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The Deobandi Madrassas in India and Their Elusion of Jihadi Politics: Lessons for Pakistan

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The Deobandi Madrassas in India and Their Elusion of Jihadi Politics: Lessons for Pakistan The Deobandi Madrassas in India and their elusion of Jihadi Politics: Lessons for Pakistan A thesis submitted to the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR), Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan in partial fulfillment of requirement for degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the subject of International Relations By Arshi Saleem Hashmi 2014 CONTENTS iii Acknowledgement vii Abstract List of abbreviations x Glossary xii List of figures ( 1-6) 1-Map of India xxii 2-Map of Pakistan xxiii 3-Map of Deoband in UP , India xxiv 4- DarulUloomDeoband in Deoband India 5-Map of AkoraKhattak in Khyber - xxv PakhtoonKhwan –Pakistan xxvi 6-Darul UloomHaqqania in AkoraKhattak- xxvii Pakistan Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1 26 Theoretical Framework CHAPTER 2 51 DeobandiMadrassa System in Historical Perspective CHAPTER 3 102 Intrusion of Politics in Deobandi Madrassas in Pre and Post-Independence India and Pakistan i CHAPTER 4 131 State of Religion and Nature of State in Pakistan and India CHAPTER 5 180 International Political Environment (1979-2001) and Internal Politics of India and Pakistan: Implications on Regional Politics CHAPTER 6 203 Existing Indian and Pakistani Deobandi Madrassa System in Comparative perspective: Serving Religion or Politics of Religion? CONCLUSION 221 APPENDICES Appendix I 245 Appendix II 250 Appendix III 251 Appendix IV 260 Appendix V 261 Appendix VI 271 Bibliography 273 ii Acknowledgement I owe deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.LubnaAbid Ali, for providing me the opportunity to learn from her expertise and work under her guidance to complete this research thesis. It was her constant support, encouragement and help that kept me in the right direction to analyse the research questions. She helped me in reading the authors whose contribution in the field of international relations is remarkable. It was due to her that I found great treasures of knowledge that will continue to help me in future as well. I am thankful to the School of Politics and International Relations and particularly the faculty for a welcoming environment that is always helpful for students. I got great help from the JamiaMilliaUniveristy in New Delhi India, especially Prof. Syed Sajjad and Prof. AkhtarulWasey , for the material and interviews with many religious scholars and Muslim leaders in India. I am indebted to the Institute of Regional Studies for providing me the opportunity to use their books collection on India. The National Defence University Library was also a great source for me for the books not available otherwise. I also benefitted from the huge collection of Library of Congress, Washington DC during my visits to the US in 2012 and the Middle East Institute in Washington DC. I would also like to thank Naseer Hussein for his great help in arranging interview and my several visits to madrassas which would have been otherwise difficult. I appreciate the help provided by Mariam Shah and Hasan Hakeem. Last but not the least, my beloved family, my father’s confidence and encouragement that I can complete my thesis and my mother’s prayers cannot be expressed in words. My husband’s patience and support will always be remembered and above all my son Mustafa’s understanding of the importance of the work enabled me to carry out the research without disturbance. ArshiSaleemHashmi November 2012 iii Declaration I , ArshiSaleemHashmi, registration no. 03130813002, PhD Scholar in the subject of International Relations at the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR), Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan hereby declare that the matter printed in this thesis titled: “The Deobandi Madrassas in India and their Elusion of Jihadi Politics: Lessons for Pakistan” is my own work and has not been printed, published and submitted as research work , thesis and publication in any form in any university or research institution in Pakistan or abroad. ------------------------------ Ms. Arshi Saleem Hashmi PhD Scholar SPIR, QAU iv CERTIFICATE This thesis titled: “The Deobandi Madrassas in India and their Elusion of Jihadi Politics: Lessons for Pakistan”, is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations by ArshiSaleemHashmi, PhD Scholar at the SPIR. 1- ________________ Dr. LubnaAbid Ali Supervisor School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) Qaudi-e-AzamUniveristy-Islamabad 2- ___________________ Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal Director School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) Qaudi-e-AzamUniveristy-Islamabad v Dedication Dedicated to Moazzam, My life partner, My supporter and my best critic vi Abstract The