one. They have influenced the world of Islam not only through their numbers but

also via their contributions to Islamic scholarship. Muslims have been living in India

as a minority for centuries and therefore it is important to understand their history

and their interaction with Indian cultures over the centuries in order clearly to

delineate the genealogy o f the present Hindu-Muslim conflict.

The primary significance o f this study stems from the fact that it will shed

light on the nature o f Muslim life and thought in the Indian subcontinent, with

special emphasis upon the socio-communal struggles o f Indian Muslims and with

1 Mushir-ul Haq, Islam in Secular India (Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1972), 87.

1


reference to the problem o f inter-religious conflict. These objectives will be achieved

by way o f my analysis o f Maulana Wahiduddin Khans perception of religious

activism in Islam.

The subject o f this study, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, was initially part o f the

Maulana Maududis Jama'at Islam! (Islamic Party) and was also the editor of the

Jama'ats weekly magazine Zindagi. Later he also edited another weekly magazine

published from 1967 to 1974 by JamTat TJlama-i Hind (Society o f Indian 1'ulama)

called al-Jami'at. Even though Maulana Khan worked with Jamaat-i Islam! for a

number o f years, he always displayed his own distinctive interpretation of Islam. In

the late sixties he finally became disenchanted with the Jama'at, but more perhaps

with Maududis perspective on Islam which, according to him, puts politics at the

center o f Islamic activity. In Maulana Khans perspective, divine oneness (tawhid) is at

the heart o f Islam and, derived from that, the call to tawhid, that is da'wah (inviting

humankind to acknowledge the Oneness of God), should be at the center o f all

Islamic activity. Everything else, including political struggle and social reform, should

be regarded as only secondary to the work of da'wahr He argued that there are two

kinds o f activities in Islam: the essential and the accidental. The former consists o f

ibadah (worship) and dd'wah (calling others to Islam) while the latter is the area in

which one may engage in secondary activities such as struggle for political status or

2This is similar to Tabllghl Jama'ats Islamic activism in being apolitical.

2


cultural recognition. To replace the latter form o f activities with the former is a gross

misrepresentation of the teachings o f the Q uran.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khans mission is to present Islam in the

contemporary idiom. However he is a traditional alinr. an author, scholar, public

speaker and in his own words an activist for peace. To find all these qualities in any

one person is rare, especially among Indian Muslims. There are many 'uuirnd in India,

many of whom are well-known scholars as well as speakers; very few will accept the

designation activist in the way o f peace to describe themselves. Khan was not

always an activist. Instead, he has evolved over time into this role, partly due to the

demands placed on him by the events of the recent communal turmoil in India and

partly due to perhaps his own vision o f the Muslims role in present times.

Wahiduddin Khans premise is to present Islam - an authentic Islam, not a

derived one -- with clear, self-spoken interpretation. He is a product of Jamaat Islam!

and hence speaks of Islam in response, or rather in opposition, to the Jama'ats view

of Islam. He claimed that the Jama'at and its founder Maududi had misperceived the

central message of Islam and thus presented a crooked interpretation which has

eventually led Muslims to a destructive course in recent history. This interpretational

error, so to speak, has since been identified by Khan and others as being in need of

correction. This then is the mission o f Wahiduddin Khan, which he has taken upon

himself for the last few decades.

It must be noted that what is most uncritical in Khans new approach is the

fact that sometimes in pursuit o f reconciliation and for the sake of resolving conflict,

3


he tends to overlook existing social forces. He is often accused o f ignoring historical

facts and presenting a selective or even romantic view of the past.3 He belongs to

the class o f scholars, which consists o f traditionalists and theologians o f Islam. He is

both traditional as well as apologetic in his writings especially as he speaks of the

golden age of Islam and the peaceful means by which Islam was spread in history.

This is to dwell at the level of ideology, avoiding social critique of history altogether,

as if there were no violence and no political motives involved behind the expansion

of the Islamic Empire. In his view, Islam was brought to and implemented in various

communities and societies o f the world, and remained as a dominant ideology of the

world for centuries because there was a vacuum in the spiritual lives of these people.

In this, he often tends to ignore the political, social and economic factors that were

seminal for ripening the conditions for Islamic armies expansionist endeavors.

When reading Wahiduddin Khan, one feels as though there is a specific

purpose and direction to his interpretation of the verses of the Quran and the haditb.

He often tends to draw what he perceives as positive in the Quran and what is

applicable in light o f the situation at hand. While this is a constructive approach for

moral literature, it is uncritical and often ignores historical evidence that seems to go

against desired results.

3 From the particular orientation Khan displays, he may be viewed as engaging in romantic anti-rationalism (Gibbs term), on the one hand, and apologetic discourse on the other. Hamilton A. R. Gibb, Modem Trends in Islam (New York: Octagon Books, 1972), 110.

4


The reality o f Islamic history has been different from what Wahiduddin Khan

wants his readers to know. Although Khan acknowledges to some extent that while

Muslim history has witnessed periods of creativity as well as peaceful interaction with

other religious communities with advancements in scientific knowledge, violence and

bloodshed have also been part o f the Muslim past In his view, history, which has

been written with an orientation to wars and conflicts with victories and defeats, must

be put aside; the unwritten history of contributions, achievements and peaceful

development should be highlighted instead.

It may be said that one of the many objectives, directly or indirecdy pursued

by Wahiduddin Khan, is to foster inter-religious harmony among various

communities in India by constructing an authentic theology o f peaceful co-existence

in Islam, thus causing the mission o f Islam to advance in India.

Significance and Scope o f the Study

The questions that will be dealt with in the course of this thesis are, first of all,

to what extent is Wahiduddin Khans approach and his interpretation of Islam

authentic in that he is true to the overall message o f the Quran. In other words, how

much o f the stated objective of Wahiduddin Khans mission has been achieved, his

stated objective being presenting Islam in the contemporary idiom which is clearly

positive, non-aggressive, and respectful of other communities and groups rather than

hostile to them?

5


Secondly, how can this indirect and rather unstated objective of creating

harmonious relations between various communities be achieved? To what extent has

his interpretation o f Islam as a non-violent, peaceful religion known as the Al-Risala

approach contributed to the normalization of relations between Muslims and other

communities, especially Hindus?

Thus it is my intention in this thesis to provide a sympathetic but critical

analysis of Wahiduddin Khans vision of Islami and the role o f Muslims as a minority

in a politically secular, economically neo-capitalist and socially conservative Indian

society. A clear understanding of the problem would require, first of all, the

identification and location o f Wahiduddin Khans theology through his works,

interviews and others perceptions of him. Subsequentiy, an elaboration of his

differences with other Muslim intellectuals, specifically with Maulana Maududi, must

be undertaken.

