Negotiating Muslim Pluralism and Singularity Chapter Twelve

PART FOUR

NEGOTIATING MUSLIM PLURALISM AND SINGULARITY CHAPTER TWELVE

THE MUSLIM PUBLIC DIVIDED (APPROX. 1930–1960S)

Apart from the Deobandis, Barelwis, Ahl-e Hadith, Aligarhis, Nadwis and Shi{ites, many other regional and trans-regional groupings with speciﬁ c ideas and organisational structures emerged, at times sharing different religious traditions; a number of new thinkers, movements, organisations and parties also evolved—messianic, missionary, quasi- fascist, Islamist, modernist, secular, most of them contesting for the agency to represent Prophetic authority as the embodiment of Islamic morality and space. We will discuss the most important ones before pursuing the historical narrative of South Asian Muslims in the context of the Muslim League.1

Messianism

Long before Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) formulated his idea of a “Consolidated North Western Muslim State” in 1930 (see Chap. 11), the millenarian Ahmadiyya had already established their power in Punjab under the charismatic leader Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908) of Qadiyan in 1889.2 In 1882, he claimed to have received a divine mes- sage, on the basis of which he proclaimed himself a mujaddid (renewer of faith who averts the process of deterioration). Initially Ghulam Ahmad strove to defend Islam from Christian and Hindu missionar- ies, but soon he also demanded its reformation. He claimed to be the masih-e mau{dud (promised messiah) and the mahdi, subsequently claiming to be the saviour of both Islam and Christianity. Violence was

1 Still valid and useful are Ahmad et al. (eds.): Self-Statement; W.C. Smith: Modern Islam in India. A Social Analysis, Lahore: Muh.Ashraf 1969 (reprint); A. Syed: Pakistan, Islam, Politics and National Security, Lahore 1984. 2 The most important source on this movement is still Y. Friedman: Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background, Berkeley 1988; see also Charles H. Kennedy: “Towards the Deﬁ nition of a Muslim in an Islamic State: The Case of Ahmadiyya in Pakistan”, in: Dhirendra Vajpeyi and Yogendra Malik (eds.): Religious and Ethnic Minority Politics in South Asia, Maryland: Riverdale, and London: Jaya Publishers 1989, pp. 71–108.