Muslim Identity Construction in Colonial Punjab: Investigating the Role of Muslim Communal Organizations by Muhammad Abrar Zahoo

Home , Muslim National Guard, Sajjada Nashin, Zulfikar Ali Khan

Muslim Identity Construction in Colonial Punjab: Investigating the Role of Muslim Communal Organizations

by Muhammad Abrar Zahoor

Department of History Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad Pakistan 2019 Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History

Department of History Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad Pakistan 2019

Dedicated to my parents

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Acknowledgements

I have accumulated so many debts in the course of researching and writing my thesis. First and foremost, my dissertation supervisor Dr. Tanvir Anjum has been a constant source of inspiration, encouragement and wholehearted support throughout my academic career in the Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad. Particularly her role in conceiving the idea of doing PhD on the profound question of construction of Muslim identity in colonial Punjab and throughout the research and writing on this project has been an unparalleled one. I owe debts of Himalayan proportion to her. My respectable teachers and friends at QAU are profoundly thanked for their help and encouragement during the course work as well as the research: Prof. Dr. Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah, Dr. Rabia Umar Ali, Dr. Razia Sultana, Dr. Farooq Ahmad Dar, Dr. Ilhan Niaz, Dr. Himayat Ullah Yaqoobi, Fakhar Bilal, Aman Ullah, Misbah Umar deserve special mention in this regard.

Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan is appreciated for International Research Support Initiative Program (IRSIP) fellowship for studying at Royal Holloway College, University of London and consulting sources in various important libraries in London: it was an important milestone during this research project. My supervisor at Royal Holloway Prof. Dr. Francis Robinson gave unflinching support for exploring further sources and honing interpretation and argument. Prof. Dr. Sarah Ansari and Markus Daechsel also supported and guided. Dr. Tahir Kamran, Dr. Sikandar Hayat, Dr. Dushka H. Saiyyid, Dr. M. Naeem Qureshi, Dr. M. Aslam Syed, Dr. M. Rafique Afzal and Dr. Saeeduddin A. Dar inspired me as historians and my teachers. Dr. M. Iqbal Chawla has always supported and encouraged in my academic life. My friends who gave me company during my stay in London, Akhtar Rasool Bodla, Zafar Mohyuddin, Haroon Abbas and Khurram Iftikhar Sahi deserve special thanks for making this trip very enjoyable in addition to academic pursuits. My friends Dr. Khizr Hayat Naushahi, Rai Ahmad Raza, Dr. Ejaz Husain, Dr. Ali Usman Qasmi, Dr. Abdul Qadir Mushtaq, M. Sajid Khan, Ahmad Hasan Chishti, Salman Ahmad, Asghar Leghari, Ghous Shah, Kashif Mumtaz and Asif Tarar deserve my gratitude.

My friends at the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research (NIHCR), Islamabad, Dr. Sajid Mehmood Awan, Dr. Rahat Zubair, Dr. Altaf Ullah and Hassan Baloch have given their input and support in many important ways through discussions and providing important sources available in their rich library and archives.

Muhammad Naveed Akhtar is especially acknowledged for his rich and long academic companionship with me. My friends and colleagues, at my work place, the Department of History and Pakistan Studies, University of Sargodha (UOS), Pir

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Ahmad Hassan, Mahr Allah Yar, Ghulam Qadir Dogar, Aqal Wazir, Muhammad Pervez, M. Salahuddin, Saima Perveen, Kausar Perveen and Saima Kanwal are thanked. M. Azam Manika, Dr. Omar Riaz and Fahad Ullah have supported me in my professional and academic life.

The wonderful and enriched collections of libraries in central London and the much needed co-operation of their staff made working a wonderful pleasure, and I gratefully acknowledge utilizing the facilities of the British Library, especially the Oriental and India Office Collections and library of School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). I wish to acknowledge the kind services of librarians, archivists and other support staff at the Seminar Library Department of History, QAU, Central Library, QAU, Central Library Punjab University, Central Library, UOS, National Documentation Center (NDC), National Archives Islamabad, Punjab Archives (Anarkali Tomb) Lahore and Lahore Museum Library.

My greatest debt is to my family. My parents have been a constant bastion of support and encouragement throughout my life, and this research is dedicated to them. M. Iqbal Zahoor, younger brother, has supported me throughout my travels and pursuits unconditionally and relentlessly. M. Iftikhar Zahoor, my elder brother, has been intrinsically important for our family because he has always taken care of various matters at our village. My only sister supported and provided moral support to our family. I am grateful to my wife Ambreen Shaista and children, Husnain and Sophia, for bearing inconveniences imposed by my research trips in country and abroad. I take the opportunity to thank all of those people whose names have not been mentioned above, but they assisted me along the way. Nevertheless, the responsibility of all lapses and shortcomings in the thesis remain mine alone.

Muhammad Abrar Zahoor

Abstract

The Muslims in South Asia from their advent by launching invasion on India in 712 AD to their materializing the aspiration to achieve a separate Muslim homeland, i.e. Pakistan in 1947, went through various kinds of socio-political circumstances and responded to the confronting challenges by asserting a range of social, cultural, ethnic, geographical and political identities. Having multiple identities on both levels, the individual and the group, they expressed their associations with those whom they found to have convergence of interests. During medieval era, they remained associated with, even divided into, parallel competing territorial, ethnic, professional, tribal and religious identities, which provided them a sense of pride and prejudice. Among them, the ashraf (i.e. elite) generally endeavored to protect their exclusivism, whereas the commoners of them along with the local convert Muslims adhered to pluralism, heterogeneity and syncretic culture. Shift to the further construction and expression of these identical and ideological tendencies came during colonial era when they found themselves into a situation of political decline, socio-moral degeneration, religious assault and economic marginalization. Being influenced by imperialist policies of the British Raj and the process of modernization of India that they launched, and the conflicting and competing relationship with the Hindu community, the Muslims got highly conscious of their identical strength, which led them to evolve a unique religious nationalism resulting into acquiring a state where they deemed to have what they aspired.

Recognizing Muslims‘ plight and challenges, the ideologues and politically influential figures of the Muslim community formed anjumans and organizations including Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore, Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore, Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba, Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam and Khaksar Movement, which voiced for their rights and strived to enhance their solidarity by accelerating their communal identical consciousness. These organizations provided them institutionalized assistance to empower them ideologically, educationally, politically and economically. The political circumstances of the colonial Punjab were quite different from the other Muslim majority parts of India, where hence nationalistic

x feelings took more time to grow, but it eventually happened during early 1940s and the Muslim population living there manifested their nationalist affection by voting in the favour of All India Muslim League, the political party accredited to achieve Pakistan.

The present research presents evaluation of varied theoretical frameworks and by developing a critique on them suggests how the theory of social constructivism explains best the phenomenon of identity construction of the Muslims of colonial Punjab by inquiring the significant role of the Muslim communal organizations. It explains the socio-political, religious and economic dynamics which fostered the communal identities in India generally and in Punjab particularly during the period of the British Raj. It discusses and analyzes the formation of these organizations, their aims, objectives and agendas, their administrative structure and paraphernalia, the strategies and mechanism to pursue their objectives. It evaluates how these Muslim organizations succeeded in developing identity consciousness among Indian Muslims and to what extent these succeeded in achieving their rest of the goals benefiting the Punjabi Muslims.

List of Abbreviations

AHIL Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore

AICC All India Congress Committee

AIML All India Muslim League

AIP Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab

AIPL Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore

AKK Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba

BL British Library

BLO Bodleian Library, Oxford

CMS Church Missionary Society

CPI Communist Party of India

DAV Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College

INC Indian National Congress

MLA Member of Legislative Assembly

NAP National Archives of Pakistan

NWFP North-Western Frontier Province

OIOC Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library

PSA Punjab Secretariat Library, Anarkali‘s Tomb

RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

SGPC Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee

SPG Society for the Propagation of the Gospel

UP United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh)

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Contents

Acknowledgements ...... viii Abstract ...... x List of Abbreviations ...... xii Contents ...... xiii Introduction ...... 1 Statement of the Problem ...... 3 Objectives and Key Research Questions ...... 7 Significance of the Study ...... 8 Scope of the Study ...... 10 Review of Literature ...... 11 Framework of Analysis ...... 33 Methodology ...... 39 Organization of the Study ...... 41 Chapter 1 ...... 44 Construction of Identities in Colonial India: An Overview ...... 44 1.1 Understanding the Concept of Identity ...... 45 1.1.1 Causal Analysis of Tendencies of Redefining the Self-identities ...... 48 1.1.2 Identities and Socio-political Behaviours ...... 49 1.1.3 Postmodernist Criticism on Fixation of Identities ...... 51 1.1.4 Shifting Emphasis from Individual to Group Identities and Postmodernist Perspective ...... 52 1.1.5 Constructionist Perspective on Identity Formation: Materialist Understanding of Identity Construction...... 53 1.2 Nationalism and Construction of National Identity ...... 55 1.2.1 Evolution of National Identities ...... 56 1.2.2 Identities in Premodern Times ...... 56 1.2.3 National Identities in Modern Times ...... 57 1.2.4 British Imperialism, Modernization and Political Mobilization in India ... 59 1.2.5 Social Engineering by the British and the Emergence of Social, Racial and Professional Identities ...... 74 1.3 Nation, Nationalism and National Identity in Colonial India ...... 80 1.4 Communalist/Religious Identity Consciousness in South Asia ...... 89 1.5 Constructing the Hindu Communal Identity ...... 97 1.6 Genesis and Development of Muslim Identity Consciousness in South Asia 102 1.6.1 Communalist Organizations in British India and their Role in Identity Construction ...... 105 1.6.2 Muslim Communal Organizations in Colonial India and their Role in Muslim Identity Construction ...... 111 Chapter 2 ...... 115 Rise of Communalism in Colonial India with Particular Reference to Punjab: Contributing Factors ...... 115

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2.1 Punjabi Composite Culture and the Arrival of Christian Missionaries ...... 116 2.2 Advent of British Colonialism in Punjab ...... 124 2.3 Religious Factor Contributing to Communal Identity Formation...... 128 2.4 The Role of Orientalist Scholarship in Constructing the Indian Past ...... 132 2.5 Role and Politics of Census Enumeration ...... 138 2.5.1 Census Operations: Political and Intellectual Context ...... 139 2.5.2 Colonial Census in Punjab and the Creation of Religious Identities ...... 145 2.6 Introduction of Representative Political Institutions ...... 150 2.7 Print Capitalism and the Dissemination of Communal Literature ...... 160 2.8 Urdu as an Identity Marker for the Muslims and Hindi for the Hindus ...... 171 Chapter 3 ...... 177 Muslim Communal Organizations and Muslim Identity: The Case of Anjuman-i- Islamia Punjab, Lahore ...... 177 3.1 Challenges of Christian Missionaries and Conversion in Punjab ...... 180 3.2 Muslim Response to Christian Missionaries and Arya Samaj ...... 183 3.3 Response of Muslim Communal Organizations to Challenges in Punjab ...... 185 3.3.1 Tabligh: Muslim Response to Shuddhi ...... 186 3.3.2 Tanzim Movement: Muslim Response to Colonial state ...... 191 3.3.3 Establishment of Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba (AKK) ...... 192 3.3.4 Formation of the Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam ...... 197 3.3.5 Khaksar Movement of Allama Inayatullah Mashriqi ...... 204 3.4 Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore (AIPL) ...... 209 3.4.1 Establishment of AIPL ...... 210 3.4.2 Organizational Structure of AIPL and its Office Bearers ...... 213 3.4.3 Services of AIPL for Punjabi Muslims and Formation of Muslim Identity ...... 214 Chapter 4 ...... 249 Muslim Communal Organizations and Muslim Identity: The Case of Anjuman-i- Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore ...... 249 4.1 Communal Cognizance of Punjabi Muslims and the Formation of AHIL ..... 250 4.2 The Founding Fathers of AHIL ...... 254 4.3 Politics of Conversion and the Role of AHIL ...... 256 4.4 AHIL‘s Donations: Donors and the Development of Muslim Consciousness 260 4.5 Organizational Structure of AHIL ...... 270 4.6 Intellectual and Literary Contribution of AHIL: Writers and Writings ...... 277 4.7 Countering Christian Missionaries and Preaching Islam ...... 282 4.8 Colonial Context of Modern Education and Muslim Identity Construction ... 285 4.9 Educational Network of AHIL...... 287 4.9.1 Schools of AHIL ...... 289 4.9.2 Islamia College, Lahore and Promotion of Muslim Identity Consciousness in Punjab ...... 290 4.9.3 Female Education and AHIL ...... 295 4.9.4 Islamia College for Women ...... 300 4.10 Sponsoring Technical Education for the Muslims of Punjab: Services of AHIL ...... 302 4.11 Muslim Identity Assertion through Unani Medicine ...... 305

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4.11.1 Instituting Himayat-i-Islam Tibbia College and Central Pharmacy ...... 307 4.11.2 Establishment of Unani and Charity Clinics ...... 308 4.12 Establishing Library and Publishing Quran ...... 309 4.13 Himayat-i-Islam Press and Publicity Committee of AHIL ...... 311 4.14 Establishment of Orphanages by AHIL ...... 313 4.15 AHIL and Muslim Identity Consciousness in Colonial Punjab ...... 315 Conclusion ...... 323 Bibliography ...... 337 Primary Sources ...... 337 Secondary Sources ...... 340 Books in English ...... 340 Books in Urdu ...... 357 Journal Articles ...... 358 Unpublished Theses ...... 363 Newspapers and Magazines ...... 365 Appendix I (Objectives of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore) ...... 366 Appendix II (Membership Rules of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore) ...... 367 Appendix III (Objectives of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore) ...... 368 Appendix IV (Oaths Administered by Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba) ...... 369

Introduction

In 1947 India gained independence from colonial rule and was partitioned on the basis of religious identities or religious nationalism. The partition of colonial India into two post-colonial nation states—India and Pakistan—was accompanied by the bloodiest massacre and migration in the history of the Indian subcontinent. A million people gave their lives in the process of partition and many more lost not only their homes but also their properties in the communal carnage in which innocent Hindus,

Muslims and Sikhs were severely affected. Nearly ten million had to flee from one side to the other of the newly drawn borders making it the largest migration in this region. It was in the province of Punjab where much of the trauma and violence of partition took place.

Academicians have been grappling to investigate, explore and come up with explanation of the construction of religiously informed political identities in colonial

India. It was the religious identities which triggered competition, contestation, animosity and ultimately communal carnage at the time of partition. How did these identities crystallize has remained an important question in historiography of colonial

India and various scholarly expositions and convincing explanations of this horrendous tragedy have been put forward. The phenomenon was intriguingly complex. The deeper question which is still intriguing the researchers is that having lived for many centuries together as a community, how come the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs became enemies, bent upon annihilating each other, once the grip of the

Raj was loosened.

There have been two major explanations of Hindu-Muslim conflict in India during the last few decades of the British colonial rule. One argues that it was intrinsic to the peculiar situation of India being home of diametrically opposed communities. Hindus and Muslims were different and this ‗difference‘ took the shape of hostility and violence. The British rule controlled and limited this hostility during the heyday of colonial rule by dint of their efficient administrative machinery and powerful military machine. However, the prospect of independence brought this hostility to the surface. Proponents of this school argue that Hindus and Muslims have perennially been enemies of each other. The other view was opposed to the perennialists‘ argument. There was, it was argued, nothing intrinsic about Hindu-

Muslim conflict. The British being faced with a rising anti-colonial movement and wishing to hold on to their prized and precious colony of India deliberately fanned minor differences into major conflicts. This argument stressed the importance of the famous maxim of divide it impera, i.e. divide and rule. The British Government in

India succeeded in it, by defining community on the basis of religion, and appealing to sizeable and powerful segments of the Hindu and Muslim communities who fanned communal differences for securing their interests. So according to this explanation, it was the British who instigated animosity among the communities because they wanted the ruled to be divided and thereby rule more effectively.

Both these explanations oversimplify what really happened during the colonial period. Without distorting the thrust of the previous arguments, one needs to understand the process, stretched over a reasonable period of time, which produced, fashioned and accentuated religious identities in colonial India, the Muslim identity

2 being one of them. Documentary evidences suggest that neither were Hindus and

Muslims intrinsically different and opposed to each other, nor could the British have foreseen their withdrawal from India so earlier. It was only after the prolonged war in

Europe, i.e., the World War II (1939-1945) and the necessities of re-building their home country that the colonial Government was forced to withdraw abruptly. It was, in fact, the process of identity construction—religious, political and national—that resulted in widening chasm between the various religious communities and increasing communalism1 over many decades. The minor issues turned out to be major causes of riots and disturbances. The political solution of this problem was sought, after discussions and deep deliberations by leaders of Indian religious communities and

British higher administration, in the shape of partition of India which yielded unprecedented massacre.

Statement of the Problem

Identities fashioned during the colonial period were a response to the process of modernization. Modernity caused rapid changes in the socio-economic, political and educational structures in India. The modernity introduced by the British was accompanied and backed by the conversion activities of the Christian missionaries.

The protestant missionaries arrived in Bengal in 1793 and in Punjab by 1849 when

1 With regard to South Asian context, Ian Talbot defines the phenomenon of communalism as ―[t]he situation in which religious community rather than caste or class becomes a major determinant of political loyalties has been traditionally known in the Indian context as communalism. It is based on two premises, first that because a group of people follow a particular religion they automatically possess common social, economic and political interests, second that religious identity is the sole determinant of political loyalty.‖ See Ian Talbot, ―State, Society and Identity: The British Punjab, 1875-1937,‖ in Gurharpal Singh and Ian Talbot (eds.), Punjabi Identity: Continuity and Change (New Delhi: Manohar, 1996). 3 the British annexed Punjab. They established a network of educational and social welfare institutions. The missionaries started converting the local people to

Christianity. The Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs felt this unprecedented challenge to both their worldly life and faith.

Throughout Muslim presence in South Asia, it was not a matter of overriding concern for them to be perceived and presented primarily as the Muslims, they used to be labelled ethnically—such as Turks, Persians, Arabs and Afghans—or on the basis of their origin—like Sherazi, Gilani, Gardezi, Barelvi, Dehlvi, or Bilgrami. The period of British rule sharpened the religious identities because of their particular understanding of India. This was further intensified by Muslims‘ inclination towards revivalism. The British understanding of India‘s social environment developed under the cognizance of cultural imperialism, i.e. the relationship of the rulers and the ruled.

The Orientalists like Warren Hastings (b. 1732-d. 1818), James Mill (b.1773-d. 1836) and G. W. Leitner (b. 1840-d. 1899) conceptualized Indian society in religious terms broadly divided into two major communities i.e. Hindus and Muslims. The periodization they introduced to explain Indian history divided it into three eras, that is, Hindu, Muslim and British periods. This trend was further encouraged by the practice of conducting decennial census (first all India in 1871 and followed by after every ten years) and compilation of imperial and provincial gazetteers. In census, people were tabulated under religious headings. This therefore gave Indians chances for their alignment on the basis of religious identity-consciousness.

To facilitate their administration, the colonialists introduced all-encompassing modernization. The period of European overseas expansion, somehow, was the first phase of globalization. The steamship, the telegraph, the popular press and movements of commodities and labour during this period was on unprecedented scale. The interaction of various religious communities with Westerners might be less violent but its impact has been more devastating than the holy wars of distant past.

People of all faiths reeled under the impact of Western modernity because the traditional local people had not experienced such a phenomenon earlier.

The Punjab under British rule witnessed transformation in socio-religious identities, which were further reinforced by demographic, cultural, linguistic and economic factors. The growth of modern state institutions, the introduction of mass education, use of printing press, repeated exercise of conducting census, capitalist modes of production and distribution and spread of various methods of communications, this all were instrumental in fashioning and sharpening identities mainly in urban centres of Punjab.

It is interesting to note that the Hindu organizations like Brahmo Samaj (est.

1828), Arya Samaj (est. 1875), Hindu Mahasabha (est. 1915), and those of the

Muslims like Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore (1869), Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam,

Lahore (1884), Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba (1913), Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam (1929) and Khaksars (1931) made Punjab a centre of their activities. These organizations used myriad strategies to propagate their massage, through preaching, holding sermons, printing and distributing pamphlets and publishing books and tracts.

This study signifies the role of Muslim communal organizations focusing on

Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore and Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore, exploring and evaluating how these anjumans (associations) contributed in constructing Muslim identity in colonial Punjab. The Muslim religious identity served as the foundation of the development and growth of Muslim nationalism in India, which later on provided popularity and support to separatist movement, culminated in the creation of a new Muslim state in South Asia, i.e. Pakistan.

There are various perspectives of historiography which help explain the phenomenon of formation of identities. Marxist approach highlights the role of material conditions and economic forces. Being monological, it is critiqued for stressing on only one aspect. The Muslim nationalist approach views identity construction by explaining the role of religion in constructing identities. However, it is based on sentimental factors and is hyperbolic. Religious factor, though important in South Asian context, cannot explain other aspects of identity formation. The parochialist viewpoint signifies the role of subalterns in construction of identities.

Though important in resisting the challenges of colonialism, the subalterns were led by the leaders hailed from elite middle class who were closely engaged with colonial authorities in India. The orientalist perspective, being perceived as agenda based and criticized as Euro-centric, has many flaws. It is argued that the postmodernist approach in the framework of social constructionism can better explain formation of identities in colonial circumstances.

Objectives and Key Research Questions

This research aspires to an understanding of the process of Muslim identity construction in colonial Punjab in a way that avoids giving sweeping and simple answers to problems associated with complex phenomena like religion, culture, politics, and identity. The objective of this study is to explore the socio-political milieu and constraints which ignited the sentiments of communalism in colonial

India, particularly in its province of Punjab. This would be investigated how the

Muslim community living in Punjab organized itself while dealing with its political and economic decline. This study maintains that the guardians of the Muslim nationalism in South Asia were fundamentally the Muslim communal organizations.

Thus, this research work explores the origination of these organizations, their objectives and agendas, strategies and mechanisms to achieve their objectives, the challenges those confronted, and to what extent those succeeded in achieving their objectives and benefiting the community they represented.

This research aims at addressing the following questions:

a) How identities are constructed in individuals and groups, and in what type of circumstances are these sharpened? b) What changes were introduced by the British colonial administration in the Punjab and how it eroded Punjabi socio-political tradition of composite culture? c) What factors led to the construction of religious identities in India, with particular reference to Punjab?

d) What were the challenges to and response of the Muslim organizations which sharpened the identity in Punjab during the colonial period? e) How did the Muslim socio-religious organizations accentuate the process of Muslim identity construction in Punjab? f) What was the impact of Muslim identity construction in colonial Punjab on the Indian politics, generally, and Muslim politics, particularly?

Significance of the Study

The significance of this study lies in two aspects: one is empirical, while the other is theoretical. The empirical aspect helps us understand the reasons of increasingly spoiling communal relationship of Indian communities during latter half of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. This legacy of embittered relations is haunting still in the form of hostile relationship of two neighboring nuclear armed states of India and Pakistan. The lack of convergence of opinions on many formulas put forward as solutions to Indian problem in the last decade before independence, and final solution in the shape of partition can also be understood through the prism of the nature of communal relations in India. The sharpening religious identities had pulled people so much apart that, despite having not wished so, all parties had to be agreed on partition of India, and that too, at a heavy cost of lives and properties coupled with incessant regional hostilities.

The theoretical aspect of this study helps us comprehend the processes and factors involved in constructing identities in societies. The process of formation of identities is always deeply informed, complex and in a state of flux. Human beings

8 are interest-pursuant specie and they tend to define themselves rationally in any given situation so that their interests are protected. On the deeper levels, communities and societies ascribe identities on the basis of their historical experiences. Communities need identities for their recognition. These are created on the perceptions of evolution of particular community and in this arena history plays an important role. The theoretical understanding of construction of communal identities in colonial period is further important to understand many of the contemporary assertions of extremist ideologies, which originated in India during the colonial period but are continuously vitiating social fabric in both post-colonial states of India and Pakistan.

It is pertinent to note that religious and cultural identities play an important role in religiously, culturally and linguistically plural societies. Thus, the proposed research aspires to be an academic contribution in this not-too-much explored field of knowledge, and thus offers a new angle of vision indeed. It needs to be explored and explained properly that how individual identity consciousness grows into collective and ultimately communal identity consciousness. This accentuation of communal consciousness was indeed the reason of partition of India as well as massive social inundation and massacre at the eve of partition of the Punjab.

This study partially endorses post-modernist perspective of the formation of identities. Partially agreeing with post-modernism, the study borrows social constructivist paradigm. For the constructivists, the struggle is not so much about the truth about a particular phenomenon; it is about the power, interests and identities of

9 those involved. The Muslim identity construction took place in distinct colonial conditions and in the constraints imposed by the state and society.

Scope of the Study

Thematically, the primary focus of this study is to investigate the contributing factors in construction of religious and communal identities and most importantly the role of communal organizations in constructing Muslim identity in colonial Punjab. It secondarily deals with the process of construction of religious identities in colonial

India for the understanding of context in which communal identities were constructed, accentuated and asserted.

Spatially, it deals generally with North India and especially with the colonial

Punjab. The geographical boundaries of Punjab in colonial period had various dimensions and it changed with the passage of time. The North-Western Frontier

Province (NWFP) remained part of Punjab till 1901. Likewise, Delhi was part of

Punjab till 1911 after which it was declared imperial capital and carved out of the

Punjab. This study focuses on communal relations and communal identities in the urban areas because prime theatre of activities of communal organizations remained the urban centres and not the rural areas of the Punjab.

Temporally, the study covers the period referred to as colonial Punjab (1849-

1947) that started with the annexation of Punjab in 1849 and lasted till the withdrawal of British Empire from India in 1947 and partition of the province of Punjab into two

10 parts—the Eastern districts of Punjab as part of India and larger territory comprising

West Punjab as part of Pakistan.

In addition to hypothesizing theoretical debate on formation of identities, and explicating factors contributing to construction of identities in colonial India with particular reference to Punjab, this study is focused on investigating two Muslim communal organizations i.e. Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore and Anjuman-i-

Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore.

Review of Literature

A vast literature is available on the colonial Punjab. Many books have been written about the construction of communal identities in colonial India and some on the

Punjab with focus on communalism. Any neat categorization of the literature in separate and independent categories is difficult because there are more linkages and overlapping in the literature on colonial North India and the colonial Punjab. The time and space of construction of communal identities in North India and Punjab have more mutualities than any other region in South Asia. However, in the present study, review of literature has been divided into the following three sections for the purpose of convenience: (i) works on colonial Punjab, (ii) studies on religious and communal identities and, (iii) literature on Muslim communal organizations.

Section I. Works on Colonial Punjab

Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran‘s recent work Lahore: In the Time of the Raj

(2016) is the first scholarly attempt to explore social, cultural and economic aspects of life in Lahore under the Raj. It was considered as one of the great cities in the East of the Suez Canal eliciting befitting title of ―Paris of the East.‖ Authors make good use of unconventional documentary sources such as tourist guide books and newspaper advertisements. The book, places the Lahore city at the centre of a web of connections reaching out to great cities of India—Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay,

Karachi—and abroad including Afghanistan, Arabia, Europe, and North America. It also provides a window to understand the place of the city in South Asia‘s past as well as the colonial era. The city of Lahore in the time of the Raj stood at the heart of imperial connections and networks across the Empire. The book makes passing references to the establishment of communal organizations and the frenzy that developed during the last days of the Raj.

Rajmohan Gandhi‘s Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten

(2015) provides an overall history of the Punjab stretching from Aurangzeb to the partition of the Punjab in 1947. Gandhi begins by Punjab‘s historical background and quickly moves to Aurangzeb pointing out that the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 left a vacuum of power and triggered a scramble for it and the province remained unstable for a century. During this period three contenders—Afghan rulers, Mughal governors and Sikh chieftains—clashed for control. Punjab remained a battle-ground for raiders and marauders as well. Ranjit Singh established control in 1799 and Sikhs ruled

Punjab from Lahore for almost half a century. Then onwards, the British annexed

Punjab in 1849 and ruled it till 1947. This history is a tale of characters involved in

Punjab including the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, British, rulers, poets, gurus, sufis, avengers, reconcilers, district officers, political leaders, journalists and many more.

However, at the end of this book, Gandhi addresses two important questions: Why did partition of Punjab occur and why did a massive upheaval and tragedy accompany it?

Anshu Malhotra and Farina Mir‘s Punjab Reconsidered: History, Culture and

Practice (2012) an edited volume of collected chapters written by scholars with varying expertise on Punjab. It explores the notion of Punjabiyat, a term loosely defined to describe different things about Punjab. However, the overarching theme is a ‗sentiment of belonging‘ to the Punjab. Despite political, social, religious and historical differences, there is a notion of Punjabiness that constitutes Punjab as a region in history, culture and practice. It investigates territoriality, language and literary cultures, the colonial experience of Punjab, religious identities in Punjab, the question of Sikh identity and the politics of conversion in this region.

Ishtiaq Ahmad‘s The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed:

Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person

Accounts (2012) is a valuable addition in the existing literature on the partition of the

Punjab and communal outrage in the last few years. Ahmad contends that the intriguing thing about the Punjab was that pre-colonial Punjab had a rich tradition of liberal and pluralist interpretations of three major religions—Islam, Hinduism and

Sikhism—as they interacted with Sufi, Bhakti and Sant Movements which preached harmony rather than confrontation. Despite a long memory of invaders and warfare,

Punjabis lived in a peaceful environment till almost the termination of colonial rule.

The shared sense of Punjabi identity and its ethos could not withstand the pressures of communalism, and Punjab administration reported formation of ‗private armies‘ by the three communities in 1945-46. Almost one million Punjabis, which formed single largest component of British Indian army, had returned to their villages after general demobilization at the end of World War II. He opines that gangs of strongmen and criminals known as goondas and badmashes were let loose by the circumstances and they had links to politicians and policemen. However, where this book is a detailed analysis of few years which led to communal carnage in Punjab, it lacks long historical investigation in factors which sharpened religious identities and created unabashed communalism.

Farina Mir‘s work based on her doctoral dissertation on Punjabi popular narrative in British India titled Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in

British Colonial Punjab (2010) is a social history. It focuses on literary narratives like

Hir Ranjha, the Punjabi equivalent of Romeo and Juliet, to understand the shared cultural sphere of religious communities in the Punjab on the basis of zat (kinship group). This kinship system based on zat, continues to mark Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and

Christian social organization in India. She explains the qissa (fable) genre in South

Asia in general, and Punjab in particular, during the medieval and early modern periods. Her contention remains that Punjabi qissa writing tradition is influenced by the literary conventions of Persian qisse. She analyses that Punjabi qisse constitute a

14 regional tradition that incorporated local aesthetic principles and responded to the religious pluralism and social organization of the Punjab.

Mridula Mukherjee‘s book, Colonizing Agriculture: The Myth of Punjab

Exceptionalism (2005) challenges two ‗myths‘: i) that capitalist agriculture developed in Punjab and the province became its beneficiary because of suitable conditions laid down by the colonial policy; and ii) that Punjab profited from all-India and worldwide links enabled by the colonial state. Mukherjee lays bare that land revenue was a high proportion of agricultural income and remained a source of hardship for small landholders, to whom colonial state did not offer revenue exceptions. Nearly sixty per cent of Government budgetary resources were received from agricultural revenue. The colonial state introduced flexibility in assessment of revenue due to its compulsions of Punjab, being an important recruitment ground for imperial army and landlords‘ support for colonial state. Moreover, she argues that commercialization increased agricultural prices but small landholders and tenants had to sell their products below market rates right after the harvest and had to buy them later at much higher prices.

Tan Tai Yong in his seminal work, The Garrison State: The Military,

Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849-1947 (2005), addresses the distinctive feature of sustained relationship of colonial Punjab with the military. In the aftermath of Great Rebellion of 1857, the established military labour market of

North-Central India—the backbone of the Bengal Army—gave way to an alternative but equally established military labour market in North-Western India, as a chief

15 recruiting ground in old Sikh Kingdom in the Punjab. This book explains the impact of military in the development of colonial Punjab. For the British imperial rulers, it was extremely important to maintain control on colonial Punjab as army‘s primary recruiting ground. It lays bare the extent to which the province was militarized and apparatus of imperial governance and control in India. Ishtiaq Ahmad‘s analysis that the post-second World War II demobilization of Punjabi military men was responsible for heinous atrocities at the time of partition of Punjab can be instructively understood in the context of Yong‘s arguments. Yong‘s book is essential to understand the military aspect of pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial Punjab because it is unique to Punjab as a province.

Ian Talbot, in his important edited work, People on the Move: Punjabi

Colonial and Post-Colonial Migration (2004) has systematically unpacked the colonial transformation of Punjab as the agricultural province of India through the establishment of canal colonies by harnessing the waters of the five rivers. The justification of British rule in terms of its transformative effects on outmoded social and cultural practices aside, patterns of landholding examined by Talbot foregrounds the honest intentions of colonial administration in bringing benefits to the region, albeit through acts of violence. Talbot considers the transformation of six million acres of desert into one of the richest agricultural regions in Asia as a ―stupendous engineering feat‖ that was seen as the colonial state‘s greatest achievement but was also an attempt to remake both the natural environment and its people. This study contains explanation of the Punjab in terms of its agricultural potential and contribution in Indian economy and the way Punjab witnessed economic well-being.

Imran Ali‘s book, The Punjab under Imperialism 1885-1947 (2003) is a relevant source for this study but it covers the period beginning from 1885 although the roots of colonial administration can be drawn from the year the British annexed the Punjab. Moreover, this book focuses upon politics of British imperial administration and its analysis and not on those contours which shaped up identity in a given span of time in social and religious continuum. He opines that the period of

British rule was not only of relative political peace and stability but also of vigorous economic growth. The focus of this book is on the economic growth in Punjab, which was result of the colonization of newly canal-irrigated lands. He suggests that the process of agricultural expansion was extensive enough, and sufficiently pervasive in its impact and consequences, to mark out the Punjab from other provinces of British

India as a ‗beneficiary‘ of colonial rule. Imran Ali‘s work is study of the political economy of Punjab under the Raj and it does not focus on the working of socio- religious communal organizations in the Punjab and their contribution in honing religious identities.

David Gilmartin‘s seminal book, Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan (1998) is an important work that proposes thesis that the movement for the creation of new Muslim state of Pakistan could only be understood with the help of examining the relationship between the British Empire and Islam. For him, it is important to understand the impact of colonial structures on perceptions of

‗community‘ and of the state among the Indian Muslims. This book is an instructive socio-political analysis on the history of the Punjab and the way politics in Punjab paved the way towards making of Pakistan in the last decade of the colonial rule. He

17 maintains that society in the rural Punjab remained mainly outside of the euphoria of communalism till the last days of the colonial rule in Punjab. However, according to

Gilmartin, its cities started becoming centres of communalism during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and this trend witnessed incessant rise till the culmination of Pakistan movement. The structure of British rule tried its best to relegate the cities and promote rural areas in political arenas of the Punjab, thereby promoting rural notables as intermediaries between the people and the Raj. However, this structure started crumbling down in late 1920s. The cities, being centres of press and imperial administration, were also centres of new forms of associations, organizations and anjumans. Thus, cities became public arenas of political expression tinged with religious identities independent of the colonial state. He provides important insights into the way Muslim League used ‗print capitalism‘ and communal tactics to create support base for the Pakistan movement. The Muslim communal anjumans prepared the ground by sharpening religious identities that supported

Pakistan movement on the basis of Muslim nationalism. The book focuses on the manner in which specific notions of the Islamic community were formed and developed in the colonial context. Gilmartin argues that, in the countryside, the individual perceived his or her membership of the universal Islamic community in terms of mediation and hierarchy.

Zarina Salamat‘s The Punjab in 1920s: A Case Study of Muslims (1997) contends that in the decade of 1920s, the Muslims of Punjab played an important role which was central to the freedom struggle and Pakistan movement. The British rule had exerted an all-encompassing impact on life of the people in Punjab. Since land

18 was main source of economy in Punjab, a vast network of roads and railways, and canal system was established in it. However, the political control of the British rested on the support of leading landowners. She claims that the political grooming of the

Muslims of Punjab took place during the decade of 1920s, the period of focus of this book. She maintains that the existence of three powerful communities with their distinct characteristics led to communal tendencies. However, the work is silent on the issue of communal organizations.

Ian Talbot, in his seminal work, Punjab and the Raj (1988) analyses the strategic location of the Punjab and its importance, after 1880s, for the British as a major recruiting area of the Indian Army. For realizing this, the British were ensconced to win the political support of the landowners in the Punjab. In the Eastern regions, these landowners belonged to powerful biradaris of Muslim and Hindu Jat peasants while in the Western half of the Punjab, landowners were predominantly associated with Muslim shrines. For example, the descendants of Baba Farid,

Punjab‘s leading sufi, owned some 43,000 acres in all. Talbot argues that improved communications and irrigation under the Pax Britannica gave rise to agricultural prices and land values which eventually threatened rural political stability.

Increasingly rising price of land provided temptation to landowners to pledge their land to moneylenders. To deal with this problem, the British introduced and passed the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, 1901 which divided the population into agriculturalist and non-agriculturalist tribes, forbidding moneylending groups to permanently acquire land. This led to the formation of intercommunal political associations like Association of the Landed Aristocracy of the Punjab (later known as

Punjab Chiefs‘ Association) in 1907 and creation of Unionist Party in 1923, which played an important political role till independence of India in 1947. The book unravels the tangled web of politics of Punjab and its importance lies in the treatment of various themes, particularly the politics of Unionists and how they missed opportunities in the volatile political balance in Punjab. The politics of patronage, land tenure system and the military aspect of Punjab are the overarching themes of this book.

Rai Bahadur Kanhaiya Lal wrote two very important historical accounts of

Punjab namely Tarikh-i-Punjab and Tarikh-i-Lahore which appeared in 1880s. Lal was from a family of Kayasths who were considered scribes working in courts from the time of antiquity. He has focused on the eighteenth century and the early colonial

Punjab. Although he used Hindi as nom de plume and became renowned for his Urdu and Persian poetry, he emerged as an important historian regarding historical and cultural narration of Punjab. Lal analysed Ranjit Singh‘s rule in a very dispassionate and non-partisan manner. Being employed as engineer in Punjab Works Department

(PWD) in Punjab government and having been schooled in Engineering College

Roorkee, he developed especial fondness for Lahore and supervised the construction of some most elegant buildings of colonial Lahore including, Mayo School of Arts, the building of Medical College Lahore, Lawrence Hall, Montgomery Hall and

Government College Lahore. He gave special attention to the history of these buildings and other historical structures located around and in Lahore in his books.

Tarikh-i-Punjab can probably be considered the first book of regional history written in Urdu. The book has been written in lucid style, in linear-cum-chronological order,

20 containing a detailed catalogue of wars of Sikhs and incisive analysis of downfall of

Sikh kingdom. Tarikh-i-Lahore covers various aspects of history of Lahore including geographical, cultural and archaeological. He used his professional expertise to highlight dilapidated state of medieval period buildings and their architectural significance. For example, he described history of thirteen gates of Lahore with architectural insight. However, the book is all about initial few decades of history of colonial Lahore.

Section II. Studies on Religious and Communal Identities

Romila Thapar, in her seminal study, The Past as Present: Forging Contemporary

Identities through History (2014) claims that many popularly held views about the past need to be critically scrutinized and enquired into before they can be taken as historical. In a chapter titled ―Concerning Religion and History‖ she analyses the origin and development of phenomenon of communalism in a sub-section titled as

―Communalism: A Historical Perspective.‖ She asserts that communalism is a phenomenon of recent times when communities are started to be identified by religion and this identification is brought into play as a considerable political expression. This is quite different from the past reality when community identities ranged over many perspectives apart from religion such as caste, language, region and occupation. To her, the communal ideology insists that the separation of communities identified by religion has justification in the past. Therefore, history is brought in to provide justification from the past as it was done by the Orientalists. It is claimed that Mill‘s periodization cast a deep imprint on modern Indian thinking.