Although Wahiduddin Khan is rivaled today by many public figures and

Muslim leaders in India, for m ost o f his Al-Risala career the political and religious

leadership of India, both Muslim and non-Muslim, largely ignored him. Over time his

popularity among the professional-managerial classes as well as many practicing

Muslims grew larger and larger among cross-sections o f the great Indian communal

divide. Many o f the educated elite in Pakistan are also attracted to his approach,

mainly by way of the widespread popularity of the monthly journal al-Risala. The

articles in this journal often carry a very different message, however: that o f self-

criticism as opposed to blaming others for ones failures. The one-page stories, as it

6


were, became an effective tool for Khan to convey his approach piece by piece to an

audience that is spread all over India. He now also has a large number of supporters

in many African countries as well as the United Kingdom and the United States,

mainly comprised of immigrant communities from the Indian subcontinent In India,

support for the Al-Risala approach comes increasingly from educated and nationalist

Muslims as weii as many non-Muslims. Even the secular media has taken a very

indulgent stance toward his solution to the Hindu-Muslim problem in spite o f their

being in disagreement with him over many other issues.

Secondly, Wahiduddin Khan is, at best, a controversial4 figure in India today,

not only among the political leaders whom he severely criticizes but also among

Muslims in general. He has been accused o f siding with the status quo of the Rajiv

Gandhi (d. 1989) government in the late eighties and more recendy of condoning

anti-Muslim right-wing Hindu extremists. In the eighties he was disliked by some for

allegedly receiving large sums of money from Libyan leader Mu'ammar Qadhdhafi.

One might suppose that elements o f the largely Sa'udi-funded Muslim leadership at

that time perhaps pursued this issue out o f rivalry. It is important to resolve the

nature and validity o f such controversies that surround the man and his thought.

4 Although he does not like to be known as controversial, sufficient justification is provided for this description of him by many scholars and journalists both on the Muslimside and among non-Muslims. He is not looked at favorably by many Muslim intellectuals inIndia due either to his close proximity with the right-wing Hindus or his opposition to Maududis views, or both. In a recent conference on Peace in Islam, his views on peace and non-violence in Islam were contested vehemendy by other Muslim scholars. See below Chapter Three: The Al-Risala Movement.

7


Due to his constant criticism o f Muslims and their leaders, even ordinary

Muslims in some quarters tend to believe that Wahiduddin Khan has some self-

interest in promoting pacifism among Muslims while the Hindu extremists along with

their patron political groups continue their social, psychological and physical

onslaught against Muslims throughout India. In this, he is clearly seen by some as a

helper of the enemies of Islam.5

Wahiduddin Khan offers a challenging solution to the problems o f the

Muslim minority in India today. While these problems are many, the one which this

study will mainly attempt to deal with pertains to the growing tension that exists

among various religious communities, especially between Hindus and Muslims. This

is in part due to the sharp communalization of politics, society, and culture as well

as the media in the past two decades by various separatist forces. The term

separatist here is used in the sense o f anti-integrationist as opposed to political

separatists, even though such also have their share in contributing to inter-communal

difficulties in India. For instance, the political separatist movement in Kashmir has

given ample ammunition to Hindu right wing groups in their efforts to defame and

accuse Muslims o f being anti-Indian and their localities as being mini-Pakistans.

5 There have been numerous attempts to defame and belittle Maulana Khans position, both intellectual as well as social, by others. The latest attack was recently made viathe publication of a photograph in Urdu (Muslim) newspapers which showed Khan in the background of a giant arti, the lamp lighted at Hindu (and some secular) ceremonies markingtheir opening. Khan was shown as lighting it while the caption implied that Khan is just one of them meaning the Hindus.

8


Maulana Wahiduddin Khans approach is not novel in the universal sense, but

rather in that it is fairly unprecedented in recent Muslim experience in the Indian

subcontinent.6 Khan calls for unconditional pacifism on all matters o f inter-

communal confrontation, ranging from such issues as the protest over the Salman

Rushdie affair to resistance over the destruction o f the Babari Mosque.

The idea that Muslims should try to solve their problems with the majority

community peacefully and with a reasonably conciliatory attitude is not entirely new.

In many ways it echoes Sayyid Ahmad Khans conciliatory approach toward the

British as well as the Hindus. It also reminds us o f Abul Kalam Azads understanding

of getting involved, and being integrated, in the process of nation building. But

ultimately, in its extreme pgcifidty, it is brilliantly new and bold, especially in light of a

rather aggressive Muslim history of which the Muslims of North India are very

conscious.7 More importantly Khans approach does not rest on secular but rather

religious principles. He speaks mainly on the authority of the Quran and hadith.

In worldly terms, Wahiduddin Khans solution to the religious-cum-social

problems in India is seen as a bit naive in spite of its being challenging. It is

6 As Professor Mujeeb pointed out, Sufis have promoted such pacifism before. See M. Mujeeb, Indian Muslims (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, [1967] 1995). Also, there are many other groups and organizations that invoke Gandhis ahimsa movement as their source of inspiration. Khan himself has admitted to being influenced by both the Sufis peaceful ways and Gandhis non-violent method.

7This in itself is one of the major factors that, according to Khan, keeps Muslimsfrom engaging in healthy interaction with the majority. It is part of that Muslim heritage, the memory of which the Muslim leadership in general tends to keep alive for their own political purposes.

9


important, therefore, to compare Khans approach to inter-religious harmony with at

least two other similar attempts in recent Indian history, namely, the reform

movement o f Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the pluralist nationalist project o f Abul Kalam

Azad. This seems most appropriate in light o f Khans own recognition and appraisal

of Sayyid Ahmad Khans efforts to reconcile the Hindus and Muslims of the

nineteenth century and Abul Kaiam Azads attempt to unite the two communities in

one nationalistic cultural fabric.

The solution that Wahiduddin Khan offers is an Islamic one. It should be

made clear that Khan is very conscious, as well as insistent, that the thesis he is

presenting be deemed the Islamic solution based on the authentic

interpretation o f Islamic teachings to solve todays problem o f Muslim identity in

India by attempting to diffuse Hindu-Muslim tension. Moreover, this Islamic solution

is juxtaposed against the constitutional character of the Indian State, which is deemed

as secular in a typically Indian sense.8 The main assumption here is that not only is

an Islamic solution possible in resolving the problems of a minority in a secular

milieu, but in some ways this solution comes very close to generating the ideal

Islamic community. This close-to-the-ideal community, nevertheless, comes about in

spite of, and in fact, solely due to this very secular nature o f the society at large, at

least in the present circumstances. This ideal is a better model than that which is

8This secular character of the constitution of India has been challenged by many, most notably by the anthropologist T.N. Madan and the scientist Amartya Sen. See belowChapter Five: Secularism and Religious Activism in India.