madrassa system has been the source of traditional Islam providing the inspiration for intellectual philosophy. In South Asia, they have been actively involved in maintaining the traditional Islam and providing a cultural alternative. South Asian Muslims found in Madrassas, the centre of classical Islamic studies keeping the orthodox culture intact. Madrassa have been the torch bearer of conservative values within Islam and at times worked as reactionary forces against the “cultural invasion” from other religious traditions, especially Hinduism in South Asia. Post 9/11, the once little known educational institutions became a significant part of the public discourse, thanks to media coverage. But in this, hysterical coverage the most pertinent question remained unanswered. Why some of these Islamic educational institutions have been transformed drastically? Rather, a simplistic, readymade, and already known answer has been repeated over time, while ignoring the actual spirit of these madrassas being rooted in the historical unveiling of Islamic spirituality. However, following the collapse of Islamic self-confidence that accompanied the deposition of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, disillusioned scholars founded an influential madrassa at Deoband, a 100 miles north of the former Mughal capital in Delhi. Feeling that they were pushed against the wall, the madrassa's founders reacted against what they saw as the degenerate ways of the old elite. The Deobandimadrassa, therefore, went back to Quranic basics and rigorously stripped out anything “Hindu” or “European” from the curriculum. Founded in 1866 byMaulanaQasimNanautavi and Maulana Rashid Gangohi, the school did take part in the freedom struggle against the British. Since the departure of the British, Indian Deobandis remained apolitical while Pakistani Deobandis got into politics. In the same way, it rejected any state influence. That role in the colonial period was not overtly political. The brutal repression of the so-called Mutiny of 1857 against the British had fallen very hard on north Indian Muslims. In the aftermath, the `Ulema, not surprisingly, adopted a stance of a-political quietism. As the Indian nationalist movement became a mass movement after World War I, the Deobandileadership did something of an about turn. They were never a political party as such, but, organized into the Association of the `Ulema of India (Jamiat `Ulema-i Hind). Thus threw in their lot with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress in opposition to British rule. Deobandi histories written before 1920 insisted that the Ulema did not participate in the anti-colonial rebellion of 1857. However, the histories written after independence, give freedom-fighters pride of place. In the aftermath of Soviet interventions into Afghanistan and Islamic revolution in Iran 1979, a kind of "surrogate" competition emerged between Saudis and Iranians, each side patronizing religious institutions which fueled sectarian violence. The surge in the number of madrasas in the 1980s coincided with the ideology of Jihad in Afghanistan due to Russian intervention that resulted in the influx of millions of Afghan refugees. The madrasas located along the frontier frequently provided the only available education. One school in particular, the Madrasa Haqqaniya, in AkoraKathaknear Peshawar, trained many of the top Taliban leaders. These students (talib; plural, taliban) were indoctrinated by many of the core Deobandireformists vii encouraged by Arab and Uzbek volunteers in Afghanistan. Deobandis followed Saudi-Wahabi injunctions including rigorous concern with fulfilling rituals; opposition to custom laden ceremonies like weddings and pilgrimage to shrines, and a focus on seclusion of women as a central symbol of a morally ordered society. Theirs was, according to Ahmed Rashid, “an extreme form of Deobandism, which was being preached by Pakistani Islamic parties in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan." 1This focus on a fairly narrow range of shari'a law, which emphasized strict ritual, was something the Taliban shared with other Deobandimovements, while the severity of the Taliban indoctrination made them known to the world as inhuman and terrorist. DarulUloomDeoband India,on the other hand, forbade their students from going to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The clerics drew an important boundary line between theologically conservative views and political violence. A successful story of Muslim education in India is DarulUmoor, a one-year institute for madrassa graduates in the southern state of Mysore. There, religious students supplement their education with English literature and comparative religion before returning to their communities to teach in madrassas and preach in mosques. Many observers agree that local, Muslim-run projects like this one are essential if Muslims are to genuinely integrate into the Indian
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