Tariq Rahman‘s From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History (2011) is a critical exposition of social history of India as viewed through the lens of

Hindustani language—the precursor language of modern Hindi and Urdu. According to Rahman, social history means a historical reconstruction of the events and processes which preceded and led to the use of Urdu in such social domains as governance, judiciary, education, media and entertainment. The use and promotion of

Urdu had impact on the construction and perception of identity, political mobilization and the distribution of goods and services. He argues that historical narrative is not only a record of facts and perceptions, rather it means a nuanced analysis of what transpires when a language is used in certain social domains or its use is denied.

Rahman analyzes the role of Urdu in Muslim identity formation and its political impact on India. It was, in fact, the process of standardization of Urdu which identified this language with Muslim identity in North India.

M. Naeem Qureshi‘s meticulously written seminal study titled Pan-Islam in

British India: The Politics of the Khilafat Movement 1918-1924 (2009) analyses in detail an important ferment in the shape of Khilafat Movement that gripped India for six years between 1918 and 1924. The study covers the origin of pan-Islam in India, its impact on nascent nationalism in colonial polity, forces working within the premises of the non-concentric worlds of India and Islam. The interaction of religion and politics has never as thoroughly been studied in the manner as this book does.

However, its focus is the Khilafat movement, its leadership, its role in India and abroad and its decline after the establishment of modern nation state of Turkey under the leadership of Mustafa Kamal Pasha and eventual decline of the movement.

Qureshi analyzes the impact of pan-Islam on nationalism and its gradual development to Muslim nationalism and creation of a separate state on the basis of religious nationalism.

Ulrike Starke‘s history of book publishing in India is another example of such genre of history of colonial India. The book titled as An Empire of Books (2008), covers the study of the Naval Kishore Press. This study explains how modernity affected the diffusion of printed word in India. What social, economic and political conditions made such a wide scale diffusion possible and how it affected education, religious consciousness and, above all, for our concerns, the construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in India.

Satish Saberwal‘s Spirals of Contention: Why India was Partitioned in 1947

(2008) is an analysis of the processes that drew from the medieval period memories of happenings, symbols and individual as well as collective actions which received ideological and institutional trigger during the nineteenth-century India. By doing this, society in India was reconfigured in a way that highlighted differences and eroded the commonalities among various religious communities. Saberwal claims that this reconfiguration became more and more contentious with the passage of time, and resultantly religious identities became more adversarial.These adversaries became antagonistic to each other and sharpened religious identities increasingly. This process led to partition of India because political circumstances in 1940s bore a long and increasing built up of emotions that carried hostilities. It is a sociological study which offers analysis of social processes over a long period of time.

Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan‘s Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe (2006) is a collection of articles presented in a conference on the same theme. It was aimed at exploring processes, sustained over a long time, by many

Hindu and Muslim organizations whose consequences had been socially divisive.

While the functions of these organizations were ostensibly social and religious, they had been involved in low cost propaganda, organization and activity that brought about communal trends and social separation. The editors argued that South Asia has witnessed a rising tide of chauvinism of religious nature, and it has become a challenge for social sciences. Religious identities have become assertive and violent because there are organizations who speak exclusively for Hindus or Muslims. Some of the chapter authors have focused on organizations, but mostly on the other side of the border and they have explored international links and networks of these organizations too.

Markus Daechsel in his seminal study The Politics of Self-Expression: The

Urdu Middle-class Milieu in Mid-twentieth Century India and Pakistan (2006) critically examines the notions of modernity in a critical framework for making sense of Punjab‘s public politics. The tensions of modernity were operating in normative as well as structural terms. The politics of individual attachment to symbols of Islam and bringing it to public sphere posed a contradiction in objectified and essentialized identities of colonial policy. There were contradictions in core Islamic values and lived realities too. Markus compares this politics of self-expression with European fascism which is instructive indeed. It suggests the commonalities of such politics

24 with fascist politics in Europe that similarly posed individual politics as divorced from any sense of grounding in social structure.

Shail Mayaram‘s Resisiting Regimes: Myth, Memory and the Shaping of a

Muslim Identity (2000) is a case study of construction of Muslim identity in a particular community of Meos of Mewat. The Meos have been living in North-

Western India for nearly a millennium. Mewat is located within the triangle of Delhi,

Agra and Jaipur. Though the census of nineteenth century tabulated them as Muslims, yet ethnographers such as Malcolm found it difficult to count them as Muslims because their beliefs and practices drew upon both Hinduism and Islam. She argues that much of the academic writings on religious conflicts revolve around popular understanding which structures people into categorical identities of Hindus and

Muslims. Thus, necessarily groups are either one or the other. However, a group such as Meos suggests a unique way of structuring and world view. She further argues that the explanation of communal conflict in the subcontinent can be classified on the axis of materiality and religiosity. Bipan Chandra represents the former, while Farzana

Shaikh represents the latter view.

Another study which is relevant for our purposes is of Christopher King‘s very good analysis of the construction of Hindu identity through the linguistic activities of the Nagri Pracharini Sabha. This book titled as, One Language, Two

Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India (1994) focuses on the construction of the Hindu identity through language planning activities and its

25 expressions through linguistic symbols of which the Devanagari script and Sanskrit vocabulary are the most notable.

Peter van der Veer‘s Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India

(1994) while highlighting religious symbols and subtitling first chapter‘s opening sentence as ―Babar‘s Mosque or Rama‘s Temple?‖ advances his argument about the historical construction of Hindu and Muslim identities in India. He argues on the following premises: (i) that religious identity is constructed in ritual discourse and practice; (ii) that these identities are not primordial attachments but particular products of changing forms of religious organization; (iii) the discourse of religious nationalism is based upon religious community and nation; (iv) Hindu and Muslim nationalism developed simultaneously and on the same lines and both served the purpose of ―the other‖ for each other. It is a well-informed analysis of the genesis and development of religious nationalisms in colonial India.

Gyanendra Pandey‘s work The Construction of Communalism in Colonial

North India (1993) analyses that a peculiar cultural regime, fashioned out of colonial interest and assumptions, was established by the British in the early nineteenth century under the East India Company. This regime of Company not only set the stage for later developments under British Raj but also influenced the social relations of Indians by the mid nineteenth century. He is one of those who attribute development of the phenomenon of communalism to colonial policies, and believes that religious communalism was in large part a colonial construction. Pandey suggests that the role of representation was relatively autonomous, yet the colonial

26 construction and discourse constituted a master narrative which framed the minds of the people as well as perceptions of the rulers and the ruled alike. The imagined religious communities of the British colonial administration fed into the making and heightening of the communal conflict. His work demonstrates how the colonial masters‘ efforts to catalogue, classify and categorize Indians led to horizontal caste consciousness and contributed to construction of essentialized difference between

Hindus and Muslims. Pandey confirms that though these identities existed in the pre- colonial period, yet colonial policies accentuated and hardened these communal identities.

Farzana Shaikh‘s important work, Community and Consensus in Islam:

Muslim Representation in Colonial India, 1860-1947 (1989) takes religion far more seriously than many others, and she holds that Muslim separatism must be grounded in the power of ideas, values and attitudes taken from the Islamic traditions. She also lays bare the inherent contradictions between Islam and liberal democratic traditions in the pre-colonial as well as colonial times. This book challenges the view cherished by various historians that Indian politics were merely responding to policies of the

British Raj. Shaikh argues that there was more to the accentuation of separate Muslim identity than the determination to secure favourable treatment from the British or the fear that under a Congress government the privileges would be confined to influential

Hindu castes only. She says that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Maulana Abul Kalam

Azad, although loyal to the Congress, were devout Muslims and were concerned to apply Islamic ideas and values to modern Indian politics. However, it can be argued that leaders were responding to the events on pragmatic grounds and not Islamic ideas

27 and values. For instance, Gandhi and his followers fervently campaigned on Khilafat question, which was purely a Muslim issue. Likewise, the Ulema of Deoband opposed the very idea of Pakistan, fearing that its potential rulers would implement modernising and secularising policies while they were expecting non-interference from Congress-dominated government in religious laws of Muslim minority of a united India. It was, indeed, the pragmatic use of events to promote religious symbolism by the Indian Muslims.

Mushirul Hasan‘s edited volume, Communal and Pan-Islamic Trends in

Colonial India (1985) is a collection of papers written on various facets of communalism in India. Hassan argues that communal movements, especially of minority groups, are a form of social movements established to bring about change in the face of resistance from other groups and the Government through mobilization based upon a certain ideology. Both Arya Samaj and Aligarh movement may be perceived as communal movements because they sharpened religious identities, yet they were organized due to certain threat perceptions from the then dominant groups or the colonial modernity and its challenges.

David Taylor and Malcolm Yapp‘s Political Identity in South Asia (1979) which is a collection of research papers originating from a conference held at the

School of Oriental and African Studies. This volume contains discussion on both poles of the famous Robinson-Brass controversy regarding the formation of Muslim identities in colonial North India. Brass used the terminologies of ‗primordialists‘ and

‗instrumentalists.‘ The former stress that identities are given while the latter hold that

28 political identities are chosen. This volume holds primary importance in understanding the construction of social and political identities in South Asia.

Paul R. Brass‘s Language, Religion and Politics in North India (1974) is a very incisive and brilliant academic enquiry into the phenomenon of construction of identities and nationalism in colonial North India. It contends that the communalization of Muslim identity in India was the result of elite politics in North

India. The elite used Islamic symbolism to attract mass following through the selective use of divisive symbols. Language and religion have been major symbols of group identities in South Asia. Both of these symbols have been used to broaden religious identities. Thus, Islamic unity was evoked in the colonial period for the creation of a separate state of Pakistan. He claims that the unity created in Pakistan in the name of Islam was soon challenged by the Bengali linguistic-cultural group to gain sovereignty for it. Brass emphasizes that the idea of a single Muslim community has often been linked with certain political symbols which are appropriated by

Muslim elite for achieving their own vested interests.

Francis Robinson‘s scholarly work, Separatism among Indian Muslims: The

Politics of the United Provinces‟ Muslims, 1860-1923 (1974) is an analysis of the politics of Muslims of North India and how this politics gave rise to Muslim separate identity during the given period. It addresses two basic and very relevant questions:

(i) why did Muslim separatist politics develop on the Indian sub-continent under

British rule? and (ii) which Muslims promoted and organized this kind of politics?

For Robinson, a tendency towards a perfect and pure Islam has always played an

29 important role in organizing the Muslims. He argues that the political conduct of

Muslims in India is associated with idealized Islamic values. For him, Islam provides ideological bedrock to various cultural manifestations. Robinson‘s article ―The

British Empire and Muslim Identity in South Asia‖ (1998) gives scholarly and thought-provoking explanation of the creation of distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims, the development of a Muslim political identity, the British Empire and the pan-Islamic trends, gendering of Muslim identity and the rise of a new sense of individualism during the colonial period in India.

Section III. Literature on Muslim Communal Organizations

Ali Usman Qasmi‘s evocative and scholarly work, Questioning the Authority of the

Past: The Ahl al-Quran Movements in the Punjab (2011), discusses the origin and development of various Ahl al-Quran movements by locating them in the context of

British Punjab and independent Pakistan starting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Various trajectories of their leaders and ideologues including Sir

Syed Ahmad Khan have been investigated in this work. Ahl al-Quran refers to a reformist religious discourse and not a group of people labeled as such for their monolithic religious doctrine. The book discusses diversity and dynamism of different aspects of South Asian Islam, debates and contestations about religious reform in British India, theological disputations among ulema of various persuasions and the politics of particular interpretation of Islam by power elite for legitimizing and establishing state authority.

Samina Awan‘s Political Islam in Colonial Punjab: Majlis-i-Ahrar 1929-1949

(2010) is about the establishment, style of politics and leadership of Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-

Islam (MAI) party and their contribution in sharpening Muslim identity in colonial

Punjab. Being the beneficiaries of modernization, the urban clerics and artisans in

Punjab wanted to be perceived differently from the rural landlords and urban middle class and their public discourse also expressed this contention. According to Awan, this class was the backbone of several socio-religious and political movements in the

Punjab during 1920s and 1930s. This class took to the streets in Khilafat Movement, the Non-cooperation movement, the Shahidganj issue and anti-Ahmadi Controversy with the collaboration of madrassa-educated religious orators and demagogues. This class was influenced by powerful oratory of Maulana Zafar Ali Khan and Syed

Attaullah Shah Bukhari. These leaders spoke to the public in direct language by simplifying the ideas of Muslim theology and stirred public against the colonial rule.

The anti-recruitment campaign, the proposal of establishing Hakumat-i-Ilahiya by

MAI, the Khaksar agitation of Lahore and the politics of Unionists underlined the centrality of Punjab in the body-politic of colonial India.

Ahmad Saeed‘s book Musalmanan-i-Punjab Ki Samaji aur Falahi

Anjumanein: Aik Tajziati Mutalia (2004) is foundational work as far as religious, social and welfare organizations of the Muslims of Punjab are concerned. Saeed has meticulously documented sources and briefly discussed a large number of organizations in one book. Major proportion of his sources is based upon Urdu langauge newspapers of colonial times, and the author is well aware of sources, especially based in Lahore. The book offers a valuable data as well as incisive

31 analysis. However, the paucity of material related with many organizations has been indicated by the author in the preface of the book, and he admits that due to lack of availability of sources, some organization could not be explained sufficiently.

K. K. Aziz‘s edited volume Public Life in Muslim India 1850-1947 (1992) is a compendium of basic information on political, social, religious, cultural and educational organizations which were actively operating in colonial India. The author categorizes these organizations into five parts: (i) major Muslim organizations; (ii)

All India Muslim League; (iii) Muslim students‘ organizations; (iv) other Muslim organizations, and (v) organizations not exclusively Muslim. The information contained in this book about organizations include their aims and objectives, leadership, important sessions, income and expenditure, rights and duties of office- bearers, rules of membership and branches. This book is important for any researcher undertaking research on Muslim religious, caste and occupation-based organizations of the colonial period. However, since it is a compendium, it includes brief information about every organization and anjuman.

The books reviewed above provide data and analysis on various aspects of enquiries that they deal with. These focus on colonial Punjab and they provide insights into various socio-economic, religious and political trajectories of the development of state-society relationship in the province generally. The literature discussed above can be divided into three categories: 1) the books which discuss political developments overlooking the phenomenon of identity construction, 2) the undertakings which analyzed it by providing some favourable nationalistic

32 interpretations, 3) the works which discussed the phenomenon but overlook to appreciate the fundamental role of communal organizations in shaping identities.

The present study, thus, explores and investigates the aims and objectives, strategies and activities and response of Muslim communal organizations to various challenges.

The exclusive ideology and working of these Muslim organizations substantially contributed in constructing Muslim identity in colonial Punjab and this becomes major quest of the present study to be explored, analyzed and interpreted.

Framework of Analysis

Broadly, there are three schools of thought regarding the emergence and growth of communalism and construction of religious identities in colonial India. First of these, the primordialists, defines the relationship of Hindus and Muslims in religious terms.2

It takes religious differences as inherently deep-rooted in Indian communities. The individual and group identities of self and the other are constructed on the basis of religion and it provides raison d‟etre for political action. It is due to this reason, they argue, that Hindus and Muslims form two distinct religio-political communities

2 Francis Robinson, Separatism among Indian Muslims: The Politics of United Provinces‟ Muslims, 1880-1923 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974), ―Nation Formation: The Brass Thesis and Muslims Separatism,‖ Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. 15 no. 3 (November, 1977), 215-34, ―Islam and Muslim Society in South Asia,‖ Contribution to Indian Sociology, vol 17, no. 2 (July-December 1983), 185-203. R. C. Majumdar, ―Hindu-Muslim Relations,‖ in The Struggle for Empire: The History and Culture of the Indian People (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1957); Hafeez Malik, Moslem Nationalism in India and Pakistan (Washington: Public Affairs Press, 1963); Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi, The Muslim Community of Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent (The Hague, 1962), The Struggle for Pakistan (Karachi: University of Karachi, 1965), Ulema in Politics: A Study Relating to the Political Activities of the Ulema in the South Asian Subcontinent from 1556-1947 (Karachi: Inter-services Press, 1972); Farzana Shaikh, Community and Consensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial India, 1860-1947 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). 33 despite their multiple cultural similarities, and their mutual relations were defined by their religious identification. The Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were internally cohesive and similarly cohesive were their social, economic and political interests.

They claim that Islam, being monotheistic and anti-idolatrous, has been innately opposed to Hinduism and vice versa. Resultantly, the assimilation and peaceful co- existence could never be realized between the followers of these religions. The protagonists of this school of thought refute the legacy of syncretic traditions, which remained the hallmark of the majority of population, especially in rural villages, by dismissing it simply as an aberration.

The second school of thought, the perennialists, interprets the causes of hostility as the result of historical evolution of Hindus and Muslims as two religious communities and the evolution of the nature of their mutual relationship.3 They maintain that the reasons of antagonism lie in the historical memory which relates to the manner in which Islam was introduced and spread across the Indian subcontinent.

They claim that Islam was religion of Arab and Turkish invaders and they, in the process of conquest, established dynastic rule along with their traditions of warfare which included many brutalities. Therefore, they humiliated the indigenous

3 Peter Van Der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994); David N. Lorenzen, ―Introduction: The Historical Vicissitudes of Bhakti Religion,‖ in David N. Lorenzen (ed.), Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994); Ian Talbot, Punjab and the Raj 1849-1947 (New Delhi: Manohar, 1988); David Gilmartin, Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan (London: I. B. Tauris, 1988), Civilization and Modernity: Narrating the Creation of Pakistan (New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2014); Christopher Jeffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics (London: C. Hurst & Co. Ltd., 1996); Cynthia Talbot, ―Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-colonial India,‖ in Richard M. Eaton (ed.), India‟s Islamic Traditions, 711-1750 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004); C. A. Bayley, ―The Pre-History of ‗Communalism‘? Religious Conflict in India 1700-1860,‖ Modern Asian Studies, 1985, vol. 19, no.1 (1985), 177-203. 34 inhabitants of India and desecrated their places of worship and forcibly converted the

Hindus to their religious fold. Hence, they argue that Islam was a religion of sword in the Indian environment. The brutalities perpetrated and temples desecrated, according to this school of thought, were the primary reasons of mutual antagonistic relationship of Hindus and Muslims. In the period of decline of Mughal authority, the Hindu middle class developed communal consciousness. Hence, the fault lines between religious communities were already neatly drawn before the advent of British rule in

India. This perennial approach to the study of relations of religious communities ignores the fact that India was a huge territory inhabited by innumerable cultures and languages. The North-South divide had always been an established reality. Therefore, it can be argued, that there had been a number of periods and processes of conflict and cooperation. Ironically, the two celebrated symbols of division of communities,

Aurangzeb Alamgir and Shivaji, had significant following among the projected other community as well. Moreover, this explanation ignores the class dynamics because class commonalities had an important place in the social fabric of India, and there was a cordial relationship among the members of elite class, and likewise the members of middle class. For example, the Punjab and United Provinces—the prime theatres of religious identities— bear ample testimony of collaboration in the shape of

Punjab Unionist Party and the National Agricultural Party, between class factors of communities.

The third school of thought, the constructionists, interprets the communal relationship by disagreeing to the foregoing both. It propounds that the antagonistic relationship between the Hindu and Muslim communities is neither ‗natural given,‘

35 nor ‗perennial development,‘ rather they represent two modern ‗identity constructions.‘ They argue that religious categories of Islam and Hinduism as well as cultural traditions based upon them were used as instruments through which their interests were calculatedly articulated and vigorously pursued.4 Thus, for instance, the idea of a single Muslim community was promoted with political symbols appropriated by the Muslim elite for its vested interests. The British Raj is blamed for the creation of religious identities and communalism through its policies, intentionally or unintentionally. These policies include, inter alia, colonial construction of Indian past, periodization of history on religious bases, decennial census, rapid transportation and telecommunication, massive use of printing press, and the introduction of separate electorates. Similarly, the vested interest groups in both communities used religious symbols to advance their interests.

Both positions, the primordialists‘ as well as the perennialists‘, are challenged by the postmodernist scholars, suggesting an anti-essentialist view promoting the

4 Paul Brass, Language, Religion and Politics in North India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974); Paul Brass, ―Elite Groups, Symbol Manipulation, and Ethnic Identity among the Muslims of South Asia,‖ in David Taylor and Malcolm Yapp (eds.), Political Identity in South Asia (London: Curzon Press, 1979), 35-77; Paul Brass, ―A Reply to Francis Robinson,‖ Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. XV (1977); Anil Seal, The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968); Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990), Gyanendra Pandey, ―Which of us are Hindu?,‖ in Gyanendra Pandey (ed.), Hindus and Others-The Question of Identity in India (New Delhi: Viking Press, 1993); Sudipta Kaviraj, ―The Imaginary Institutions of India,‖ in Partha Chatterjee and Gyanendra Pandey (eds.), Subaltern Studies Vol. 7: Writings on South Asian History and Society (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992); Hamza Alvi, ―Pakistan and Islam: Ethnicity and Ideology,‖ in Fred Halliday and Hamza Alvi (eds.), State and Ideology in the Middle East and Pakistan (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987); Ayesha Jalal, Self and Sovereignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam since 1850 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), ―Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining,‖ International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 27, no. 1 (Feb., 1995), 73-89; Romila Thapar, ―Communalism and Historical Legacy: Some Facets,‖ Social Scientist, vol. 18, no. 6/7 (June-July, 1990), 4-20, The Past as Present: Forging Contemporary Identities through History (New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2014). 36 social construction of identity as a more viable basis of the collective self, because it favours fluid and spatial conception of identity construction.5 The present framework draws heavily on this fluid and spatial concept of identity. It is argued in the ensuing chapters that the Muslims of India became increasingly conscious about their religious identity due to social, economic, and political exigencies which drove them towards organizing themselves and asserting their religious identity to gain economic and political share in colonial period.

It would be over simplistic to assert that Muslims of India launched Pakistan movement because Hindus and Muslims could not live together, being anti-thesis to each other, they belonged to inherently opposed religious traditions intrinsically poles apart. It is also one-dimensional to assert that very nature of Islam and Hinduism was so divergent that the two communities could not live together. That, the vernacular shades of Islam in India could not glue the communities together, and Islam as an ideology continued to provide bedrock to these varied forms. There might be some sporadic incidents of violence, yet the social fabric remained intact in pre-colonial

Indian subcontinent. It would be equally overlooking to say that the communal relations between Hindus and Muslims had vitiated due to their long oppositional relationship in India; that Islam was a religion of sword and Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam; and that Hindus and Muslims remained bitter enemies as long as they lived together. But again, during a long Muslim rule in India, we are unable to showcase any widespread violence due to communalism in India. The argument that

5 The nomenclature of categories of ―primordialists,‖ ―perennialists‖ and ―constructionists‖ as well as their attributes regarding identities, in any form whether nationalist or else, is borrowed primarily from Paul R. Brass, Anthony D. Smith and Mujeeb Afzal. 37 communalism was fanned by the British Government to control India by promoting the agenda of ‗divide and rule‘ is also difficult to be corroborated by historical facts and documents. Hence, both these approaches to understand the colonial Indian society are lopsided.

The present study investigates the role of Muslim communal organizations in constructing Muslim religious identity in constructionist paradigm. The Hindu and

Muslim identities and antagonistic communal relationship, it has been argued, was neither ‗natural given‘ nor ‗perennial development‘; rather it was a modern phenomenon rooted in the establishment of British rule in India. These identities were constructed through instrumentalist use of the religious symbols appropriated by the local elite, yet this use was facilitated by complex interaction between the process of modernization that the British Raj introduced and the local response to the challenges of the Raj.

One needs to understand communal relations in colonial India over an extended period of time and try to intellectually grasp the process of sharpening of religious identities by highlighting all contributing factors which were influencing on social and psychological levels. This study is aimed at explicating the factors which led to the construction of communal identities, with special reference to the role played by Muslims communal organizations which were spreading communal identities at social levels. Their outreach and intensity were more as compared to any other factor being played out at the behest of the administration.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the emergence and growth of revivalist religious organizations as a response to the proselytizing activities of

Christian missionaries resulted in the establishment of community schools, colleges, newspapers and magazines by the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. These developments coupled with the modernization drive of the colonial state which included decennial practice of census, extensive use of printing press, imperial cartography, and looking at the citizens divided in religious communities helped promote a more exclusive and puritanical religious identity. The activities of these communal organizations not only sharpened communal identities but also became forerunner of the development of nationalism in India. The first half of the twentieth century saw the increase in nationalist feelings as well as the concomitant rise in the communalization. The constitutional developments in India starting right from the acceptance of separate electorates in 1909 to the Indian Independence Act of 1947 bear testimony to the fact that the colonial state was institutionalizing communal identities by giving them recognition and using them to categorize Indians.

Methodology

The primary methodological concern of any scientific research is the relevance of the research problem to both, the real world and the scholarly literature. The research methodology applied to this research problem is qualitative based on library and archival research as well as local literary traditions, research material in vernacular languages and folklore.

The study has been conducted in the constructionist paradigm. The constructionists argue that antagonistic relationship between Hindus and the Muslims of British India was neither inherent nor evolutionary rather it took place owing to certain challenges posed by the spirit of time i.e. imperialism, orientalism, political and economic marginalization of Muslim community, threat perception to their religious identity, process of modernization and institutionalization and environment of competition and conflict.

The present study is primarily historical and it employs conceptual approach in analyzing various ideas, concepts and theories which relate to the conceptual understanding of individual and group identities and explaining the times, contexts and situations in which identities are asserted, contested and negotiated. The work is narrative and descriptive in dealing with sources related with communal organizations which became an important factor of religious identity construction in colonial

Punjab. The communal organizations have been narrated in historical perspective by describing their objectives, organizational structure, discourse and activities in the colonial public space. This study is exploratory and analytical in explaining the means/modes through which the colonial state and its process of modernization as well as communal organizations contributed in creating religious and communal identities, generally in colonial India, and particularly in the Punjab.

The study makes an in-passing comparison between the Muslim socio- religious organizations and the Christian missionaries. The socio-religious and communal organizations of Indian religious communities (as they were defined by the

British on religious grounds based upon their own Euro-centric conception of society and history) followed the pattern of organization and working of the missionaries since they were the trend setters in this regard. Even during the freedom movement, the British were opposed by the leadership of these organizations using the same idioms, models and techniques which were used by the colonial administration. For instance, the majority of Indian leadership of freedom movement hailed from Western educational institutions and had acquired modern European education.

Organization of the Study

The study is divided into four chapters. After introduction, the first chapter

―Construction of Identities in Colonial India: An Overview‖ explains the concept of identity along with its different variants and their understandings such as nationalism and national identities, nation, nationalism and national identity in colonial India, communalist identity consciousness in the Indian subcontinent, religious and ethnic identities in colonial India, constructing the Hindu communal identity and genesis and development of Muslim communal identities in colonial India with particular emphasis to Punjab.

The second chapter, ―Rise of Communalism in Colonial India with Particular

Reference to Punjab: Contributing Factors‖ attempts to explore major factors which played important role in the process of sharpening and accentuating Muslim identity in India with particular emphasis to colonial Punjab. This chapter discusses factors such as modernization, the advent of Christian missionaries, role of orientalist

41 scholarship for construction of knowledge about India, role and politics of census enumeration, introduction of separate electorates, representative institutions, and local self-government, increasing role of print capitalism and identification of Hindi and

Urdu languages as identity markers which contributed in constructing religious and communal identities.

The third chapter, ―Muslim Communal Organizations and Muslim Identity:

The Case of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore (AIPL)‖ provides a brief analysis of the challenges faced by the Muslim community in Punjab and various kinds of

Muslim responses including Tabligh, Tanzim, Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba (AKK),

Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam and Khaksar Movement. The chapter deals specifically with

Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab that played an important role in sharpening Muslim identity in Punjab. Being the first Muslim organization, it was dedicated to protect and promote socio-religious, economic and political interests of Muslim community of Punjab.

The fourth chapter, ―Muslim Communal Organizations and Muslim Identity:

The Case of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore (AHIL)‖ analyzes the reasons of establishment, aims and objectives, organizational structure, nature of leadership, organizational behavior and financial sources of AHIL. Encompassing all these nuances, this chapter explores the role of AHIL in constructing Muslim communal identity in colonial Punjab.

The conclusion and bibliography are followed by four appendices on aims and objectives of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore, membership rules of Anjuman-i-

Islamia Punjab, Lahore, aims and objectives of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore, and oaths administered by Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba, have also been attached.

Chapter 1

Construction of Identities in Colonial India: An Overview

―Human history is made by human beings. Since the struggle for control over territory is part of that history so too is the struggle over historical and social meaning.‖ (Giambattista Vico)

Identities play significant role in the social, political and cultural life of individuals and groups. Identity is a highly complex phenomenon and is defined by dint of varied social, cultural, and economic factors of a person or groups or community. It depends on how one is perceived, understood and interpreted by the others. Identity is an individual‘s or a group‘s perception of self and the other. Identity formation, as a political enterprise, is a dynamic process and identities are layered and contextualized.

The present chapter is aimed at developing a theoretical framework to understand the construction and assertion of identities among the individuals, groups and communities. This chapter tries to address the following questions: How is identity defined? How do individuals, groups and communities ascribe to identities? How these identities are asserted in social and political arena? What effects colonial modernity had over identities of individuals, groups and communities in their social and political life in colonial India?

The theoretical framework has been developed in the constructionist paradigm. It is argued that identities are fluid, mutable and situation-and-context-bound. This situation may be social, economic, political or cultural. A person or group may identify

44 himself/herself differently in different situations. For instrumental reasons, the identity labels are changed or the priority of identity changes. The identities are always multiple, and assertion of a particular identity is made keeping in view instrumental reasons. This phenomenon gets impetus in times of accelerated social and political change. It is further argued that the accelerated social change was brought about by the British rule that introduced modern education, printing, new means of communication and electoral competitions and conflicts in social and political arenas.

1.1 Understanding the Concept of Identity

To the twentieth century‘s leading scholar of identity, Erik Erikson, the concept of identity is as indispensable as it is unclear. He, moreover, termed the concept as ―all- pervasive,‖ ―vague‖ and ―unfathomable.‖1 Scholars have tried to define this concept in different ways. However, they converge on a theme that identity can be defined as the sense of self of an individual or group. In other words, one‘s sense of self is conditioned by how one is perceived, understood and interpreted by others. Identities are important because behavior of individuals and groups is shaped by them. People shape their identities by defining themselves in relation to and in contrast to others. The similarities and differences as opposed to others receive added importance in times of crises, competition or conflict. Identities, although, are shaped by the distinct collective experiences, yet they are constructed. They involve ―establishing opposites and ‗others‘

1 Erik Erikson, Identity: Youth and Crisis (New York: Norton Press, 1968), 9. 45 whose actuality is always subject to the continuous interpretation and re-interpretation of their differences from ‗us.‘‖2

In the medieval period, identities of individuals and groups were predominantly tribal and ethnic. Even the armies through which ―‗Muslim‘ or ‗Hindu‘ victories were achieved‖ were more often heterogeneous conglomerations of ―different faiths and ethnicities.‖3 With the unleashing of process of modernity and resultant enhanced interaction of people brought the class, religion and nationality to the centre stage of domain of the identity due mainly to the increased competition and conflict between or among individuals, groups and communities. Actually, the process of modernization, principally economic and social development, works both as an integrative force as well as a cause in giving salience to identity and ethnicity of some groups.4 In India, this transformation primarily took place during the colonial period because colonialism hastened the modernization of state and society in India.5

Identity is the ―product of self-consciousness‖ and belief that ―I or we possess distinct qualities as an entity that differentiates me from you and us from them.‖6 Identity refers to the images of individuality and distinctiveness. It is selfhood, held and projected by an actor, and constructed and changed over time through relations with competitor

2 Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2001, first pub., 1978), 332. 3 Finbarr B. Flood, Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu-Muslim” Encounter (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2009), 4. 4 Rasul Bakhsh Rais, Islam, Ethnicity, and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan‟s National Identity (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2017), 2. 5 Bipan Chandra, Essays on Colonialism (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1999), 23-57. 6 For an interesting debate on identity, see Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America‟s National Identity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), 21-28. 46

‗others‘. Because individuals interact with others, they do not have choice but to define themselves in relation to others, and identify their similarities with and differences from those others. It means that ‗self-definition‘ requires the definition of ‗the other‘ as well.

Sources of identity can be drawn from many possibilities. However, it may include inter alia: Ascriptive, such as age, ancestry, gender, kin (blood relatives), and ethnicity

(defined as extended kin), and race; cultural, such as clan, tribe, ethnicity (defined as a way of life), language, nationality, religion and civilization; territorial, such as neighbourhood, village, town, city, province, state, section, country, geographical area, continent, and hemisphere; political, such as faction, clique, leader, interest group, movement, cause, party, ideology, and state; religious, such as Muslim, Hindu, Christian or Sikh; economic, such as job, occupation, profession, work group, employer, industry, economic sector, labour union, and class; and lastly social, such as friends, club, team, colleagues, leisure group, and status.7

Any individual may be part of many of the groupings mentioned above but that should not be considered sources of his/her identity. It means that identities are always multiple and heterogeneous. In fact, it is ‗competition and conflict‘ that are key components that help define a person‘s identity. Moreover, these attributes of identity take place between individuals and groups operating within same space or arena. For example, the forceful assertion of religious identities took place during the British rule when the colonial authorities introduced competition in the political arena in the form of electoral processes.

7 Huntington, Who Are We? 27. 47

1.1.1 Causal Analysis of Tendencies of Redefining the Self-identities

It seems pertinent to address the salient features of identities of individuals and groups.

First, identities are possessed and asserted by both the individuals and groups. Individuals possess propensity to redefine their identities when in groups. Because an individual may be a member of more than one groups and for this able to shift identities, the ―group identity,‖ on the other hand, ―usually involves a primary defining characteristic and is less fungible.‖8 Second, identities are overwhelmingly constructed. An individual or group may go for an identity choice, influenced by pressures, inducements, freedoms, competition and conflict. This process is sometimes choice-oriented and sometimes not, yet always influenced heavily by ―competition and conflict.‖9 Third, individuals and groups possess multiple identities, which include ascriptive, territorial, economic, cultural, political, social, religious, economic/occupational and national. However, the relative significance of individual and group identities changes temporally and according to the situations. Fourth, identities are defined by the self but they are produced through the interaction between the self and the others. How others perceive an individual or group affects the self-definition of an individual or group. If one enters into a new social situation and is perceived as the outsider, one is very likely to define oneself that way eventually. For example, if a large majority of people in a country believe that members of a particular minority group are inherently backward and inferior, the members of that minority group, with the passage of time, will internalize that perception and it will become part of their identity. Finally, the relative salience or lack of alternative identities for an individual or group is situational. People in some situations stress only that aspect

8 Huntington, Who Are We? 22. 9 Huntington, Who Are We? 22. 48 of their identity which links them to the people with whom they are interacting and from whom they expect reward. People, in other situations, emphasize that aspect of their identity which distinguishes them from ‗others.‘ For instance, Muhammad Ali Jinnah (b.

1876-d. 1948), the founding father of Pakistani nation, defined identity of separate state of Pakistan on religious basis to justify its creation and independence from Indian subcontinent. But the Bengali national leader Mujib-ur-Rehman (b. 1920-d. 1975) had to emphasize on Bengali language and culture to justify independence of East Pakistan from their West Pakistani co-religionists.

1.1.2 Identities and Socio-political Behaviours

Identities are important because they shape the behaviour of people.10 Identities of inclusion and exclusion provide the basis for socio-political interest of an individual or group. These individuals and groups, in accordance with their identity, are informed about their interests that lead them to political action. The socio-political behaviour of an individual or group is, thus, a by-product of a conception of certain identity. Political action is generally hinged on the behaviour of people which is shaped by particular identity consciousness. Thus, individuals and groups, informed by their sense of identity, are driven to select symbols of choice and they resort to political action. There can be many symbols but in South Asia religion is regarded as the most potent symbol to mobilize and galvanize people in the political arena. For the Indian Muslims, Islam proved to be a major identity marker.11 Another symbol chosen by the Muslims of India

10 Huntington, Who Are We? 22. 11 See Paul R. Brass, Language, Religion and Politics in North India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974); Francis Robinson, Separatism among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces‟ 49 was Urdu language which worked secondary to the religion, however. The elite-middle class manipulated and used both of these symbols to mobilize Muslim community. In other words, it was an ambitious Muslim middle class, with the advantage of modern education and induced by material interests, which shaped the undercurrents of Muslim identity.12 The creation of religious identities of Hindus13, Muslims and Sikhs was a modern phenomenon, and these identities were used for modern purposes, i.e. group solidarity, electoral strength, demand for higher quota in jobs, and creation of a separate country.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the period of construction of modern religious identities in colonial India, the architecture as symbolic representation was also brought into the arena of identity contestations. It was the sufis who ―associated the idea of a Muslim identity with the shrine architecture by interpreting different images and decorative motifs according to the religious scripture, such as the Quran, the prophetic traditions and Sufi texts.‖14 It has been argued that mostly the intention of the sufis and the artisan-builders to project Muslim separate identity through architecture was perceived too in the same sense by the visitors to these shrines. It was later in the 1930s and 1940s that the same shrines played an important role in articulating culturally

Muslims 1860-1923 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974); and Paul R. Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1991). 12 Rais, Islam, Ethnicity, and Power Politics, 16. 13 The word ‗Hindu‘ was originated as a geographical connotation based upon the river Indus. People living across Indus used to be called as ‗Indus‟ and later ‗Hindus‘ by the Persians. The modern definition of Hinduism was constructed on the pattern of ―Semitic religions,‖ and it was the result of various factors: Christian missionaries viewed Hinduism‘s difference in essence from the ―Semitic religions‖ as a lacunae; Orientalist scholarship tried to fit the Hindu religion in a known model; and the efforts of Hindu reform movements to cleanse the religion from what they referred to as aberrations. For comprehensive analysis, see Romila Thapar, ―Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity,‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 23, no, 2 (1989), 209-231. 14 Hussain Ahmad Khan, Artisan, Sufis, Shrines: Colonial Architecture in Nineteenth Century Punjab (New York: I. B. Tauris, 2015), 34. 50 distinctive Muslim identity, and bringing it to political arena which led to the creation of a separate country of Pakistan based on religious nationalism. Likewise, ―the clock tower was an architectural feature of the colonial state‘s modernity and middle-class regularity throughout India.‖15

1.1.3 Postmodernist Criticism on Fixation of Identities

Postmodernists, in the humanities and social sciences, have challenged the traditional concept of identity by arguing that the ―fixed subject of liberal humanistic thinking is an anachronism,‖ and it should be replaced by ―a more flexible individual whose identity is fluid, contingent, and spatially constructed.‖16 Moreover, they assert that the conception of identity has developed from ―something ascribed by others to something acquired by oneself.‖17 This signifies the shift from medieval time attributes of identity that were essentially determined at birth—religion, occupation and economic status in life— to modern conceptions that are less deterministic and are more choice-oriented. Occupation, religion, education, sexual preferences and domestic roles can now be fashioned at will which was not, to such an extent, possible in the past.18 This refashioning of the

15 Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj (Gurgaon: Penguin Random House, 2016), 16. 16 Leonie Huddy, ―From Social to Political Identity: A Critical Examination of Social Identity Theory,‖ Political Psychology, vol. 22, no. 1 (Mar., 2001), 127-56. Also see, I. M. Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990) and R. Jenkins, Social Identity (London: Routledge, 1996). 17 Huddy, ―From Social to Political Identity: A Critical Examination of Social Identity Theory,‖ 137. For a detailed study, see Roy. F. Baumeister, Identity: Cultural Change and the Struggle for Self (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986) and Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001). 18 Muhammad Abrar Zahoor, ―The Collective Self and the Collective Other: Construction of Communal Identities in Colonial Punjab,‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVI, no. 2, (July- December, 2015), 30. 51 conception of identity is an essential part of the modern desire for authenticity and external recognition—finding one‘s true self and having it acknowledged by others.19

1.1.4 Shifting Emphasis from Individual to Group Identities and Postmodernist Perspective

To relate to the study of social and nationalist movements, scholarly attention has now shifted from individual to issues of group agency and political action. Resultantly, identity studies have now been relocated to the site of the collective. The definitions of identity in the collective sphere produce political implications. Moreover, attributes and determinants are examined at the level of collective that create, maintain and change distinctions. Here comes the role of ―communication technologies‖ that have ―expanded the array of generalized others.‖20 The concept of collective is old, and it is grounded in classical sociological constructs: thus, Durkheim‘s ―collective conscience,‖21 Marx‘s

―class consciousness,‖ and Weber‘s ―Verstehen‖ (social conscience).22 These notions address the ―we-ness‖ of a group stressing the similarities within the in-group and distinctions from the out-group. They highlight natural and essential characteristics as qualities emerging from physiological traits, psychological pre-dispositions, regional features and properties of structural locations. It is argued that the members of community were believed to internalize these qualities suggesting a unified singular social experience.23 This position is challenged by the postmodernist scholars, suggesting

19 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 26. 20 Karen A. Cerulo, ―Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions‖, Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 23 (1997), 386. 21 Emile Durkheim, Socialism (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1958), 39-63. 22 Cerulo, ―Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions,‖ 386. 23 Cerulo, ―Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions,‖ 387. 52 an anti-essentialist view, promoting the social construction of identity, in constructionist paradigm.