10


manifested in societies in Islamic countries with Islamic governments. This latter

point is an idea that Wahiduddin Khan struggles with in more ways than one, both in

his opposition to Maududis thought and by way of his critique of the many Islamist

(politically motivated) movements in India and elsewhere.

To Khan, then, the future o f Islamic society(ies) is a pluralistic one. Muslims

have to ultimately look at the Medinan model that the Prophet had envisioned and

attempted to establish after the hijrah (the migration of the Prophet from Makkah to

Madinah). But, and more importantly, Muslims have to realize that this Medinan

phase followed thirteen years o f patience and perseverance by those early followers of

Muhammad in Makkah where their sole objective was to communicate Gods Word

(da'wah) to those who had not heard it. Thus for reaping the fruits of .another

"Medinan phase, Muslims today too have to sow the seeds of a yet another

Makkan phase.

Survey of Literature

Almost all o f Wahiduddin Khans writings have been translated into English,

under his supervision, and published by the Islamic Centre (of which he is the

founding president). This gives these translations his stamp of approval. Besides the

books and articles that are published by the Islamic Centre and Al-Risala Books,

Maulana Khan has published numerous articles in newspapers, popular magazines,

scholarly journals and other multi-author edited works. There is very little literature

on Khan himself, either as a thinker or as a self-styled representative of the Muslim

11


community vis-a-vis a whole range of political, social, religious and other public

figures. However, there have been some attempts of character assassination against

Wahiduddin Khan, manifested in privately printed pamphlets and a number o f books

published by a segment o f the Muslim religious leadership in India. One among them

is Wahiduddin Khan Idgumrahiyaip which speaks of Khans waywardness from the

standard Islamic interpretation of the Quramc message and o f Islamic history. Here,

Ajmal Khan accuses Wahiduddin Khan, among other things, o f deviating from the

path of the 'ubmd-i-hacf (the righteous intellectuals) in maintaining that secularism

and Islam are not irreconcilable. Another less significant polemical work is Fikr k i

ghalatp0 This work tries to outline the arrogance apparent to its author in the

writings of Wahiduddin Khan, stemming from Khans critique of some earlier

Muslim thinkers who are otherwise regarded highly in the Indian Muslim tradition.

And finally a more substantial work (substantial in the sense of the number o f people

included in this multi-author work, but weak in argument) on Khan was recendy

compiled and published by Mohsin Usmani, professor o f Arabic at the University o f

Delhi. This work, endded Wahiduddin Khan: ulama am danishwaron k i na*ar meyn,n

brings together a number of lesser known ulama as well as some secular Muslim

9 Ajmal Khan, Wahiduddin Khan k i gumrahiyan [Waywardness of Wahiduddin Khan] (New Delhi: Dar al-Kitab, 1993).

10 Adq Qasmi, Fikr kighalati [Ideological error] (New Delhi: Maktaba Irshad, 1990).

11 Mohsin Usmani, Wahiduddin Khan: ulama am danishwaron k i na~ar meyn [Wahiduddin Khan in the eyes of ulama and intellectuals] (New Delhi: Majlis-i Tlml, 1997).

12


intellectuals who express their grievances against the sodo-communal approach

(albeit informed by religion) taken by Khan concerning Muslims in India.

The most significant but brief scholarly appraisal of Wahiduddin Khan as a

modem reformer/thinker is Trolls recent essay Sharing Islamically in the Pluralistic

Nation-State o f India: The Views o f Some Contemporary Indian Muslim Leaders and

Thinkers, in Christian-Muslim Encounters. u This assessment o f Khan is similar to an

earlier article by Troll in his Islam in India: Studies and Commentaries13 which outlined

briefly Khans views, comparing them with those o f Abul Ala Maududi and Abul

Hasan Ali Nadwi in respect to the notion o f din (religion), except that in the 1995

article he sought their views on pluralistic living. Moreover in this later article his

inquiry covered more than just the !ulama,, and includes some other prominent

Muslim thinkers such as Asghar Ali Engineer. Father Troll has recendy (1998)

published two new essays on Maulana Khan. The first among these revisits Maulana

Khans approach to din viewed as fundamentally a relationship between God and

human beings.14 This in essence is a continuation o f his discussion on din comparing

12 Christian Troll, Sharing Islamically in the Pluralistic Nation-State of India: The Views of Some Contemporary Indian Muslim Leaders and Thinkers, in Yvonne Y. Haddad & Wadi Z. Haddad, eds., Christian-Muslim Encounters (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995), 245-62.

13 Christian Troll, The Meaning of Din: Recent Views of Three Eminent Indian TJlama, Islam in India: Studies and Commentaries, vol 1, ed. Christian Troll (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1982).

14 Christian Troll, Divine Rule and its Establishment on Earth: A Contemporary South-Asian Debate in Faith, Power and Violence in Islam and Christianity, eds. J. J. Donohue & Christian W. Troll (Rome: Pondfido Instituto Orientale; Insdtuto Orientale, 1998), 223-29.

13


Wahiduddin Khan and Abul Ala Maududi in the context o f the formers criticism of

the latter as highlighted in Khans work Tabir kighalati (Mistaken interpretation). The

second essay is a detailed, rather impressive, analysis of Khans recent work, Fikr-i

Islami (Islamic thought).15 In addition, I have recently published an essay analyzing

Maulana Wahiduddin Khans ideal vision of Islam in relation to that of Maulana

Maududi.56

Besides these, there are a number of references to Khans approach,

particularly to his criticism of Maududis thought, which his numerous works have

elicited, in some recent studies on the Islam of the subcontinent. The first among

them is Seyyed Vali Reza Nasrs Mawdudi and the Making o f Islamic Revivalism^1 which

refers to Wahiduddin Khans works on Maududi and the TabllghI Jama'at. The other

is Arun Shouries The World o f Fatwas, which singles out Khan as his pick for a

reasonably good Muslim in India.18

Wahiduddin Khans own works that are seminal for the study o f his approach

(i.e., the Al-Risala approach) to the Hindu-Muslim problem are the following: Indian

15 Christian Troll, A Significant Voice of Contemporary Islam in India. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan (b. 1925), Adel Theodore Khoury & Gottfried Vanoni, eds., Geglaubt habe ich, deshalb habe ich geredet. Festschrift fur Andreas Bsteh zum 65. Geburtstag (Religionswissenschaftliche Studien 47). (Echter Verlag, Wuerzburg/Oros Verlag, Altenberge 1998), 491-510.