1.1.5 Constructionist Perspective on Identity Formation: Materialist Understanding of Identity Construction

Karl Marx asserted that man is product of his own environment. Marxists hold that ideas of individuals and groups are formulated in accordance with their material circumstances.

The terminology of means/modes of production alludes to this material conception of understanding. The constructionists and postmodernists also stress that human beings are differently situated, hence their modes of thought are also shaped by their concrete circumstances. It is through the interaction of the normative and material structures, they argue, that individuals and groups construct their identities. The problem with Marxist concept as to identity construction is that it is overwhelmingly determinist, as it attempts to prove that the only force that determines identity is modes of production, i.e. the material forces.24 Yet, it becomes evident that in South Asian socio-political environment multiple factors contributed to shape identities on different levels, responding to the nature of challenges the individuals and the groups faced.

The identities of individuals and groups, in the constructionist paradigm, are constructed through the interaction of normative and material structures of their spatial realities including geography, environment, society and the state. The normative structure includes the system of shared ideas, beliefs and values of given society, while material

24 Muhammad Abrar Zahoor and Fakhar Bilal,―Marxist Historiography: An Analytical Exposition of Major Themes and Premises,‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXIV, no. 2 (July-December, 2013), 25-40. 53 structure is made of structure of political power i.e. state and economic resource distribution. The normative structure provides a society with meanings and rationale to the material structure that in turn makes possible socio-political agency of the individual actors.25 It is argued that individual actors exercise a degree of self-consciousness and choice of selection within the normative structures but it is conditioned by the material structure as well as the political system in vogue. It is the routinized practice of these norms and values over a period of time that develops institutions, and these institutions take part in economic, political and cultural activities and assert themselves where they deem it necessary.26

Religious identity assertion is also an integral part of this process because religion itself is a socio-economic and cultural process and not something given in ordained form and pre-structured. Religion, taken as a process, is actively embedded in everyday life and is a part of human agency. It is mistake to think that religious ―fundamentals‖ are ahistorical categories rather ―human identity is not only not natural and stable, but constructed, and occasionally even invented outright.‖27 The twentieth century saw the emergence and growth of nationalism in India which sprang on the basis of religious identities. Since, various nations were being formed on linguistic, cultural and racial basis, religion also jumped in as a factor and candidate of nationalism and some of the states emerged on the rationale of religious nationalism.

25 Muhammad Mujeeb Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ (Ph. D. Diss. Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR), 2012), 14. For a modified discussion and published version of this dissertation, see Muhammad Mujeeb Afzal, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian Muslims (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2014). 26 Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 17. 27 Said, Orientalism, 332. 54

1.2 Nationalism and Construction of National Identity

The concept of nation and nation state originated and evolved in Europe after the Treaty of Westphalia. Many nation states emerged on the map of the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, the secular concept of a nation state as it evolved in

Europe could not develop in South Asia along the same trajectories.28 It was due to the reason that secularism was a value that developed as a result of the mix of Protestantism and individualism.29 Protestantism—devoid of the concept of mediation for salvation as it used to be in Catholicism— gave rise to secularism and individualism which became hallmark of the modern European state and society. Nonetheless, despite rapid industrialization, urbanization and growth of educational institutions—all attributes of modernization—secularism could not develop in colonial India.30 Conversely, religious symbolism and discourse became an integral part of politics and it produced a distinct nationalism called as religious nationalism.

28 From very early on, the concept of nation was viewed with suspicion by all Indians while Muslims, in particular, had a tendency to consider all Muslims of the world as a ―nation‖ or ―qaum.‖ For example, according to Rabindranath Tagore, ―I am not against one nation in particular, but against the general idea of all nations. What is the Nation? It is the aspect of a whole people as an organized power. This organization incessantly keeps up the insistence of the population on becoming strong and efficient. But this strenuous effort after strength and efficiency drains man‘s energy from his higher nature where he is self-scarificing and creative.‖ For details see, ―Nationalism‖ in Rabindranath Tagore, Selected Essays (New Delhi: Rupa and Co. 2004), 245. 29 For a detailed analysis regarding the origin and development of idea of individual rights see, Muhammad Abrar Zahoor, ―The Emergence of the Idea of Individual Rights in Europe,‖ Journal of European Studies, vol. 35, no. 1 (January 2019), 54-66. 30 For details see, T. N. Madan (ed.), Religion in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991), 9. 55

1.2.1 Evolution of National Identities

In line with the argument of Benedict Anderson that nations are ―imagined communities,‖31 religion, in South Asian context, provides particular imagination about the world view of religion and rituals as ways of communicating them. These imaginations are ―natural,‖ ―given‖ and ―unchanging‖ for the followers of that religious ideology but they are actually produced in social arenas. National identity is constructed by the dominant elites in a myriad of spheres including culture, politics, economy, literature, and education.32 Thus, religious meanings and practices are produced as part of historical construction of nationalist identities.33 In peculiar colonial circumstances, the national identities in India developed along religious lines are referred to as religious nationalism.

1.2.2 Identities in Premodern Times

Historically speaking, human beings, living in different forms of communities, developed various identities to promote ―in-group and out-group, insiders and outsiders, and kinsmen and foreigners.‖34 These identities helped human beings to choose between contest and cooperation, adoption and adaptation and formation of political communities having integral political interests and goals. Thus, political entities ranging from city states to empires, and identities like family, tribe, race, gender, caste, class, clan,

31 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991). 32 Rais, Islam, Ethnicity, and Power Politics, xi. 33 Veer, Religious Nationalism, 84. For argument of development of religious nationalism based upon foundational texts, see Masood Ashraf Raja, Constructing Pakistan: Foundational Texts and the Rise of Muslim National Identity (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2010), 19-51. 34 Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 16. 56 language and religion have existed and played important role in all ages. In the medieval times, these identities co-existed side by side, and some of them could be used by individuals and groups on selective basis given the time, space and particular situation.35

Later, the empires were fragmented into a large number of nation states defined on the basis of language, race and ethnicity. However, the current world map is dotted by the nation states. Even during the ancient empires of Ashoka and Gupta periods and the medieval great empires of the Sultans and Mughals, various parts of the Indian civilization had developed on divergent lines, and India could only be explained through its political, ethnic, linguistic and administrative diversity. The nature, scope and extent of identities have changed in modern times.

1.2.3 National Identities in Modern Times

In the modern times, the identities of nation and nationalism emerged as the leading denominators and dominated other forms of identities. Nationality has become, in modern times, most important identity marker for individuals and communities. This importance received further impetus due to the modern documentary practices requiring every individual to get himself/herself registered as citizen of state. The process of creation of nation states started from Europe right after the Treaty of Westphalia, and in their context, language became the most important yardstick for creation of a nation.

35 Caste is considered to be a major mechanism of division that divided the majority Hindu population of India into mutually exclusive social stratification. Some critics point out that British can hardly be blamed for the pre-existing identities in Indian society, such as caste. It is argued, however, that the British, with intent or without, helped solidify, document and perpetuate the iniquities of caste system. Since the British world-view was based upon a class-based hierarchical society, they instinctively tended to view Indian society as similar. They viewed Indian society as divided into classes, notably atomized into religious divisions, primarily. For detailed analysis, see Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India: From the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 25-63. 57

When the Europeans reached out to international expansion during the age of colonialism and imperialism, the concept of nation states also spread to other regions with these colonizers. Nationalism has quite reshaped the whole political landscape of the modern international polity. The political discourse of individuals and communities is shaped by the collective agency of a nation or nation state.36 This collective agency determines the meanings of the world around individuals and their groups. The everyday life, speech and actions of these individuals and groups are conditioned by national identity.

The phenomenon of nationalism emerged in the colonial societies as part of the package of colonial modernity which the colonizers introduced in the colonized regions.

According to Rais, ―colonial modernity was the driving forces in many respects and helped create a greater momentum for differentiation.‖37 This acquired/learnt experience was the result of interaction taking place in the context of modernization project between

European colonizers and the indigenous colonized people. The colonized world was a mosaic of people who were ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse but due to the modern means of control, they were brought successfully under the administrative control of colonial states. On the one hand, it was established fact that the colonial state would exercise its hegemonic social, economic and political control over these indigenous people. On the other hand, the indigenous traditional elite were willing to offer their support to the colonial state as its collaborators, thereby expecting to receive political and economic dividends and gains. The colonial administration accommodated the indigenous/local elite at the subordinate level of hierarchy of administrative structure.

36 M. Billing, Banal Nationalism (London: Sage Publications, 1995), 6. 37 Rasul Bakhsh Rais, Imagining Pakistan: Modernism, State and the Politics of Islamic Revival (London: Lexington Books, 2017), 56. 58

The indigenous/local elite were thus accommodated as a link between the colonial administration and the indigenous traditional colonized people. It is important to understand that though the colonial masters were operating from stronger position, theoretically embedded in Orientalism and practically powered by modern military might and mechanisms of control, yet the local elite was also exercising a large measure of agency especially in public sphere. The indigenous elite could exercise this agency through their capacity to mobilize indigenous population.

1.2.4 British Imperialism, Modernization and Political Mobilization in India

In India, while the colonial administration was motivated by the ideological underpinnings like ―White Man‘s Burden,‖ as enunciated by Rudyard Kipling that ―the responsibility for governing India has been placed by the inscrutable design of providence upon the shoulders of the British race,‖ and material gains resulting from economic opportunities, the indigenous traditional people developed a severe resentment against what they considered as encroachment of their society and culture coupled with economic exploitation.38 This resentment further increased with the implementation of the project of modernization along with documentary, representative and elective practices which were initiated by the colonial state to increase efficiency in administrative domains. The major part of this project was modernization of communication infrastructure for effective economic expansion as well as control and integration of colonized states into world economies.39 The modernization process in

38 Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight (New York: Avon Publishing, 1976), 1. 39 David Thomson, Europe Since Napoleon (London: Pelican Books, 1966), 256. 59 political and economic arenas introduced a significant intervention in the socio-political patterns of traditional polities.

The indigenous people experienced increasing political mobilization and this mobilization, in turn, enhanced their demands regarding participation in political and economic structures of the colonial state. The colonial masters had limited capacity of accommodating these mobilized indigenous people because of nature of their exclusive racial superiority paradigm that they had constructed to keep the concept of their racial supremacy intact. The indigenous elite enthusiastically collaborated with the colonial authorities because they felt threatened by the recently politically mobilized local populations. The mobilized people constructed nationalism following the European patterns under the popular leadership of western-educated intelligentsia and middle class elite. These nationalists endeavoured to enlist the popular support of newly mobilized masses that had already been undergoing mobilization owing to the introduction of colonial modernity. In this process, the colonized states conceived, grew and popularized nationalism which hinged on the basis of constructed-primordiality.40

The British in India were acutely mindful of their status as foreigners and they needed the indigenous elite as collaborators of the Raj who could provide assistance in administration of such a huge and diverse region as India. The colonial state was thus a military-bureaucratic autocracy based on the colonial principles of racial differentiation

40 Hamza Alvi, ―India: Transition from Feudalism to Colonial Capitalism,‖ Journal of Contemporary Asia (1980), 371-72. 60 and discrimination.41 Establishing the physical and intellectual superiority of colonizers cloaked in gendered masculinity was part of this construct. The colonial conceptions of gender were informed by Victorian notions of male ‗sexual health‘ and its contrast to the colonial discourse of the ‗effeminacy‘ of upper-caste Hindus.42 The focus on individualized body can also be understood in terms of what Markus Daechsel terms as the ―unhappy state of being‖ of the middle class and their ―politics of self-expression‖ in colonial Punjab.43 The political submissiveness of the locals was considered by the colonialists as the result of their intellectual and physical inferiority.44 Although wrestling, for instance, was an old tradition of some areas of India yet the colonial period saw an enormous expansion in this field and individualized body found expression in

Ghulam Muhammad (b. 1878-d. 1960) known as great Gama Pehlwan who became world champion was patronized initially by the ruler of Ditia (Madhya Pradesh) and later by the Maharaja of Patiala. In 1910, a troupe of Indian wrestlers including Gama went to

London to fight European wrestlers.45 Gama became known as Rustam-i-Zaman

(Champion of the World) after he defeated Stanislaus Zbyszko (a Polish Champion) in

England. The Prince of Wales gave Gama a silver mace as a reward for being world champion. Just like the symbolic significance of Gama Pehlwan‘s success, Maulana

Zafar Ali Khan once felt it necessary to publish a hyperbolic poem about a football team

41 Anil Seal, The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in Late Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), 4-13. 42 Mubarik Ali, In Search of History (Islamabad: Dost Publications, 2009), 41. See also Claude Markovitz (ed.) A History of Modern India 1480-1950 (London: Anthem Press, 2002), 457-58, 462-65. 43 See Markus Daechsel, The Politics of Self-Expression: The Urdu Middle-class Milieu in the Mid- twentieth Century India and Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013); Markus Daechsel, ―Being Middle Class in Late Colonial Punjab,‖ in Anshu Malhotra and Farina Mir (eds.), Punjab Reconsidered: History, Culture and Practice (New Delhi: Oxford University Press 2012), 345. 44 Peter Van Der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 20. 45 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 93-94. Daechsel, The Politics of Self-Expression, 126- 132. 61 of Calcutta Muslim high school defeating an Anglo-Indian one amplifying a modest victory into epic proportions.46

The liberal agenda of establishing rule of law and material progress were compromised by the apparent autocracy of British administrative mechanism. The state was organized largely on the basis of modern rationality and centralized autocratic bureaucracy. On the other hand, the higher bureaucratic administrative positions were reserved for the colonialists themselves.47 In the same vein, on the one hand, the British claimed to have maintained neutrality in religious matters concerned with India while, on the other hand, many colonial administrators supported Christian evangelization.

The British remained an isolated group of foreign rulers: yet, the collaboration of the locals was sought by the colonial state at the lower and subordinate levels. This collaboration was necessary and desirable because they could not afford to bring a large number of administrators from Britain for such subordinate capacity.48 For instance, the

British administrators stationed in India, at any time, remained in few thousands.49 The local collaborators supported the Raj in every field of society and the state.50 In this manner, the colonial masters found soldiers and sepoys for army recruitment, clerical staff for Government offices, and local notables who were ready to control their own people for the sake of the Raj. The clerks for Government offices were provided by the public-school system established throughout India in accordance with the famous

46 Daechsel, The Politics of Self-Expression, 131. 47 Seal, The Emergence of Indian Nationalism, 2-16. 48 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (New Delhi: Penguin Classics, 2004), 340-41. 49 S. M. Burke and Salim al-Din Quraishi, The British Raj in India: An Historical Review (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1996), 647-58. 50 Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 35. 62 proposal of Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay (b.1800-d. 1859).51 Writing about colonial Lahore, Talbot and Kamran argued that,

the colonial administration required educated Indian officials. Schools and colleges providing western education clustered around centres of government. Lahore was no exception. By the close of colonial era, it had nearly 300 institutions…. the city emerged as the major centre for modern education not only in the Punjab, but the whole of North India.52

The traditional leaders such as notables, landowners/landlords, and princes of princely states also joined the colonial administration.53 The traditional leadership was ensured by the colonial administration regarding stability of their social position in their respective spheres of influence. However, the nature and extent of working relationship of colonial administration with these local collaborators varied from area to area and time to time.

The colonialists were careful of their strengths and limitations: resultantly, the collaboration was accomplished with, a degree of, manipulation, coercion and inducement. Throughout India, the British policy varied in accordance with exigencies of time and space.

The colonial state undertook a massive project of modernization in India. The primary tangible purpose of this was to develop physical infrastructure of the state to enhance its capacity of control mechanism. Moreover, it was meant to satisfy security needs of the empire, establish effective administrative control, enhance economic

51 ―T. B. Macaulay: The Necessity of English Education, February 2, 1835,‖ in W. F. B. Laurie, Sketches of Some Distinguished Anglo-Indians including Lord Macaulay‟s Great Minute on Education in India (London, 1888), 170-183. 52 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 28. 53 Yaqoob Khan Bangash, A Princely Affair: The Accession and Integration of the Princely States of Pakistan, 1947-1955 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2015), 6-10. 63 opportunities and integrate it with world economy. Massive railways and road network were built across India. Soon after abortive attempt of the War of Independence (1857-

58), this went through a massive transformation, and infrastructure was built on an unprecedented scale. For instance, Railway track in India expanded from 32 km in 1853 to 51,658 km in 1910.54 Thus, in fifty seven years, or about 21,000 days, ―British India built 51,626 km of railways which works out to about 2.46 km of railways per day.‖55

The system of communications was revolutionized by postal and telegraph. Furthermore, many liberal educational, representative and electoral institutions were introduced in

India. The traditional indigenous people were introduced to scientific and technological progress through which nature could be controlled and exploited.56

The English language replaced Persian as official language and medium of instruction in educational institutions. The number of educational institutions was also increased manifold. For example, by 1870s, nearly 6,000 Indians were being taught in higher educational institutions while Calcutta alone publishing over 1,000 scientific and literary books each year.57 By 1870, the number of secondary school students reached 1.1 million including 50,000 women.58 In 1857, five major universities were established and, by 1900, ―the University of Calcutta had become the largest university in the world, with over 8,000 students.‖59 Through English language, the locals learnt and internalized the

54 Ilhan Niaz, The State During the British Raj: Imperial Governance in South Asia 1700-1947 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2019), 93. Ian Talbot, India and Pakistan: Inventing the Nation (London: Arnold, 2000), 25. Railway track of only 35 miles in 1854 was expanded to 8500 by 1880s, according to Talbot. 55 Niaz, The State During the British Raj, 257. 56 Afzal, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian Muslims, 25. 57 Naill Ferguson, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (London: Penguin Books, 2003), 189. 58 Lawrence James, Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India (London: Abacus, 2003), 345. 59 James, Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India, 345. 64 ideas of democracy, secularism, liberalism, humanism and right of self-determination.60

While the locals understood and internalized these liberal ideas, the British administration introduced local self-government on the basis of representative democracy initially at the local, towns and district levels, and later at the provincial and central levels by the close of first quarter of twentieth century. Most revolutionary of these changes was the introduction and dissemination of print capitalism. Publication of newspapers, books and tracts popularized these ideas at massive scale. These tools of modernization facilitated the rapid movement of goods, ideas and people. However, it goes without saying, that this development was uneven, favourable for presidency urban centres of Bombay,

Madras and Bengal but not for rural areas and princely states.61 Moreover while utilitarian ―James Mill wanted to promote useful knowledge rather than Hindu learning,‖ the Claphamites ―Charles Grant Sr. and Charles Grant Jr. wanted to promote Christian missionary activity,‖ and above all ―Lord Macaulay believed that the required use of the

English language in all Indian higher education would inevitably promote the loyalty of

Indians to the British Raj.‖62 Regarding Muslims, it took them ―a while and a lot of persuation from the enlightened modernist Muslim reformers to learn English‖ and to acquire ―the new language of success and to enroll in modern colleges and universities‖

60 Mubarak Ali, Historian‟s Dispute (Lahore: Progressive Publishers, 1992), 164. Ruchi Ram Sahni wrote that, ―there were very few public institutions in the Punjab, and the membership of such as did exist was confined to comparatively young men, the older men not knowing English and not being familiar with the advantages or importance of associations founded on the Western model.‖ See Neera Burra (ed.), A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab: Ruchi Ram Sahni, 1863-1948 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017), 211. 61 Ali, Historian‟s Dispute, 164. See also, Nehru, Discovery of India, 340-51. 62 Walter Bennett Evans, The Genesis of the Pakistan Idea: A Study of Hindu-Muslim Relations (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 33. 65 thereby enabling them ―to enter the new professions in bureaucracy, law, judiciary, engineering, and medicine.‖63

Though, the colonial state had declared in 1858 that it was not going to interfere in the private realms of ‗religion‘ and ‗customs,‘ of the local people yet it proved in the late nineteenth century that the public arenas of press and politics enmeshed with communitarian concerns. A large measure of ―communitarian narratives written in

‗modernized‘ vernacular languages, therefore, filled the pages churned out by burgeoning press and publications market.‖64 Due to get the attention of colonial state to extend its patronage, ―publicists needed to dip their pens in the ink of community.‖65 The fiction of the avowal of separation of religion and politics was laid bare ―the moment the British took the momentous decision to deploy religious enumeration to define ‗majority‘ and

‗minority‘ communities.‖66 Resultantly, religious based communitarian identities were lent constitutional significance even greater than regional, linguistic, sectarian and class ones and, hence, ―the construction of the political category of ‗Indian Muslims‘‖.67

The colonial state, at the level of society, created and perpetuated social fragmentation by constructing identities on the basis of caste, tribe, land-holding and religion. This was due to two important factors: first, the British tended not to view the

Indians as one collectively but a mosaic of several monolithic communities that were

63 Rais, Imagining Pakistan, 46. 64 Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (Lahore: Sang- e-Meel Publications, 2011), 89-90. 65 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Aisa, 90. 66 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Aisa, 90. 67 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Aisa, 90. 66 coherent and fixed in their respective characters.68 The relations among various Indian communities were viewed as inherently antagonistic and violent too often.69 The fashioning of identities took place in many domains but the most conspicuous, stark, eventful and harmful of these for social fabric was religious communal identities. The colonial state started a process of organizing polity in India through defining the characteristics of communities providing them relevant categories. It was allegedly sought to protect the interests of weaker communities from the strong or majoritarian ones. The British state‘s understanding of Indian past was based mainly on the interpretation of Orientalists such as James Mill, William Jones, Warren Hastings and

Thomas Munro who emphasized the selective view of the communal relations among the

Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs as infused with severe violence. Second, the fragmentation of

Indian society helped the British understand and use this knowledge for social control.70

The Orientalists were deemed to have superb knowledge of the diversity of Indian society, and the British Government wanted these knowledge categories to be perpetuated and used for administrative convenience, just like they did with regard to Indian census.

The Raj, in this way, used the local divisions within communities in a very calculated manner and thereby undermined any attempt of unified response to them by the Indians.

Another arena in which the Indians participated vigorously was their representation in electoral bodies introduced by the colonial state on incremental basis ranging from the Indian Councils Act of 1861 to the Government of India Act, 1935.71

68 Ali, Historian‟s Dispute, 164. 69 Thomas R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 145. 70 Evans, The Genesis of the Pakistan Idea, 33. 71 For detailed analysis, see B. B. Misra, The Administrative History of India 1834-1947 (London: Oxford University Press, 1970). 67

The local middle-class elite perceived these bodies and electoral avenues as instruments of control through which they could exercise influence over lower castes and communities to maintain their hold. The colonial state‘s view of India as divided into castes and communities played an important role in the functioning of electoral institutions. The local individuals and groups of people seeking political power took this officially recognized categorization as their tools for political mobilization of people. The electoral institutions introduced incrementally from local to provincial levels had important bearing on the people of India and their consciousness of the Indian politics.

Polity was localized in India. Local issues and grievances became dependent on local power wielders. The politicians, who sprang from these local councils, had their power base rooted in the local levels and their attention was focused on local castes and communities.72 Later on, when the colonial state introduced the provincial and central tiers of representative institutions, the state and society became a conglomeration of highly diverse political actors. The central and provincial leaders were faced with a challenge of combining and harmonizing the interests of the local castes and communities with the national demands and interests.73 The national leaders brokered the local demands of castes and communities with that of the political priorities at national levels.

For instance, Muhammad Ali Jinnah‘s position was very precarious being a leader of the centre; he had to reconcile central-provincial interests.74 The polity, thus, emerged tried

72 B. B. Misra, Politics of Regionalism in India with Special Reference to Punjab (New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications, 1988), 9-22. 73 As a compendium on castes, see H. A. Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1990). 74 Sikandar Hayat, The Charismatic Leader: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the Creation of Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2008), 139-46. 68 to facilitate the creation of various local elite-middle class groups competing for their respective caste and community interests.75

The local elite leaders most often pursued the specific interests of their respective communities but these interests clashed among communities. These leaders used their limited power granted to them by the colonial state to reward their respective communities. Sometimes selective patronage used to be provided at the expense of others. They often used the electoral victory to promote and popularize their community symbols which might clash with those of others. For instance, the Hindus, who had a majority in the UP, used their power and influence for cow protection. They would exert pressure to close the butcher shops of the Muslims in a bid to protect cow slaughter. The

Hindus were, in this case, fighting for the protection of their cultural and religious symbol of cow but they were hurting the feelings of Muslim community at the same time.76

Although the development of scientific and technological knowledge was weakening the grip of religion on society yet in a developing society such as India, the religious symbols were potent enough to galvanize general public on the name of religion.77 The Muslim revivalists were calling for ―back to Quran,‖ while Hindus were campaigning for ―back to the Vedas.‖78

75 Sandria B. Freitag, Collective Action and Community: Public Arenas and the Emergence of Communalism in North India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 54-5. 76 Ayesha Jalal, Self and Sovereignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam since 1850 (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2007), 78-86. 77 Mubarik Ali, Tarikh aur Mazhabi Tehrikein (Lahore: Fiction House, 2015), 17. 78 Ali, Tarikh aur Mazhabi Tehrikein, 17. ―Back to the Vedas‖ was a slogan raised by Arya Samaj under Dayananda Saraswati. For details, see Nehru, The Discovery of India, 366-76. 69

This increasing sense of insecurity against an overwhelming religious majority crystallized the conception of Muslim communal interest. The marginalized minority feeling of the Muslims got recognition by the colonial state in the form of legislative assurance of their right of ―separate electorates‖ in the reforms of 1909. Separate electorates, in turn, further exacerbated the minority feeling of the Muslims, thus consolidating consciousness of Muslim communal identity.79 A form of separate electorates was already in vogue in North Indian provinces since 1880s, according to which the notable (ashraf) Muslims used to be given role in municipal boards. Likewise, the colonial state‘s withdrawal from the religious arena for its alleged neutrality provided an opportunity to the rich Indians to fund religious ceremonies to get social recognition and respectability. Such socio-religious practices sharpened the communitarian identities and helped create supra-local Hindu, Muslim and other religious identities. Though leaders were, in both these cases, promoting community symbols, yet they were sensitizing the communitarian consciousness of other community. These identities ―came to being as a result of implying myths and symbols of earlier forms of identity, which may be less clearly formulated and more restricted in circulation but are nonetheless incipient cores of identity.‖80

The harmonious relations of Indians with the colonial state did not last for long time and the process of modernization started by the Raj resulted in enhancing further demands by the Indians. The educated Indians demanded more jobs with higher salaries

79 Robinson, Separatism among Indian Muslims, 98-105. See also, Farzana Shaikh, Community and Consensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial India, 1860-1947 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 119-159. 80 Muhammad Salahuddin, ―The Evolution of Muslim Identity in Colonial India: An Analysis,‖ (Unpublished M. Phil diss., Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 2016), 79. 70 and wanted a share in the upper levels of administrative hierarchy. Demands were made for the elite covenanted services as well as for the non-covenanted services in the Indian administration.81 The capacity of colonial state for absorption of educated Indians in

Government jobs declined increasingly. The state could not absorb them all.82 Moreover, there was resistance within the British Government regarding the entrance of Indians in elite services of the state. On the other hand, the Indians got disillusioned regarding some of the liberal credentials of the British Raj. The Raj had claimed its legitimacy to rule on the basis of liberal principles of rule of law while its discriminatory policies undermined its moral authority and legitimacy. The classical example of this contradiction was the

Ilbert Bill controversy (1882-83).

C. P. Ilbert (Legislative Council Member), on 1 February 1883, brought a bill, with approval of Lord Rippon, that if adopted would have ―extended the authority of a few Indian officials—experienced judges and magistrates—by giving them criminal jurisdiction over resident Europeans.‖83 Under the existing law, only the British Judges could hold trial of the European British residents. The local Indian magistrates and sessions judges were barred from hearing a case involving any European whites for a

81 The reform of 1858 opened up the higher civil service examination to Indians as well. However, the commencement of simultaneously holding exams in India and Britain, accompanied with the policy of Indianization, became possible in 1922. Niaz, The State During the British Raj, 89. For detailed study see chapter, ―Civilian Meritocray and the Higher Bureaucracy,‖ 77-104. 82 B. B. Misra, The Bureaucracy in India: An Historical Analysis of Development up to 1947 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1977), 91-106. See also, Hugh Tinker, ―Structure of the British Imperial Heritage,‖ in Ralph Braibanti (ed.) Asian Bureaucratic System Emergent from the British Imperial Tradition (Durham: Duke University Press, 1966), 54-61. William Golant, The Long Afternoon: British India 1601-1947 (Bristol: Purnell Book Services, 1975), 34-60. 83 Edwin Hirschmann, White Mutiny: The Ilbert Crisis in India and the Genesis of the Indian National Congress (New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1980), 2-3. 71 criminal offence.84 This policy of discrimination against the Indians was sought to be redressed by the Ilbert Bill to which the Europeans vehemently opposed.85 Although being a sensible reform, it ―drew an emotional and ferocious response.‖86 The Europeans began protests at the famous places such as Calcutta Town Hall and Ripon Hall as well as

Lawrence Hall in Lahore. Lord Ripon was asked by Indian Daily News to resign and go back to Britain immediately.87 However, Indians rallied to the support of viceroy and many organizations like the British Indian Association, the National Mohammedan

Association, Mohammedan Literary Society, the East Bengal Association and the

Lawyers‘s Association organized a petition in favour of the proposed reform of viceroy.‖88 At the time of agitation, in 1883, a European Seton Kerr, Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, declared that,

the cherished conviction which was shared by every Englishman in India, from the highest to the lowest, by the planter‘s assistant in his lowly bungalow and by the editor in the full light of the Presidencytown—from those to the Chief Commissioner in charge of an important province and to the viceroy in his throne—the conviction in every man that he belongs to a race whom God has destined to govern and subdue.89

84 Ilhan Niaz, An Inquiry into the Culture of Power of the Subcontinent (Islamabad: Alhamra Publishing, 2006), 219-20. 85 S. M. Burke and Salim Al-Din Qureshi, The British Raj in India: An Historical Review (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1996), 58. 86 Niaz, The State During the British Raj, 159. 87 Niaz, The State During the British Raj, 159. 88 Niaz, The State During the British Raj, 159. 89 Nehru, Discovery of India, 356-57. 72

This laid bare racial discrimination of the British and evoked equally strong response from the Indians giving birth to a consciousness that can be termed as Indian nationalism.90

The resentment of the Indians increased further with their increasing interaction among themselves. It was the English education that helped them come closer to each other despite the differences in their local languages. For instance, the only language that all delegates in the first session of Indian National Congress could speak was English and the Congress raised issues that affected the interests of the educated urban upper class.91

The newly educated middle class elite had diverse geographical, cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, yet their ambitions and goals overrode. On the one hand, there was competition and conflict among these newly educated middle class elite, and they asserted their interests more forcefully. They were dissatisfied with the British Raj, and competed with one another on the basis of communal differences. On the other hand, their attitude towards the Raj changed from moderation to resistance.92 This change could be observed from the replacement of moderate with that of radical leadership in political organizations such as INC and AIML during first quarter of the twentieth century. In short, ―colonialism and its social and political template for India… developed a sense of competition between the social and political leaders and their communities.‖93

90 For a detailed discussion on Ilbert Bill crisis and the eventual establishment of Indian National Congress, see Niaz, An Inquiry into the Culture of Power of the Subcontinent, 219-20. 91 Niaz, An Inquiry into the Culture of Power of the Subcontinent, 220. 92 Sandria B. Freitag, ―Sacred Symbol as Mobilizing Ideology: The North Indian Search for a ‗Hindu‘ Community,‖ Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 22, no. 4, (October 1980), 597-625. 93 Rais, Imagining Pakistan, 51. 73

1.2.5 Social Engineering by the British and the Emergence of Social, Racial and Professional Identities

The British state in India carried out social engineering on two bases: first, the Indians were categorized into religious communities like the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and

Untouchables and these religious categories were used in documentary practices at exponential scale. Second, Indians were fragmented in martial and non-martial binaries.94

The colonial state declared that some castes of India belonged to martial races, while others do not. Some stereotypes such as ‗wily‘ Brahmin, ‗warlike‘ Pathan, ‗sturdy‘ Jat and ‗effete‘ Bengali Babu were constructed and society was compartmentalized into many categories.95 These stereotypes were further lent credit through their proper compilation, publication and even authentication by giving them legal status. All this was the instrumental use of the knowledge produced by Orientalists to count, categorize and control the Indians. Side by side this, ―Orientalism gave religion a special status as the foremost site of essentialized difference between the religious East and the secular

West.‖96 Consequently, as a result of social engineering by the British Government,

Indian society got systemically divided into many categories.

The colonial decennial census at all-India level, the first of which was conducted in 1871, attained importance regarding the categorization of Indian society.97 The

94 Tan Tai Yong, The Garrison State: The Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849- 1947 (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2007), 70-97. 95 Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj, 145. 96 Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980), 22. 97 In Punjab, the first two censuses were held in 1855 and 1868. However, their results suffered from severe inaccuracies and limitations. First, all districts of Punjab could not be included in this exercise. Second, the religious categories were contested since Sikhs were lumped together with Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists. Richard Temple, wrote in his introduction to the 1855 census report, ―In precise conformity with the 74 administration was astonished to experience that there were individuals and communities who could not fit into defined categories. Their forcible adjustment was tantamount to

‗square peg into a round hole‘. Similarly, some categories achieved undue importance and were highlighted. For example, Chamars, Chuhras, Mahrs and Holeyas were lumped together as a separate category of ‗Untouchables‘. Their low economic and social status was perceived as the conspicuous commonality but their caste restrictions of inter- marriage and inter-dinning were ignored altogether.98 The institutionalized practice of census and ethnographic surveys helped the British state reify and routinize the caste and community categories in Indian society.99 The census officials, along with caste, considered religious affiliation as a basic unit of enquiry to understand the social stratification in India.100 The colonial state provided the indigenous population with modern education, positions in lower military and civil bureaucracy, and representation in municipal and provincial councils on the basis of the tabulated data generated by census reports. It was in this way that ―the intrusive colonial state, the Raj, constructed a framework of polity through these material and non-material sources that was unified in its administrative functions but was fragmented in socio-political arena.‖101 The state itself ―imposed on the local population not only a physical structure but also a cognitive

Census of the North-Western Provinces the population has been classified into its two great Divisions, namely, Hindoo and Mahomedan, agricultural and non-agricultural.‖ The first comprehensive and reliable census in Punjab is considered to be that of 1881. See ―Report on the Census Taken on the 1st of January, 1855 of the Population of the Punjab Territories,‖ in Selection from the Records of the Government of India, Calcutta, 1856, reprinted in The Punjab Past and Present, vol. 17 (1983), 196. 98 Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus, 130-41. 99 Bernard S. Cohn, ―The Census, Social Structure and Objectification in South Asia,‖ in An Anthropologist among the Historians and Other Essays (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987), 224-56. 100 Alex Padamsee, Representation of Indian Muslims in British Colonial Discourse (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 16. 101 Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 38. 75 structure based on the knowledge of the Orientalists and of the imperial expediencies.‖102

The colonized indigenous people were, thus, not only physically but also mentally controlled, yet they could exercise a degree of agency in state and society.

It is expedient to analyse Indians‘ agency in the form of their response to the state‘s process of modernization and categorization: this response can be divided into three stages. First, since the introduction of modernization along with the technological revolution was an unprecedented challenge for the local traditional people, they got highly apprehensive. The difference between introduction of modernization in Europe and India was that European societies had developed along with the changes introduced in the wake of modernization and industrialization. However, the Indian society received modernization as a given package, and the indigenous traditional society went through a painful experience of absorbing changes, that can be termed as, colonial modernity.

Second, the Indians learnt English language and modern knowledge in public and private schools, and entered into lower administrative jobs offered by the colonial state. Third, responding to the magnitude of colonial challenges, the Indians organized themselves socially and politically for pursuing their material interests in fast-changing socio- political scenario. However, the Orientalist constructs as well as the initiatives of colonial state both conditioned this reorganization process of the Indian society in multiple ways.103 Both of the responses, collaboration and reorganization, of the Indians were a heterogeneous process: it was dependent on the level of interaction between the colonial state and traditional Indian society. The interaction between these entities was, however,

102 Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 38-39. 103 Sudipta Kaviraj, Politics in India (New Delhi: Manohar, 1997), 118-22. 76 very intense in the urban centres of India i.e. Bombay, Madras and Bengal. The competition and conflict of ―colonial milieu‖104 was conspicuous and the Indians themselves felt divided over their perception of winners and losers in this process of modernization.

The complex process of British colonization in India not only aroused colonizer‘s interest in understanding and learning Indian languages, but also turned languages into symbols of empowerment for some and resistance for others.105 English was made the language of British Indian administration in 1837, which increased its demand manifold.

The British administration needed the locals, with functional knowledge of English language and affordable salaries, in lower jobs while the Indians, being a huge population and skewed economic opportunities, needed jobs. The traditional and hereditary sections of Indian society, mostly upper caste Brahmans, met particular requirements of the Raj.

They possessed least capital and skills required to do business. Moreover, these people had little interest in agriculture because either they had no land or very less chunks of land, having no economically productive units.

As a result, the educated elite-middle class did not have many earning opportunities so they were bound to look towards the public sector for lucrative jobs.

104 The term refers to time and space when/where indigenous civilizations of South Asia came into active contact with British culture. For detailed study, see Kenneth W. Jones, The New Cambridge History of India: Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 94-5. 105 Nukhbah Taj Langah, Poetry as Resistance: Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan (New Delhi: Routledge, 2012), 3. See also Bernard Cohn, ―The Command of Language and the Language of Command,‖ in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV: Writings on South Asian History (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985), 276-329; Ranajit Guha, Dominance without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India (London: Harvard University Press, 1997); Tariq Rahman, Language and Politics in Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1998). 77

Another profession that attracted this class was that of ‗law‘ based upon the English concept of rule of law.106 The Indian middle class elite co-opted this profession very quickly because it gave reasonable income and prestige. After implementation of English as official court language, the demand of lawyers increased rapidly because they could work as intermediaries between the rulers and the ruled. Moreover, they could earn good income by representing the masses who did not understand English language and needed lawyers to represent them. As Karl Marx presciently analysed that ―they cannot represent themselves; they must be represented.‖107 The lawyers became spokesmen of the Indians generally, and that of elite-middle class particularly. Indians acquired English language for employment and maintenance of social status. Resultantly, the enthusiasm for English language became so high that the public-school system proved to be insufficient to cater to the demand.

To fulfil this demand, private schools jumped in run by the Christian missionaries and socio-religious organizations of the Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs. Apart from

―opening schools, libraries and orphanages, and preaching in public places, the involvement of local Muslim anjumans as well as Hindu and Arya sabhas in providing social support services strengthened communitarian bonds in no uncertain way.‖108 The number of private English-medium arts and humanities colleges was 23 out of 63 in

1881-1882. The ratio increased to 108 out of 140 English-medium arts colleges in 1901-

106 This fact is corroborated by the evidence that most of the first-class leadership of Indian freedom movement and Pakistan movement hailed from the legal profession. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Sardar Patel, and Allama Muhammad Iqbal are few examples in point. 107 Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, as cited in Said, Orientalism, xiii. 108 Jalal, Self and Sovereignty, 81. 78

1902.109 This revolution in educational sector was not uniform all over India, and it favoured the Presidencies of Bombay, Bengal and Madras. In 1891 Bengal had 34 colleges with enrolment of 5225 students as compared to the Punjab with 6 colleges and

462 students. Similarly, Bombay had 9 colleges and Madras 35 colleges with 1332 and

3818 students on the rolls, respectively, as compared to the central provinces with only 3 colleges and 232 students.110 The beneficiaries of modernization were mostly either middle class elite or upper caste people. In this manner, the educational change in British period shifted the centre of political activities from North India to the coastal

Presidencies, on the one hand, and promoted elite-middle class from among the upper castes, on the other.

The educated elite-middle class was the highest beneficiary of the administrative changes that colonial state introduced in India. The consolidation of the state structure through formulation of laws and infrastructure development was meant to fulfil the requirements of imperial governance in India. In this process of formulation of colonial state, the Indian elite-middle class internalized two sets of cognitive constructs through the English education system: first, the Orientalists‘ construction that Indian population was inherently split into myriad number of castes and communities. Second, the Western conception of nations and communities intertwined with ―liberalism, democracy and self- determination‖ playing important role in state as well as society.111 The educated elite- middle class, having internalized the Orientalists‘ notions of castes and communities and

109 Seal, The Emergence of Indian Nationalism, 18-22. 110 Seal, The Emergence of Indian Nationalism, 18-22. 111 Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (New York: Penguin Books, 1967), 3-14. 79 notions of liberalism, democracy and self-determination, started to organize themselves.

This pattern of organization was replica of the Western model which they were ready to emulate on the basis of their education and compulsions of the colonial state.112

Resultantly, a large number of socio-political organizations and anjumans sprang up which followed the same modernist principles of association. At some places, ―the threat of Christian conversion stimulated the rise of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh religious societies and reform movements.‖113 These organizations offered equality of membership and opportunities to work for themselves and their projected caste, creed and community.

Apparently, they were committed only towards the material progress of their community but they were constructing the ideology of its members and the community on the principles of rationality. The English educated elite-middle class was pursuing their material rational interests through highlighting, at the same time, symbols of their traditional identities.

1.3 Nation, Nationalism and National Identity in Colonial India

Before proceeding further to establish the relationship of nationalism with the socio- religious reform movements and Muslim communal organizations in colonial India, the concept of nation needs to be defined and explained with particular reference to national identities and religious nationalism. Many theorists have defined the phenomenon of nationalism in various contexts, though nationalism is a product of particular historical developments in Europe where many nation states emerged from fifteenth to nineteenth

112 Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 41. 113 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 24. For instance, the missionary presence in Lahore made possible the quadrupling of native converts which reached out to 16,000 by 1931. On the eve of Independence of India, the number of native Christians was 30,000. 80 centuries. ―Nations, nationalism, and national identity‖ are, to a large extent ―product of the tumultuous course of European history‖ and it was the occurrence of ―war [that] made the state and it also made nations.‖114 An attempt is made in this section to understand and interpret the phenomenon of nationalism: what is a nation? How do nations come into being? How do nations define their ‗collective self‘ and the ‗collective other‘?

The primary belief of nationalism is that a nation is, and should be, the pivotal principle of political organization. Words such as ‗nation,‘ ‗state,‘ ‗country,‘ and even some times ‗race‘ are used as if they are interchangeable, in everyday language. On the foundational levels, nations are cultural entities, collections of people bound together by shared values and traditions or a common language, religion and history, and occupying the same geographical region. Language is recognized as an important symbol of nationhood. Religion is another main component of nationhood. Nations have, most often, expressed a sense of ethnic and racial unity.115

Various schools of thought have attempted to understand and interpret the origin, characteristics and development of nationalism and nation-state in different ways. These schools of thought can broadly be classified into three categories: i) Primordialists believe that nations are ancient, deep-rooted, and fashioned out of psychology, culture and biology. They define the nations as a ‗natural order‘ and argue that a nation is founded upon primordial attachments which can be race, genetic link or culture; ii)

Perennialists interpret nationalism as rooted in long standing ethnic affiliations but these

114 Huntington, Who Are We? 28. 115 Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies: An Introduction (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 148-152. 81 affiliations need not be immutable; and iii) the modernists explain nationalism in constructionists‘ paradigm in which it is treated as a recent phenomenon, which is a product of socio-economic transformation and the process of modernization during the last two centuries.116 This approach to nationalism suggests that national identity is forged in response to changing situations and historical challenges. They emphasize the degree to which nationalism is linked to modernization and the process of industrialization.

Critics of nationalism, the constructivists, have propounded that nations are

‗imagined,‘ not organic, communities. They regard national identity largely as an ideological construct, usually serving the interest of powerful groups. For instance, Eric

Hobsbawm highlighted the extent to which nations are based on invented traditions.

Nationalism creates nations, not the other way around. A widespread consciousness of nationhood did not, for example, arise until the late nineteenth century, fashioned by the

116 Anthony D. Smith, ―Theories of Nationalism: Alternative Models of Nation Formation,‖ in Michael Deifee (ed.), Asian Nationalism (London: Routledge, 2000), 1-20. There is also debate about categorization of societies as either traditional or modern and nationalism is placed on the side of the modern. It is assumed that nationalism is the result of the replacement of traditional with modern society. This is, however, controversial because in many societies nationalism has been the product of diffusion. It means that modernity has not been brought about as historical transition in the European sense but as invasion of the traditional by the modern. According to Louis Dumont, such a situation leads to uneasy combinations as exemplified by Indian ―communalism which combines religion and nationalism” [emphasis added]. Quoted in Veer, Religious Nationalism, 17. Some of the Indian secularist nationalists, including Jawaharlal Nehru, held the view that communalism will disappear when the society is gradually modernized. However, there are two very important processes which need to be understood. First, that in many pre- colonial societies, including India, there was continuing formation of the state on divergent lines and expansion of networks of economic interdependence which meant that these societies had their own pattern of change that continued during the colonial and post-colonial times too. Second, that in Western discourse the combined force of individualism, secularism and equality became religion of the state. 82 invention of national anthems and national flags and the extension of primary education and mass literacy.117

One can find very innovative explanations of constructionism, such as Benedict

Anderson‘s influential work on ―imagined communities.‖118 Anderson defined national identity as a socio-cognitive construct—one that is both spatially and temporally inclusive as well as enabled and shaped by broader array of social forces. Anderson points out key moments and defining times of identity construction, such times during which cultural (including but not limited to language) and other social factors (capitalism, print technology) converge in a particular given historical moment, ―effectively remaking collective images of the national self.‖119 This formulation of collective identity and the political movements spurred by it constitute an important area of interest for identity theorists and scholars. On this pattern, identity politics creates new social (or religious) movements and collective initiatives that are highly self-reflexive and sharply focused on the overt actions of collective members.

To Anderson, a nation ―is an imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.‖120 He argued that a nation is ‗imagined‘ should not be understood as that nation itself is false and unreal, and that it should be singled out from real communities. Contrary to it, Anderson writes that ―a nation is constructed from

117 Heywood, Political Ideologies, 152. 118 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991). Benedict Anderson is the author of one of the most influential theories in political geography—that nations are ‗imagined communities‘. He studied under Eric Hobsbawm and graduated from Cambridge University and then moved to Cornell University to pursue PhD. It was at Cornell University that he was influenced by George Kahin, John Echols, and Claire Holt. 119 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6. 120 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6 83 popular processes through which residents share nationality in common.‖121 It is important to understand how a nation is imagined, limited and sovereign according to this interpretation. It is ―imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion [emphasis original].‖122

This type of understanding shapes and is shaped by political and cultural institutions: people imagine that they possess common beliefs and attitudes, and recognize a collective national population having similar opinions and sentiments.

Moreover, ―the nation is imagined as limited because even the largest of them, encompassing perhaps a billion living human beings, has finite, if elastic, boundaries, beyond which lie other nations [emphasis original].‖123 The feeling of being part of a nation means, in other words, that there must be another nation against which self- definition can be conceived and constructed. Anderson has thus argued for the social construction of nations as political communities that possess a limited and defined spatial and demographic extent, rather than being organic and eternal entities. The second important element of the definition of Anderson is that,

it is imagined as sovereign because the concept was born in an age in which enlightenment and revolution were destroying the legitimacy of divinely- ordained, hierarchical dynastic realm … nations dream of being free… the gage and emblem of this freedom is the sovereign state [emphasis original].124

121 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6. 122 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6. 123 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7. 124 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7. 84

He argues that the concept of nation developed in the late eighteenth century as a structure of society and replacement of previous monarchical-cum-religious systems. It was, in this way, a new way of conceptualizing the notions of state and sovereignty. This sovereignty would be confined to a defined population and territory over which the state, in the name of nation, could exercise power. Finally, nation ―is imagined as a community, because regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship [emphasis original].‖125

Nations wield such a power over imaginations of its members that patriotic calls to arms are translated as the duty of all national residents. National residents, in war times, are equal and class boundaries are eroded in the communal struggle for national survival and establishing greatness.

Anderson has established a great deal of his ‗imagined communities‘ thesis on

‗print capitalism‘ which is an essential part of modernization referred to earlier in this chapter. He opines that the standardization of clocks, a national calendar and a national language was embodied in books and the publication of daily newspapers within a national territory. As Anderson‘s claim that nations are ‗imagined‘ and ‗invented‘ only after a certain technological level was attained, the effective British rule in India ―became possible, thanks to modern developments in transport and communications.‖126 This created a sense of shared national experience for people as they became aware of events occurring in their own nation state and nations abroad. It became possible, through newspapers, for rapidly growing numbers of people to think about themselves, and relate

125 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7. 126 Shashi Tharoor, Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2017), 104. 85 themselves to others, in overwhelmingly new ways. Scattered events were bound together and termed as national experiences as people thought that everyone was reading the same thing and had the same access to information. In his own words, ―the convergence of capitalism and print technology on fatal diversity of human language created the possibility of a new form of imagined community, which in its basic morphology set the stage for the modern nation.‖127

Anderson has also discussed the role of construction of national memories, national census, national museums, biographies of personalities of national importance and maps. For example in the case of colonial India, the British cartography ―defined spaces the better to rule them‖ and the ―map became an instrument of colonial control.‖128 The museum, another important British legacy in India, was planned for promotion of the imperial project because artefacts, objects and symbols could be

―appropriated, named, labeled, arranged, ordered, classified and thus controlled, exactly as the people could be.‖129 After dealing with mass communication and print capitalism, he turned to the phenomenon of migration, stating that ―the two most significant factors generating nationalism and ethnicity are both closely linked to the rise of capitalism.

They can be described summarily as mass communication and mass migration.‖130 This phenomenon of mass migration related with the conjunction of the rise of capitalism and print technology is importantly relevant for the case of colonial Punjab: it too experienced a mass internal migration resulting with the settlement of canal colonies

127 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 46. 128 Tharoor, Inglorious Empire, 107. 129 Tharoor, Inglorious Empire, 108. 130 Benedict Anderson, ―The New World Disorder,‖ New Left Review, no. 193, 7. 86 during the colonial period.131 The canal colonies represented the most extensive form of socio-economic and demographic engineering attempted by the British in South Asia.132

The colonialism, as harbinger of modernization, caused the emergence of Indian nationalism in many ways.

Charles Taylor, in his identity politics and new social movements paradigm, recommends a different type of agency—a self-conscious collective agency. He contends that identities emerge and movements ensue because collectives intentionally coordinate actions; group members consciously develop offenses and defences, consciously insulate, differentiate, and mark, cooperate and compete, persuade and coerce. In such a context, agency makes more than the control and transformation of one‘s social environment.133

Collective agency includes a conscious group feeling as an agent.

Bernstein contends that the concept of ‗identity‘ concomitant to social movements can be explained at three distinct analytical levels:i) a common collective identity is essential for mobilizing a social movement; ii) expressions of identity can be used at the collective level as a political strategy that can aim at what is traditionally thought of as cultural and political goal-oriented; and iii) identity can be an objective of social movement activism, either to gain acceptance for hitherto stigmatized identity or

131 For understanding migration and its impact on the cultural landscape of Punjab see, Muhammad Abrar Zahoor, ―Migration, Settlement and Identity: A Cultural Theme of Muslim Diaspora after Partition of India-1947,‖ in Janes Fernandez (ed.), Diasporas: Critical and Inter-Disciplinary Perspectives (Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2009), 165-172. 132 Imran Ali, The Punjab under Imperialism, 1885-1947 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2003), 3. 133 Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001), 25-32. 87 constructing new elaborate categories of identities.134 For political action, all social movements require identity for empowerment as well as constructing oppositional consciousness to create and mobilize a constituency.135 The study of objects has also been explored as a key to recent research on identification processes. These studies make out ways in which individuals and groups use art objects for articulating and projecting identities. Objects are used to understand, in a better way, the political, cultural, social, and economic contexts in which these objects are produced.136 It includes, for instance, objects of national identity symbolization such as national anthem, flags, uniforms and caps.

The decolonization process in India, while sharing almost all attributes of nationalism discussed by Anderson, witnessed a phenomenon that can be termed as religious nationalism because the partition of India was sought on the basis of religious identities, and Punjab played a very important role in the justification of separate state of

Pakistan. Socio-religious reform movements had already made ground fertile for the growth of religious nationalism in the Punjab. This platform was used by the political parties and leaders to make public appeal and get maximum votes for the creation of a separate country as a result of elections of 1945-46 and the ensuing political developments.

134 Mary Bernstein, ―Identity Politics,‖ Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 31 (2005), 59. 135 Bernstein, ―Identity Politics,‖ 59. 136 Karen A. Cerulo, ―Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions,‖ Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 23 (1997), 396. 88

1.4 Communalist/Religious Identity Consciousness in South Asia

The origin and development of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh religious national identities took place during the nineteenth century India. It started as a result of interaction of British

Indian colonial state and its modernization process, with the local Indian society. This interaction in a stable political mechanism provided a space, termed by Jones as,

―colonial milieu‖ in which modern religious identities were constructed.137 It was precisely this friction, competition and conflict that triggered the events of the War of

Independence or the Great Mutiny in 1857-58 in India.138 The colonizers and the colonized were both shaken up by this upheaval but eventually the British were victorious and their dominant position became thence-to-fore unchallenged. The local elite, especially the collaborators, were further emboldened during the post mutiny period. The British collaboration with local elite made sense because they were dealing with a large population which was ethnically diverse and directly unmanageable for them. In addition to landlords who wanted to secure their interest, the local leaders

―consisted of the small groups of western-educated intellectuals and thus thoroughly imbued with new western ideas of democracy, secularism, liberalism, and humanism.‖139

It was generally these leaders, trained in Western values of democracy and liberalism that played important role in the freedom movement.

137 Kenneth W. Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 15. 138 For a detailed first-hand account, see Rev. J. Cave-Brown, The Punjab and Delhi in 1857 (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2005). 139 Ali, Historian‟s Dispute, 164. 89

Another outstanding feature of late nineteenth century India, according to Jalal, was ―the interconnectedness, though not necessarily convergence, of social and political developments across regions on an unprecedented scale.‖140 It was due to this factor of being more interconnected, during this period, that ―the idioms, and even the irascible idiosyncrasies, of communitarian identities and national ideologies were given a semblance of coherence and structure.‖141 There were multiple narratives of religious and linguistic cultural identities which were contributing to the emergence of nationalist thought in colonial India.

The mushroom growth of Hindu and Muslim organizations during the second half of the nineteenth century was a response to the activities and conversion campaigns of

Christian missionaries and onset of the colonial modernization drive. But with the passage of time, each community was trying hard to counter and present befitting response to the other communities.142 As a result of activities of these organizations and factors like repeated practice of decennial census by the colonial state and extensively targeted use of printing press to carry out propaganda, religious identities were sharpened increasingly. Punjab remained the area of focus for not only the Christian missionaries but also for the responding Hindu and Muslim communal organizations.143 For example,

Arya Samaj was established in Bombay in 1875 by Dayanand Saraswati but it gained

140 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, 89. 141 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, 89. 142 Zahoor, ―The Collective Self and the Collective Other: Construction of Communal Identities in Colonial Punjab,‖ 37. 143 To Talbot, ―The term communalism is used in the Indian subcontinent to describe identity focused on religion.‖ See Ian Talbot (ed.), The Deadly Embrace: Religion, Politics and Violence in India and Pakistan, 1947-2000 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2007), xiii. 90 maximum popularity and mass appeal in the Punjab and UP. Elsewhere it found difficult to overcome entrenched local matrices of religiosity.144

Pre-colonial Punjab was a syncretic society where people of three major religious communities of India (Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs) though not neatly divided, lived a peaceful life.145 There is no denying that peace in Punjab was time and again disturbed by invading armies from the North-west but this area did not see communal violence/riots.

Talbot‘s assertion that:

the picture which emerges from colonial ‗histories‘ of the Punjab‘s instability, violence and long-established tradition of communal animosity is only a partial and by no means ‗innocent‘ portrayal. It consistently underestimates the shared cultural values of the rural Punjabi communities.146

A critical study of the process, which transformed a sizable portion of communities turning them hostile towards each other despite ―shared cultural values‖ of the Punjabi communities, is necessary.

144 Satish Saberwal, ―Introduction,‖ in Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan (eds.), Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe (New Delhi: Manohar, 2006), 19. 145 According to Aquil, ―Large-scale confrontations over political power transformed Sikhism from a syncretic religious tradition drawing heavily on beliefs and practices from Islam to outright hostility towards the latter.‖ For details, see Raziuddin Aquil, The Muslim Question: Understanding Islam and Indian History (Gurgaon: Penguin Random House, 2017), 23-4. 146 Ian Talbot, Khizr Tiwana: The Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996), 6. Ian Talbot opines that colonial Punjab witnessed two parallel traditions. The rural areas continued to have tradition of shared cultural values while the urban areas saw emergence and rise of communal tendencies. This is true for the initial decades of the twentieth century but when it comes to the last decade before partition, the rural areas were also engulfed in communal violence. Even the starting point of violence was Sikh villages in Rawalpindi, Campbellpore and Jhelum Districts attacked by Muslims resulting in killing of 2000-5000 Sikhs and Hindus. It means that the whole of Punjab was in communal frenzy including urban and rural areas. However, by any means those who perpetrated crimes of violence and massacre remained in minority. For detailed discussion on communal carnage at the time of partition and soon after, see Ishtiaq Ahmed, The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unraveling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012), xxiii-xxxviii. For an analysis of violence and trajectories of later settlement of migrants, see Ilyas Chattha, Partition and Locality: Violence, Migration and Development in Gujranwala and Sialkot, 1947- 1961 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011). 91

The process of Muslim identity construction in colonial Punjab was preceded by a period of Muslim reform movements in the nineteenth century. This period witnessed a vigorous zeal and zest of reform movements in all the major religious communities of

India including the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. These reform movements were a response of the Indians to the challenge of the dominance of Western Christian civilization and its impact on India. We can identify four major Muslim responses to the crisis brought about by the loss of Muslim political power and the rise of an alien

Christian rule. These were the modernism of the Aligarh School, reformism of Deoband

School, traditionalism of Barelvi School and Islamism of the Jamaat-i-Islami of Maulana

Abul Ala Maududi (b. 1903-d. 1979).147 The institutions and ideas that these movements established continued to influence Muslims in South Asia and beyond. The Muslims were transformed by these ideas and became more and more conscious about the identity of their self and the community. Usha Sanyal, whose work is on Ahmad Raza Khan (b.

1856-d. 1921) founder of Barelvi School, describes the situation as follows:

Indians of all religions were keenly aware of Western criticisms of their religious customs and traditions. The Hindu reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy had responded by rejecting many aspects of contemporary ritual practice, arguing that the ―pure‖ Hinduism of India‘s ―golden age‖ was rational, simple and devoid of practices which the British described as barbaric (such as idol worship, caste, widow immolation, child marriage, and other social practices deemed detrimental to women). He also considered certain Sanskritic texts authoritative, and advocated

147 These were four different responses of Muslims to the challenges posed by colonialism and modernity. The Aligarh School was established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who believed in the compatibility of modernity and Islam. He felt it necessary that Muslims of South Asia should seek modern scientific education and progress in the domain of knowledge. The Deoband Movement was established by Muhammad Qasim Nanautvi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi. This school of thought emphasized education and scriptualism. The Barelvi School was founded by Ahmad Raza Khan Barelvi and it stressed the importance of traditions and devotional Islam. The Islamism was represented by Maulana Abul Ala Maududi who founded the Jamaat-i-Islami in 1941. His emphasis was on establishing an Islamic state which would act as vicegerent of God on earth commonly referred to as Khilafat. See, David Lelyveld, Aligarh‟s First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996), 3-26. To study reformers, see Ali Rahnema (ed.), Pioneers of Islamic Revival (London: Zed Books, 1994). 92

their study as a means of reforming religious and social practices. In the Muslim case, religious leaders in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries promoted internal reform as a response to Britain‘s rule of India. They reasoned that if Muslims had lost political power after so many centuries of rule, it was because they had been religiously negligent. Had they been ―good‖ Muslims, they would have been strong and the British would never have been able to take over.148

The reform movements in Hinduism as well as Islam provided opportunity to believers to look deeply into the frailties and cruel customs susceptible to criticism by the

Christian missionaries and colonial administration.149 They advocated reform in religious teachings and practices. Since the problem of loss of identity was acutely felt by the elite middle class of all religious traditions, it was this class that initially responded to call of the day, i.e. reform within religion. However, the loss of identity and privileges of the old days of Mughal period were certainly felt more by the Muslim nobility than others. The

Muslim nobility of Mughal rule was largely located in the surroundings of Delhi and their power and privileges were hit hard by the ascendancy of the British Raj. It was due to this

148 For a brief discussion on the Muslim reform movements, see Usha Sanyal, Ahmad Riza Khan Barelvi: In the Path of the Prophet (Oxford: One word, 2005), 19. She is of the opinion that the nineteenth century reformists, although were many groups, shared the broad set of goals including better knowledge of the textual sources of Islam, greater adherence to religious injunctions by the individual believers and closely following the life of the Prophet (PBUH) as Sunnah. However, based on their attitude towards British rule, they differed in many important ways. Three groups can be distinguished: the vast majority including Shah Abdul Aziz (b. 1746-d. 1824), the Deobandis, the Ahl-i-Hadith, the Nadwat al-Ulema and the Ahmadis were relatively uninterested in taking part in opportunities opened up by the British rule, although most of them accepted it without protest. The second strand Jihadists including Syed Ahmad Barelvi (b. 1786-d. 1831) and his followers were actively opposed to non-Muslim rule including that of the British. They sought to restore Muslim rule through waging Jihad. The third strand fell in between these two and it was of Faraizi Movement in Bengal who, though not declared open Jihad against the British but they boycotted British institutions and refused to pay taxes. The last strand was of accommodationists the chief protagonist of which was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (d. 1898) of Aligarh school, who embraced British rule as positive where Indian Muslims stood to benefit. To understand contemporary reformist trends in Hinduism, see Bruce Carlisle Robertson (ed.), The Essential Writings of Raja Rammohan Roy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), 113-260; S. Cromwell Crawford, Ram Mohan Roy: Social, Political, and Religious Reform in 19th Century India (New York: Paragon House Publishers, 1987). Raja Ram Mohan Roy (b. 1772-d. 1833) was a Hindu moderate and reformist leader who played important role in introducing reform in his religion in the wake of British modernist challenge to some commonly perceived cruel practices like satti (self immolation). 149 Geoffrey A. Oddie, Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism, 1793-1900 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2006), 39-94. 93 reason that almost all the Muslim centres of revival and reform emerged in areas nearby the capital Delhi. Bareilly, Deoband and Aligarh were located not very far from Delhi.

The emergence and growth of revivalist religious organizations as a response to the proselytizing activities of Christian missionaries resulted in the establishment of community schools, colleges, newspapers and magazines by the Hindus, Muslims and

Sikhs. These developments coupled with the modernization drive of the colonial state, which included decennial practice of census, extensive use of printing press, imperial cartography, and looking at the citizens divided in religious communities, helped promote a more exclusive and puritanical religious identity. The activities of these communal organizations not only sharpened communal/religious identities but also became the forerunners of the development of both Indian territorial nationalism and Muslim religious nationalism.

Nationalism generally tries to show, in historical accounts and as nationalist agenda-project, that nation has always existed which is contradictory in itself. This work, however, focuses on the way the religious communities—Hindu, Muslim and Sikh— developed on communal lines and modern communal identities were sharpened contributing to the development of religious nationalism. Religious nationalism, it is contended, builds on previous construction of religious community. It is opposed to the claim of two-nation theory approach that presupposes that Hindus and Muslims are primordial communities, which have existed with sharp identities even before the emergence of nationalist era. The contention, here, is in line with Per van der Veer, who argued that ―religious nationalism in nineteenth and twentieth centuries builds on forms

94 of religious identity and modes of religious communication‖ which is an unceasing process of transformation during the colonial and post-colonial periods.150 Emergence of nationalism during the colonial period was the outcome of twofold role played by the colonial state and the colonized. The agency of the socio-religious reform movements and communal organizations in this regard has generally been overlooked. Reformism was the explicit agenda of reform movements, which wanted propagation of puritanical reformist religion challenging all accretions and replacement of fluid and blurred version of religious beliefs and practices with that of distinct identity-oriented beliefs and practices.151 An example of the fact that nationalism is not primordial can be found in the historical process of formation of Hindi as Hindu and Urdu as a Muslim language.152

While constructing the Muslims as ―other‖ Hindu religio-nationalist movements preferred to portray Indian Muslims as ―outsiders‖ and ―foreign element,‖ who were not son-of-the-soil. This construction of the ―collective self‖ and ―collective other‖ relentlessly pursued by the socio-religious reform movements in their agenda, discourse and actions had been one of the major sources of sharpening of religious identities.153 An important role was played by sacred centres and reform movements in the construction of religious identities in India and continued in the construction of Hindu and Muslim nationalism and social process of maintenance of religious boundaries. However, these

150 Veer, Religious Nationalism, xiii. Same kinds of arguments have been put forward by Sandria Frietag‘s Collective Action and Community: Public Arenas and the Emergence of Communalism in North India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989); Gyanendra Pandey‘s The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990) and Partha Chatterjee‘s Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse (London: Zed Books, 1986). 151 Fillipo Osella and Caroline Osella, ―Introduction: Islamic Reformism in South Asia,‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 42, no. 2/3 (2008): 247-257. 152 For detailed analysis, see Tariq Rahman, From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 98-135. 153 Zahoor, ―The Collective Self and the Collective Other: Construction of Communal Identities in Colonial Punjab,‖ 25-26. 95 boundaries were and are still to some extent, not unambiguous but continuously contested, negotiated and re-interpreted.

Due to their long-felt loss of political power in India, Muslims had continuously been demanding constitutional assurances and guarantees. The British were initially skeptical towards Muslim community, especially after the War of Independence (1857-

58) but the Government realized at the start of the twentieth century that Muslims were lagging behind other religious communities in their socio-economic and political status.

They were lacking in modern education too. Resultantly, the British Government conceded the Muslim demands of constitutional guarantees in the shape of granting

‗separate electorates‘ in 1909 and giving ‗provincial status‘ to the areas of their numerical strength. It was during this period that Muslim religious identity translated itself into political identity that eventually took the form of Muslim nationalism on the basis of which a separate state for the majority Muslim areas was demanded. This demand gained currency, especially after the introduction of election process in India because now

Muslims could see clearly that they would be outnumbered in the legislatures.

For understanding the emergence of communal identities in colonial India, the impact of the colonial state on Indian society and the consequences of Orientalists‘ study of India on Indian self-perception need to be taken in perspective. The institutions of colonial state developed and started to take shape during the first half of the nineteenth century. After the suppression of War of Independence (1857-58) and the proclamation of Government of India Act, 1858 in which Queen Victoria was declared as monarch of

India, the Government started massive official projects to count, classify and enumerate

Indians to effectively control and govern a huge country that was a mosaic of cultures, languages and religions. In this project many categories like caste and religious communities were applied in the census operation which was started to collect information about the population of India. The official discourse of caste, though helped in administration of state and society, had a deep impact on the way Indians viewed themselves and their relations among themselves. Admitted, that caste existed before the advent of the British but important point is that the concept of caste was upheld and maintained by the British administration and its repeated census applications made caste distinctions more and more rigid. The mushroom growth of the Anjumans and sabhas during this period speaks volumes of the increased importance of caste in society and its relation to the state.154

1.5 Constructing the Hindu Communal Identity

The followers of a puritanical version of a religion are beset by dilemma: they are, generally, the product of a change in socio-economic and political circumstances but they wish to keep their identity in this change. Some times, such people take refuge in some island environment by distancing themselves from the general public. But they continuously feel a threat of loss of identity and absorption in the continuum. To counter this threat, they tend to sharpen their identity through making their rituals and traditions

154 For short detail on these socio-religious organizations, See, K. K. Aziz (ed.), Public Life in Muslim India, 1850-1947: A Compendium of Basic Information on Political, Social, Religious, Cultural and Educational Organizations Active in Pre-partition India (Lahore: Vanguard, 1992) and Ahmad Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab Ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumane: Aik Tajziati Mutalia (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab, 2004). Both these books provide short descriptions of a very large number of organizations founded on social, religious, political, caste, communal and professional lines. This period was unique in the history of Punjab in terms of mushroom growth of socio-religious organizations. 97 more acute and demand people to be followers in letter and spirit. The revivalists/puritannicals attain popularity when society is going through socio-economic crisis. People turn to them in search of finding some solution to their problems enhancing the public acclaim of revivalists.155

During the Sultanate and Mughal periods, Hinduism and Islam did not experience any considerable religious clash. First, there was no institutionalization of preaching nor the rulers patronized such activities. The lower caste converted Muslims remained segregated from Ashraf Muslims and retained their social relations with their fellow caste

Hindus. Majority of these converts felt no much change in their social life and change of religion did not hamper social relations. The Hindu religio-cultural continuum enabled people to co-exist with religious difference. Second, caste difference did not translate into hate rather people were habitual to live peacefully which contributed enormously in making Hindus and Muslims to absorb religio-cultural impact of each other.156

The Hindu religious national identity was constructed by Hindu middle-class elite who considered the Hindu Varna or caste system as their most essential cultural value- system.157 It was by this caste system that they were able to carve a space for them in which they possessed an inviolable individual and collective sacredness.158 They formed

155 Mubarik Ali, Tarikh aur Mazhabi Tehreekein (Lahore: Fiction House, 2015), 10. 156 Ali, Tarikh aur Mazhabi Tehreekein, 66. 157 Varna is commonly understood as the classification of all Hindu castes into four hierarchical groups, the Brahmins being at the top of the hierarchy and even kings and warriors placed beneath them. It is interpreted differently by different scholars. Some critics dismiss such hierarchical idea as applicable everywhere in India. For example, Kshtriya kings were never practically subordinate to Brahmins whom they patronized, paid money and granted employment but dismissed when they found it appropriate. 158 ―Vedic society developed and elaborated upon an inherited Indo-European model of a tripartite social structure consisting of warriors, priests and a third large group comprising agriculturalists, traders and cattle-raisers. The first mention of the famous caste system that has mesmerized generations of Indologists 98 traditional elite of the society in British India and princely states i.e. land lords, urban trader class and Western educated middle class professionals. The majority group that played very important role in the construction of Hindu identity was that of high-caste

Brahmins. A notable section of these high-caste Brahmins beheld the emerging individualistic values produced by the process of modernization with utter skepticism.

The modern and individualistic values were understood as ―contrary to the traditional caste system and idolatrous polytheistic practices‖ of Hindu Dharam.159

Many of the reforms introduced by colonial state were viewed as inimical to

Hindu beliefs and traditions. For example, the colonial state‘s banning of the custom of

Satti (widow immolation) and introduction of law named as ―The Age of Consent Bill‖ of

1891 regulating the age-limit for marriage instigated an outcry.160 The liberal and scientific orientation based education system of the colonial state was also considered by a section of Brahmin Hindus as contrary to Hindu cultural traditions since they were started to be considered as backward and superstitious. By attaining the liberal modern education, a large number of people were entering in the middle-class elite through joining Government jobs and other associated opportunities and prospects that the colonial state offered. The newly acquired modern cognitive structures and emerging middle class resulting from the modern educational opportunities became a challenge for the traditional and relatively conservative Brahmin elite and their beliefs. The Hindu religious national identity was constructed with two-fold objectives:

is to be found in a single reference in the Rig Veda which lists four verna, literally meaning ‗colour,‘ but having an applied meaning closer to social order.‖ Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, 10. 159 Ali, Tarikh aur Mazhabi Tehreekein, 66-7. 160 J. T. F Jordens, ―Hindu Religious and Social Reform in British India,‖ 367. 99

to preserve the high caste Hindu ethos against the increasing challenges that were emanating from the emerging values and the groups of the modernization process.…to participate in the modernization process and acquire new promising sources of power in order to defend and maintain their social status and cultural identity.161

The Hindu communal identity constructed by this group was aimed at the following: i) preservation of ethos and social status of high caste Brahmins; ii) enabling them to participate in economic and political processes of modernization; iii) and helping them to differentiate from the ―collectivist, composite-cultural and secular Indian identity,‖ that was also originating its culture and traditions from the same ancient Indian Hindu civilizational and geographical sources.162 Hence, some important inferences can be drawn regarding the construction of Hindu communal identity: first, it was constructed on the basis of reinterpretation and invention of Brahmanical Hindu religio-cultural traditions.163 Second, a component of masculinity was purposefully instilled in its reinterpretation and invention to dispel the long held Orientalists‘ construction of feminine Hindu image created due to having lived under the long foreign rule of Muslims and the British.

The nineteenth-century definition of the Hindu community achieved its justification in earlier history through ―Mill‘s periodization which assumed the existence of the former back to the centuries B.C.‖164 Another nineteenth-century obsession i.e. the theory of Aryan race provided it roots. The Indo-Europeans, it was argued, created the

161 Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 52. 162 Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 52. 163 Thapar, ―Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity,‖ 225-31. 164 Thapar, ―Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity,‖ 225. 100

Hindu religion and civilization after conquering India. It assumed upper caste superiority arguing that ―they were the descendants of the Aryans and it therefore became an acceptable explanation of the origin of upper castes.‖165 The lower castes were considered as the non-Aryans and indigenous who could be termed as Dravidians.

However, the emphasis on invention of the Brahmanical Hindu religio-cultural tradition was justified against the threat perception of Indian Muslims who were dubbed as plunderers and marauders, who had corrupted the Hindu traditions.

The agency of the colonial state was working side by side the Indian communities. The rulers and the ruled were continuously in a process of negotiating in the domains of state and society. To understand the indigenous Indians properly, the colonial systems of categorization were encouraged and applied officially. The Indian communities—whether religious, regional and caste based—were labelled by the colonial officials and documented as such in the colonial documentary practices. According to

Freitag, during the British rule, ―[d] rawing on European historical experience, the administrators applied the collective labels ―Hindu‖ and ―Muslim‖ to groups who were far from homogeneous communities.‖166 The community lost its geographical-oriented tag and took on various castes-class-and-religion oriented recognitions.

All the religious communities, having internally forged a group feeling based upon distinct religion, used social and religious symbols and sacred space to further re- enforce and build upon the symbols and space. These symbols were used by the

165 Thapar, ―Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity,‖ 225-26. 166 Freitag, ―Sacred Symbol as Mobilizing Ideology,‖ 597. 101 communities to expand their mass appeal as well. In all the colonized societies, an important development that took place in the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century was the gradual growth of nationalism. Freitag analyses that ―[i]n the late nineteenth century, however, an important new process of forging group identities which transcended these local attributions came to characterize South Asian social history.‖167 Identities were taking local, regional and supra-regional form simultaneously because the process of modernization had engendered many changes at the same time.

The neatly defined ―categories ‗Hindu‘ and ‗Muslim‘ gained currency only after the establishment of British colonial rule…. Such identities in pre-colonial India were marked with a far greater fluidity and variability to justify defining ancient India as

Hindu or the medieval era as Muslim.‖168 The fluidity of religious and caste identities gave way to sharpened religious distinctions. The British acceded to implement separate electorates to allay the feeling of Muslim backwardness but it further widened the chasm, and this concept became rallying cry to demand more concessions on the basis of the concept of separatism.

1.6 Genesis and Development of Muslim Identity Consciousness in South Asia

Muslim rule in India started with the Arab invasion of Sindh in 712 AD. Different dynasties ruled India for many centuries. They were Arabs, Turks, Afghans, Syed, and

Mughals. The last dynasty of Mughals expanded their rule in whole of North India and extent of their Empire included even many areas of present day Afghanistan. The Muslim

167 Freitag, ―Sacred Symbol as Mobilizing Ideology,‖ 597. 168 Ayesha Jalal, South Asia: Encyclopaedia of Nationalism, (Tufts University: n.d.), 4. 102 rule made it possible for Muslim sufis, court historians and writers, bureaucrats, traders, artisans, and various types of gifted and learned people to migrate to India from their areas of origin, which mostly were Arabia, Central Asia and Persia. With the passage of time, the Muslim community in India grew in number. The elite, being under the patronage of Muslim sultans and kings, became influential and entrenched in the socio- cultural and economic aspects of India. The decline of Mughal Empire and the rise of the

British rule, thus, posed a potent challenge to the Muslim community in India. Though influential and resourceful in their centres of power, they were numerically a minority as compared to the Hindus.169 According to Robinson, ―the British rule brought a general dismantling of the system and the values that had supported the agrarian military states of the Mughal era….[t]he process was accompanied by a series of changes which hit

Muslims hard.‖170

Alluding particularly to the Muslims of India from whom the rule was seized by the British, Mubarak Ali writes that the ―religious and militant movements were started by Sayyid Ahmad Shaheed Barelvi (b. 1786-d. 1831). Haji Shariatullah (b. 1781-d. 1840) and Mohsinuddin Ahmad alias Dadu Mian (b. 1819-d. 1840) failed to achieve their objective.‖ ―At the same time,‖ he continues to write:

a group of Muslims emerged who realized that the British could not be ousted by military power. Therefore, to get concessions from them, a policy of collaboration was required [emphasis added]. The supporters of this new policy were the great feudal lords who suffered as a result of Jihad and Fraizi

169 Ayesha Jalal, The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics (Massachussets: Harvard University Press, 2014), 10-12. 170 Francis Robinson, ―South Asia to 1919,‖ in Francis Robinson (ed.), The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Islamic World in the Age of Western Dominance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 214. 103

Movements. As these movements mobilized the common Muslims to rebel and to fight for their rights, the feudal class was threatened with loss of privilege and high position.171

The local notables could help establish the stability of the administrative structure. The landlords, as collaborators of the Raj, were ready to help the British in collection of revenues and establishing law and order by exerting their social influence and hegemony.