16 Irfan A. Omar, Islam and the Other The Ideal Vision of Mawlana Wahiduddin Khan, Journal of Ecumenical Studies 36, 3-4 (Summer-Fall 1999): 423-38.

17 Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism (London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

18 Arun Shourie, The World of Fatwas or the Shariah in Action (Delhi: UBPSD, 1995).14


Muslims: The Needfora Positive Outlook (1994); Islam and Peace (1996); Din-insaniyat (Faith

of humanity) (1996) and Fikr-i Islami (Islamic thought) (1996).19 The above works are

all recent, but they are derived from Khans long-held approach that has been

developed over twenty-five years and has been spelled out piecemeal in several of his

other writings, including in the pages of the monthly al-Risala. Khans two-volume

commentary published as Ta^kir ai-Qurdn (2 volumes, completed 1987) is also an

essential element in understanding the whole framework of his Islamic vision. Two

other works that have become extremely popular since their first appearance are God

Arises (1987) and Muhammad: The Prophet of Revolution (1986). God Arises was originally

written in Urdu and first published in 1966 as Islam aur daur-i jadid kd chaylenj (Islam

and challenge of the modem age), and has since been translated into many European

and Islamic languages, including Arabic. The Arabic version, entided al-Isldmyatahadda

has already enjoyed considerable popularity in the Muslim world, notably in Egypt

since the 1970s. The second work, Muhammad: The Prophet of Revolution, is a sirah

(biography) o f the Prophet with an emphasis upon the nature of hikmah (wisdom)

that the Prophet is believed to have practiced, rather than upon the miraculous nature

of his life and actions. Another important work o f Wahiduddin Khan is Ta'hir k i

ghalati (1963) which mainly highlights Maulana Khans differences with Jamaat-i

Islamfs founder Maulana Abul Ala Maududi as well as his struggle with the Jama'at

in the early sixties. It also presents the earliest glimpses o f Khans vision o f Islam as a

religious movement

19 All of these are published by the Islamic Centre.


Finally, there are taped interviews, lectures, and articles found on the internet

including, but not limited to, those posted at the Al-Risala website (www.alrisala.org)

as well as my notes from personal conversations. In recent years, Maulana Khan has

written extensively on the nature of religious conflict with the specific purpose of

providing his own solution to the problem. To this end, a recent issue of al-Risala

(Urdu) has been brought out as a special number called Ta'mir-t Hind (Rebuilding

India).20 Khan has been very vocal about the role o f Muslims in the 21sl century not

only in India but worldwide. In particular he speaks of the changes that have taken

place in the lives and attitudes o f Muslims in the last few years, which he believes, are

mainly due to the widening influence of his writings. It is true that Khans works have

begun to reach far and wide, both nationally and internationally, only in the last five

years or so. This has been achieved through the translation of his works into English,

through the English version o f Al-Risala and most importandy through his published

articles, op-ed columns and essays in a variety o f newspapers and journals throughout

the world. He is also quite frequendy interviewed by television news channels and

radio broadcasting companies such as the BBC and All India Radio.

General Outline and Methodology

To begin with, a brief survey of Muslim intellectual history in India provides a

sufficient background to understanding the nature o f Muslim life and thought in the

20 al-Risala (Urdu), July 1999.

16


http://www.alrisala.org

contemporary period. The post-Mughal era, which marks the end of Muslim rule in

India, is crucial to an examination o f changing Muslim roles and the level o f their

social influence in the society at large.

Even though the period of study is contemporary, it would not be improper

to look at some of the root causes of Muslim decline as a result o f colonialism and its

consequences upon the Muslim psyche that has shaped Muslim history in India as

elsewhere in many colonized lands.

In this regard, Wahiduddin Khan cites, and agrees for the most part with, the

analysis o f an American political scientist, Theodore Wright, Jr., who contends that

many o f the problems o f Muslim minorities and in fact, their non-minority-like

behavior itself, largely stem from the remains o f the ruling-community mentality.

Large segments of Muslim populations have not yet snapped out of the socio-

psychological conditions o f the time when Muslims ruled India.21 Many of them,

according to this analysis, still live in the age o f the Mughals, so to speak, surrounded

by the innumerable landmarks that the Mughals and their predecessor Muslim

dynasties have left behind. Khans further argument is that this tendency has

persisted in the rhetoric o f the Muslim leadership since the beginning of the freedom

struggle against the British in the nineteenth century. It is also largely responsible for

the general backwardness o f Muslims as it has locked them into the mindset o f a

21 S. Abid Hussain, noted scholar and pro-secularism Muslim, argued this point in the 1960s in his works, most notably, in Hindustanimusalman dina-i ayyam miyn (Indian Muslims in the mirror o f times). New Delhi: Dr. Syed Abid Husain Memorial Trust, [1965] 1991.

17


ruler and not the ruled (or even co-ruled, to capture the idea o f democracy in

general terms). Thus Muslims do not behave or act, as it were, as a minority. Here

Khan has his own definition of a minority and his whole approach to solving the

problems o f Muslims depends upon such a definition. In a way, he molds his Islamic

message and vision of a healthy Islamic community22 according to the contemporary

demands and geo-poiiticai needs o f a people, especially as they are posited vis-a-vis a

majority. The above argument as advanced by Wright and elaborated by Khan,

nevertheless, is a psychological one. It must also be historici2ed. Therefore the overall

methodology applied here will be philosophical as well as historical, mainly by way of

the textual analysis of the seminal works of Maulana Khan.

Chapter One serves as Introduction to the project. It includes a statement

of the problem, a survey of literature, a chapter outline and methodology, and most

of all a statement of the scope and significance of studying Wahiduddin Khans

thought and mission.

Chapter Two, entided Historical and Intellectual Development o f Islamic

Modernist Reform in India, deals with some of the key thinkers who have been

instrumental in shaping the Muslim imagination in the last two hundred years. These

Muslim leaders represent the trends that bear direcdy on how contemporary Muslim

activism has been shaped. This activism, largely political in nature, is the target of

Wahiduddin Khans criticism.

^Here I refrain from the term ideal since he rejects that there can be any ideal community, realistically speaking.

18


The third chapter will focus on the Al-Risala Movement including its history

and role in leading the Muslim masses over the last twenty-five years. The monthly

journal al-Risala, which Maulana Khan has edited since its inception in 1976, will also

be discussed. The story behind the publication of this journal and the controversies

raised by its style, content and popularity are important factors in understanding the

rift generated between Wahiduddin Khan and the 'ulama and other Muslim

intellectuals in India and Pakistan. Here I will look at Khans attempts to be a major

player in the Indian social movement in recent years and his involvement in inter

faith dialogue in India and abroad which has won him wide popularity in India to the

point of his being selected for some prestigious national awards.23 Here I will also

investigate mosdy the effects of the Al-Risala Movement on Indian society at large,

the Muslim response to Maulana Khans approach, and the changing image o f Islam

among the intelligentsia, the media and most importantly among the Hindus.

In the fourth chapter, Islam and the Other, I will focus on one o f the most

important religious thinkers of twentieth century Indian Islam, Maulana Abul Ala

Maududi, who influenced numerous intellectuals both in India and abroad. Here I

will undertake a comparative analysis of the basic differences between Maududis

thought and Wahiduddin Khans objections to its specific understanding o f Islam as

din-i-kamil or the perfected religion. These differences revolve around Khans

projection of Maududis view of Islam that places politics or political involvement at

23 See Appendix B, List of Awards.

19


the center o f Islamic activism. These fundamental differences gave rise to two very

different approaches to the other, which for Indian Muslims were the Hindus. I

will also elaborate on how the discourse on the other has contributed to the

growing problems of Muslims in India.

The willingness of Muslims to put their trust in Wahiduddin Khans approach

is only part of the criteria in assessing its tenability, as the methodology has to take

into account the sociological aspects o f his approach as well. The political

implications of such a thesis are also important in light of the secular, and yet at the

same time, increasingly communal nature of the Indian polity. This will be the subject

of Chapter Five, enrided Secularism and Religious Acdvism in India: A Muslim

Perspective. I will discuss the nature of secularism in India and the debate that has

surrounded it. In Indian statesmanship and politics, secularism has had a lengthy

development. It has been used and abused, upheld at times and denigrated at others.

The most recent blemish on Indian secularism happened on December 6,1992, when

against the will of the nation some angry mobs of Hindus destroyed the historic

Babari Mosque in the north Indian town of Ayodhya. Secularism as an underlying

principle enshrined in the Indian constitution is one thing, and its application in

various levels of social governance is another. And it will be noted that secularism has

not always been the guiding light for the managers o f society.

Chapter Six, entitled The Challenge o f Communalism and the Muslim

Response, will deal with communalism, one of the biggest problems in the Indian

socio-political sphere and the main obstacle against the successful implementation o f

20


secular ideals. The overall discussion o f Hindu-Muslim interface will also be included

together with the issues and controversies, such as religious conversion, that have

marked the communalist and violent history o f independent India. In the process I

will also look at how the Muslim identity debate has changed in response to growing

Hindu extremism and their control o f the halls o f political power in recent years. The

nature o f this discussion involves shifting positions of Indian Muslim leaders, their

retreat into softer less aggressive demands etc. Now many of those leaders who

maintained hard-line positions vis-a-vis Hindus in the past have begun to speak in the

language of rapprochement, reconciliation and adjustment to secularism.

During the course o f this chapter some of these socio-political problems

outlined above will be analy2ed on the basis o f an impartial assessment of Khans

thought via his works, talks, speeches and interviews. This implies the primacy of

textual analysis upon which the sociological analysis will rest.

In light o f the foregoing, in the seventh chapter, Indian Muslims and the

Quest for Inter-Communal Harmony, I will investigate the question as to whether

Muslims are able to live as authentic Muslims in a pluralist secular nation-state or not.

Above all, this chapter will discuss Khans version o f the Islamic theology of

pluralism and its application in Indian society. It will attempt to look at the ways in

which communal harmony may be achieved by way of Wahiduddin Khans directives

of Muslim behavior in India.

Wahiduddin Khans approach has elicited much criticism and, in some cases,

hostility to his person. There have been death threats made by the so-called mujahidin

21


of Kashmir and many have taken to spreading rumors about his personal life. In

closing, these criticisms will be analyzed for their spuriousness or truthfulness.

In the end it is hoped that this thesis will shed some light on the theology of

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and his interpretation o f Islam with particular emphasis

on pluralism and non-violence.

22


CHAPTER 2

HISTORICAL AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF

ISLAMIC MODERNIST REFORM IN INDIA

The purpose of every analysis should be to discover or create a synthesis and it would be legitimate to inquire what conclusions this study has led to. But a synthesis of different trends and tendencies in the life of a community can itself never be more than a partial statement, which needs to be supplemented by an intuitive apprehension of probabilities that defy precise statement.

M. Mujeeb, The Indian Muslim/ 4

In recent Muslim history most attempts at rethinking Islam have taken place

in the domain of politics. From Afghani to Hasan Banna, from Iqbal to Maududi and

even Azad, who otherwise possessed very mature intellectual acumen, all were

obsessed with the political and social reorganization or regrouping o f Muslim

societies. Very few individuals and movements have bothered to focus on the

intellectual content o f Islam. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan argues in the same vein that

most Islamic movements in the last two hundred years or so have been influenced by,

or drawn their succor from, those events in Islamic history which are filled with

political struggles and inter-religious and inter-communal violence. Few movements,

if any, arose in the interest o f the intellectual reformulation or rethinking of the

Islamic religion.

24 Mujeeb, The Indian Muslims, 555.23


Like most Islamists, Khan does not dismiss the idea o f rethinking and the

need to re-examine Islam. Although he is averse to using the term reform to name

his mission, he is clearly engaged in rethinking inasmuch as he provides a

fundamentally opposite paradigm for Islamic activism from what has already been

current for the last five decades or so. I am referring here, of course, to the Maududi

paradigm, which by and large includes the politicization o f Islam, visible in the

workings o f most Islamic movements around the world.

The inspiration to use the phrase Rethinking Islam comes from a recent

work by Mohammed Arkoun, which bears the same title. However it is not used in

the same sense as Arkoun does, who means by it a way o f thinking that is not

constrained by either the tyranny o f reason (as in the case o f Western theories of

modernization) or the tyranny o f faith (as asserted by segments of the Islamic

Movement).25 From Arkouns perspective, Wahiduddin Khan, like Muhammad

Abduh a century ago, is also an apologist who while engaged in rethinking

nevertheless only sought to counter Europe-centeredness with Islam-centeredness,

perpetuating the idea that there is a single Islam with a single, superior, exclusive

capacity for generating truth.26

25 Robert D. Lee, Foreword, in Mohammed Arkoun, Rethinking Isiam: Common Questions, Uncommon Answers, trans. and ed. by Robert D. Lee (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), x.

26 Ibid., ix.

24


W hat differentiates Wahiduddin Khan from other apologists, though, is his

willingness to appreciate the superior developments in Western science and

technology and the fruits they bear in the world. This acknowledgement brings

together with it a sense o f curiosity towards understanding western civilization, which

to him is the first step in improving the destiny of Muslim societies. Khan is

rethinking inasmuch as he also seeks to end the isolation of Islam into us" and

non-Islam into them. Like Arkoun, Khan also attempts to restitch, albeit

theologically, the fragmented [in his case distorted] Islamic tradition and reweave it

into the broader cloth o f the world of which it has always been a part.27

For us to investigate here the underpinnings of this rethinking, it is essential

to examine the recent intellectual trends among Muslims, particularly among the

Muslim intellectuals in India.