The Indians were forgetful of the concept of unified India in their collective consciousness before the British ascendancy and their massive use of documentary practices to count, classify and control Indians.172 Moreover, the British disseminated their version of the history and civilization of India and it became popular narrative in the general public because people were not already aware about their own history due to limited access to printed material. It was the extensive use of printing press that made books and other reading materials available for general public.

The challenges of colonialism and modernization were many and varied, thus, evoking various kinds of responses. These responses were based upon the particular understandings of leadership regarding society, culture and religion. While some favoured adaptations to the changing time and circumstances, others struggled for resistance against the cultural and religious onslaught of the colonial masters. Muslim leaders like Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (b. 1817-d. 1898) preached for loyalism towards the

British Government and reconciliation regarding the modernization.173 They wanted

Indians to seek scientific knowledge and learn from the European technological

171 Ali, Historian‟s Dispute, 93. 172 Stuart Blackburn, Print, Folklore, and Nationalism in Colonial South India (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003), 7-16. 173 Muhammad Aslam Syed, Muslim Response to the West: Muslim Historiography in India 1857-1914 (Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 1988), 34-50. 104 advancements. The moderate leadership believed in the value of co-existence, and encouraged Indians to develop cordial relations with the British rulers and among the ruled. The initial response of the Indian leadership was of composite Indian nationalism in which religious, linguistic and caste identities were submerged under the umbrella of

Indian nationalism.174

The phenomenon of construction of religious identities and promotion of religious nationalism in India was the trend which became popularized following the initial trend of composite nationalism. The trend of religious nationalism emerged out of a complex interaction between the modernization process started by the British and the local responses to the British rule and modernization. The British had introduced liberal education as well as political, economic and administrative infrastructure to modernize the existing traditional society. However, the local leadership of the elite-middle class found it necessary to benefit from the newly introduced opportunities in education, politics, economy and administration to maintain their influence among the masses. In other words, the colonial state provided favourable conditions for the emergence and development of not only Indian nationalism but also communalist ideologies and trends for social and political mobilization of Indian masses.

1.6.1 Communalist Organizations in British India and their Role in Identity Construction

Initially, anjumans and socio-religious communal organizations had two important primary motives. First, their members were to organize themselves to acquire modern

174 K. K. Aziz, Britain and Muslim India: A Study of British Public Opinion vis-à-vis the Development of Muslim Nationalism in India, 1857-1947 (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2006), 24-35. 105 scientific knowledge and equip with western culture and mannerism. An example of this category of organizations is the Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge

(1838). Great Indian figures like Ramgopal Ghose (b. 1815-d. 1868) and Debendranath

Tagore (b. 1817-d. 1905) were members of this organization.175

Second, the members of these organizations canvassed to request the colonial administration for reforms in the administrative system and political policies to give the locals more jobs and more representation.176 These demands were in the form of requisitions and appeals by demanding to the British sense of impartiality and fairness.

Gopal Krishna Gokhle (b. 1866-d. 1915) and Surandranath Banerjee (b. 1848-d. 1925) were prominent moderates, who belonged to this category of Indians. To attain their objectives, Gokhle established the Servants of India Society.177 These organizations sent their missions to other areas of India to establish their local demands there for stimulating support by increasing membership and providing education. This process led to the demand of establishing a political organization. The idea was floated by Indian students studying in England. They organized themselves into London Indian Society to ―monitor the political situation back home and as well as articulate the Indian political views and communicate them to the Indian masters.‖178 This society was later on converted into

East Indian Association that played a substantial role in the organization of the Indian

175 Jordens, ―Hindu Religious and Social Reform in British India,‖ 366-71. See also Evans, The Genesis of the Pakistan Idea, 43-51. 176 William Gould, Hindu Nationalism and the Language of Politics in Late Colonial India (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 33. 177 Jordens, ―Hindu Religious and Social Reform in British India,‖ 380. 178 Mujeeb Afzal, ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India,‖ 42. 106

National Congress and its branches in the foreign countries.179 The newly emerging local

Indian press and internal migration of people helped these organizations become increasingly popular. There were 1400 newspapers with all India circulation by the beginning of the twentieth century. The relatively liberal freedom of press contributed in the growth of nationalism in India. The Hindu educated class was, once again, ahead of

Muslims. From the manuscript writing tradition of the Mughal court to East India

Company to the nearly four thousand newspapers and magazines printed in India, in

1941, was a long distance and huge difference indeed.180 The Brahmin elite, on the other hand, migrated to urban centers in search of better and competitive educational opportunities and government jobs. The Indian urban centers, expanding at rapid speed during the colonial period, needed unskilled labour. This demand was catered by the low- caste dwellers of peripheral and rural areas. In such perceived alien environment of colonial cities, the large number of newly created caste and community organizations and

Muslim anjumans provided the rural-origin migrants much needed socio and economic support in return for their political support. In Punjab, Lahore was one such urban center where intellectual elite as well as the job-seekers would get settled. During the early colonial period, many Bengalis moved over to Lahore and settled here after getting various jobs.181

The associations and anjumans which were created to gain Western knowledge, besides other motives and objectives, now started asserting their autonomy. The

179 Abeerah Ali, ―The Role of the British Colonial/Imperial Rule in the Introduction of Representative Institutions in India (1857-1947),‖ Journal of European Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (July-2013), 147. 180 Evans, The Genesis of the Pakistan Idea: A Study of Hindu-Muslim Relations, 50-51. 181 Muhammad Saeed, Lahore: A Memoir (Lahore: Vanguard Books, 1989), 67-8. 107 indigenous reformers, having imbibed knowledge obtained from the English education system, started to reform their traditions through invention and re-interpretation. Thus, the reformers attained intellectual independence from the British Raj and asserted that their traditions were superior to that of Western thought and learning. For example,

Hindu reformer Vivekananda believed that Hindu culture and civilization was superior to the West.182 Further, at the level of intellectual autonomy, ―the policies of the racial discrimination of the Raj and foreign rule were seen with a feeling of humiliation.‖183

The indigenous middle-class elite then used this public space, provided by anjumans and associations, to promote their following among members of their respective communities.

By using symbols of their religious and cultural traditions, they could relate themselves to their community. The associations and anjumans of the middle-class elite worked to align the individual identities to the arena of the collective and to carve out public space.

The particular challenges posed by the Christian missionaries, the process of modernization, and exigencies of administration under the British Raj were responded, at the very first, by the Hindu socio-religious reform movements and communal organizations. The major such movements were the Brahmo Samaj (est. 1828), Singh

Sabha (est. 1873), Arya Samaj (est. 1875), Punjab Hindu Sabha (est. 1909)184, Hindu

Mahasabha185 (est. 1915). However, the Arya Samaj was successful than its rival Hindu communal organizations. Likewise, the Muslim communal organizations such as

182 Nehru, The Discovery of India, 196-97. 183 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Post-colonial Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 3-13. 184 The separate electorates granted to the Muslim community on the demand of All India Muslim League (est. 1906) caused the establishment of this organization, in Lahore, by Arya Samaj leaders Lala Lajpat Rai, Lal Chand and Shadi Lal. 185 It was established by Madan Mohan Malaviya in 1915. 108

Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore (est. 1869), and Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore

(est. 1884) played an important role in the constitution and reconstitution of religious identities and precinct communal boundaries.186

The administrative, political and cultural changes, relatively speedy and secure social mobility, census operations, activities of missionaries and the role of socio- religious reform movements and communal organizations transformed the social and political landscape of India in a significant manner. The changes which hit Muslims hard included society‘s demilitarization; noval landholding and revenue collection practices; stoppage of Persian as language of governance; replacement of old knowledge and skills with the Western modern ones; and a perpetual undermining of Mughal symbols of authority.187

In the context of construction of religious identities, in general, and Muslim identity in particular in colonial India, Robinson asserts, that the ―[b]ritish Empire in

India saw major transformations in the identities of its Indian subjects…one of the identities which developed most strikingly was the Muslim.‖188 The period of British rule and the changes that it brought about gave sharper edges to Muslim identities. There was a subtle honing of distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims, which was ―in part an

186 Nehru explains the development of communalism in these words: ―Each awakened group looked at nationalism and patriotism in the light of its own interests. A group or a community is always selfish, just as a nation is selfish, although individuals in the community or nation may take an unselfish view. So each group wanted far more than its share and, inevitably, there was conflict. As inter-communal bitterness increased, the more extreme communal leaders of each group came to the front.‖ Jawaharlal Nehru, Glimpses of World History (New Delhi: Penguin Classics, 2004), 839-40. 187 Robinson, ―South Asia to 1919,‖ 214-15. 188 For a full discussion on fashioning of Muslim identities in British India, see Francis Robinson, ―The British Empire and Muslim Identity in South Asia,‖ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series, vol. 8 (1998), 271. 109 outcome of the impact of British understandings of India and in part that of religious revivalism.‖189 This revivalism created yawning schisms within religious communities, yet accelerating competition among major religions in terms of their conversion rate and expansion.

The creation of socio-cultural and political space resulting from the ―modern education, laissez faire economy, new system of governance [and] political stability,‖ made the circumstances very conducive for the creation of modern social and religious identities in the domain of the self and the collective.190 The initiative basically came from outside India in the shape of British Raj. The colonial state‘s formulation of social, economic and political structures based upon its perception of Orientalists‘ constructions of India and exigencies of power influenced the construction of communitarian identities.

The process of modernization was meant to bring in communication revolution in the

Indian subcontinent. The communication and transportation were projected to enhance the state control on the one hand, and link the subcontinent internally within huge territorial extent and externally with international economic markets. The colonial state took on itself the promotion of all communities on egalitarian principles enshrining for itself the role of sole arbitrator, and introduced electoral bodies on the basis of limited representation and partial franchise. The local middle-class elite learnt English language, acquired Western knowledge, sought accommodation in the Government jobs, and benefitted from economic opportunities offered by the new system. It was through the

189 Robinson, ―The British Empire and Muslim Identity in South Asia,‖ 271. 190 Tahir Kamran, ―A Success Story: Lala Ruchi Ram Sahni‘s Life in His Memoirs‖ The News on Sunday, (Lahore) July 16, 2017. 110

English language and Orientalist corpus of knowledge that they were able to rediscover their past and historical heritage.

The process of modernization had double-fold impact: it increased self-awareness and flow of information, and it increased political as well as economic expectations.

These expectations enhanced demands for more jobs, higher salaries and more representation in elective bodies of local councils. At the same time, it created competition and conflict among the Indians. With the passage of time, the capacity of the state to accommodate the demands of the locals diminished, and the locals organized themselves into associations and anjumans which were tinged with communal cognizance. As mentioned earlier, the competition and conflict sharpens identities in individual and collective spheres. The self-awareness and autonomy of the Indians got institutionalized into revival and reform movements which became more and more assertive. The assertiveness of the intellectual autonomy of the locals provided a space to the traditional and modern elite to construct identities within the framework of colonial state. They sought to rediscover their past with the help of colonial body of knowledge.

Moreover, the past was manipulated, with instrumentalist approach, to meet the demanding challenges of the present. Resultantly, the competition and conflict also increased concomitantly along caste, community, rural-urban and religious lines.

1.6.2 Muslim Communal Organizations in Colonial India and their Role in Muslim Identity Construction

The Muslims perceived Christian missionaries and the Arya Samaj both as challenges to their socio-political interests and cultural identity. Although Muslims

111 realized the need for reform in their religion and society later than the Hindus yet they pursued their communal interests with tremendous zeal and zest. To achieve their communal interests, the Muslims of India realized that without the organizational support, it would be difficult for them to counter the onslaught of challenges and present befitting response. Explaining the nature and magnitude of these challenges to Muslim community, Mubarak Ali, a Marxist historian, analyses:

There were, however, different reactions of the British rule and British challenge. In South India, the Muslims were mostly merchants and as merchants they were flexible to compromise with the changing situation. They recognized the British superiority and started to learn their language and culture. The response in Northern India was different. Here, the Muslims were the pillars of the feudal system and were proud of belonging to the conquering race. They resisted the recognition of British rule but as they did not have power to resist, they silently retreated and alienated themselves from the mainstream. It was a frustrated reaction of a defeated community which was fearful of any new change and refused to recognize the changing situation. Because of this lack of response, the Muslim community suffered and paid a heavy price.191

Here, Mubarak Ali‘s observation traces the nature of the challenge to the Muslim community and their varied responses based upon the class interests and geographical dynamics. It nonetheless can be observed that the political developments, Raj‘s administrative policies and initiatives, and the role played by the communal organizations ultimately connected and consolidated the Muslims of India. The circumstantial realities, after 1940, led them to reconcile their myriad interests and voice them in a collective manner; this is how the Muslim identity consciousness strengthened during the period.192

191 Ali, Historian‟s Dispute, 87. See also K. N. Panikkar, Colonialism, Culture and Resistance (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007). 192 How identity politics creates communal divisions which then spill over to the public arenas and transforms into communal identities can pertinently be understood from a recent example of turn of events in Hyderabad state of India. It was a princely state in colonial India and in 1947 the Nizam of Hyderabad, 112

It is important to note that the force which played a role and was used as a tool by the organizations to intact the people and reconcile their interest was religion. On these developments Nonica Datta‘s observations and commentaries are very much pertinent:

Two important processes were at work which exacerbated Hindu-Muslim-Sikh tension...[First] by constructing monolithic Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh communities, the colonial state had given legitimacy to new categories of religious identification and enumeration. Second, religious reformist and community leaders harped on imaginary homogeneous Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities with ‗pristine‘ pasts. Consequently, community-based solidarities came to the fore in public and private arenas. And, cities, towns and countryside were flooded with Shuddhi and gauraksha sabhas, with the Anjuman-i-Islamia‘s tabligh and tanzim outfits. Thus, fluid identities, multiple vocabularies, landscapes and inter-community solidarities were overshadowed by monolithic religious blocs.193

Datta‘s analysis depicts the processes and grounds which consolidated the individuals of the communities, as ‗one for all and all for one.‘ He however overlooks the fact that it was the strategies and policies of the British imperialists to serve their vested interests which in fact prepared the ground to intensify communal identity consciousness among the natives of colonial India.

Osman Ali Khan, opposed its merger in India. Being a successor of many generations of absolute rulers, he possessed immense power and wealth. Probably the largest collection of Rolls Royces in India, gold-filled trunks, immense and most valuable treasury of jewels on earth and his own army compelled Nizam to think of resistance to Indian takeover. However, on September 13, 1948, Jawaharlal Nehru issued orders for Operation Polo which successfully swept Nizam‘s kingdom in just four days. Everyone living in India and in Hyderabad and even family of Nizam considered the annexation of princely state as inevitable. Now the BJP, being not popular in Hyderabad, has started demanding, with local Hindu support, that September 17 should be celebrated as ―Liberation Day‖ of Hyderabad. The Muslim population is sceptical about this demand. It is simply identity politics with appropriation of symbols to be exploited for gains in party votes but it is likely to create communalism. For details, see Owen Bennett Jones, ―Footprints: No Looking Back,‖ Daily Dawn, August 06, 2017. See also ―Introduction‖ in Yaqoob Khan Bangash, A Princely Affair: The Accession and Integration of the Princely States of Pakistan, 1947-1955 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2015), 1-74. 193 Nonica Datta, ―Transcending Religious Identities: Amrita Pritam and Partition,‖ in Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan (eds.), Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe (New Delhi: Manohar, 2006), 441. 113

It can plausibly be argued that the construction of religiously informed identities, their permeation in public discourse and large-scale communal conflicts only started under the colonial rule. During the colonial period, social strife and conflicts, whether class or creed based, were labelled as religious ones due to peculiar colonial perception that India can only be anthropologically understood as a region inhabited by mutually hostile religious communities, primarily, of the Hindus and Muslims. The Hindus were branded as local, indigenous community who had been living in India from the time immemorial. However, the Muslims were portrayed by Orientalists scholars and colonial administrators as invaders, marauders and conquerors. Religion was the fundamental division in Indian society, the Orientalists assumed. Hence, the colonial conception about the society in India was myopic and bound to create divisions which actually did not exist or at least was not institutionalized before the colonial period. These religious identities, once created and institutionalized, were embraced by the local middle class elite, for their own benefits, which further exacerbated communal divisions. This process also led to the development of religious nationalism in South Asia. There were multiple factors, statist and societal, which contributed in promoting communal identities in colonial India.

114

Chapter 2

Rise of Communalism in Colonial India with Particular Reference to Punjab: Contributing Factors

―Communalism in India may be defined as that ideology which has emphasized as the social, political, and economic unit the group of adherents of each religion, and has emphasized the distinction, even the antagonism, between such groups; the words ―adherents‖ and ―religion‖ being taken in the most nominal sense. Muslim communalists, for instance, have been highly conscious of the Muslims within India as a supposedly single, cohesive community, to which they devote their loyalty—paying little attention to whether the individuals included are religiously ardent, tepid, or cold; orthodox, liberal, or atheist; righteous or vicious; or to whether they are landlord or peasant, prince or proletarian.‖ (W. C. Smith, Modern Islam in India: A Social Analysis, 187)

Identities in general and religious identities in particular, in the context of British colonialism and the apparatuses of administration and patronage among many other tools of modernity, were instrumental in the rise of communalism. The present chapter provides an understanding of major factors which played important role in the process of constructing and sharpening religious identities in colonial India with particular emphasis on colonial Punjab. Special emphasis is laid on the study of contours of Muslim identity construction which are examined in relation to the similar processes at operation among the Hindu and Sikh communities. The all-encompassing influence of the print media and discursive categorization of the subject population by the colonial administrators,

Orientalists and Christian missionaries has also been taken into account while analysing the process of identity formation in colonial Punjab. It is argued that even during the premodern period in India, the interaction of people was quite constant although it was slower comparatively because the means of interaction and communication were not yet modernized. However, the colonial period witnessed unprecedented expansion of

115 steamship, telegraph, popular press, movement of commodities, and mobilization of labour which increased interaction among various religious communities of the Indian subcontinent as well as enhanced competition and conflict. Before departing to analyze the factors of rise of communalism, the Punjabi composite culture before the arrival of

Christian missionaries and advent of British Raj in Punjab are briefly discussed.

2.1 Punjabi Composite Culture and the Arrival of Christian Missionaries

Jangnama, a Punjabi lament written by Shah Muhammad, was evidently composed soon after the defeat of the Sikhs by the British. His poem claims that Punjabi

Muslims did not see their Sikh rulers as anti-Muslim. According to Shah Muhammed, all

Punjabis, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, were pained and angered by the defeat, even though the Rani and a few others (the writer mentions ‗Pathans‘) ―greeted the Ferin ghee with presents.‖1 His ballad‘s primary significance lies in its assumption of a common loyalty for the Sikh kingdom of its Muslim and Hindu (the latter term embracing, in poet‘s mind, Sikhs as well) population.

The poet expresses his apprehensions that the British triumph would endanger a precious asset that is trust between the Muslims and non-Muslims, and he hints that this trust was fragile:

God willing, good things shall happen again What if the soldiers have lost the luster of their mien, Great commonality does exist between the Hindus and the Musalmans None should ever dare break this common silken bond.2

1 P. K. Nijhawan, The First Punjab War: Shah Mohammed‟s „Jangnamah‟ (Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 2001), 245, quoted in Rajmohan Gandhi, Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten (New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2013), 182. 2 Nijhawan, The First Punjab War, 31. 116

At another place the poet asks,

How in the midst of Musalmans and Hindus, living happily together, Had a scourge of sorts [i.e., the British] descended from nowhere?3

Rajmohan Gandhi contends that, ―If his poem is true to its time, we can say that the kingdom‘s chief tensions at this time were not religious‖.4 This contention of Gandhi has been academically corroborated by Francis Robinson who writes that:

Muslim identity would become a prime theatre of activity did not seem likely in the eighteenth century. Among Muslims who were descended from, or who liked to claim that they were descended from, those who had migrated to India to seek service at its many Muslim courts—Turks, Persians, Arabs, Afghans—their Muslim identity was not a matter of overriding concern. At the courts of the Mughals they divided not into Hindu and Muslim factions but into Turkish and Persian ones.5

Lineage or family was a source of identity for those who claimed to have descended from the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Moreover, place of settlement was another source of identity as the custom was in fashion in the eighteenth century among scholars, administrators and poets adopting the name of their home qasbah, hence, Bilgrami, Mohani, Dehlvi,

Amritsari, Lahori.6 Furthermore, sometimes spiritual lineage such as Chishti, Qadri,

Suhrawardi and Naqshbandi were significant identity markers.7 While writing in his memoirs about Punjab of 1880s, Ruchi Ram Sahni wrote that the ―social relations between Hindus and Muslims in those days were quite cordial. There were occasional

3 Nijhawan, The First Punjab War, 31. 4 Gandhi, Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten, 182. 5 Robinson, ―The British Empire and Muslim Identity in South Asia,‖ 271-289. 6 Robinson, ―The British Empire and Muslim Identity in South Asia,‖ 271-289. 7 For a detailed discussion, see Tanvir Anjum, Chishti Sufis in the Sultanate of Delhi 1190-1400: From Restrained Indifference to Calculated Defiance (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011). 117

Shia-Sunni riots on the occasion of Muharram, but very seldom Hindu-Muslim riots even at the time of Bakri Id.‖8

The Muslims who were descendants of indigenous residents of India who had converted to Islam, and were the majority of Muslims, their regional cultures and languages were identity markers, hence, Bengali, Sindhi, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Tamil.

Scholars differ as to what terminology and meaning should be ascribed to those converts whose piety was of local sufi cults and did not distinguish themselves from Hindus and their socio-religious practices which included ‗Hindu‘ idioms in abundance. Some

Muslim tribes and communities continued to follow inherited localized religious traditions of religio-cultural milieu and they never tried to become puritanical in their beliefs and practices. Until the eighteenth century, there was a working ‗composite culture,‘ and few felt the need of policing religious boundaries as it emerged during the ensuing century and thereafter.9 The British colonialism brought about many changes as part of modernization when its rule was established. One of these changes was the accentuation of religious identities.

The Muslim elite or ashraf were conscious of their religious identity because they felt themselves as hostage of the majority Hindu community in India.10 The commoners

8 Neera Burra, A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab: Ruchi Ram Sahni, 1863-1948 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017), 24. 9 M. Mujeeb, The Indian Muslims (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1985, first pub. 1967); Mushirul Hasan, Legacy of a Divided Nation: India‟s Muslims since Independence (London: C. Hurst, 1996); For a recent critique of the composite culture thesis, see Talbot, ―Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu- Muslim Identities in Pre-colonial India.‖ 10 For Ashraf-Ajlaf debate, see Imtiaz Ahmad, ―The Ashraf and Ajlaf Categories in Indo-Muslim Society,‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 2, no. 19 (1967), 887-891. 118 on the other hand, were bound by their biradari11 more than their religion. However, the changes brought about by the British transformed Indian state as well as society because the colonial period was the time of advent of modernity in India. Resultantly, social, political, demographic and cultural transformations led the people organize themselves as distinct religious communities inhabiting more differences than commonalities.

The Punjabi language provided a commonality of cementing effect among various religious communities of Punjab because they could communicate effectively in this shared language and it was a common bond. Reflecting upon the role of Punjabi language, Farina Mir explains ―the shared cultural sphere‖ of the religious communities in the Punjab through her analysis of social history involving language. Her doctoral dissertation on Punjabi popular narrative in British India which is a social history in the sense that it focuses on literary narratives like Hir Ranjha, the Punjabi equivalent of Juliet and Romeo, to interpret the common cultural heritage of various religious communities in

Punjab.12 Her emphasis is on the shared space and mutualities that existed among varied religious communities in Punjab, referred to as composite culture by some writers.

Like the art and architecture‘s contribution, recent research signifies the formation of religious identities in the paradigm of materiality of objects, along with the importance of frontier contacts for the formation or consolidation of ethnic identities in pre-modern

South Asia, ―a reminder that rather than being opposed to identity, difference may in fact

11 The ‗biradari‘ is of Persian origin and it literally means ‗brotherhood.‘ In common parlance, it is used for a patrilineal descent group, all of whose members can trace their origin to a common male ancestor. For details on biradari and marriage in Punjab, see Harjot Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994), 82-89. 12 Farina Mir, The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), 1-17. 119 be central to its construction.‖13 Flood argues that ―the historical formation and transformation of identity through such encounters also underlines that difference was not a constant but rather was dynamic in its emphases, contingent in its expression and variable in its meaning.‖14

The reform movements of nineteenth century had profound impact on the psychology of Muslims. The individual self was transformed by the teachings of these movements which stressed for piety and the role of individual will for success in this world and salvation in the world hereafter. The Christian missionaries conducted their preaching activities and posed a formidable challenge to Indian religions which instigated response by all religious communities of India. According to Christopher Harding:

this was, after all, a period of the most intense competition in rural and particularly urban Punjab—as elsewhere in India—among social reformers offering multidimensional social visions and programmes, taking in basic education, social welfare, the status of women, new philosophical directions, and the pruning of what different individuals and groups regarded as undesirable aspects of local or national socio-religious culture.15

However, the socio-religious culture of pre-colonial Punjab included syncretic religious practices and was characterized by pluralism and inclusive values. However, the socio- religious reform movements were highly puritanical in nature and wanted their

13 Flood, Objects of Translation, 4. 14 Flood, Objects of Translation, 4-5. 15 Christopher Harding, Religious Transformation in South Asia: The Meanings of Conversion in Colonial Punjab (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 4. See other books on the subject, Rudolf Heredia, Changing Gods: Rethinking Religious Conversions in India (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2007); Eliza F. Kent, Converting Women: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); and Sebastian C. H. Kim, In Search for Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003). The Sialkot Mission of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, and Punjab Mission of the Church Missionary Society were very active in conversion activities. 120 understanding of religion to prevail. Their reform agenda included techniques borrowed from Christian missionaries through which they could enhance outreach of their version of religious practices. Religious preaching generally targeted different sections of society for conversion, establishing educational institutions and hospitals on the lines of Christian missionaries, publishing religiosity-loaded tracts and magazines, and increasing use of highly sansikritized Hindi for the Hindus and Persianized Urdu as preferred language for the Muslims.16

The Deputy Commissioner of Ambala, for example, wrote in 1900 that ―religion, in the rural parts of this district, is by no means a potent divider of hearts‖.17 The Deputy

Commissioner of Gurdaspur observed in 1900 ―the jat peasant here is still a farmer first, and a Sikh or Muslim, as the case may be, in the second place only.‖18 The Multan

Gazetteer of 1901-02 characterized local Islam as follows:

Multan, lying as it does half-way between the fanaticism of the frontier and the listlessness of the down-country districts, shows Mahomedanism perhaps at its best. Although there is little religious antagonism between the Mahomedan and Hindu in the district, and although both religions often frequent the same fairs and honour the same shrines, the Mahomedan attitude is singularly free from the semi-idolatrous practices and superstitions which characterize its more eastern developments in this country.19

The description of Multan Gazetteer and reports of Deputy Commissioners of Ambala and Gurdaspur depict the composite culture of Punjab in which people of different

16 For an in-depth analysis of the communalism of Hindi and Urdu languages, see Rahman, From Hindi to Urdu, 98-163. 17 Note by H. J. Maynard (Deputy Commissioner, Ambala), 16 December 1900. Cited in Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 30. 18 Note by J. R. Drummond (Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur), 21 December, 1900. Cited in Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 30. 19 J. Royal Roseberry, III, Imperial Rule in the Punjab: The Conquest and Administration of Multan, 1818- 1881(Lahore: Vanguard Books Ltd., 1988), 2. 121 communities participated in fairs and went to shrines as the distinct puritanical religious identification had not yet been marked.

C. A. Bayly‘s study of the ‗information order‘ of the British empire in the Hindi speaking areas has been termed as ‗ecumene‘ which means ‗cultural and political debate‘ in this area in which Urdu and Hindi, both in their high forms and as the colloquial spoken language, play so important a role. In fact, the language (especially Urdu) ―took on the character of the public tongue of the ecumene‖ though the Devanagri characters were used for certain works in some areas. However, the boundary markings that now we are familiar with were not yet drawn and rigidly applied till the end of the nineteenth century.20

Despite the fact that the Indian Muslims were divided into many sects within

Islam, yet politically the ―internal Muslim discord was moderated in the twentieth century by a strengthened sense of communal unity.‖21 This phenomenon was observed throughout India from Punjab in the West to Bengal in the East. Jones observes that ―the proponents of a purified Islam and the socio-religious movements they created produced serious changes among Bengali Muslims, particularly in the rural areas. The sense of communal identity, of being a Muslim, was clarified and made explicit.‖22 But before the construction of modern religious identities during the colonial period, ―the Turks, the

Afghans and the Mughals in India resolutely retained their racial and tribal identities…

20 C. A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780- 1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). 21 Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India, 24. 22 Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India, 24. Also see Fillipo Osella and Caroline Osella, ―Introduction: Islamic Reformism in South Asia,‖ Modern Asian Studies, 42 2/3 (2008): 247-257. 122 some of them effectively divorced religion from politics, and refused to be guided by the shariat.‖23 Most of the nationalist historians try to read the present in the past, and resultantly they portray the Indian past with crystallized religious identities although it was not the case in medieval India.

While explaining some North-eastern regions of the colonial Punjab with regard to the construction of religious identities, Shail Mayaram states that:

[R]egions called Mewat and Merwara, adjacent to the cities of Delhi and Ajmer in Northern India, have over the twentieth century become theatres of experiment in the redefinition of religious identity. In both areas a certain shared space between Hindus and Muslims has more often than not been transformed into a contested space following extensive conflicts over identity.24

The space that Mayaram has referred to here as ‗shared space‘ has historically been the strength of the culture of Punjab which made it an area of religious pluralism and cultural inclusivism. This culture was of syncretic practices and religious tolerance.

The socio-religious reform movements were not only being established in Punjab and North India, the same trajectories could be observed in Bengal. Despite the fact that the Indian Muslims were divided into many sects within Islam, yet politically the

―internal Muslim discord was moderated in the twentieth century by a strengthened sense of communal unity.‖25 Jones observes that the ―proponents of a purified Islam and the socio-religious movements they created produced serious changes among Bengali

23 Mushirul Hasan, ―Some Aspects of the Problems of Muslim Social Reform,‖ in Zafar Imam (ed.), The Musalmaans of the Subcontinent (Lahore: Vanguard, 1980), 217-30. 24 Shail Mayaram, ―Do Hindu and Islamic Transnational Religious Movements Represent Cosmopolitanism and Difference‖, in Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan (eds.), Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe (New Delhi: Manohar, 2006), 326. 25 Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India, 24. 123

Muslims, particularly in the rural areas. The sense of communal identity, of being a

Muslim, was clarified and made explicit.‖26 In fact, the primary marker of divisions thereafter became religion because the British worldview led them believe that Indian society was always divided into groups necessarily on the basis of religion. Hence, reform and re-organization of communities became rallying cry to the close of advent of

British colonialism in Punjab.

2.2 Advent of British Colonialism in Punjab

The British annexed Punjab in 1849 and proceeded to establish the administrative mechanism for which they comprised a Board of Administration consisting of Sir Henry

Montgomery Lawrence (b. 1806-d. 1857)27, John Lawrence (b. 1811-d. 1879)28 and

Charles Grenville Mansel (b. 1806-d. 1886)29 who was a law member. This ‗Lawrence

School‘ of colonial administration, as it is commonly called, devised a paternalistic regime supplemented with an impersonal law system.30 For the distribution of economic opportunities and political favours a combination of civil and criminal justice system was

26 Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India, 24. 27 Alexander Lawrence had five sons serving in India in the 1840s. One of them, Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence was a British military officer, statesman and a brilliant administrator in British India. He is famous for grooming a group of skilled adminsitrators called as ‗Young Men‘ of Henry Lawrence. He died in the Siege of Lucknow during the Great War of Independence of 1857. For detaled study, see Harold Lee, Brothers in the Raj: The Lives of John and Henry Lawrence (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2002). 28 He was younger brother of Sir Henry Lawrence and rose to prominence as British Imperial statesman who served as Viceroy of India from 1864-1869. He earned the title of ―the Saviour of the Punjab.‖ 29 Mensel served as a writer for East India Company and was elevated to the position of assistant to the Secretary of the Western Revenue in Bengal. He was appointed Joint Magistrate and Deputy Collector of Agra before becoming member of Punjab Board of Administration. 30 A manual of revenue rules and procedures titled as Directions for Settlement Officers and Collectors developed by renowned Indian civil servant and later Lieutenant Governor of NWP, James Thomason (r. 1843-1853), was recommended for the guidance of settlement officers in Punjab. For details, see Nadeem Omar Tarar, ―Orientalism and Colonial State in Punjab: The New Order of Things,‖ in Syed Jaffar Ahmad (ed.), Challenges of History Writing in South Asia (Karachi: Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, 2013), 133. 124 devised ―on the basis of relative strength of a particular group or community.‖31 For such an elaborate system to work in accordance with the Victorian age spirit, it was necessary for the colonial masters to know about their subject population.32 For the benefit of the

British administrators responsible for policy formulation and smooth functioning of the

Imperial enterprise, a massive project of conducting census was started by which it was possible to acquaint with the local population divided in a mosaic of various ethnic groups, castes, biradaris and sects. This was all the more important for an area like

Punjab inhabited by various communities and an example of peaceful co-existence, although the balance between three communities (Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs) was a precarious one. The dominant discourse that developed about the census categories was that of essentialized religious communities. The significance of Punjab was also due to its strategic location and as the major recruiting ground for British Indian army being home of ‗martial races.‘33 Vast tracts of barren but fertile land was another important opportunity as a revenue base if made ready for agriculture as the British transformed this vast land through canal irrigation into a fertile region eliciting the title of ‗basket of bread.‘34

31 Ali Usman Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past: The Ahl al-Quran Movements in the Punjab (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011), 112. 32 According to Rais ―There is a general agreement about the colonial powers transplanting new values, culture, and authority structures in non-Western societies that facilitated and prolonged their rule and made the colonial enterprise easy and effective. To realize its imperial objectives and economic interests, Britian created one of the biggest empires in India, introducing extensive administrative changes and ensuring that social and political modernization ran parallel to the process of state building in Europe, albeit operating in a different social and political setting.‖ For details see Rasul Bakhsh Rais, Imagining Pakistan: Modernism, State and the Politics of Islamic Revival (London: Lexington Books, 2017), 68. 33 Right from the initial days of annexation of Punjab there was a severe difference of opinion within the Board of Administration regarding the governance of this newly annexed but strategically essentially important province. Lawrence brothers, Henry and John, diverged from each other with reference to implementation of style of governance in the province. For a detailed analysis see, Muhammad Abrar Zahoor, ―Difference of Opinion between the Lawrence Brothers regarding the Policy towards Landlords in Colonial Punjab,‖ Pakistan Vision, vol. 19, no. 2 (2018), 1-14. 34 For detailed analysis, see Ali, The Punjab under Imperialism, 1885-1947, 3-61. 125

Such arrangements accompanied with the process of modernization opened up fresh avenues and opportunities at the same time posing concomitant range of challenges to communities in Punjab. The coming of new administrative set-up and economic order gave impetus to novel associational patterns and ―new…organizational structuring in the realms of social interaction, self-perception, and group feeling among the communities.‖35 The old patterns of socio-economic interactions crumbled down and were replaced by new colonial socio-political modes of working. A kind of neutral public space and competing arenas were offered whereby the native communities could re-align themselves on religious, class and professional lines but ―while remaining subject to rules of the game specified by the colonial authority.‖36 This neutral space provided opportunities to the local people to compete and surpass each other for patronage, resource allocation and share in administration from the colonial regime.

This urgency for ―appropriation of identities in a community,‖ gave further rise to the formation of new organizations on the pattern of guilds and on the basis of kinship, caste, biradari, and most importantly, religion. A further source of inspiration was the so- called ‗Dalhousian Revolution,‘ whereby emergence of community representatives was necessary and desirable in accordance with the scheme of things that the British envisaged for India.

The massive, well-connected and planned means of communications provided these organizations with means of fast travelling and coordinating their activities. The

35 Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past, 112. 36 Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past, 113. 126 representatives of these guilds could travel far and wide not only to have their number maximized but also to get financial support in the form of donations and subscriptions.

For instance, AHIL had appointed a large number of donation collectors throughout

India. Another component of the communications was efficient postal system.

Henceforth, assemblage of members and keeping regular contacts was very easy and affordable. India, although a country of huge expanse, started to be viewed as a geographical unit that was within reach through railway, roads and postal system.

The importance of numerical strength of a community, increased further by census and electoral institutions, and threat of conversion gave rise to movements and anjumans/associations. All these developments were being accompanied by sheer influence of the Western education system through Government run schools and colleges, which challenged the prevalent doctrines and traditions of Indian religions and taught about ‗rationality.‘ The Punjabis also perceived, due to coincidence or otherwise of

Christianity and Raj expanding at the same time, that missionaries were operating with the collusion of British Government. This led to mistrust in minds of the Punjabis that the

British Government was encouraging conversion to Christianity.37 This threat perception encouraged communities to better organize themselves to cope with this challenge. A cumulative effect of these factors led to a mushrooming growth of a number of religion- based community groups, especially among the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs of Punjab.38

There was also a pressing need for accentuating identities to forge unity among the members of community and expand its numbers in comparison to the ‗others.‘

37 Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition, 220. 38 Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past, 113-14. 127

2.3 Religious Factor Contributing to Communal Identity Formation

The British conquest of Punjab, completed in 1849, initiated a series of complex social, political and economic transformations. The British replaced the existing ruling class and ended the Sikh rule founded by Ranjit Singh in 1799. It was in the same year (1799) that the Society for Missions to Africa and the East was established on April 12 in London which later, due to its close association with the Church of England, came to be known as

Church Missionary Society, ―a name under which thousands of men and women have labored to bring Christianity to obscure, uncared-for parts of the world.‖39 The vigorous missionary movement of the nineteenth century was the result of unison between two remarkable eighteenth century Christian missionary forces, i.e., the Evangelical revival and humanitarianism.40 The efforts of missionaries were designed to save the heathen from hell. They were infused with puritanical messianic mission. The energy of these forces produced five new missionary organizations between 1790 and 1800, namely, the

Glasgow Missionary Society, the Scottish Missionary Society, the Baptist Missionary

Society, the London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society. The Baptist

Missionary Society was established with exclusive purpose of ―taking Christianity to

India.‖41

39 The Church Missionary Society, Church Missionary Atlas 8th Edition (London: The Church Missionary Society, 1896), xiii. The title of this organization remained ―The Society for Missions to Africa and the East‖ till 1812 when it was replaced with The Church Missionary Society. See also, Geoffrey A. Oddie, Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism, 1793-1900 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2006). 40 Phyllis Jane Whetherell, ―The Foundation and Early Work of The Church Missionary Society,‖ Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, vol. 18, no. 4, ―The Church in the XVIIIth Century,‖ (December, 1949), 350. 41 Phyllis Jane Whetherell, ―The Foundation and Early Work of The Church Missionary Society,‖ 350. 128

It was in 1787 that three men in India, two East India Company officials namely

Charles Grant (b. 1746-d. 1823), George Udney and David Brown (b. 1763-d. 1812), a chaplain at Calcutta wrote back home to England and asked for mission to be sent to

India. They petitioned for parliamentary action too, but it could not be granted.42 With the new agrarian policies introduced by the British came the commercialization of agriculture, the peasant prosperity, political stability, freedom of contract and individual private property in land. This was an unprecedented development because it provided stability in the Punjab. However, there are also opinions according to which the British brought about miserable conditions for the peasantry in the Punjab.43

In the urban centres of Punjab, the colonial period saw the emergence of a professional middle class which was a product of English educational institutions. This class began to seek employment in the colonial bureaucracy and in professions like law, teaching and medicine and many of them excelled in these fields. The British also introduced new modes of communication and the late nineteenth century Punjab saw a sharp increase in journalistic activity and mushroom growth of publications. Christian missionaries were the greatest allies of the Government in spreading English education in the province. They used the press as an effective medium of communication for evangelization, and in this process, they aggressively denounced indigenous beliefs, practices and social evils. However, in the popular mind, the missionaries were closely allied with the British rulers, and their socio-cultural programme carried a sharper edge

42 The Church Missionary Society, Church Missionary Atlas, xiii. 43 J. S. Grewal, The New Cambridge History of India II: The Sikhs of the Punjab (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 130. 129 because of this real or perceived alliance.44 The perception of a covert alliance between the government officials and missionaries was particularly popular in Punjab.45 By preaching the Christianity as a religion of rationality and social egalitarianism, the missionaries were converting individuals from other religions such as Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

These rapid changes in Punjab led to a period of social, intellectual and cultural upheaval. Late nineteenth century Punjab saw a mushrooming of social reform movements and movements of religious revival which include, inter alia, the Arya

Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Singh Sabha, and Ahmadiyya movement. Questions relating to social and religious practices and the definition of community boundaries were fiercely debated by these groups, as they sought to adjust to the new realities created by the colonial presence.

Delhi, the capital and cultural centre of Muslim rule in North India, remained part of Punjab until 1911, when it was created imperial capital. Lahore was the most important and culturally rich city of Punjab. In between these two major cities, Ludhiana emerged as prominent city after 1834 when American Presbyterian Mission established its headquarters there. In 1835, the Mission acquired a printing press and started publishing tracts, translating scriptures, dictionaries and grammars in Punjabi, Hindi,

Urdu, Persian and Kashmiri languages. They introduced an important model of social

44 Grewal, The New Cambridge History of India, 130. 45 To Sabri, higher government officials in Punjab such as Henry Lawrence, John Lawrence, Robert Montgomery, Donald Macloed, Herbert Edwards, and John Nicholson were actively supporting American Mission Society. See Maulana Imdad Sabri, Farangion Ka Jaal (New Delhi: Farid Book Depot, 2008), 153. 130 service based religious organization and concomitant aggressive proselytization.

Ludhiana provided a base to the missionaries who expanded their organizational structure soon after Punjab was annexed in March 1849. Their activities were interrupted briefly during and after the War of 1857-58 but during the 1860s, they created a chain of missions throughout the North-west. As Cox noted:

CMS [Church Mission Society] and United Presbyterian of North America… both missionary societies had been at work in the Punjab heartland since the early 1850s with very meagre results, if results are defined by the number of Indian Christians. But in the 1880s thousands of Indian men, and some Indian women, began to demand baptism from missionaries in central Punjab. One UP missionary, the Rev. Samuel Martin, attributed this development, not to Indian initiative, but to the Holy Spirit, and began a series of emotion-laden tours of the countryside near Narowal, baptizing thousands of people a year.46

They preached an aggressive and uncompromising version of Christianity through the print media and open preaching in the streets. The missionaries were viewed as part of

Government machine that had defeated the Sikhs not only to govern but to convert its populace. This was an impact which provided the framework for the rise of religious reform movements and through them the sharpening of religious/communitarian identities in Punjab.

Harding argues that ―so many Christians in early twentieth-century Punjab were unaware even of the name of their denomination that census officials had to ask local clergy to provide Christians with a piece of paper bearing the required information.‖47

There were a large number of denominations of Christian missionaries who were actively

46 Jeffrey Cox, Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India 1818-1940 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 3. For a similar discussion, see Avril Ann Powell, Muslims & Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India (London: Curzon Press, 1993). 47 Census of India 1891, Punjab Report, pt. I ,98. 131 pursuing conversion missions and competing with each other in the Punjab. Actually, the timing of the annexation of Punjab coincided with the arrival of maximum number of missionaries arousing a perception that the Punjab was annexed to be converted to

Christianity. Qasmi asserts that the ―Christian missionaries strove hard on the margins to

‗claim‘ this land for Jesus.‖48 On the other hand, the local ‗samajs‘ and „anjumans‟ followed the same model of Christian missionaries and ―in the organization of the educational institutions of the Arya Samaj, for example, the Christian missionary model was evident.‖49 For example, writing about colonial Lahore, Talbot and Kamran analyse that the missionary presence saw a quadrupling of native converts, reaching over 16,000 in Lahore by 1931 and on the eve of independence the number of Indian Christians in the city was 30,000.50 Furthermore, the threat of Christian conversion stimulated the rise of

Muslim, Hindu and Sikh religious societies and reform movements. The religious conversion initiated by the Christian missionaries and followed by the Arya Samaj motivated the Muslims to organize themselves and counter this challenge.

2.4 The Role of Orientalist Scholarship in Constructing the Indian Past

James Mill‘s (b. 1773-d. 1836) influential book titled The History of British India

(1817) and scheme of periodization of Indian history that it propounded was a significant development in Orientalist scholarship. According to his view of religion in India and

Indian history, the primary division was based upon three periods, i.e. the Hindu, Muslim

48 Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past, 112. 49 Romila Thapar, The Past as Present: Forging Contemporary Identities through History (New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2014), 150. 50 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 24. 132 and the British.51 These labels tried to identify ruling dynasties on the basis of religion.

The divisions of Indian society as monolithic religious communities—Hindus and

Muslims—were taken as if religion superseded all other layers of authority and division.

The undue and ahistorical ―privileging of religion in the periodization of Indian history adopted by the historians of the colonial era‖ should have been discarded straightaway, in the opinion of Bose and Jalal.52 There is no doubt that branding the ancient, medieval and modern periods of India‘s long and complex history as Hindu,

Muslim and that of the British periods is groundless. It may have ―served James Mill‘s purpose in the early nineteenth century, as he set about in his History of British India to buttress his theory of an ascending order of civilization….But his lengthy, uninformed digression into India‘s pre-colonial past as a justification of British colonial rule has by now long outlived its utility.‖53 It transpires that Mill‘s iconic treatise was agenda oriented to serve purposes of orientalists and colonial masters.

Hindu nationalist historiography in India and Muslim nationalist historiography in

Pakistan have most often preferred primordial explanations of ‗Hindu‘ and ‗Muslim‘ identities by trying to read modern distinct religious boundaries back into the past as politically convenient. At first communal boundaries were defined by the orientalist scholarship.54 Later on, the institution of census emerged out of the colonial state‘s desire

51 For a critical review and analysis, see Tanvir Anjum, ―Temporal Divides: A Critical Review of the Major Schemes of Periodization in Indian History,‖ Journal of Social Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad, vol. 1, no. 1 (July 2004), 32-50. 52 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, 8-9. 53 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, 9. 54 The theories of Oriental despotism gave much needed justifications for the East India Company to back its claims in the British Parliament to perpetuate possession and extension of rule in India. For detailed 133 to know and control its subjects and to develop a taxonomy based on primordial definitions, and these loosely defined categories found definite social expression in census enumeration.

Identities in pre-colonial India were heterogeneous. The Muslims, like Hindus, had not a monolithic communal character. However, they shared some common discursive traditions and shared values which were connected to the Quran and Sunnah in one way or the other. Later on, colonialism significantly transformed the character of religious identities in India. It changed the formal relation of religion with the political authority, particularly that of Islam. It created a sense of insecurity among the Muslim elite, leading to a crisis, which contributed to conscious efforts at unifying the Muslim community in a different socio-political environment. At the same time, the British conception that India was inhibited by mutually exclusive religious communities and the administrative necessities of the Raj influenced orientalist writings. The construction of

Indian past along religious lines by the orientalist scholarship created a sense of otherness among Indians on the one hand, while creating unity among the Hindus it reinforced

Muslim identity, on the other hand.55

While explaining his influential thesis of Orientalism in the Egyptian context,

Edward W. Said asserted that the ―Orientals were almost everywhere nearly the same‖ and that they were using the long developed essential ―knowledge both academic and practical…knowledge of Orientals, their race, character, culture, history, traditions,

analysis regarding Punjab, see Tarar, ―Orientalism and Colonial State in Punjab: The New Order of Things,‖ 124-147. 55 Salahuddin, ―The Evolution of Muslim Identity in Colonial India,‖ 8-9. 134 society, and possibilities‖ for effectively governing the governed.56 Lord Cromer (b.

1841-d. 1917), an Orientalist administrator in Egypt, claimed to have used this knowledge for effectively governing the Egyptians. His personal anecdote regarding

Orientalist wisdom, which covers colonial India too, is telling:

Sir Alfred Lyall once told to me: ‗Accuracy is abhorrent to the Oriental mind. Every Anglo-Indian should always remember that maxim.‘ Want of accuracy, which easily degenerates into untruthfulness, is in fact the main characteristic of the Oriental mind. The European is a close reasoner; his statements of fact are devoid of any ambiguity; he is by nature sceptical and requires proof before he can accept the truth of any proposition; his trained intelligence works like a piece of mechanism. The mind of the Oriental, on the other hand, like his picturesque streets, is eminently wanting in symmetry. His reasoning is the most slipshod description.57

The Orientals are shown by the Orientalists as gullible, devoid of energy and initiative, full of flattery, lethargic and suspicious. The ascription of these qualities to the Orientals was actually the result of conditioning of these administrators inherited from a century of modern Western Orientalism. The colonial rule was being justified by the Orientalism, and Orientalism by the colonial rule. Said summarizes Orientalism by stating that ―so far as the West was concerned during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an assumption had been made that the Orient and everything in it was, if not patently inferior to, then in need of corrective study by the West.‖58 Moreover, the period of advancement and expansion of, what Said termed as Orientalism, coincides with the period of unparalleled

European expansion. During the period from 1815 to 1914, the European direct colonial

56 Said, Orientalism, 38. For detailed discussion on British in India, see K. K. Aziz, The British in India: A Study in Imperialism (Islamabad: National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research, 1975), 116- 222. 57 Evelyn Baring and Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt (New York: Macmillan Press, 1908), 2, 146-67. Quoted in Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New Delhi: Penguin Classics, 2001), 38 58 Said, Orientalism, 40-41. 135 presence and control expanded from about 35 per cent of the earth‘s surface to nearly 85 per cent of it.59 The phenomenon of Orientalism was thus nearly universalized by this vast expansion of the European colonialism.

The onset of a modern colonial state in an agrarian India was not less than an accident. It disrupted the Indian social fabric in multiple ways. Motivated by their desire to know, classify and interpret in the light of their conceptions of the orient, whatever colonialism touched, was distorted and debased by it. In the context of emerging monolithic religious and political identities, the colonial state was instrumental.

According to British conceptions religion played the most important role in the evolution of communities. However, India with a huge variety of regional, ethnic, religious and cultural shades did not fit into the British conceptions.60 Therefore, they imposed categories on everything Indian. Religious identities in India, according to Judge, were placed and constructed in this context.61 The British administration seemed to be a paradox. On the one hand, it sought to impose a Westernized and secular state structure, and on the other hand, it conceived political communities on primordial basis. Indian

59 D. K. Fieldhouse, The Colonial Empires: A Comparative Survey from the Eighteenth Century (New York: Delacorte Press, 1967), 178. 60 Broadly, the British presence in India can be categorized into two phases: first, for three hundred years until the early nineteenth century, ―the Europeans coming out to the subcontinent had been assimilating themselves to India in a kaleidoscope of different ways. That process met its closure by the 1820s. Second, under the influence of Lord Wellesley, Governor General, another process started in which Europeans increasingly felt that ―they had nothing to learn from India, and they had less and less inclination to discover anything to the contrary.‖ From then on ―India was perceived as a suitable venue for ruthless and profitable European expansion, where glory and fortunes could be acquired to the benefit of all concerned. It was a place to be changed and conquered, not a place to be changed or conquered by.‖ For a detailed study of this and related changes taking place during this period, see William Dalrymple, White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2002), 54. 61 Pramajit S. Judge, ―Politics of Sikh Identity and Its Fundamentalist Assertion,‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 39 (2004): 3949-50. 136 nationalism, itself a by-product of colonialism, not surprisingly, had no clear answer to such paradoxes, which eventually resulted in the partition of India.62

An important part of this process had been the British construction of Indian past and the colonial sociology of knowledge. The British historiography privileged religious identities over other possibilities which in the long run sharpened the differences between the Muslims and non-Muslims. Besides influencing colonial governance, it also transformed Indians‘ ideas about themselves.63 Political necessities required a sharper articulation of religious identities, which in the process created a fixed and ahistorical image of religious communities of India. Consequently, a sense of otherness began to emerge among the religious communities of India. Indian history took its religious turn, contends Romila Thapar, from the nineteenth century interpretations of the Indian past in monolithic religious terms.64 Thus, colonialism was instrumental in transforming the pre- existing social and religious concerns into larger discourses.65 The Muslims were successfully defined as an administrative unit, uniform, homogenous and non- problematic community, and Muslim identity was bureaucratically arranged and enumerated.66

According to Thapar, ―The impact of Orientalism in creating the image of Indian, and particularly Hindu culture, as projected in the nineteenth century, was considerable

62 Judge, ―Politics of Sikh Identity and Its Fundamentalist Assertion,‖ 3955. 63 Robinson, ―The British Empire and the Muslim Identity in South Asia,‖ 271-289. 64 Romila Thapar, ―The Tyranny of Labels,‖ Social Scientist, vol. 24, no. 9/10 (Sep-Oct, 1996): 3-23. 65 Thomas David Dubois, ―Hegemony, Imperialism, and the Construction of Religion in East and Southeast Asia,‖ History and Theory, vol. 44, no. 4, Theme Issue 44: Theorizing Empire (2005): 113-131. 66 David Gilmartin, ―A Magnificent Gift: Muslim Nationalism and the Election Processes in Colonial Punjab,‖ Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 40, no. 3 (1998), 417. 137 and religion was a major part of that image.‖67 She explains further that the concept of

Indian civilization was equated by some European Orientalists with things Hindu and its definition lay in the Hindu religion and the Sanskrit language, and territorial boundaries of British India, all inherited from colonial scholarship.68 This concept remained in vogue and nobody questioned it by arguing that Indian culture consisted of many variants and not just one. The striking factor of Indian civilization was the plurality of cultures but it remained unheeded because of the desperate attempt to identify single culture. Modern historians tend to appreciate that hallmark of civilization is not its boundaries but its porosity. The Orientalists‘ produced knowledge and its cognitive constructs found expression in the form of practice of decennial census which reinvigorated communal cleavages and religious identities.

2.5 Role and Politics of Census Enumeration

This part attempts a critical reading of the censuses of Punjab in order to understand the process of formation of religious identities in colonial Punjab. The censuses of Punjab conducted between 1871 and 1921 are an important source to understand the contemporary religious identities. An attempt is made to address the following questions: How far did the census—a very important tool of modernity introduced by the British in the Indian subcontinent—work to transform and accentuate religious identities in colonial Punjab? Did the repeated decennial practice of conducting censuses make an internally coherent discourse? To what extent the data and information

67 Thapar, The Past as Present, 150. 68 Thapar, The Past as Present, 114. 138 contained within the census is compatible with its given analytical categories?

Addressing such questions with particular focus on the Punjab census will help understand religious identity as it existed in the last decades of the nineteenth and early twentieth century Punjab and relate it with continued academic debate about the character and impact of colonial rule in the region. Jones describes the census as providing ―a new conceptualization of religion as a community, an aggregate of individuals united by a formal definition and given characteristics based on qualified data. Religions became communities mapped, counted, and above all compared with other religious communities.‖69

The first sub-section explains the political and intellectual context in which census operations were conducted, while the second explores the way the question of religious identity is treated in the census reports in the Punjab, and information on religious identity contained within them.

2.5.1 Census Operations: Political and Intellectual Context

The colonial state in India went through a process of sheer transformation after the War of Independence of 1857-58.70 Britain rethought her policy in India. This was an opportunity for revision of Britain‘s whole attitude and, on 1 September 1858, to end the

East India Company‘s rule by replacing it in London with the India Office and in

69 Kenneth W. Jones, ―Religious Identities and the Indian Census‖ in Norman Gerald Barrier (ed.), Census in British India: New Perspectives (New Delhi: Manohar, 1981), 84. 70 ―The Government of India Act, 1858,‖ in Christine E. Dobbin (ed.), Basic Documents in the Development of Modern India and Pakistan, 1835-1947 (London: Von Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1970), 18-19. 139

Calcutta a viceroy taking the place of Company‘s former Governor General.71 This war led to a great deal of rethinking on the part of the British regarding their role and place in

India, and directly created a crisis of the British Raj and a crisis of liberalism in Britain.

The gradual result of this was a conception of empire, even more firmly grounded in notions of Indian ‗difference,‘ and a revitalized conservatism that gave empire a central place in Britain‘s vision of itself.72 One liberal principle, which acquired a fresh lease of life in the wake of the War of Independence of 1857-58, was that of religious toleration.

The Queen‘s Proclamation repudiated ―any desire to impose convictions on any of our subjects,‖ and ―enjoined abstinence from interference with the customs and beliefs of the

Indian people.‖73

If the British Government was to demonstrate non-interference with the socio- cultural traditions of the Indians, they had to first establish what these traditions were.

Determined as they were to strengthen the knowledge-base of the Raj, the Victorians set out to order and classify India‘s ‗difference‘ in accordance with scientific systems of

‗knowing.‘ The study of India was thus made part of a larger scholarly enterprise in which the Victorians, as children of the Enlightenment, sought rational principles that would provide a comprehensive way of fitting everything they saw in the world around them into ordered hierarchies. The exigencies of Empire spurred on this creation of knowledge, and the hierarchical relationships of imperialism helped shape the categories

71 Fernand Braudel, A History of Civilizations (New York: The Penguin Press, 1994), 242. 72 Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj, 43. 73 ―Queen Victoria‘s Proclamation to the Princes, Chiefs and People of India, November 1, 1858,‖ in Dobbin (ed.), Basic Documents in the Development of Modern India and Pakistan, 1835-1947, 19-22. 140 within which that knowledge was constructed.74 This became essential part of the

Empire‘s quest to count, classify and control through colonial knowledge.

The census was symptomatic of the Victorians‘ urge to ‗know‘, ‗count‘ and

‗classify.‘ Census operations were not only reserved for the colonies but were instituted in almost all European countries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and were usually due to concerns about depopulation and increasing poverty.75 In Britain, the census was instituted with the passage of the Population Bill in 1800. Charles Abbot, in his speech in the House of Commons, who was responsible for introducing the

Population Bill, stressed on two objectives: firstly, to know actual current size of the population, and secondly, to measure the trends of the population: ―by showing the increase or diminution of baptisms, burials, and marriages‖ in order to provide a ―correct knowledge‖ of ―increasing or decreasing demands of subsistence.‖76 Census was essentially a secular endeavour in Britain. Religious questions were explored with extreme reluctance. Either there was no question about religion, or it was taken up with great care and restraint.

However, in India the census exercise was employed for entirely different purposes.

It was an attempt to know the land, the subjects, and to achieve an effective administrative control and to increase the revenues.77 The British commitment to a

Government based on knowledge and facts gave birth to other statistical and mapping

74 Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj, 67. 75 D. V. Glass, Numbering the People: The Eighteenth-Century Population Controversy and the Development of Census and Vital Statistics in Britain (London: Gordon and Cremonesi, 1978), 12-13. 76 Quoted in Glass, Numbering the People, 91. 77 Ram B. Bhagat, ―Census and Caste Enumerations: British Legacy and Contemporary Practices in India,‖ Genus, vol. 62, no. 2 (April-June, 2006), 119. 141 processes as well. These practices broke down the Indian society into pieces of social knowledge based on statistics. At the same time, it resulted in extensive penetration of colonial administration down to the individual.78 Similarly, the subjects of investigation under census were decided by a foreign and authoritative Government, which happened to be an Empire without taking any feedback from the public intelligentsia. Therefore, the impact of census on Indian social and political life was qualitatively different.79

The area in which the divergence between the Indian and British census was most marked was religion, partly prompted by Britain‘s enduring insistence that India was divided into two religious communities, i.e. Hinduism and Islam. Religion was introduced in the very first census held in India as a fundamental category of tabulation.

Religion found more space in census reports, and little restraint was employed in publication of such data.80 As Thomas Metcalf figures out,

[T]he British came to believe that adherence to one or the other of these two religions was not merely a matter of belief, but defined membership more generally in a larger community. To be Hindu or Muslim by itself explained much of the way Indians acted. 81

Generally, in politics, and particularly in the census, the British came to define

Hindu and Muslim identities as ethnic categories, encompassing all members of the two communities equally, and defining their common as well as homogeneous relationship to the British Indian political system. In keeping with this, the Indian census used religion as

78 Gyan Parakash, ―Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World: Perspectives from Indian Historiography,‖ Comparative Studies in Society and History,” vol. 32 (1990), 387. 79 Salahuddin, ―The Evolution of Muslim Identity in Colonial India,‖ 46. 80 Nandini Sundar, ―Caste as Census: Implications for Sociology,‖ Current Sociology, vol. 48 (2000), 111- 13. 81 Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj, 132. 142 one of its most important and fundamental categories, and as a basis for organizing data and attempting to understand Indians.82

Census categories appeared to be an apolitical affair, yet it was always loaded with overt and covert political considerations.83 Census count not only mirrored political process, it also exerted an independent influence in the creation of socio-religious identities, by giving recognition to some while overlooking the others. In the process, the census count clearly created minority vs. majority complex.84 Such tabulation, in the long run, assigned definite characteristics to groups and profoundly changed the perception of

‗us and the other.‘ The perception of the ‗other,‘ in comparison to whom social identities are constructed, was transformed over time. Anderson argues that three power institutions; the map, the museum, and the census were instrumental in the nature and evolution of colonial nationalism. The real significance of such tabulation lied in their systematic quantification by the census takers. These power institutions imposed an imagined grid, thus, previously fluid, contextual and indigenous categories were hardened, and retained an independent existence even when separated from the grid. It served for the emergence of very stable and old communities often in conflict with the secular and authoritarian state structure.85

82 Jones, ―Religious Identity and the Indian Census,‖ 73-99. 83 Mehar Singh Gill, ―Politics of Population Census Data in India,‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 42 (2007), 241. 84 Bhagat, ―Census and Caste Enumeration: British Legacy and Contemporary Practices in India,‖ 120. 85 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 169. 143

The colonial census was more powerful than the map and the museum, argues

Summit Guha, for every male adult encountered it for more than once in his lifetime.86

Indian communities began to see each other in relational terms, and gradually a demographic comradeship seeped into common sense, providing a basis for self- interested collective action. Similarly, Bhagat stresses that the roots of modern socio- political identities lay in the census enumeration.87 Jalal states that the most significant aspect of census enumerator is the construction of exclusive religious identities, with marked social and geographical boundaries. Religion became the central point of reference for social identities, superseding all other social relationships.88 Jones believes that census not only created religio-communal identity, but also transformed conceptions of religion in India. Census reports were taken as scoreboards where one could see the progress of one‘s own community.89 This religious change in the conception of community gave new political meaning to religion and community. Religious communities began to be perceived as competing political entities and it was a huge transformation in the political meaning of religion.90

The colonial counting processes such as census and spatial mapping, highlighting the agentive potential of numbers and a sense of ‗horizontal comradeship‘, in the words of Benedict Anderson, seeped into common sense of the people. The scope of such comradeship was broadened by the introduction of separate electoral structures, for it

86 Sumit Guha, ―The Politics of Identity and Enumeration in India c. 1600-1990‖, Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 45, no. 1 (Jan., 2003), 148. 87 R. B. Bhagat, ―Caste Census: Looking Back, Looking Forward,‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 42, no. 21 (2007), 1902. 88 Jalal, Self and Sovereignty, 40. 89 Jones, ―Religious Identity and the Indian Census,‖ 73-99. 90 Jones, ―Religious Identity and the Indian Census,‖ 73-104. 144 brought the communal sentiment into the battlefield of politics. Soon the numbers game began to be perceived in zero-sum terms, the loss of one was a gain for the other, thus giving birth to communalism or religious separatism. Besides that, the activities of

Christian missionaries to save the ‗heathen‘ by converting them to the true religion, i.e.

Christianity, propelled a chain reaction. Indigenous religious elites in an effort to revive their religions, aided by modern technologies of print and communication, began to assert communal sentiment which was becoming politically more important with every passing day.

2.5.2 Colonial Census in Punjab and the Creation of Religious Identities

The manner in which the census was conceptualized and institutionalized in India becomes clear while studying the censuses of Punjab conducted between 1868 and 1921.

Moreover, a deep study of the census reports also gives many fresh perspectives. The way categories were conceptualized and implemented in census is surprisingly subversive, contradicts the ‗grand narrative‘ of the census itself, and calls into question some of the established academic analyses of the census in India. Furthermore, the information captured in the census helps a re-examination of the easy division of the

Punjab into straitjacketed religious communities. The faithfulness, with which the census officials described what they observed, even when it ran counter to their own assumptions, is also very significant.

The first major census was conducted in 1868 in Punjab. At this initial stage, the census was very brief and did not include ethnographic information of Punjabi

145 communities. In the next censuses, the reports became increasingly voluminous, and included quite detailed descriptions of religious communities, caste groups, and their customs and rituals. Nonetheless, even the first census used religion as a primary category, and compared the growth and decline of the population according to religious categories.91 Evidently, in the minds of the census officials, society in the Punjab was organized on the basis of religion, and could only be understood through the lens of religion. Nine main religious groups were enumerated in the census of Punjab between

1868 and 1901: Musalmans, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians,

Jews and those who claimed ‗No religion.‘92 There were fiercely debated questions over who could be included in each category by the people, and who were being enumerated by the colonial officials. Nevertheless, the categories themselves were not normally being questioned by the people.

An important theme one finds in the first census of Punjab, and which recurred in each subsequent census report, is that of the lack of accuracy of returns. From one decennial census to another, the figures of a single religious community in the same locality could increase or decrease without any visible correlation to the average birth- rate or mortality. This lack of accuracy troubled almost all census officials, and they offered varying explanations for this. The 1868 census explained the inaccuracy by pointing to the fact that in the province ―only 22 persons in a thousand can read and write,‖ and on the general ―tendency among the people in common with most Eastern countries,‖ was that people in Punjab tended ―to be inaccurate in their statements about

91 Report on the Census of the Punjab, 1868 (Lahore: Indian Public Opinion Press, 1870), 23. 92 ―The Census of 1901,‖ Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, vol. 62, no. 4 (Dec., 1899), 679-683. 146 the simplest facts‖.93 Interestingly, the next decennial census, while still concerned about the lack of accuracy of returns, offers a very different explanation: ―The difficulty of an

Indian Census springs mainly from two sources; the infinite diversity of the material to be dealt with, and our own infinite ignorance of that material.‖94

On reading the reports on the censuses of Punjab, the first thing that strikes one is actually the immense diversity of the material. Clearly, Punjab was an area of diversity unsurpassed in the remainder of the Indian subcontinent: three main religious traditions,

Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam; infinite local saints and shrines; three languages, Hindi,

Urdu, and Punjabi; each with its own script, and then the many local groupings of community and kinship. A perceptible tension within the census was the colonial official‘s desire to understand this diversity, iron it out, and explain it by organizing it into charts and tables, whereas explanations and neat categories were elusive, and unable to capture the reality on the ground.

Sir Denzil Ibbetson (b. 1847-d. 1908), the author of The Panjab Census Report of

1881, offered the most detailed explanations about the census definitions of particular religious groups. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore Ibbetson‘s views on religion and religious identity in Punjab in detail, because his ideas gained an almost canonical status and became the basis for much of the work that came after him. While laying out the

―Census definition of Hindus,‖ Ibbetson began with a preamble, which warned of the

―absolute impossibility of laying down any definition or indicating any test by which we

93 Report on the Census of the Punjab, 1868, 2. 94 Denzil Charles Jelf Ibbetson, Outlines of Panjab Ethnography: Being Extracts from the Panjab Census Report of 1881, Treating of Religion, Language and Caste (Calcutta: Government Printing Press, 1883), v- vi. 147 may distinguish him who is a Hindu from him who is not.‖95 However, having said this,

Ibbetson cheerfully proceeded to lay down a definition and offer an explanation for it.

―Practically‖ he writes that ―the rule we adopted was this:‖

Every native who was unable to define his creed, or described it by any other name than that of some recognized religion or sect of some such religion was held to be and classed as Hindu. The assumption at the basis of this rule is that the Native of India must be presumed to be Hindu unless he belongs to some other recognized faith.96

The report of the Census of India 1891 referred to the creed which ―under the title of

Hinduism, is returned by more than 72 per cent of the population of India.‖97 It reiterated that the ―clumsy name is only justified by convention,‖ and further ―[P]rimarily and historically, it [Hinduism] is the antithesis of Islam. Religion, in the etymological sense of the word, it [Hinduism] is not, and never was. The binding element is only educed by active opposition on the part of some other form of faith, such as Islam.‖98 While

Hinduism was taken to be the ‗native‘ religion of India, Islam was viewed as being decidedly ‗foreign,‘ despite the fact that Islam had a history of over a thousand years—

Islam came to the South (Kerala) much before the North—in the Indian subcontinent.

Clearly, census officials viewed Islam and Hinduism as being in fundamental opposition to each other. When the Indians repeatedly went through the process of census, ―they found that the category ‗Mahomedan‘ (Muslim) could be disempowered or empowered, impoverished or enriched, deprived or benefited depending on a number of factors out of

95 Ibbetson, Outlines of Panjab Ethnography, 101. 96 Ibbetson, Outlines of Panjab Ethnography, 101. 97 J. A. Baines, General Report on the Census of India, 1891 (London: Government of India, 1893), 157– 59. 98 Baines, General Report on the Census of India, 1891, 157–59. 148 which the only ones they understood were numbers and loyalty to the rulers.‖99 Thus, the mutually reinforcing factors of census and numerical strength of Muslim community were brought in the centre stage of political arena of power and construction of religious identity.

With the British attempts for the identification of their subjects through census and other means to determine respective numerical strength, the communities felt it essential to evolve methods of organization and association to approach colonial distribution of resources and in order to take lead from the competitor communities.

These associations and organizations manifested by swelling their members on the one hand, while stressing upon and highlighting their uniformities on the other hand, while suppressing variances. For swelling their ranks through numerical maximization, the urgency of marking communal boundaries by suppressing ―fuzzy‖ peripheral religious group and bringing them into the unified fold was felt.100

The period from mid-nineteenth century onwards witnessed increasing undercutting of the Punjab‘s rural population‘s shared cultural ethos as well as values and practices. For instance, the urban dwelling ulema and Chishti silsilah revivalist pirs such

99 Rahman, From Hindi to Urdu, 11-12. 100 For the proper understanding of the concept of fuzzy communities see, Sudipta Kaviraj, ―The Imaginary Institution of India,‖ 20-26. The term ‗fuzzy‘ was coined by post-modernists/revisionists. Kaviraj does not deny the existence of mutually cohesive identity-based communities in pre-modern India, yet he entitles those communities as ―fuzzy‖ communities which had vague communal boundaries. Modern communities are enumerated communities and, hence, have marked boundaries. The enumeration of fuzzy communities, by way of census and other modern means including the concept of nations and nationalities have been transformed into ―choate, organized and marked identities‖ during the colonial period. Scholars like Sumit Sarkar, Gyanendra Pandey and Sandria Freitag have offered similar explanations of construction of modern religious identities during the colonial period. However, C. A. Bayly traces the formation of religious identities from the pre-colonial period. To understand this point of view, see C. A. Bayly, ―The Pre-history of Communalism? Religious Conflict in India, 1700-1860,‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 19, no. 2 (1985), 177-203. 149 as Pir Suleman of Taunsa ―sought to purge Sufism of ‗unislamic‘ practices.‖101 Likewise,

Tat Khalsa strived hard to get rid of Hindu idols from its Gurdwaras. The revivalist trend in all religious communities encouraged people to hark back to a pristine and unsullied past which was golden and not contaminated by syncretic tendencies. Hence, ―‗Fuzzy‘ community identities were to be replaced by clearly defined boundaries.‖102 This process can glaringly be observed in the emergence of contention regarding the Punjabi language.

Muslim as well as Hindu middle-class elite encouraged their co-religionists not to embrace Punjabi as their mother tongue. Instead, the decennial census enumerators were, most oftenly, informed that Muslims spoke Urdu and Hindus spoke Hindi.

2.6 Introduction of Representative Political Institutions

Indian communities were defined and enumerated by the colonial administration which in turn created separatist and communal sentiments. The demand for separate political rights based on communal aspirations began to surface increasingly. Yet it does not mean that all members of a religious community were united in their demand. Rather, the demand varied from region to region and class to class, depending on the particular interests of a community in a particular setting. The demand for separate electorate first emerged in

Muslim minority areas, and later on spread to other majority areas. The question of majority vs. minority soon took a political turn. It became increasingly difficult for the minorities—religious, political, ethnic, linguistic—to remain isolated from the realities of

101 Ian Talbot, Khizr Tiwana: The Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1996), 5. 102 Talbot, Khizr Tiwana, 5. 150 an evolving representative political structure.103 The issue of representation in colonial institutions ―stimulated Muslim interest in seeking representation on a communal basis‖ and ―gradually shaped a communal identity or subjective nationalism of Muslims.‖104

Electoral structures are often taken for granted as non-problematic avenues where community interest, identities, and popular will find competitive expressions. It is an oversimplification of the fact that in colonial India, such structures not only defined the relationship between the state and society, but also brought to fore distinct patterns of community rhetoric. On the one hand, it merged religious and nationalist visions of community, and on the other hand, it reinforced the concept of political community and individual autonomy.105 The introduction of separate electorate was critical in the emergence of a separate electoral identity. The representative structure brought conflicting definitions of community into the political battlefield. It was important to define the meaning of nationalism because they were not just separate but electorates also. Those who were elected through separate electorates began to assert themselves as leaders of their communities. However, their victory was not wholly based on religion; it was more due to their social influence. Meanwhile, the debate over the definition and meaning of political community drew more adherents. The rhetoric of political community became increasingly politicized, and the meanings of Muslim community

103 Rashiduddin Khan, ―Muslim Leadership and Electoral Politics in Hyderabad: A Pattern of Minority Articulation,‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 6, no. 16 (1971), 783. 104 Rais, Imagining Pakistan, 56. 105 Gilmartin, ―A Magnificent Gift: Muslim Nationalism and the Election Process in Colonial Punjab,‖ 416- 17. 151 were redefined.106 In this way, the introduction of separate electorates yet gave further rise to separatism.

Gilmartin lays bare another important dimension in the form of role of religious leadership in pursuing the Pakistan movement and disseminating Muslim identity on the pathway. The rural Punjab was dominated, in terms of religious leadership, by a class of hereditary landed elite of sufi pirs, sajjada nashins and gaddi nashins. It is a common perception that Punjabis were converted to Islam through the spiritual power of Sufis.

Such kind of leadership had historically facilitated a close relationship between religious and political authority.107 British colonial state in Punjab established a direct link with the rural areas through intermediaries in the form of these pirs and tribal leaders and the

Punjab Alienation of Land Act 1901 was such an attempt by the British government to protect the interests of their rural collaborators.

Another dimension of Muslim identity formation, according to Francis Robinson, is that the Muslims tended to organize in politics on the basis of their faith. Where in majority, Muslim political parties emerged, and where in minority, they organized on separatist lines.108 However, it cannot be generalized to all Muslims, in all times and climes. Similarly, Farzana Shaikh contends that Muslim conceptions of individual and

106 Gilmartin, ―A Magnificent Gift: Muslim Nationalism and the Election Process in Colonial Punjab,‖ 418- 19. 107 David Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity: Narrating the Creation of Pakistan (New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2014), 177-210. To comprehend the role of Pirs, Sajjada Nashins and Gaddi nashins in the last decade before partition, see Sikandar Hayat, Aspects of the Pakistan Movement (Lahore: Progressive Publishers, 1991), 165-201; and Sikandar Hayat, The Charismatic Leader: Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the creation of Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2008), 225-267. 108 Francis Robinson, ―Islam and Muslim Separatism,‖ in Nationality and Nationalism, eds. Athena S. Leoussi and Steven Grosby (New York: I. B. Tauris, 2004), 58-59. 152 community were radically different from Western liberal conceptions of representation.

Muslims perceived it as a threat to deprive them of their due share in political power. The

Muslim beliefs about the nature of political consensus and organization were often seen in collision with that of Western liberal ideas. Focus on individual rather than community was perceived as a threat to the cohesion of the community, a threat to their exclusive version of community and corresponding exclusive rights. Furthermore, most of the

Muslims preferred to be represented by Muslims and to be held accountable to

Muslims.109 Shaikh considers that ideas, values and attitudes were of considerable importance in Muslim politics in colonial India.110 By challenging argument of most of the British historians that Indian leaders and politicians were responding to the British policies on pragmatic grounds, she reiterates that Muslim leaders were concerned primarily to apply Islamic ideas and values to modern Indian politics.

The Muslims of British India formally entered in politics and acquired a distinct personality in the shape of separate electorates under the Indian Councils Act of 1909, termed as ―constitutional identity‖ by Peter Hardy. Communal differences were further institutionalized through separate electorates.111 This was outcome of the actions of

Viceroy Lord Curzon (b. 1859-d. 1925) who had come to India with a strong belief that he could control India without granting constitutional concessions to all Indians, not merely Muslims. However, he left India in a politically ever more volatile situation since

1857-58. The British felt a need to strike a balance between various Indian religious

109 Farzana Shaikh, ―Muslims and Political Representation in Colonial India: The Making of Pakistan,‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 20 (1986), 540. 110 Farzana Shaikh, Community and Concensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial India, 1860- 1947 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 10-48. 111 Peter Hardy, The Muslims of British India (London: Cambridge University Press, 1972), 147. 153 communities, so that the educated Indians could be appeased, but then the educated

Indians were heterogeneous in terms of education, level of instruction and interests.

Nevertheless, the Muslims, capping all regional and personal rivalries, formed All India

Muslim League in 1906 and demanded separate electorates. It was granted by the liberal

Secretary of State Morley (b. 1838-d. 1923, r. 1905-11) and Viceroy Lord Minto (b.

1845-d. 1914) meant to be introduced in all major provinces of British India, except the new North-West Frontier Province created in 1901, out of Punjab.

Referring to constitutional reforms introduced by Minto and Morley, Syed Nabi

Ullah, President of All India Muslim League‘s Nagpur Session (1910) admitted their contribution for Indian Muslims in these words:

The reforms have introduced salutary constitutional changes in the administration of India, and by giving the representatives—both elected and nominated—of important interests, and especially of influential minorities, an effective voice in the administration of the country, have legitimately contributed to the appeasement of legitimate aspirations, engendered and fostered by English education.112

Hardy remarks that, ―whether separatist politics bred separate electorates or separate electorates bred separatist politics is a version of the question about the chicken and the egg‖, but ―separate electorates at provincial level did enable leading Muslims to behave as the plenipotentiaries of a separate political community.‖113 Political situation in the

Punjab was unique in the sense that initiatives on All-India arena some time did not favour Punjabi Muslims. Congress was not active in the province, and the local Hindu

112 ―Presidential Speech of Syed Nabi Ullah, Bar-at-Law, President of the All India Muslim League, Nagpur Session 1910,‖ in O. P. Ralhan and Suresh K. Sharma (eds.), Documents on Punjab: Muslim Politics (New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1994), 132-33. 113 Hardy, The Muslims of British India, 148. 154 leaders were concerned more with provincial Hindu unity than forming an alliance of

Indian leaders to demand more self-government from the British. Although communal rivalries in Punjab were very bitter, yet these had local dynamics as well. To create balance between communities, the Government in 1901 decided to reserve 30 per cent of civil service appointments for the Muslims. This was done to assuage Muslim bitterness about Hindu electoral victories resulting from elective principle and their educated urban electorate in local self-government initiated in 1882-83 in the form of Ripon reforms. To create balance, the Government introduced communal representation in many towns including Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Multan and Lahore.