Islam in India: A B rief Survey

Islam came to India less than a century after the death of the Prophet

Muhammad. O f all the regions where Islam spread in the first two centuries o f its

expansion, India was the most enchanted of all. O n the one hand it was a land known

for its wisdom and riches and on the other it excelled in exotic customs, practices and

smells. I t was Muslims who gave India its fundamental sense of itself and defined it

as a civilization setting it apart conceptually as well as geographically. As Wink has

27 Ibid., xi.

25


elaborated in his magnificent study Al-Hind- The Making of the Indo Islamic World it was

the Arabs and Muslims who first applied the word Hind to the entire subcontinent

as well as the archipelago.28 Before that, Hind, used in a loose sense, designated the

people who lived east o f the river Sindhu/Indus:

The early Muslim view o f India includes. . .a number o f stereotypes which were already familiar to the ancient Greeks: of India as a land of self-absorbed philosophers, high learning, wisdom,' the belief in metempsychosis, o f sacred cows, elephants, and, again, great wealth. ..But the Arabs, in contrast to the medieval Christians, developed their conception of India in direct and prolonged contact with it.29

Islam arrived in India in two different periods through two different sources.

In the south and west, Muslims were present on the Malabar Coast since the late

seventh century.30 These Muslims were mosdy merchants engaged in the trade of

spices and linen. They dominated the sea trade routes between India and Arabia from

where their influence extended into the Mediterranean world, especially Egypt and

Spain.31 One of the reasons given for the rise o f Muslim trade activities in such a

short time is that it was beneficial to both the Arab merchants and the Indian ruling

classes. According to the accounts related by Idrisi, Muslim merchants were often

28 Andre Wink, AJ-Hind' The Making of the Indo-lslamic World.\ Vol. 1: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991), 5.

29 Ibid.

30 Tara Chand, Influence of Islam on Indian Culture (Allahabad: Indian Press, 1941), 30-6.

31 Donald Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. I book I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), 13.

26


received with honor by the ruling elites because they brought wealth by the exchange

of goods easily available in Indian markets.32

Muslims spread over the southern coast within a very short period, acquiring

great influence in politics and society. Although a minority, they were influential due

to their business and wealth. They also attracted many converts by way of the

propagation o f Islam. By the tenth century, Muslims were spread throughout the

south, building mosques and shrines that became the centers o f Muslim social life.33

The most significant influence seems to have been exerted by the Sufis who

organized their spiritual orders wherever they settled. Through them the religion of

Islam spread among the masses albeit with varying degrees of understanding of the

fundamentals o f religion. Typically in the peripheral circles among the followers o f

these Sufis the appeal was that o f a popular folk-piety attracting the average, the semi

literate, whereas the innermost group would generally consist o f those learned in the

traditional sciences.

During this time, Muslims found complete freedom of worship and of

propagation o f their faith, in addition to their growing success in their business

activities. Ivlany Hindu rulers had no objection to local populations being converted

to Islam in this early period because their numbers were rather insignificant. So far as

32 Idrisi, Nu^hat al Mushtaq, cited in History of India as Told by its own Historians, vol. 1, trans. H. Elliot and J. Dowson (London: Trubner, 1866-77), 88. See also Maqbul Ahmad, India and the Neighboring Territories in the Kitab Nurrhat al-Mushtda ftktiraa al-Afda of al-Sharif al- Idrisi (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960).

33 Tara Chand, Influence of Islam on Indian culture, 43.27


their interests were concerned, Hindu rulers protected Muslims and their religion was

accepted in the spirit o f religious tolerance. Mosques operated freely and prayers were

established in numerous Indian towns and villages. Their influence increased as their

numbers grew by way of new arrivals as well as local conversions.34

In the northwest and north, Islam was brought by Muhammad bin Qasim, an

Umayyad general who first entered Sindh around the year 712.35 For a while, Muslim

control reached the boundaries of southern Punjab, at times penetrating as far south

as the Chalukya Kingdom,36 even though consolidated power remained in areas o f

Sindh until the invasions of Mahmud of Ghaana beginning in the year 1000 CE.

Soon thereafter, Islam began to take root in the northern Gangetic plains where the

rule o f the Turks and Afghans was established. Most o f these rulers maintained Delhi

as the center o f their political establishment as it was strategically located between

Afghanistan and Bengal. Thus comes the designation Delhi Sultanate, a name given

to the Muslim rule in India between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries.37

Ever since, Islam in India has developed in many different ways, shaping itself

and being influenced by the cultures that it encountered. Today Muslims are a

significant minority in India alone, constituting the largest Muslim minority in the

34 Thomas W. Arnold, The Preaching of Islam, (New York: C. Scribners Sons, 1913),266.

35 Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo Islamic World, 9ff.

36 Khalid Yahya Blankinship, The End of the Jihad State (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 187.

28


world. By a conservative estimate, Muslims make up approximately twelve to fifteen

percent o f the total Indian population, which numbers them in excess o f a hundred

and twenty million people.38

Even though the Indian environment was not particularly congruent to the

tastes o f early Muslims (being migrants from different lands), they nevertheless

flourished in their newly conquered region, especially as they gradually increased their

political sway and military might. Increasing numbers of conversions from amongst

the local population also helped in boosting the confidence of these early rulers.

Muslims ruled in India for about eight centuries with varying degrees of

political authority. Their rule in India is described as dynamic. The last of the

dynasties that ruled India were the Great Mughals. Aurangzeb was the last of the

Emperors whose authority was established by military might in most regions of

India.39

57 Romila Thapar, A History of India Vol. 1 (Baltimore: Penguin, 1966), 266.

38 This is an unofficial estimate in relation to the estimated total population of India, which is nearing the billion mark now. The percentage remains consistent in both the official records and the unofficial estimate as set between 12-15 percent. Census of India, 1991, cited in Aijaz Ansari and Lubna Siddiquie, Growth of Muslim Population in India 1981-91. Islam and the Modem Age 30, 3 (August 1999): 253-4.