Educated Punjabis appreciated separatist solutions as wise and beneficial for all the communities. It was seen as a bulwark against often erupting communal violence. In fact, it further institutionalized communal differences among educated and urban

Punjabis. Every extension of separatist principle reinforced communal sentiments, and the chances of power sharing among communities minimized.114 The transfer of separatist institutions to Punjab became the centre of communal rivalry. It gave birth to a fight for political power among the religious communities of the Punjabis.115 Thus, as a result of separate electoral structures, communal and religious identities were constantly reinforced, publicly debated, and redefined.

114 N. Gerald Barrier, ―The Punjab Government and Communal Politics 1870-1908,‖ The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 27 (1968): 538. 115 Barrier, ―The Punjab Government and Communal Politics 1870-1908,‖ 529. 155

To maintain a contented peasantry and Punjab‘s role as a principal recruiting ground for Army, the Government passed Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1901.116 The

British Government wanted to ―prevent transfer of land, by foreclosure and compulsory sale for debt, from cultivating tribes and castes to moneylenders and other urban financial interests.‖117 It was because in some areas of the Punjab, a third of the land had been transferred to moneylenders in the period from 1878 to 1896.118 As individual affectees were concerned, this Act was as beneficial for Hindu cultivators as it was for Muslim cultivators but since Muslim cultivators were more in number than the Hindus, the former were seen as major beneficiaries of the said Act. The Punjabi Muslims started increasingly identifying themselves with the Muslims of the centre so that they could secure more political representation and advantage. Sometimes a favour granted by the

British Government for its own interest—felt after the lapse of some time to be benefitting—elicited response for more demands by Muslims as a community.

The Muslim League in its Annual Session held in 1910 declared that:

No question is of more vital importance to the Mussalman community of India at the present moment than their acquisition of the right of separate representation on Municipal and District Boards. A similar contention with regard to the Imperial and Provincial Councils, has been graciously recognized by Lord Minto‘s Government. But as is well-known the Municipal and District Boards form the initial rung in the electoral ladder, and as long as sufficient number of seats is not allowed to Muslims on local and Boards, they cannot be said to be in

116 Tan Tai Yong, The Garrison State: The Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849- 1947 (Lahore: Vanguard Books, 2005), 275-76. For an overall understanding of The Punjab Alienation of Land Act and problems arising out of its implementation, see Annual Report on the Working of the Punjab Alienation of Land Act XIII of 1900 (Lahore: The Civil and Military Gazzette Press, 1902). 117 Hardy, The Muslims of British India, 152. 118 S. S. Thorburn, Appendices to Report on Peasant Indebtedness and Land Alienation to Moneylenders in Certain Parts of the Rawalpindi Division (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1896), 25. Also see, S. S. Thorburn, The Punjab in Peace and War (New Delhi: Usha, 1987, First published in 1904). 156

complete enjoyment of their civic rights. The memorable Mohamedan deputation which waited upon Lord Minto in 1906 emphasized the importance of these Boards, and His Lordship generously acknowledged the contention. The Mussalmans had every hope that when the regulations regarding elections to the Imperial and Provincial Councils were promulgated, the turn of the local Boards would come. The Decentralization Commission too endorsed their views in unmistakable terms.119

The origin and development of the phenomenon of communalism in its modern form can be said to have started with the introduction of elective principle in India.120 In the peculiar circumstances of Indian society, the introduction of elective system paved the way for aggravating communal differences. The first institutions to receive the impact of this development were local self-government institutions because it was there that the elective principle was first used, and administrative considerations gave way to political considerations. As the application of this principle was broadened, the communal differences were also deepened. This case was particularly pertinent to the Punjab, especially in the Western districts, where although being minority in number, the Hindus held majority of municipality seats due to ―their superiority in Western education and dominance in the legal profession and trade.‖121 The Muslims had a general feeling of resentment against this Hindu dominance.

The Punjab Municipalities Act of 1911 gave authority to the provincial

Government to introduce elective system in any municipality through executive orders to allow it to elect its own chairman.122 It was the Punjab Amending Act XXXVIII of 1920 that included new liberal reforms through fixing the number of elected members to a

119 Mirza, Report of the All-India Muslim League for 1910, 7. 120 Misra, The Administrative History of India 1834-1947, 609. For related issues of British administration, see William Golant, The Long Afternoon: British India, 1601-1947 (London: Book Club Edition, 1975). 121 Misra, The Administrative History of India 1834-1947, 609. 122 Misra, The Administrative History of India 1834-1947, 614. 157 minimum of three-fourths and giving permission to municipalities for electing their own non-official chairman.123 This bill was the result of efforts by Fazl-i-Husain and

Harkishan Lal, the two important Punjabi leaders. Although both of them were members of Indian National Congress (INC) they, in their approach to politics, differed from

Gandhi. They believed in constitutional development, modern education and local self-

Government as important milestones to achieve progress for India. Since Muslims in

Punjab constituted 53 per cent of the municipal population, they were the first to get advantage by any measure to democratize the constitution of municipalities in Punjab.

However, when Mian Fazl-i-Husain (b. 1877-d. 1936), who was leader of Muslim

League as well, distributed municipal representation to the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs on the basis of their proportion of population and voting strength, he was not damaging democracy. His action was democratic but proportional representation was communal in nature. Nevertheless, the later increase of Muslim members from 44 to 49 per cent ignited hostilities from Hindus and Sikhs who moved censure motion against the Government in

1923. This motion was defeated by a combined Muslim and official votes. Hence, this defeat of Hindus and Sikhs created bitter memories which affected the administration of local and municipal bodies in Punjab. The politics of municipalities and local- government increasingly became communalized and embittered relations between Hindus and Muslims at all levels of public life. Communalism in the Punjab not only emerged in social and political institutions, but also in the psychological behaviour of the different communities, often violent in nature.124

123 Misra, The Administrative History of India 1834-1947, 615. 124 Prem Raman Uprety, ―Religion and Politics in the Punjab in the 1920s,‖ 134. 158

The system of separate electorates for Muslims was branded by Hindus as the chief cause of communal troubles. The Muslim opinion, on the other hand, considered its retention as desirable considering the prevailing political environment. Muslim Punjabi leaders ―such as Sir Abdul Qadir and Allama Muhammad Iqbal reiterated that in the existing political conditions, separate electorates provided the only means of making the central and provincial councils truly representative.‖125 However, Mian Fazl-i-Husain, Sir

Abdul Qadir and Shafi considered it as a ―temporary measure‖ and not an ideal form of representation.126

There is no doubt in the matter that ―Indians did not agree with one another on many aspects of representation and eventually divided into two great camps.‖127 It was the result of development of representative institutions in India on trajectories different from what British had anticipated. It drove Indian religious communities ―one seeing

India as a composite nation of individuals capable of sustaining democratic majority rule, and the other seeing India as a mixture of nationalities, communities, religions, and countries, meriting constitutionalism and representation, but not necessarily capable of sustaining a democracy based simple majority rule.‖128 However, in the post-partition period, newly created states of India and Pakistan benefitted a great deal creating the basis of constitutionalism.

125 Qalb-i-Abid and Massarrat Abid, Communalism in India: The Role of Hindu Mahasabha (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, 2008), 27. 126 Qalb-i-Abid and Abid, Communalism in India, 25. 127 Ilhan Niaz, The State During the British Raj: Imperial Governance in South Asia 1700-1947 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2019), 173. For an intensive analysis of development and growth of representative institutions in colonial India, see Chapter ―Representation and the Raj: The Origin and the Development of South Asian Colonial Democracy,‖ 137-173. 128 Niaz, The State During the British Raj, 173. 159

The municipal bodies established by the British and introduction of electoral system in these bodies provided with fresh practical knowledge about the usefulness of these organizations. These sabhas, anjumans, societies and organizations were very effective in enlisting support for individuals as well as communities. This is evidenced by the fact that the colonial period witnessed a mushroom growth of such organizations comparable to no other era.129 The challenges of modernity and avenues of practical politics made available in the form of institutions of local self government caused the establishment and invigoration of these anjumans and societies. Most of them ceased to exist after the withdrawal of British Empire.

2.7 Print Capitalism and the Dissemination of Communal Literature

Printing press changed the religious landscape and religious and political orientation of its followers to a great extent. The Protestant Reformation in the West which destroyed the idea of a single religious authority, and taught that each individual could make his judgment of religious truth through the study of scriptures was made feasible through three interrelated developments: ―the technology of printing, translations of scriptures into regional languages and rising rates of literacy.‖130 The print, that Muslims of South

Asia and elsewhere opted heartily, was the most important modernist tool which,

129 For minor details on anjumans and associations, see Aziz (ed.), Public Life in Muslim India, 1850-1947 (1992), and Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab Ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumane. Both these books provide short descriptions of a very large number of organizations founded on social, religious, political, caste, communal and professional lines. To understand causes of the origin of these anjumans, see Ikram Ali Malik, ―Muslim Anjumans and Communitarian Consciousness,‖ in Indu Banga (ed.), Five Punjabi Centuries: Polity, Economy, Society and Culture, c. 1500-1990 (New Delhi: Manohar, 2000), 112-125. 130 Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India, 6. For more details, see Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 148-186. 160 according to veteran historian Robinson, was the harbinger of a number of changes in the

Muslim world-view. He points out that,

The emergence of a protestant or scriptural Islam; the strenghthening of the Pan- Islamic layer in the Muslim sense of identity; consolidation of Ulema as the sole interpretation of Islam; the outflanking of the oral, person to person, systems for the transmission of knowledge; the colonizing of Muslim minds with Western knowledge; and the opening of the way towards new understandings of Islam such as those of the modernists and the fundamentalists.

An overdue emphasis on scriptural tradition and enhanced role of Ulema and a permeation of pan-Islamic identity among modern day Muslims have become so common facts of our national life that they have become ―integral constituents of our pristine collective self.‖131

Colonial rule happened to coincide with an era of modernization which unleashed socio-economic and political changes in its wake. For instance, the introduction of print culture and sporadic growth of press in the Punjab brought about a new era of socio- political activities. Newspapers were used as a channel for circulating opinions of both kinds: the orthodox as well as the modern. Socio-religious organizations also gave impetus to the unprecedented growth of journalism in India in general, and Punjab in particular.132 The urban market in cheap publications gave rise to communal

131 Tahir Kamran, ―What Colonialism does: the Need for a Nuanced Study of the Punjab,‖ The News on Sunday, June 12, 2016. See also, ―Names and the Islamic Identity,‖ in Tariq Rahman, Names: A Study of PersonalNames, Identity, and Power in Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2015), 34-53. 132 An English civilian wrote to a friend that ‗Punjab was being governed by two entities – the Lieutenant Governor and the Tribune.‘ The Tribune was a very influential newspaper established and run by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia (b. 1848-d. 1898) of Lahore. Urdu journalism in Punjab ranging from Peshawar to Delhi (Peshawar was part of Punjab till 1901 while Delhi was part of Punjab till 1911), in terms of number of newspapers and volume, had no parallel indeed. Urdu newspapers were 343 in number which accounted for 80.86% of the total newspapers in the Punjab seconded by English newspapers numbering 24 which made it 5.73% of the total. The difference is self-evident as there is yawning gap between the two. For 161 consciousness in which commitment to community through religious symbols transcended the bonds on the basis of structures of political patronage.133

In 1867, the Indian Legislative Council passed the Act for the Regulation of

Printing Presses and Newspapers (XXV of 1867) which required publishers, as part of official policy, to submit editorial information and copies of their papers to the

Government. The available sources reflect a high degree of communal orientation—

Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian missionary—in the nineteenth century Punjab, which reveals the extent of communal identification in terms of newspapers which favour particular organizations. There were fifteen newspapers which professed Islamic orientation. Nearly thirty papers were oriented to various Samaj organizations in addition to other papers supporting non-Samaj Hindu organizations (e.g., Sanatan Dharm). At least ten papers expressed Sikh views. The press in colonial Punjab was an important element in the struggle among rival communities as well as tension within one community. Newspapers worked as new conduits for developing apprehensions in a society which was in transition from tradition to modernity and from status quo to forces of rapid change.134

According to Jones, ―divided nature of Delhi‘s population would have implications for communal conflict‖ because of ―the spread of printing as it paralleled the

detailed discussion on the share of Urdu press in overall press in the Punjab and its role in sharpening religious identities, see N. Gerald Barrier and Paul Wallace, The Punjab Press 1880-1905 (Michigan: Asian Studies Centre, South Asia Series, Occasional Paper no. 14, 1970). Table 1(Appendix I). 133 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 79. 134 N. Gerald Barrier and Paul Wallace, The Punjab Press 1880-1905, South Asia Series, Occasional Paper no. 14 (Michigan: Asian Studies Centre, 1970), 2. 162 arrival of the British‖ in this part of India.135 The advent of printing and the British in

Delhi took place at the same time. By 1848, Indians owned and operated seventeen presses in the North-western Provinces, two in Benares, and the rest concentrated along the Western edge of the province with seven in Delhi and five in Agra. These presses

―printed a stream of pamphlets, books, journals and newspapers in Hindi and Sanskrit for

Hindus, and in Arabic and Persian for Muslims.‖136 Both communities wrote extensively in Urdu. A variety of subjects were discussed including: education, science, law, medicine, poetry, guide to social behaviour, yet the largest number of publications dealt with one or another aspect of religion. Many of them were reprints and translations of sacred texts. The presence of Christian missionaries and socio-religious movements accounted, in part, for this focus on religious subjects.

One obvious and very important pattern was the link between newspapers and such princely states as Kashmir, Patiala, Kapurthala, and Bahawalpur. These four states accounted for fifty one of the fifty-six papers related to princely states.137All of these states were located within or nearby the Punjab territory. This fact underlines the need to explore the role of princely states in Punjab‘s social and political development, and conversely, how factors in British-ruled Punjab influenced neighbouring princes and princely states.

Another interesting feature that emerges from the study of printing press in colonial Punjab is interlocking nature of many of the organizations and their newspapers.

135 Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India, 52. 136 Jones, Socio-religious Reform Movements in British India, 52. 137 Barrier and Wallace, The Punjab Press 1880-1905, 2. 163

Most often, communal organizations supported a variety of newspapers. The same personnel were involved in several printing concerns. A relatively small number of presses produced a large number of papers. Part of the explanation lies in the necessity to communicate in several languages: Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi (Gurmukhi script) and English.

The language of the press was overwhelmingly Urdu with approximately 82% of all newspapers.138 Only 4.5% newspapers were in Punjabi, 4% in Hindi and 5.7% in

English.139 There were other reasons that would more clearly explain notable degree of overlap. These include high rate of failure which led the same organizations and personnel to establish new newspapers, differing audiences which the newspapers hoped to reach, and to the perennial need to employ kinsmen. Some newspapers also served as training institutions for personnel for other newspapers such as Koh-i-Nur and Paisa

Akhbar. Social and political leaders also received valuable experience by working in these newspapers. The prominent personalities who received valuable political experience through working in press were Lala Lajpat Rai (b. 1865-d. 1928), Muharram

Ali Chishti, Sir Abdul Qadir (b.1872-d.1950), Diwan Buta Singh, Pandit Lekh Ram (b.

1858-d. 1897) and Lala Munshi Ram (b. 1856-d. 1926) (also known as Swami

Shraddhanand) among others.140

Barrier writes that ―sensationalism and yellow journalism‖ were dominant characters of the press in Punjab.141 The spurring media performed the age-old functions of bribery and blackmail. Consequently, the British Government imposed controls in

138 Barrier and Wallace, The Punjab Press 1880-1905, 2-3. 139 Barrier and Wallace, The Punjab Press 1880-1905, 2-3. 140 Barrier and Wallace, The Punjab Press 1880-1905, 3. 141 Barrier and Wallace, The Punjab Press 1880-1905, 3. 164 regard to intimidation and slander. The British Government also could manipulate and use the legal system for political purposes. Another prominent feature in British Indian press was British preoccupation with ‗disloyalty.‘ The apparent judgments on the

‗treasonable‘ nature of individual papers and organizations exhibit a degree of paranoia on the part of the Government. Within this context, however, it is surprising that the

British did not use the control measures at their disposal more extensively. Liberal British values, rooted in the thought of John Locke (b. 1632- d.1704) and John Stuart Mill

(b.1806- d.1873), clashed with the felt requirements of the colonial administration in

India.

Press in Punjab largely reflected the contemporary religious divisions. The vernacular press in Punjab did not express any vocal espousal of long-term alternatives of the Indian nationalist cause until the last decade before partition of British India.

However, the Muslim opinion on contemporary issues such as the Balkan crisis and the future of the Ottoman Khilafat was determined by a number of English and Urdu newspapers from outside the province in the second decade of the twentieth century.142

These included Comrade, Hamdard, edited and owned by Muhammad Ali Jauhar (b.

1878-d. 1931), and Al-Hilal edited by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (b. 1888-d. 1958). The leading English daily The Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore followed a calculated and relatively conservative editorial policy.143 It was subsequently joined by the Punjab

142 Iftikhar H. Malik, ―Identity Formation and Muslim Party Politics in the Punjab, 1897-1936: A Retrospective Analysis,‖ Modern South Asian Studies, vol. 29, no. 2 (May, 1995), 306. 143 The Civil and Military Gazette was a British owned newspaper founded in 1872. One of iconic figure Rudyard Kipling served as its assistant editor during 1882-7. See Gandhi, Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten, 255. Sahni wrote in his autobiography that two newspapers Punjab Patriot and Observer were started obviously to counter Congress activities. They were exponents of Muslim public opinion and ―received substantial official support through the purchase of a large number of copies for 165

Tribune, an influential newspaper with strong political persuasion. The Zamindar of

Lahore, edited by a fierce speaker and poet, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan (d. 1956), emerged as a leading Muslim paper in Urdu during the early years of second decade of the twentieth century, enjoying an unprecedented circulation, but it was closed down during the First World War. The Zamindar had to face frequent closures and confiscation of deposit money by the Government.

A system of voluntary censorship was adopted and implemented in Punjab that further violated the freedom of press. Nevertheless, the Haqq with its wider circulation and a number of other papers that continued to be published did put forward different opinions on provincial and all India issues.144 There were Urdu, Gurmukhi and English editions of the Haqq and in 1918 its circulation was about 77,000 and its price was one pice per copy.145 The Paisa Akhbar of Lahore, a popular contemporary paper commanded sufficient public acclaim and popularity. The Tribune, Ihsaan, Tehzib-i-Niswan, Inqilab and The Eastern Times were some other known papers of Punjab to have published subsequently, usually supporting particular Muslim perspectives on issues. Ihsaan supported the policies of Sir Fazl-i-Husain (b. 1877-d. 1936) and his political successor,

Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan (b. 1892-d. 1942), while Inqilab supported All India Muslim

League during the Pakistan Movement. Tehzib-i-Niswan was edited and published by

Imtiaz Ali Taj, the famous Urdu playwright, and devoted itself to women related issues.

The Eastern Times was brought out by Malik Barkat Ali (b. 1886-d. 1946), the veteran

Government institutions.‖ Neera Burra, A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab: Ruchi Ram Sahni, 1863-1948 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017), 204-7. 144 Malik, ―Identity Formation and Muslim Party Politics in the Punjab, 1897-1936,‖ 307. 145 Malik, ―Identity Formation and Muslim Party Politics in the Punjab, 1897-1936, 307. 166

Muslim Leaguer and was looked after by his son, Malik Maratab Ali. By the late 1940s,

Dawn had achieved the status of the official and authentic mouthpiece of the All India

Muslim League, besides other Urdu papers like Nawa-i-Waqt which supported the ideology of the Pakistan movement.146 The role and influence of press, however, remained largely focused on urban areas and the rural areas—with dismal level of literacy rate, isolated existence and control, as collaborators of the Raj, of the feudal aristocracy—remained by and large unaffected by the message of the press.

Over half of Punjab‘s papers and periodicals were published in Amritsar and

Lahore near the end of colonial period. However, the structure of British rule in Punjab relegated the cities to a secondary position in both, Punjab‘s politics as well as politics of

Muslim community.147 This secondary role of the cities was confirmed after the Reforms of 1919 when the British separated rural from urban council constituencies and granted twenty seven out of thirty two Muslim territorial seats to the rural areas in Punjab.148 In a political system devoid of Islamic ritual expression of poltical power, the cities provided a central arena of public and political expression of Islamic identity independent of colonial administration. The urban market in cheap printing and publications gave rise to communal consciousness in which commitment to symbols of religious community became overriding concern.

The Muslim League in its annual session of 1910 expressed the need for more newspapers in these words:

146 For detailed discussion, see Azra Waqar, Tehrik-i-Pakistan aur Nawa-i-Waqt (Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 2004). 147 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 79-80. 148 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 80. 167

The want of well-conducted daily papers in English and Urdu exclusively devoted to Muslim interests has been felt for a long time by the thinking members of our community. It is true that one or two Urdu dailies do exist, and in their way they are doing a lot of service to the community, but as they are private concerns and conducted for the most part on business principles, they cannot well be expected to serve the purpose of national organs.149

The Muslim league expressed its concerns regarding the weak position of Muslims in the field of English language press also:

Turning to our English papers we have to note with regret that we do not possess a single daily in that language. The advantages of having efficient and well conducted papers under our control are self-evident and it is absolutely necessary that we should have an Urdu daily to help in the regeneration of our community and creating in it a spirit of solidarity and self-sacrifice and at the same time an English daily to represent our cause to Government and before the bar of English public opinion. I, therefore, appeal to men of light and leading in our community to take active and immediate steps to bring them into existence, otherwise our organisation will fail to make its voice heard in the councils of the Empire.150

Since the official language was English and the structures of patronage were in the hands of the Raj, the communal competition in number of English newspapers can be understood in the context of increasing communal consciousness in the urban centres.

Increasing access to English language became an arena of competition and conflict in communal terms. By 1923, the tone of the press in Punjab reflected three themes: worsening Hindu-Muslim relations, dispute over communal representation and the issue of cow slaughter.151 During the days of Pakistan movement, Dawn played very influential role as mouthpiece of All India Muslim League and Jinnah. Roger D. Long writes that,

149 Muhamed Aziz Mirza, Report of the All-India Muslim League for 1910 (Lucknow, December 16, 1910), 25. Mirza served as Honourary Secretary of All India Muslim League. 150 Mirza, Report of the All-India Muslim League for 1910, 25. 151 Prem Raman Uprety, ―Religion and Politics in the Punjab in the 1920s,‖ (Ph. D. Diss. University of Missouri, 1975), 155. 168

Dawn, begun as a weekly newspaper in 1941 and transformed into a daily in 1942, was the main avenue through which Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), the Quaid-i-Azam and the All-India Muslim League, advocated the creation of Pakistan when the partition of India became the party‘s demand after the Lahore Resolution of March 23, 1940. The newspaper became such a symbol of identification with the League that carrying it was a statement in itself and it was used, especially by students and young people, to announce to others that they supported the demand for Pakistan. Its news pages, its editorials and its invited articles were used to publicise, to advocate and to defend the demand for Pakistan from criticism from the British, the Indian National Congress and other Muslims. It was also used to establish the figure of Jinnah as the charismatic leader of the Muslims of South Asia.152

The Dawn newspaper actually served as exceptionally useful vehicle to spread the message of All India Muslim League to publicise the campaign and political activities of its leadership. It tried to reflect accurately, by any measure, League‘s response to events and statements by Indian National Congress and the British. However, as far as the situation after 1947 was concerned, Khan and Aziz wrote that ―in 1947, just like the immigrants moving both ways, ‗immigrant newspapers‘ had travails of their own to overcome before they could settle down in their dreamlands.‖153 They graphically continued to portray the situation that, ―Indeed, like, people, many could not survive the transition for one reason or the other. Only a precious few could make it big. Daily Jang and Anjam arrived in Karachi. Civil and Military Gazette could not survive in its own geographical domain [Punjab]. Partaab, Milaap and Vir Bharat left for India.‖154

The advent of print and its permeation in society provided opportunities for popularizing one‘s views to a wider audience. This development made a great difference from the previous times when a writer could hardly reach out to a few and not millions of

152 Roger D. Long, ―Dawn Delhi I: Genesis of a Newspaper,‖ Daily Dawn, August 26, 2017. 153 Tauseef Ahmad Khan and Irfan Aziz, ―The Patchy World of Urdu Newspapers,‖ Daily Dawn, October 16, 2017. 154 Khan and Aziz, ―The Patchy World of Urdu Newspapers,‖ Daily Dawn, October 16, 2017. 169 people. Francis Robinson explains the genesis and growth of the printing press in colonial

North India, and especially the North-West Province and the Punjab, in these words:

Where Muslims were under some form of colonial rule, and the threat of the West was more evident, the response was much more rapid and much more urgent. Within two decades of the beginning of the century, the Muslims of Tsarist Russia had seventeen presses in operation. By the 1820s, Muslim reformist leaders in the Indian subcontinent were busily printing tracts. By the 1830s first Muslim newspapers were being printed. By the 1870s, editions of the Quran, and other religious books, were selling in tens of thousands. In the last thirty years of the century, over seven hundred newspapers and magazines in Urdu were started. All who observed the world of printing noted how Muslims understood the power of the press. In Upper India (mainly North-West Provinces and Punjab), at the beginning of the twentieth century, four to five thousand books were being published in Urdu every decade and there was a newspaper circulation of tens of thousands.155

According to Robinson, the impact of print in South Asia has been ―longest and most deeply felt,‖ as compared to other parts of the Muslim world.156 This kind of massive use of printing press for propagation of religious teachings and ideas, and polemical tracts along with newspapers and magazines—many of them associated with communal organizations—made encampment of religious communities possible. Since, the massive share of print activity was being performed in Urdu language in Punjab, the sphere of influence of Urdu also expanded enormously.

155 Francis Robinson, ―Islam and the Impact of Print in South Asia,‖ in Francis Robinson (ed.), Islam and Muslim History in South Asia (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), 67. As to the advent of modernity in South Asia, Muhammad Aslam Syed holds different opinion. He argues that it was a common error to consider the modernist movements in Islam as primarily the result of Muslim interaction with the West. He further propounds that such a judgment was the result of two factors: First, the acceptance of notion that modernism itself is largely a product of European influences; and second that since Islamic modernism crystallized during nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries when most of the Muslim world, directly or indirectly, was under the political control of the West. For a detailed discussion, see Muhammad Aslam Syed, ―Islamic Modernism,‖ in Waheed-uz-Zaman and M. Saleem Akhtar (eds.), Islam in South Asia (Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 1993), 338-374. 156 Robinson, ―Islam and the Impact of Print in South Asia,‖ 68. 170

2.8 Urdu as an Identity Marker for the Muslims and Hindi for the Hindus

Urdu gradually displaced the Persian language in the middle of the nineteenth century when it became increasingly associated with the Muslim elite as their language, making it a marker of identity, and a symbol of sophistication and refinement. No one knew, however, that this language was destined to become national language of a separate state of Muslims carved out of British India. Urdu Defense Association was established in 1900, and from then onwards Urdu emerged as a ―major symbol of Muslim political identity in South Asia.‖157 The establishment of this organization owed its origin to the supporters of Hindi, who secured recognition of Hindi alongside Urdu as an official language of the United Provinces (UP). UP was a province inhabited by the old

Muslim ruling elite and Urdu was adopted as an official language of this province in

1854. However, the Hindi language activists initiated a sheer campaign which increasingly geared up to reverse the Government decision. The total number of memorials submitted to the Commission on National Education of 1882, in favour of

Hindi as the medium of instruction, was 118 signed by 67,000 persons.158

The Urdu-Hindi controversy was intensified, especially with the anti-Urdu stance of the Lieutenant Governor of the North-western Provinces, Sir A. P. Macdonnell (r.

1895-1901). During this controversy, ―both Urdu and Hindi became intensified as the language of essentialized ‗Muslim‘ and ‗Hindu‘ religious communities,‖ and in this sense, ―language advocacy intersected with the growing impact of socio-religious reform

157 Ian Talbot, Pakistan: A New History (New Delhi: Amaryllis, 2013), 37. 158 Talbot, Pakistan: A New History, 37. 171 in north India.‖159 Urdu was mother tongue for UP Muslim elite as well as a popular spoken language, irrespective of communal differences. However, with the emergence of controversy, language was fought over by communities, and both the Sansikritized Hindi and Perso-Arabicized Urdu were drawn separate as puritanical communal identity markers, thus, making Urdu ―a key component of the Muslim separatist platform in colonial India.‖160

This colonial period (from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of twentieth century) witnessed an unprecedented process of Hindi-Urdu controversy carrying competing and contrasting identities constructed on communal basis, makes the social scientists realize how potent the symbolic value of language was in the creation of the politicized modern Muslim and Hindu identities.161

The use of language for the creation of identity—specifically Hindu and Muslim identities in the nineteenth century—is intimately related to politics. This phenomenon, called the Urdu-Hindi controversy, occurred in British India in the nineteenth century and contributed to the partition of British India into Bharat and Pakistan.162

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Urdu became a leading symbol of Muslim identity in India, though its name was originally Hindi or Hindawi from the thirteenth till the end of the eighteenth century, and it was a popular language of entire North India. However, the Hindi language of the aforementioned period was, in fact, the ancestor of modern Urdu and Hindi. It was firstly due to inherent change in a language with the passage of time. Secondly, the language mostly called Hindi for about

159 Talbot, Pakistan: A New History, 38. 160 Talbot, Pakistan: A New History, 38. 161 Rahman, From Hindi to Urdu, 12. 162 Tariq Rahman, Language and Politics in Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1996), 59. 172 five hundred years was a previous form of later Hindi and Urdu languages.163 Moreover, the change was due to the fact that ―modern Urdu was created not only by natural change but also human agency as, indeed, was modern Hindi.‖164 The role of Urdu in the construction of identity, especially Muslim identity and its political repercussions merit explorations because the origin and development of Urdu as a language of composite culture of North India evoke different conception of identity from its alternative of Urdu being a language of Muslim preserve. The role of language as religious identity marker, as exemplified in the constructionist paradigm, is evaluated by Tariq Rahman in these words:

The identity of the language, in turn, feeds into notions about the identity of its users. They may be seen as being ‗Muslim‘, ‗Pakistan nationalist‘ or ‗urban‘ at different periods of history. Whether the amorous and erotic associations of Urdu are suppressed or not depends upon which identity perception of its users is favoured. Similarly, the use of Urdu in social domains… [education, courts, administration, entertainment, media and religion] is closely related to the formation of Hindu and Muslim communal identities and their struggle for supremacy during the British period.165

The use of a particular language gives a notion of identity to its users who are perceived as being modern or Muslim nationalist or cosmopolitan etc.

The boundary markings that we are now familiar within South Asia were not applied till the end of the nineteenth century. The Hindu and Muslim identities were constructed as a consequence to modernity brought about by colonial rule in India. Had the British not intervened in South Asia, this turn might not have been taken into the lives

163 Rahman, From Hindi to Urdu, 1. For more details, see Veena Naregal, Language Politics, Elites and the Public Sphere: Western India under Colonialism (London: Anthem Press, 2002). 164 Rahman, From Hindi to Urdu, 1. 165 Rahman, From Hindi to Urdu, 7. 173 of inhabitants of India. In fact, the idea that numbers are politically significant, and are important for various reasons—including but not limited to, quotas in jobs, admissions in educational institutions and Government patronage—is of colonial product because of the introduction of the concepts of ―representation of the people, equality before a secular legal system and the creation of an ubiquitous public service all over India.‖166 This game of numbers was instrumental in constructing notions of monolithic religious communities of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs suppressing their internal sectarian, class, linguistic or ethnic divisions. Thus, the Muslim monolithic identity was held together by Islam and

Urdu. The mirror image of this Muslim identity was the Hindu ‗Other,‘ espoused by the

‗Hindutva‘ ideology and Hindi language.

Urdu and Hindi became languages of teaching and vocational training during

British Raj in India. The teaching of Urdu and Hindi facilitated the mobilization of essentialized and antagonistic Hindu and Muslim communal identities in colonial North

India, especially UP and Punjab. The education reports of Bengal of 1830s though dealt with Bengal yet briefly mentioned Agra and other districts. A local committee at Agra, for instance, reported that a Munshi should be hired for ―teaching the Musalman‘s colloquial dialect, entirely excluding Persian.‖167 The report mentioned both ‗Urdu‘ and

‗Hindi‘ and associated the first with the Muslims and the second with the Hindus.168

When Urdu and Hindi were first introduced by the British in government schools, both of these languages were not considered worthy of learned formally in schools despite a

166 Rahman, From Hindi to Urdu, 11. 167 Report of the General Committee of Public Instruction of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal for the Year 1836 (Calcutta: The Baptist Mission Press, 1837), 13. 168 Report of the General Committee of Public Instruction of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal for the Year 1836, 15. 174 considerable body of literature in them.169 Precisely, both UP and Punjab were flooded with Urdu books through the education system and the British spread Urdu in these areas through a number of institutions among which the domain of education played an important role. The increasing use of Urdu and Hindi in government schools and education system spread the communalization of these languages on the basis of religious identities.

Besides investing political and economic significance in the religious categories of Hindus and Muslims, the process of modernization made speedier and wider dissemination of language possible through the use of printing press. The printing press, the schooling system, the text books, the political speeches and pamphlets, and later radio, television and the cinema all disseminated standardized versions of languages— mostly Hindi and Urdu in North India and the areas now comprising Pakistan—which created communities (the Muslims and the Hindus) much as ‗print capitalism‘ created nationalistic identities in modern Europe in a process described by Benedict Anderson.

Thus, numerous factors contributed in the rise of communalism in colonial India, particularly in Punjab, during the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Most significant of these include contestations and disputations over religious issues started with the advent of Christian missionaries, the Orientalists‘ conceptions and interpretations of Indian past and role of religion in Indian society, the continuous practice of decennial census enumerations, introduction of representative

169 Tariq Rahman, ―Urdu as the Language of Education in British India,‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. vol. XXXII, no. 2 (2011), 2. 175 electoral institutions and its communalization, print capitalism and wide dissemination of polemics as well as newspapers and other printed materials, and communalization of

Urdu and Hindi languages. The communal organizations, associations and anjumans, mostly established with communal aims and objectives, were using all these factors to promote identity consciousness in the public arenas.

176

Chapter 3

Muslim Communal Organizations and Muslim Identity: The Case of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore

―Each age and society re-creates its ‗Others.‘ Far from a static thing then, identity of self or of ‗other‘ is a much worked-over historical, social, intellectual, and political process that takes place as a contest involving individuals and institutions in all societies.‖ (Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 332)

The socio-political and historical context of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Punjab where inter-religious discourses and arguments, mostly among the

Muslims, Christians and Hindu Arya Samajis, were being negotiated and contested, binaries of authentic versus inauthentic sacred texts were highlighted, and the vulgarity versus morality of their religious contents were brought into argumentative contestations.

The present chapter explores the activities of Muslim communal organizations regarding their contribution to the formation of Muslim identity in colonial Punajb. It focuses on the aims and objectives, leadership and strategies, organizational behaviour and activities of some significant Muslim communal organizations with particular emphasis on

Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore.

The British established control in Punjab, rural areas as well as cities, through tribal leaders and intermediaries. In the urban centres they were called as rais (tr. patron or boss). Just like the heterogeneous population of the province, rais hailed from all three major religious communities of Punjab. All of them owed their position because of owning urban properties, and controlling biradari clout in urban factions. For the British

177 administration, their ability as intermediaries was most significant and, after Great War of

Independence 1857-58, the landlords and rais were increasingly incorporated in municipal committees as prominent figures in British urban administration. However, the rapid urbanization complicated the problems of control for the British because of accentuating the diversity of interests in Punjab‘s cities. Growth was remarkable in those cities which emerged as centres of administration, education and commerce most notably

Lahore—the capital, where population almost trippled between the annexation of Punjab and the end of 1920s. Moreover, while the market towns of Sargodha and Lyallpur emerged as centres of canal colonies and Rawalpindi as major cantonment, Amritsar and

Multan grew as commercial and small scale manufacturing hubs.

Population growth in the cities led to new urban institutions that significantly changed the nature and extent of politics and political control in urban landscapes of

Punjab. Migration was the defining characteristic of the growth of Lahore‘s population as the city had risen from the tenth largest city of India in 1891 to the fifth some thirty years later.1 With the growth of administration, Lahore attracted a large number of middle class people trained to serve in bureaucracy and law and service in lower imperial administration. As this class grew in number and significance in the late nineteenth century, its leaders took up roles within the urban structures just like urban rais. They started serving as intermediaries, in municipal committees and administration, communicated in the language and cultural idiom of the British and established interest-

1 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 21. See also, Pran Nevile, Lahore: A Sentimental Journey (Lahore: ILQA Publications, 2016, first pub. 1993). 178 oriented anjumans and associations to assert political influence on the basis of their claim to mastery of new structures of organization.2

Most significant of everything else, ―such organizations began to assert distinctive religious identities.‖3 Since the British state affirmed no religious rationale for itself, the voluntary anjumans, samajs, associations and organizations provided means for educated middle class of Lahore to reformulate their religious identity and organization. The

Hindus were forerunner in this regards because they were advanced in education and share in administrative jobs. These organizations provided avenues and means for the public expression of religious identities. In an attempt to counter Christian missionaries and initiate reform within Hinduism, Arya Samaj (est. in Bombay 1875 and in Punjab

1877) established its network in Punjab.

The Muslims of Punjab responded vigorously towards the re-conversion campaign of the Arya Samaj by establishing various anjumans as platforms to counter the conversion4 activities of Christian missionaries and re-conversion5 campaign of Hindu

2 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 76. 3 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 76-77. 4 The Christian missionaries, after their entry was allowed by the British Government, established a vast network of social service institutions of health and education throughout Punjab. In addition, they started preaching activities to convert the Hindus and Muslims to Christianity. In line with their self-proclaimed responsibility in the shape of White Man‘s Burden, they embraced it as their religious duty to convert non- Christians to save them from allegedly irrational other religions. For details, see Atola Longkumer, Religious Conversion: Rethinking Religious Encounters in Modern India (Oxford: Crowther Center for Mission Education, 2010), 4-6. 5 Re-conversion in the form of Shuddhi (lit. purification) campaign was launched by Arya Samaj and its founder Swami Dayanand Saraswati (b. 1824-d. 1883). The Arya Samaj, following the footsteps of the Christian missionaries, launched an aggressive campaign to re-convert the Muslims to Hinduism. The Samaj claimed that since the majority of the Indian Muslims are those who embraced Islam at some point in time, they needed to be brought back to their original religion i.e. Hinduism. 179 communal organizations which were carrying out their activities through Shuddhi6 and

Sangathan.7 It was a formidable challenge because the Muslims had to educate and modernize their own community to face newly introduced challenges of modernization by the restructured colonial polity in Punjab. Moreover, the Muslims felt the need to reform their own religion, although it took almost the same trajectories of reform as other religions like Hinduism and Sikhism were doing in India to counter Christianity. A large number of voluntary organizations, patronized by Muslim nobility and professionals, were established for the task of supporting modern and religious education for the

Muslims and establishing schools and colleges for this purpose. The Muslims also became actively involved in religious disputations with missionaries to resist encroachment attempts on their co-religionists and stop re-conversion claims of the Arya

Samaj.