39 For any comprehensive study of contemporary history of Muslims in India, it is important to take seriously the last two centuries of the Mughal rule, 1658-1857. Within that time frame one has to look into specific characteristic features and trends, such as architecture, that may have contributed to the socio-political dynamics between Muslims and non-Muslims. The story of Mughal architecture in India is about the politics of legitimization and solidification of the Empire by means of linking it to famous institutions of reverence and popular devotion, such as the shrines of many Sufi shaykhs. Architectures sociological importance is derived from the fact that it is infused with the symbolic significance and power of the institutions to which it is attached Hence temples and mosques when built or

29


With the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the house o f Timur was divided and

wars o f succession ensued for many years. There were signs o f weakening o f the

Empire, creating ripe conditions for rebellion and invasion. In 1739, Nadir Shah of

Iran invaded Delhi and slaughtered thousands of people in the capital dty. There

were also the uprisings among the Marathas and other provincial leaders who rebelled

and declared their independence from the Mughals. The East India Company was to

benefit from this instability the most; it was destined to fill the vacuum that the

receding empire was leaving behind.40 The Mughal emperor after the Battle o f Plassey

(1757) assumed the position of a figurehead whose influence did not extend beyond

the confines of Delhi. But most o f the populace, especially Muslims, was under the

illusion that the British East India Company was simply acting on behalf o f the

Emperor. In actual fact, the East India Company had gained power over much of

what was left from the dominions o f the princely states; they were in charge.41

Towards the end of eighteenth century, many Muslims were disillusioned by

the waning powers o f the Mughals. Many thought of, and some actually did, migrate

to other centers of Muslim life and learning like Cairo, Damascus and Medina. For

destroyed carry a political significance, while the architecture of such buildings enhances and helps to sharpen that significance. For more on this see Catherine B. Asher, The New Cambridge History of India, vol. 1, bk. 4 Architecture of Mughal India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

40 George Bearce, British Attitudes Towards India (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), 10.

41 Peter Hardy, The Muslims of British India (London: Cambridge University Press, 1972), 34.

30


example, Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898) at one point in his life wanted to migrate to

Egypt, but later events made him decide otherwise.42

One of the reasons for this exodus was that with the waning power of the

Muslim monarch, non-Muslim rule would be established; hence the fear that one

would not be able to practice Islam under non-Muslim rule grew. Muslims had

become so used to being part o f a Muslim empire that the thought of living under

non-Muslim rule was inconceivable.

Islamic Modernist Reform: 1757-1958

Islamic modernism originated with the thought of some prominent Muslim

thinkers such as Shah Waliullah Dehlavi (1703-1764), Jamal al-Din Afghani (1838-

1897), and Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1796-1898). These thinkers are pioneers in the

struggle for laying the foundations for the reassertion and revival of Islam from the

eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. Shah Waliullah and some of his key

disciples were major players in the struggle for the restoration o f Islamic political

domination in the eighteenth century. Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan dominated the

nineteenth century, trying to reverse the course of Muslim efforts in the political

arena. The twentieth century witnessed the culmination and flowering of these two

major socio-political movements as reflected in the thought o f Ameer Ali (d. 1928)

and Abul Kalam A2ad (d. 1958) on the one hand and Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938) and

42 Altaf Hussain Hali, Haydt javid [Eternal life] (Lahore: Ishrat Publishing House, 1971), 93-4.

31


Abul Ala Maududi on the other. Below is a brief appraisal o f their main ideas with

the exception of Maududi who is discussed, together with Wahiduddin Khan, in

Chapter Four.

Shah Waliullah Dehlavi

The first major thinker whose life and thought could be characterized as a

fountainhead of Islamic activism in the modem period is undoubtedly Shah Waliullah

o f Delhi. His unprecedented reformation o f Islam attempted, for the first time, a

synthesis or unity of all the major trends in Islam, especially in the Indian context. He

was a champion of orthodoxy and yet he went beyond the limits of orthodoxy where

most other ulama would not venture. In that, he was clearly acting as a mujtahid.

Shah Waliullah was also noted for his efforts to reconcile different schools of

thought and various trends existent in his time. He tried to explain the

interrelationships among the varieties that existed in Islam, highlighting the inner

unity o f Islam in spite o f its diverse expressions in Sunni, ShTI, orthodox, mystical, or

even sectarian thought. For him, the unity o f the Muslim ummah was o f greater

importance than the differences among the various schools o f jurisprudence that

43 Marcia Hermansen, tr., The Conclusive Argument From God: Shah Walt Allah of Delhis Hufiat Allah al-Balipha (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), translators introduction. See also Fazlur Rahman, Islam (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1979). Professor Rahman describes Walihullahs movement as one of many pre-modernist reform movements in the Muslim world.

32


divided it. His efforts in the direction of unity are therefore rightly dubbed as part of

his jurisprudential eclecticism.44

The time during which Shah Waliullah lived and immediately thereafter was

crucial in the history of Indian Islam and indeed for India in its entirety. The last of

the powerful Mughals, Emperor Aurangzeb, had died in 1707. Since then India had

been carved up by British on the one side and Sikhs, Marathas and Afghans on the

other.45 Power was slipping out of Muslim hands year by year. In general the

eighteenth century was one of decline for Muslim powers everywhere, but in India it

had taken on an added significance. N ot only were Muslims going to loose power in

favor o f the British, but as a minority in Hindu India they were also going to loose

ground against the Hindu majority. There was a special sense of crisis among

Muslims in general and among the Muslim elite in particular because they were the

ones who were increasingly being put at a disadvantage in loosing their power bases.

Another dilemma often faced by Muslims was whether the Indian

subcontinent was ddr al-harb (abode of war) or a ddr al-Islam (abode o f peace).

According to the Hanafi school of law, a land may be declared ddr al-harb if there is:

1) suppression o f basic Islamic tenets, 2) absence o f any protection for Muslim

interests, and 3) threat to the very existence of Muslim territories. Furthermore, the

44 Barbara Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband 1860-1900 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 38.

45 Bearce, British Attitudes, 10.

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declaration o f ddr al-harb was a necessary prerequisite for a call for jihad (armed

struggle).46

Immediately after Shah Waliullah, his son Shah Abdul Aziz (1746-1824), and

another prominent thinker of his time, Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (1786-1831), took hold

of the Muslim imagination. Their thought was crucial in shaping the Muslim mind. If

the former was a true heir of Waliullahs teachings of harmony, the latter developed a

strategy for confronting non-Muslims. Shah Abdul Aziz cooperated to some extent

with the British elite the Company rulers while Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi decided to

oppose them vehemently. Sayyid Ahmad tried to organize a political front against the

British, blaming them for the dissolution o f the Muslim Empire in the way o f what

came to be.known as the Jihad Movement. He declared India ddr al-harb, literally

the abode o f war, which became the basis for his call to jihad against the

British.47

Among the most hostile movements against non-Muslims that arose during

this period, the movement of Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi is only second to the FaraizI

Movement48 o f Bengal in its ferocity. In general, the Muslim attitude to the

46 W. W. Hunter, The Indian Musulmans (Lahore: n.p. 1871).

47 Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi refrained from declaring India ddr al-harb under the Marathas. Aziz Ahmad, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857-1964 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 19.

48 The FaraizI Movement was started by Haji Shariatullah, who spent a considerable amount of time in the Hijaj. Upon his return to Bengal in 1802 he attempted to purify Islam of what he thought were pagan and animistic elements. It is so-called because of Shariatullahs extreme emphasis on the fulfillment of the farai (sg. fard religious

34


dissolution o f the Muslim empire was that since it did not remain part o f ddr al-Islam,

one o f three options must be taken: believers must: 1) fight to restore the Muslim

ruler as called for by Sayyid Ahmad, 2) migrate to a different land, or at the very

least, 3) withhold their allegiance to the non-Muslim ruler.49

Syed Ahmad Shahids call for jihad against the Sikhs and for the

establishment o f an Islamic state was well received throughout the subcontinent.

Although Syed Ahmad and Shah Isma'il, the grandson of Shah Waliullah, succeed in

breaking the hold of the Sikh armies in the northwest, the movement itself did not

last very long or at least not as a one coherent and coordinated social effort. The

armed struggle was not a success and Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi as well as Shah Isma'il

both were killed by the Sikh armies in 1831.50 In Muslim memory they are both

remembered as martyrs {shuhadasg. shahtd).

The Mujahidin Movement, as it is generally known, had a damaging effect on

the Muslim psyche. The movement did not survive but the spirit o f fighting and

jihad continued to instigate other Muslim groups to engage in violent clashes with

the political authorities in other parts o f the subcontinent, such as Bengal and the

obligation) including the five daily prayers, fasting, zakat etc. Muinuddin Khan, History of the Faraidi Movement in Bengal 1818-1906 (Karachi: Pakistan Historical Society, 1965).

49 Robert Stem, Changing India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, [1993] 1996),168.

50 Aziz Ahmad, Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964 rep. 1966), 215.

35


United Provinces.51 The influence o f Sayyid Ahmad Shahid and Shah Isma'il is

evident on all subsequent events in the history of Islam in the subcontinent. For

example, the mutiny of 1857, the Khilafat Movement, and finally the demand for a

separate homeland for Muslims and the Partition of India, are just a few prominent

examples.52

As a result of the events o f the 1830s, a general pessimism prevailed among

the Muslim masses. They were disappointed at the failure of the Movement to restore

Islamic political hegemony in the subcontinent. But in reality, the dream to establish

an Islamic political state in those conditions was perhaps unrealistic. In point of truth,

Muslims were fighting against heavy odds, both internal and external. Internally,

Muslims were weakened socially and economically as well as politically; as a people

51 Ibid., 215ff.

52 It is arguable whether Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi and Shah Isma'il were continuing the legacy of Shah Waliullah and were acting out in accord with his intellectual positions. (Hermansen, The Conclusive Argument from God xxvii). The political orientation given to what is now known as Waliullahi Movement is probably the result of a work by Tlbaydullah Sindhi entided Shah Wali Allah aur unki siyasi tahrik [Shah Waliullah and his political movement] (Lahore: 1970), cited in Hermansen, The Conclusive Argument from God, xxvii, note 28. It seems to me that Sindhi is possibly reading Shah Isma'iTs own political struggles backwards and projecting them as emanating from Shah Waliullah. For example, Jalbanis work on Shah Waliullahs teachings argues as follows:

The fact to which Shah Waliullah draws our attention is that since the relig ion of Islam has come for the establishment of the greatest international power and when its domination is to continue for ever, it can be righdy insured only when the Muslim nations make themselves strong both morally and m a terially, draw closer and work together as far as possible.

G. N. Jalbani, Teachings of Ha^rat Shah Waliyullah Muhaddis Dehlavi (Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, [1988] 1997), 191. Jalbani is clearly influenced in this political interpretation by Ubaydullah

36


they were disintegrated and confused. There was religious confusion, which led many

to political extremism. There was also an economic factor that led many to believe in

the dream of an Islamic state.53

Due to the mindset that was developing throughout the eighteenth century

and in light of the takeover o f Delhi by the British in 1803, the first war of

independence erupted in parts of British controlled north India. This is generally

known as the ghadar (mutiny) o f 1857 waged by some disgruntled members of the

Indian army against the British. In point o f fact, there seems to be a difference of

opinion about the mass revolt of 1857 as to whether it was a mutiny, a rebellion or an

organixed Indian independence movement. Many early twentieth century Indian

historians saw it as the first war o f independence, but other historians, notably R. C.

Majumdar, disagreed. In his words, the so-called First National War of

Independence was neither first, nor national, nor a war of independence, and thus

he calls it the Sepoy [soldiers] Mutiny.54 Nevertheless, the mutiny became the first

major joint collaboration between Muslims and Hindus, including Indian soldiers in

the British army as well as civilians. This unified effort was brought about by the

Sindhis reading of Waliullah as he himself acknowledges latters superior knowledge with regard to Shah Waliullahs teachings in the preface of this work and quotes him frequendy.

53 In general it may said that most of these mass movements, led either by the religious elite as in the case of Syed Ahmad Shahid and Shah Ismail, or the political elite such as Muhammad Ali Jinnah who led the Muslim masses into separatism, were primarily motivated by the political interest of the elites.

54 R. C. Majumdar, The Sepoy Mutiny (Calcutta: 1963) cited in R. A. Geaves, India 1857: A Mutiny or a War of Independence? Islamic Studies 35,1 (Spring 1996): 25-44.

37


common desire to oust the British just as they were about to place the entirety of

north India under their occupation. There was no other ideology behind the events of

1857. The revolt began first in Merrut and then in Delhi; it quickly spread all over

north India. The British reacted very harshly and suppressed it militarily.55

This also became the first major defeat o f Indians at the hands of the British

and resulted in a loss of their sovereignty. Mughal rule formally came to an end and

the rule o f the Queen of England was established. Thousands were massacred and

millions became refugees after being driven from their homes and towns. The

execution o f suspects continued for many years to come.

The British held Muslims especially responsible for the revolt, mainly because

of the role o f the ulama in supporting the mutiny. They formulated a policy o f long

term punishment of Muslims by de-stabilizing and even uprooting their primary

social, economic and educational institutions on the one hand, and offering political

favoritism to Hindus on the other. They marginalized Muslim concerns and

grievances and began favoring Hindus in all matters of social, economic, and

educational development. Studies of Orientalism on Islam may have played their role

in vilifying Islam enough to have justified their enmity. This was astute since Muslims

were a bigger political threat than the Hindus would ever be to the British. Muslims

had a larger share of the anger and fr

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