3.1 Challenges of Christian Missionaries and Conversion in Punjab

The Punjabis saw colonial masters and Christian missionaries entering and expanding into the Punjab simultaneously. The missionary activity by American Presbyterians had started in Ludhiana since 1834 and proselytizing activities were being carried out jointly, later, by Church Mission Society, and Methodist Episcopal Church and others. Within a few decades of the annexation of Punjab, these missionaries had established a strong

6 Shuddhi was launched by Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, but it was popularized in Punjab by Swami Shraddhanand (b. 1856-d. 1926). 7 Shraddhanad started another movement called as Sangathan (lit. consolidation) of Hinduism. In 1923, Shradhanand established ‗Bhartiya Hindu Shuddhi Mahasabha‘ aimed at reconversion forefully. It eventually created a clash between the Hindus and Muslims because the Muslims were recipients of this violence. For example, the Malkana Rajputs in the Western United Provinces (UP) were one of the targeted communities. 180 network in emerging canal colonies and cities of the Punjab including, but not limited to,

Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Gurdaspur, Jhelum, Lyallpur and most significantly

Lahore. The American Presbyterian Mission established its first printing press in 1936 in

Ludhiana and then on started publishing religious tracts and Christians scriptures translated into vernacular languages and disseminated it throughout Punjab. Between

1861 and 1871, Ludhiana Press alone had published 31 editions of Christian scriptures in

Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi numbering 188,000 copies in total in addition to 286 tracts and books.8 This makes a total number of publications of 1,346,675 copies which was a large number, indeed.9

The other domain in which missionaries were leading was establishing educational institutions and hospitals as part of welfare activities. The earliest missionary educational institution was established for boys in 1843 in Kotgarh near Simla by the Church

Missionary Society. The American Presbyterians followed suit by establishing their first

English medium school at Jalandhar in 1848 and in Lahore the next year. Forman

Christian College (FCC), Lahore (formerly Lahore Mission College) and Murray College

Sialkot emerged as the most important centres of Western education during the late nineteenth century in Punjab being managed by the Christian missionaries.10

The establishing of educational institutions and hospitals along with the printing of tracts and religious texts in vernaculars made outreach of missionaries possible to those

8 Cox, Imperial Fault Lines, 56. 9 Cox, Imperial Fault Lines, 56. Overall in Punjab the number of printing presses increased by 70% between 1864 and 1883 with a fivefold cumulative increase in the number of books published between 1875 and 1880. See, Ian Talbot, India and Pakistan: Inventing the Nation (London: Arnold, 2000), 60. 10 Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past, 112. 181 segments of Indian society who were easy prey for conversion due to their low caste status and long held economic deprivations. The missionaries were surprised by the results of their conversion campaigns: nearly forty-fold increase in Christian population of Punjab was evidenced as their total number increased from 19,750 in 1891 to 163,994 in 1911.11

The conversion of even outcaste ‗members‘ of a religious community was significant as far as its impact was concerned because it diminished the numbers of that community in the census reports. On the other hand, it was symptomatic of lack of egalitarianism in that community and absence of organizational apparatuses to prevent the conversion from taking place. Successful attempts of conversion directed at influential persons of a community evoked acrimonious responses. The gaining party would display the conversion rites in a publicly displayed event and the looser community would feel embarrassed for the lack of capacity to rationally satisfy their own co-religionists in matters of religion and society.12

The popular events of en masse conversion of Sikh students of Amritsar Mission

School in 1873 and Baptism of Maulvi Hafiz Nabi Bakhsh of Muslim High School

Amritsar proved even more significant than the decennial publication of census reports which had elicited evocative response by various religious communities showing decline in their number. Such events produced immense sensation in newspapers and local

11 Kenneth W. Jones, Arya Dharm: The Hindu Consciousness in Nineteenth Century Punjab (New Delhi: Manohar, 1976), 10. See also, Veer, Religious Nationalism. 12 For detailed analysis of religious disputations and Munazara culture, see Powell, Muslims & Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India, 6-42. 182 press.13 This also added to the intensity of polemical debates and disputations already taking place throughout Punjab among the clerics of different faiths. The high-profile converts such as Maharaja Duleep Singh, son of Ranjit Singh, were displayed as achievements of Christian missionaries and Christianity as an alternative to other faiths in

Punjab. More importantly, it was portrayed as ―a form of ‗higher‘ religion more suitable to the concerns of a humane and informed believer.‖14 The rapid and strongest reaction to activities of missionaries came from the Hindus who felt particularly endangered. Their response also stimulated urban Muslims into a defence of Islam against both Christian missionaries and reinvigorated Hindus.

3.2 Muslim Response to Christian Missionaries and Arya Samaj

In the colonial context in India, the British had posed ―an enormous challenge: politically, economically, indeed also to the validity of received epistemologies; but there was more to it. It offered ideas for envisioning futures in keys very different from the past.‖15 The process of construction of identities was part of the process of competition and conflict arising out of the modernization of political and economic aspects of colonial polity. The Muslims of Punjab were mostly living in rural areas and majority of them was associated with the class of peasantry and rural landed elite. The towns of Punjab were dominated by Hindus and Sikhs. Being traders and merchants, the Hindus had their significant presence in numbers and position. This position was reflected in the elections of municipal boards of towns where Hindus controlled primacy throughout Punjab.

13 Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past, 115. 14 Qasmi, Questioning the Authority of the Past, 115. 15 Satish Saberwal, Spirals of Contention: Why India was Partitioned in 1947 (New Delhi: Routledge, 2008), 130. See also, Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India. 183

Along with systemic challenges, Muslims were facing religious challenges from the

Christian Missionaries. Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj were bent upon re-converting the

Muslims into Hinduism because they thought local convert Muslims as not properly

Muslims and thus liable to be brought back to their original faith. Such challenges necessitated the formation of socio-religious and communal organizations which played an important role in sharpening Muslim identity.

The Muslim response to religious controversies in Punjab was different from

Hindus and Sikhs because Muslims did not have to establish their scriptural or textual identity as Hindus and Sikhs had to do. However, it does not mean that Muslims comprised a monolithic community and did not have differences among themselves.

Moreover, the Muslims had to cope with the challenge on two sides: on the one hand, they had to respond to onslaught by Christian missionaries, while on the other hand, they had to counter the re-conversion activities of the Arya Samaj.16 Arya Samaj had become very active in Punjab and it gained much popularity among the Hindus. Arya Samajis contended that since the majority of Indian Muslims were converts from Hinduism so they need to be re-converted to their original religion, i.e. Hinduism.

The Shuddhi campaign of Arya Samaj evoked various responses from the Muslim community. The modernists and traditionalists responded in their own ways and in

16 Punjab provided a unique strength to Arya Samaj, which was established by Dayananda Saraswati in Bombay on April 7, 1875. However, the organization remained a low-profile affair. It became much more than a regional movement after being established, in Lahore, on June 24, 1877. Pandit Lekh Ram (b. 1858- d. 1897) and Swami Shraddhanand were the important Arya Samaj figures in Punjab. Due to Shuddhi and Sangathan, relations between the Hindus and Muslims were strained and volatile. It reached to the lowest ebb in 1920s when a book Rangila Rasul was written by Pandat Chammupatti and published by Rajpal. For details, see Akhtar Rasool Bodla, ―Genesis of Blasphemy Law in Colonial India,‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVIII, no. 2 (2017), 139-53. 184 accordance with their peculiar perception of religion. These responses were modernism by Aligarh, reformism by Deoband, traditionalism by Barelvi and Islamism by Jamat-i-

Islami.17 An organization named Tabligh was established by Maulana Ilyas among the

Meos of Mewat in 1920s to counter the Shuddhi campaign by Arya Samaj as well as the conversion activities of Christian missionaries, in addition to its objective to purge

Muslim society of what it considered to be bid‟a (innovation from the path of

Muhammad PBUH) and ‗un-Islamic‘ beliefs and practices.18

3.3 Response of Muslim Communal Organizations to Challenges in Punjab

The Muslims established various political parties, societies, anjumans, associations and other bodies of religious, political, commercial and caste orientations in Punjab during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.19 Thus it would be erroneous to perceive that by the opening of the twentieth century, Punjabis were only divided in religious categories of ―Muslim‖, ―Hindu‖ and ―Sikh.‖ There were many other sources of identities including kinship, faction and territoriality, especially in rural areas, where majority of the people lived. Therefore, identities were not only multiple but also shifting according to the context.20 The communal challenges faced by Muslims in Punjab stemmed from dominance of the Hindus in commercial, economic and local Government spheres. The introduction of representative principle in local Government domains politicized the communities at grass-root levels but on religious and communal lines. Punjab‘s towns

17 Ian Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History (London: Hurst and Company, 1998), 28. 18 Yoginder Sikand, The Origins and Development of Tablighi Jamaat, 1920-2000: A Cross-country Comparative Study (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2002), 16. 19 Aziz, Public Life in Muslim India, 1850-1947. 20 Talbot, ―State, Society and Identity: The British Punjab, 1875-1937,‖ 23. 185 were not only administrative, commercial and educational centres but also provided markets for the press and publications industry. The number of newspapers and periodicals published between 1891 and 1941 rose from 74 to 579 and Arya Samaj alone published 30 papers.21

3.3.1 Tabligh: Muslim Response to Shuddhi

Proselytization was being vigorously pursued by the Arya Samaj through their newly devised Shuddhi and Sangathan. The most significant of various Arya Samaj activities was its Shuddhi campaign which was aimed at re-converting Muslim communities living with a large measure of their pre-Islamic beliefs and practices. The campaign reached its zenith in the wake of Non-cooperation and Khilafat movements.22

The success of the Shuddhi campaign of Arya Samaj among various communities of India and further threats of Hindu leaders for carrying out mass conversions among all the ‗neo-Muslim‘ communities (who accounted for the vast majority of Indian Muslims) elicited a shock in the Muslim leaders.23 Saiyyid Ghulam Bhik Nairang (b. 1876-d.

1952), a noted Muslim activist from Punjab, echoed what must have been the fear shared by most Muslim leaders at the time, that the Shuddhi campaign among the Malkana

Muslims was ―just the lull before the storm, a mere prelude to the much more sinister

21 Talbot, ―State, Society and Identity: The British Punjab, 1875-1937,‖15. 22 Satish Saberwal, ―Introduction,‖ in Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan (eds.), Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe (New Delhi: Manohar, 2006), 19. 23 ―Neo-Muslim‖ was a term used for those Indian Muslims who had been indigenous Indians, not migrated from abroad, and had been converted to Islam few decades or centuries ago. Arya Samaj considered these Muslims as originally part of Indian civilization but having been converted were considered as ‗impure‘. The neo-Muslims were targeted for reconversion to their original religion Hinduism through Shuddhi. 186 things that were yet to happen.‖24 The government was also concerned and shocked by it.25 Tablighi Jamaat26 considered it important to take effective and bold steps at once if the flood of apostates was to be stopped.27

Before a befitting response to the Arya challenge could be made, Muslim leaders had to consider why it was that such large number of Muslims had begun deserting Islam for what, to these leaders, was an unadulterated falsehood. Some discerned an ‗upper‘ caste Hindu plot in this, an effort to enslave the Muslims permanently by turning them into Shudras (at the bottom rung of the Hindu social hierarchy). Others alleged a British hand in the affair perceiving a crafty means to drive a wedge between the Muslims and the Hindus who had been united just a few years ago as a strong bloc during the Khilafat movement to oppose the colonial regime.28 Despite their deep thinking and varying diagnoses, however, all Muslim leaders were agreed that the only effective means by which the many ‗neo-Muslim‘ groups, who were most susceptible to the Arya campaign, could be prevented from deserting the Muslim fold was to spread knowledge and awareness of Islamic beliefs and practices among them at unprecedented level proportionate to the level of challenge it posed. A community-wide pedagogical drive was to be directed both at fighting against the ―Hinduistic‖ practices and beliefs among

24 Ghulam Bhik Nairang, Ghubar-i-Ufaq (Delhi: Almas Press, 1925), 3. 25 Extract from the fortnightly memorandum (no. 94) of the internal situation in Ajmer-Merwara for the period ending 15th June, 1923. OIOC, (R/1/1/1430) File No. 15 11-P, Serial No. 1/3. Foreign and Political Department, 1923, 29. 26 Tabligh was established as a response to the Shuddhi and Sangathan movements launched by the Hindus in many areas of India including especially Ludhiana and Mewat. It was reinstitutionalized as Tablighi Jamat by Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandahalvi (b. 1885-d. 1944) in 1927 by experimenting on Meos. His special target was what were considered as ‗half Muslims‘ or ‗border line Muslims.‘ For details, see Shail Mayaram, ―Hindu and Islamic Transnational Religious Movements,‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 39, no. 1(2004), 80-88. 27 Sikand, The Origins and Development of Tablighi Jamaat, 1920-2000, 104. 28 Abdul Bari, Fitna-i-Irtidad Aur Musalmano ka Farz (Lucknow: Farangi Mahal, 1341 A.H.), 39. 187 the ―neo-Muslims‖ as well as bringing them closer to the Islamic scripturalist tradition that had remained a virtual monopoly of the ashraf.29

The Muslim response to the Shuddhi campaign took the form of Tabligh (literally meaning preaching/propagation) that was said to be the most fundamental religious duty binding on all Muslims. Once considered to be the duty of just the ―ulema or the Sufis alone, tabligh was now claimed to be binding on all believers, male or female, no matter his or her station in life.‖30 Tabligh was to be directed both at ‗neo-Muslims‘ and other nominal believers as well as non-Muslims. The leadership of Tabligh movement, such as

Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi (b. 1863-d. 1943), Saiyyid Abul-Ala Maududi (b. 1878-d.

1926) of Jamat-i-Islami and Maulana Abdul Bari (b. 1878-d. 1926) of Farangi Mahal believed that the cultural practices of Indian Muslims were accretions in the pure form of

Islam. Hence, Indian Muslims were not as pure Muslims as they should have been.

Therefore, they should be purified by preaching them about the puritanical practices of

Islam. Tabligh was established to perform this important duty. Moreover, it was to be a social reform movement only and never to be indulged in politics. They believed that when society would be purified, the political problems, as a result, would be solved too.31

Maulana Abdul Bari, the rector of Lucknow‘s Faranghi Mahal madrassa (religious seminary) declared at a mass rally:

29 Ashraf (high born) and Ajlaf (low born) terminologies were used to differentiate between the Muslims of foreign origin and of the local origin converts. The Ashraf held the higher positions in the social ladder and enjoyed high official positions under the Muslim rule, while the indigenous or converts from Buddhism, Jainism or Hinduism were at the lower rungs. For detailed study, see Imtiaz Ahmad, ―The Ashraf-Ajlaf Dichotomy in Muslim Social Structure in India,‖ Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. III (1966), 268-78. 30 Sikand, The Origins and Development of Tablighi Jamaat, 1920-2000, 104. 31 Ali, Tarikh aur Mazhabi Tehreekein, 13. 188

Our desire is not just that the apostates should once again become Muslim. Rather, we invite all Hindus to accept Islam. But not that alone. In fact, we extend the invitation (daw‟at) of Islam to all the non-Muslims of the world, and we, for our part, do not wish at all to listen to the preaching or invitation of other religions.32

Although Muslim leaders were unanimous in their assertion that a community- wide Tabligh campaign involving all Muslims could alone effectively meet the Shuddhi challenge, they differed among themselves as to the form and methods that this campaign should take. A clear distinction can be noted in the approaches adopted by madrassa leaders and ulema, on the one hand, and certain sufis on the other. While the former insisted on spreading awareness of the shariat (Islamic law) and its related practices among the ‗neo-Muslims‘, the latter, while not denying its importance, were willing to make use of local beliefs and practices which many ulema looked upon as ‗un-Islamic‘ or even ‗Hinduistic‘, in order to more effectively reach their target groups. Few examples of the responses towards reconversion attempts were Khwaja Hasan Nizami (b. 1879-d.

1955)33 and the Dai-i-Islam, Siddiq Hussain (b. 1886) and the Deendar Anjuman, and

Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Hind (1923) which focused on similar issues but with different approaches. Hasan Nizami—sajjada nashin or custodian of Nizamuddin Dargah of

Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, a leading Sufi of Chishtiyya silsilah—and Swami

Shradhanad fiercely exchanged polemics with each other on the issue of Shuddhi.

32 Bari, Fitna-i-Irtidad Aur Musalmano ka Farz, 48. For a detailed study of ulema of Farangi Mahal lineage and contribution, see Francis Robinson, Jamal Mian: The Life of Maulana Jamaluddin Abdul Wahab of Farangi Mahal, 1919-2012 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2017), 7-31. 33 Khwaja Hasan Nizami hailed from family of custodians of Khwaja Nizam al-Din Auliya and remained very active on the political scene in 1920s. For details see Marcia Hermansen, ―Two Sufis on Molding the New Muslim Women: Khwaja Hasan Nizami (1878-1955) and Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927)‖ in Barbara D. Metcalf (ed.), Islam in South Asia: In Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 326-338. 189

Besides, it was the Tabligh movement which was later transformed into Tablighi Jamat, established by Muhammad Ilyas.34

In the reformist and puritanical tradition of South Asian Islam, there was an understanding that the convert Muslims were not proper Muslims because they carried their old Hindu traditions and caste orientations along them. In words of Momin:

The fact that Indian Muslims have retained a large number of cultural items and features belonging to their pre-conversion days is evidenced in the persistence of beliefs and rituals which are at odds with the Islamic Great tradition. The Malkanas, who are converts from Rajput castes, visit Hindu temples for personal ceremonies and greet each other in the Hindu manner. The Churihars of the Ganges valley worship the Hindu deity Kalka Mai. The Mirasis of North India worship Durga Bhawani. As late as the nineteenth century some Muslims of Bengal worshipped Krishna and Durga. The Khanzada Muslims of Rajputana did not participate in any Hindu festivals or rites, but Brahmins continued to perform their marriage ceremonies. Some Vaishnavite converts retained Hindu social exclusiveness and refused to eat with other Muslims. The Rajput Muslims, as late as the nineteenth century, were not much different from Hindu Rajputs; they practised female infanticide and intermarried with other Rajputs only.35

Besides the response of ulema and sufis, modernists had their own recipes to eradicate the ills and solve the multi-dimensional problems that Punjabi Muslims were facing. Just like Sir Syed Ahmad Khan‘s education campaign focused on modern knowledge in the upper North India, modernist elite-middle class sought to develop the

Muslim community by directing their energies and resources towards seeking modern

34 Ilyas was born in Saharanpur and educated in Deoband. He got education from Ashraf Ali Thanvi. For detailed analysis, see Shail Mayaram, ―Do Hindu and Islamic Transnational Religious Movements represent Cosmopolitanism and Difference?‖ in Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan (eds.), Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe (New Delhi: Manohar, 2006), 323-355. 35 A. R. Momin, ―The Indo-Islamic Tradition,‖ Sociological Bulletin, vol. 26, no. 2 (September, 1977), 244-45. 190 knowledge in Punjab.36 Many Hindu and Sikh organizations were doing the same job and were establishing educational institutions for the children of their communities. Muslim organizations were using Islamic symbolism to receive financial and socio-political support from their community.

3.3.2 Tanzim Movement: Muslim Response to Colonial state

The movement of Tanzim (lit. organization) became popular in the cities of North India and Punjab in 1920s after the failure of Khilafat movement. In the 1920s, Indian masses entered the field of organized national movement on an unprecedented scale. The workers of Khilafat movement were drawn into the villages and far afar areas as never before. The peasants and workers participated in national struggle and became aware about symbols and slogans.37 The ideas of establishing local Tanzims was conceived by ulema and publicists as a response to the hierarchies of power controlled by the colonial administration.38 Dr. Saif-ud-Din Kitchlew (b. 1888-d. 1963), known as a leading communal figure, presented an elaborate outline of this organization. It was decided that a newspaper as mouthpiece of the organization will be established along with its local

Muslim committees and jathas (bands of volunteers).

The main focus of this organization was on the communal political inculcation through using the mosques. Mosques served as local symbols of universal community of

Islam and it dotted the urban landscape where local independent centres of political

36 Azim Husain, Fazl-i-Husain: A Political Biography (London: Longmans, 1946), 236-7. 37 Gyanendra Pandey, Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990), 233. 38 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 81-82. For more detailed discussion, see Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity. 191 consciousness could be organized. According to Gilmartin, the mosques were ―also symbols of the personal commitment by Muslims, not to a mediating hierarchy, but directly to God, to the shari‟at, and to Islam.‖39 It was proposed that primary schools for

Muslim children should be established in mosques to enforce punctuality of prayers and issue khutbas (sermons). The choice of mosque was made by the leaders to use it as a space independent of the local hierarchies of patronage tied to the colonial state.

Analyzing the rising communal tensions in North India of 1920s, Pandey argues that,

The massive agitation among Muslims of many different classes across the subcontinent on the specifically ‗Muslim‘ issue of the fate of the Khilafat, the Mapilla rising in Malabar, the Hindu and Muslim movements that followed in northern India to reclaim ‗victims‘ and protect the ‗faithful‘—shuddhi and sangathan, tabligh and tanzim—and the spate of Hindu-Muslim riots from 1923 onwards, pointed sharply to the heightened dangers arising from community- based mobilization.40

Pandey‘s argument stresses that the contestations over religious conversion and reconversion were being vigorously pursued by associations and movements like Shuddhi,

Sangathan, Tabligh and Tanzim.

3.3.3 Establishment of Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba (AKK)

Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba (The Society of Servants of Kaaba) was established in

May, 1913, with the objective of protecting holy places of Islam located, then, in the domain of Turkish Empire.41 The establishment of such an organization was necessitated

39 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 81. 40 Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India, 234. 41 Ruchi Ram Sahni (b. 1863-d. 1948) was a leading educationist and public figure of colonial Punjab and particularly Lahore. His memoir, originally titled as ―Self-Revelations of an Octogenarian,‖ has recently been published as A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab: Ruchi Ram Sahni, 1863-1948. Sahni recalls in his 192 by the rising tide of pan-Islamism. The rising trend of pan-Islamism in India was due, mainly, to the particular conditions of Muslim elite (ashrafiah) who felt disempowered and rendered irrelevant under the colonial administrative structure. This loss of temporal

Muslim authority in India made Muslim elite take refuge in asserting their identity as being part of larger community of Muslim world (ummah). Moreover, the reformed and willed individual self, believing in struggle within inner-self and outer mundane life, started asserting his/her identity as a Muslim who was poised to do his/her best for the community of Muslims. The contemporary declining conditions of Muslims and their subjugation by colonial powers encouraged their solidarity on the basis of ummah as increasingly relevant to take refuge in. The establishment of AKK was one such expression of assertion of Muslim identity by bringing sanctity of the sacred places of

Islam in political arena. It envisioned massive projects for the welfare of Muslim community of India including making its ship building company to facilitate pilgrims of

Hajj (one of the five tenets of Islam) besides its main function i.e. the protection of holy places of Islam in Makkah and Madina.42 The British government in India viewed this organization as a corollary of the ongoing Indian political movement and perceived it as a threat to the law and order in their empire. It was, moreover, taken as a grave danger to the Muslim and non-Muslim unity and could increase communalism.

memoirs that ―During the first World War a society known as Kudam-i-Kahva [Khuddam-i-Kaaba] was formed for the protection and preservation of holy places of Islam of which Mecca is the centre and the crown. They had suffered a good deal for their love of Islam. It is a pity that this love did not take any constructive form but was largely a mere sentiment.‖ Sahni relinquished the title of ―Rai Sahib‖ during the Khilafat Movement as a token of his sympathy for Muslim cause for which Shaukat Ali wrote a letter of appreciation to Sahni on 24 July, 1920 expressing his gratitude. The letter was published by The Tribune and Shaukat Ali wrote it with the designation as ―Khadim Kaaba.‖ For details, see Burra, A Memoir of Pre- Partition Punjab, xxvi, 319. 42 Robinson, Separatism Among Indian Muslims, 208-9. 193

Since the organization had outlined making a volunteer force of Shaidaian-i-

Kaaba (Votaries of the Kaaba), the government considered it as a tool of politico- criminal propaganda in the hands of organizers. The newspapers gave it much space and it was discussed feverishly by dint of popularity of its leadership as well as the nature of its objectives and programme. This section investigates AKK in the broader setting of pan-Islamism and with relation to its contribution in constructing Muslim identity in colonial North India. AKK contributed in preparing ground for ensuing pan-Islamic

Khilafat movement in India because it was the platform of this organization that provided the prominent leadership to Khilafat movement.

The AKK was established with the objective of protecting Mecca and other holy places of Islam from any non-Muslim aggression. The sacred places—Makkah and

Madina—of Islam occupied a very special significance and, hence, veneration in the hearts of Indian Muslims. This organization, however, owes its establishment to the general feeling of uneasiness and discontent among Muslims of India that was generated by the Turco-Italian and Balkan Wars. The tragic events started to unfold in 1911 when the Italian forces backed by the British and French invaded Ottoman Tripoli and crushed

Muslim resistance. The escalating aggressive Italian actions including the blockade and bombardment of the Arabian ports were considered as threat to Muslim holy cities of

Makkah and Madina and this development distressed the Indian Muslims. The scheme of

Anjuman was initiated in Lucknow by Mushir Hussain Qidwai43 and Maulana Abdul

43 Mushir Hussain Qidwai was a barrister and one of Maulana‘s former Quran students. He was from famous Qidwais of Bara Banki. For details see, Francis Robinson, Jamal Mian: The Life of Maulana Jamaluddin Abdul Wahab of Farangi Mahall, 1919-2012 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2017), 1-52. 194

Bari44 in January 1913.45 Maulana Abdul Bari was ―by temperament an activist‖ and had been an ―avid supporter of Turkey and Turkish Sultan as caliph of Islam.‖46 He was a leading figure of Farangi Mahall tradition and had a far and wide spiritual and intellectual influence.47 An outline of the society was sent to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (editor of the Al-Hilal Calcutta) for publication in his newspaper. The earliest public announcement, regarding the establishment of AKK, was made on March 31, 1913 by

Shaukat Ali at Amritsar.48 It was suggested in a speech that all Muslims should support the organization called the Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba, with the object of protecting the holy places of Islam from non-Muslim aggression.49 Some sections of Muslims in

India felt that Turkey was no longer able to defend holy places of Islam.

Mushir Hussain Qidwai wrote a letter on 9th April, 1913, to the editor of Al-Hilal and asked him to publish the scheme of the Anjuman which was done in the issue of 23

April. Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali visited Lucknow and met Maulana Abdul Bari to

44 Maulana Abdul Bari was main figure of Farangi Mahal (Lucknow) tradition in early twentieth century. Having studied at Farangi Mahal seminary by his father and other Ulema, Abdul Bari was initiated to the Qadri and Chishti order (silsilahs). When Greco-Turkish war of 1897 ended favourably for Turkey, Maulana arranged a large meeting of Lucknow Muslims and passed a resolution for felicitations to be passed to sultan of Turkey. Later, when a series of disastrous wars started for Turkey in 1911, he travelled extensively in UP with his students to collect money for Turkish relief and Red Crescent Medical Mission. In 1918, he issued a fatwa enjoining Jihad in case of the danger of infidels controlling either the Turkish caliph or holy places of Islam. To focus on Islamic issues, he established a newspaper Akhuwat. His dual role, as alim and Sufi, made his appeal and influence tremendously far and wide across India. His students were from UP and Bihar, Ajmer, Kakori, Kichaucha, Rudauli, Kursi and from Bengal, Sindh, Peshawar, Afghanistan and Madras. Qidwai worked closely with Abdul Bari and once recommended him to give up delivering political speeches and that Harcourt Butler, a governor of the UP well-versed in Muslim affairs, referred to him as ‗diwana‘ or ‗mad‘ mulla. See Robinson, Jamal Mian, 1-52. 45 OIOC, L/P&S/20/242, 1. OIOC stands for India Office Library and Records (IOL&R), London that has been re-designated as Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC) after merger with the British Library. 46 Gail Minault, The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999), 33-34. 47 Francis Robinson, Abdul Bari (2000), 4. 48 Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali were two brothers who came from a family in the service of princely state of Rampur. Both were educated in modern education from Aligarh College. Shaulkat Ali joined Opium department in the government of UP. His younger brother Muhammad Ali went to England and graduated in History from Oxford. Having returned to India he became a famous Muslim leader and worked as editor of The Comrade. 49 OIOC, L/P&S/20/242, 1. 195 amend the initial outlines of Mushir Hussain Qidwai and give final shape to the rules of the Anjuman. The issues of subscription and giving a part or whole of remittances collected by the Anjuman to the Sultan of Turkey (Khadim-ul-Harmain) were discussed in this meeting. The members of this meeting took an oath on Quran to follow the rules.

A committee was formed consisting of Maulana Abdul Bari as Khadim-ul-Khuddam

(Servant of the Servants), Shaikh Mushir Hussain Qidwai and Shaukat Ali as Secretaries.

Hakim Abdul Wali of Lucknow, Dr. Nazir-ud-Din Hasan (Barrister of Lucknow) and

Mohammad Ali (editor of The Comrade) were appointed as Muatmidin Khadim-ul-

Khuddam (Assistants of the Servant of the Servants). The provisional rules framed as a result of the discussion of this meeting were then sent to various newspapers to be published. The members of AKK had to take oath of allegiance (appendix III) to remain unfaltering with its aims and objectives and be ready to sacrifice life for the protection of honour of the holy places of Islam.

AKK aimed at addressing pan-Islamic concerns and its major contribution was that it trained the Muslim leadership to play an important role in Khilafat movement.

Those who established and worked for this organization emerged as leading figures in the years of Khilafat movement. It significantly added to Muslim consciousness in North

India and Punjab by bringing issues of Khilafat in the public arenas and ―politicisation of the Hajj.‖50 The politics of Islamic symbolism provided popularity and public acclaim to the main leadership of AKK, namely Maulana Abdul Bari and the Ali brothers. The emotional writings of Muslim poets, writers, journalists and the massive coverage of

50 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 132. 196 newspapers of Muslim opinion such as Comrade, Zamindar, al-Hilal, Hamdard and

Muslim Gazette stirred Muslim sentiments.

The province of Punjab witnessed, not only the mushroom growth of various socio-religious reform movements and organizations, but also saw the establishment of some movements of Muslims with all India agendas and programs. They stressed the importance of highlighting the grievances of Muslims as a community and proposed various programs for the development of the community and for attainment of freedom of

India. Two such movements were noteworthy, and they are explained here with reference to the colonial context. These were All India Majlis-i-Ahrar-Islam and the Khaksar

Movement of Allama Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi (b. 1888-d. 1963).51 The agenda and objectives of these organizations are also analyzed to shed light on the working and organizational behaviour of these movements in Punjab.

3.3.4 Formation of the Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam

The Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam (MAI)52 was established in Lahore on December 29, 1929 by a group of Muslims, the prominent of which was a dissident faction of the Central

Khilafat Committee.53 The Khilafat Movement was a forceful expression of the pan-

Islamic trends in India and it sought the preservation of Ottoman Caliphate perceiving it

51 Allama Mashriqi was a Cambridge educated mathematician who drew some inspiration from European fascism. He received education from Forman Christian College Lahore and Christ‘s College Cambridge. From its headquarters in Ichhra Lahore, it established branches throughout North India and as far afield as Rangoon, Kabul, Aden, Bahrain, Cairo and Nairobi. 52 Ahrar is plural of ―hur‖ which means the one who asserts his/her independence. The word remained in vogue, in various forms, during the Khilafat Movement. For example, Rais-ul-Ahrar was a title given to Maulana Muhammad Ali Johar. The Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam (tr. Committee of Free Men of Islam) was aimed at assertion of political identity by the Muslim community of India. 53 Inqilab (Lahore), January 14, 1930. See also Afzal Haq, Tarikh-i-Ahrar (Lahore: Maktaba-i-Tabsara, 1968), 25, 71, 91. 197 as an important symbol of Muslim political identity. The fate of Ottoman Caliphate was in danger after the defeat of Central powers in World War I because Turkey had supported Germany and Italy in this long-drawn war. Resultantly, the autocrats in

Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans were banished.54 Instigated by pan-Islamic feelings, the Muslims of India felt it their religious duty to strive for the preservation of

Ottoman Caliphate by pressurizing the British government for sparing this symbol of

Muslim Ummah. The movement was spearheaded by Ali brothers, (Maulana Muhammad

Ali and Shoukat Ali), and Maulana Abdul Bari of Farangi Mahal (b. 1878-d. 1926).55

Later, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (b. 1869-d. 1948) also cooperated with the movement and an idea of Hindu-Muslim unity was promoted by the Indian nationalists such as Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari (b. 1880-b. 1936) to strengthen the Khilafat Movement as well as Indian freedom struggle. Many Muslim movements like the Khudai

Khidmatgars in NWFP and the Khaksars in Punjab flourished under the leadership of

Khilafat Movement and pro-Indian National Congress (INC) nationalists.56 The establishment of MAI was also on the same pattern.

The immediate cause of the formation of MAI was the split among the leadership of Khilafat Movement in Punjab. After the decline in the movement, the Punjabi Khilafat leaders developed and maintained their autonomous identity within the All-India Khilafat

54 David S. Mason, A Concise History of Modern Europe: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 114. 55 Maulana Abdul Bari was one of those ulema who founded Madrassa Nizamia in 1908 and he was supported by notable Muslims like Raja Sahb of Mahmoodabad and Rampur. He played very active role in Muslim politics and was elected the first president of Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Hind in 1919. Secret Punjab Police Abstracts of Intelligence (hereafter referred to as SPPAI), 1 February 1919, vol. 12, no. 5, 33. 56 See Sayed Wiqar Ali Shah, Ethnicity, Islam and Nationalism: Muslim Politics in the North Western Frontier Province 1937-47 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1999). For more discussion on this topic, see Daechsel, The Politics of Self-Expression. 198

Committee.57 Disparagingly, they were referred to as Punjabi group or toli.58 After their break with the Ali Brothers and Central Khilafat Committee, the Khilafat leaders from

Punjab consulted and sought guidance from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (b. 1888-d.

1958) who advised them to establish their own political party. They were close to Azad in the aftermath of their support to his side on the issue of Nehru Report which was opposed by Ali Brothers. So, it was finally on ―Azad‘s suggestion and great insistence‖ that this new party was established, which eventually took the shape of the Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-

Islam.59

Iftikhar Haider Malik, while explaining the causes of formation of MAI, opines that a substantial majority of Muslims of Punjab considered that they were not receiving political and economic share of Punjab‘s progress which they were entitled on account of their numerical strength.60 Moreover, they were indignant over ―the way in which the

Shahidganj Mosque controversy61 was handled by those in power, disappointed by the performance of Muslim League in the first provincial elections and dissatisfied with the leadership of the Unionist Party.‖62 Resultantly two parties, the Ahrars and Khaksars, took the mantle of representing grievances of these Punjabis. Its principal aim was

57 Samina Awan, Political Islam in Colonial Punjab: Majlis-i-Ahrar 1929-1949 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2010), 10. For more discussion, see Muhammad Aslam Malik, Allama Inayatullah Mashraqi: A Political Biography (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2000). 58 Toli can be translated as clique. It included leaders such as Maulana Abdul Qadir Kasuri, Zafar Ali Khan, Maulana Habib-ur-Rahman, Afzal Haq, Attaullah Shah Bukhari and Abdur Rahman Ghazi. 59 Awan, Political Islam in Colonial Punjab: Majlis-i-Ahrar 1929-1949, 11. 60 Iftikhar Haider Malik, Sikanadar Hayat Khan: A Political Biography (Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 1985), 55. 61 ―The Shahidganj Mosque agitation began in 1935 after the destruction of the Shahidganj Mosque (or Gurdwara) by a group of Sikhs and the subsequent police-firing on a crowd of Muslims which left many wounded and dead. The twists and turns of the subsequent agitation were complex, but the Ahrars were target of great criticism because they were angling for a political alliance with the Sikhs in opposition to the Unionist Party.‖ Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, 165. 62 Malik, Sikanadar Hayat Khan, 55. 199

―creating an Islamic State within the Subcontinent that would manage its affairs in accordance with Islamic dictates of life.‖63

The formation of MAI took place, on the banks of Ravi River, in the pavilions of

Lala Lajpat Rai Nagar, the place designated for the 44th Annual Session of the INC in

Lahore.64 When the Muslim leaders of Punjab left Congress in this session, they split further into two groups. Malik Lal Khan presided over the meeting of first group in the

Hijazi building outside Delhi Gate, Lahore. Attendees of this meeting included

Muhammad Alam, Maulana Abdul Qadir Kasuri, Mian Siraj Ahmad Piracha, Maulana

Zafar Ali Khan (b. 1873-d. 1956), Malik Barkat Ali65 and Shaikh Sir Abdul Qadir (b.

1872-d. 1950). The second group met under the leadership of Chaudhry Afzal Haq (b.

1891-d. 1942) and decided to form the platform of Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Islam. Afzal Haq was declared its patron-in-chief and was deputed to finalize its objectives.66 Syed Attaullah

Shah Bukhari (b. 1891-d. 1961), member of Indian National Congress as well as Jamiat-i-

Ulama-i-Hind (JUH), presided over this meeting. He eventually rose as the most important demagogue of the Muslim community of Punjab.

MAI held its first public meeting in Islamia College, Lahore on March 30, 1930 and Afzal Haq presided over it. Syed Attaullah Shah Bukhari, in his unique feverish style, urged the Muslim youth to come forward and play their important role of fighting

63 Afzal Haq, Tarikh-i-Ahrar, Lahore: n.d., 9. Quoted in Malik, Sikanadar Hayat Khan, 55. 64 S. Akbar Zaidi et al., ―India Demands Independence,‖ in The Encyclopedia of the Indian National Congress, Vol. 9, 1925-1928 (ed.) (New Delhi: Chand & Company, 1980), 562. 65 M. Rafique Afzal, Malik Barkat Ali: His Life and Writings (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab, 1969), 1-63. 66 SPPAI, 4 January, 1930, vol. L-2, no. 1, 28. Afzal Haq appealed to the Muslim community to support the Indian National Congress in its declared goal of complete independence. He criticized Ali Brothers for their desertion of Gandhi. 200 for Indian independence.67 Following its formation, MAI adopted its programme and aims, and expressed support for separate electorates instead of joint electorates. The reason behind this policy shift was that during their province-wide campaign in favour of

Nehru Report, the leadership such as Syed Attaullah Shah Bukhari, Shaikh Hisamuddin and Habib-ur-Rehman realized that general response of the people was in favour of separate electorates. Afzal Haq and other leaders were now convinced that separate electorates were only acceptable to Muslims of Punjab and Congress creed of Indian nationalism could not work there. The propaganda and activities of the group (which later came to be known as 56 %) also influenced the thinking of Punjabis. This group was led by Lal Din Kaiser, a young Punjabi journalist, who raised the issue of Muslim representation in Punjab in favour of separate electorates. They held the view that since the Muslim population in Punjab was fifty-six per cent, they should be given representation proportionate with their population share.68

The aims and objectives of MAI included complete independence for India, better relations among different Indian communities, establishment of an Islamic system for

Muslims in the country, and the socio-economic development of India, with special emphasis on the well- being of the Muslim community.69 A member and chronicler of

MAI wrote that the objectives included the eradication of ―darkness of imperialism and feudalism‖ which developed under the auspices of hegemonic control of colonial

67 A Party Pamphlet, Hafiz Ahmad Muawiya, Pasmanzar Peshmanzar (Lahore: Majlis-i-Ahrar-i-Pakistan, 1996), 6, as cited in Awan, Political Islam in Colonial Punjab: Majlis-i-Ahrar 1929-1949, 14. 68 Samina Awan, ―Muslim Urban Politics in Colonial Punjab: Majlis-i-Ahrar‘s Early Activism,‖ Journal of Punjab Studies, no. 16, vol. 2, 235-258. 69 Ikram Ali Malik (ed.), A Book of Readings on the History of the Punjab 1799-47 (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, 1970), 557-61; Aziz, Public Life in Muslim India, 1850-1947, 133-145. 201 power.70 The MAI claimed to represent all the Indian Muslims, and their issues in India and abroad could be raised through it. However, the focus of its activities and reformation remained the Punjab. According to Awan, ―the MAI stood for equal distribution of wealth, eradication of untouchability, respect for every religion, and freedom to live according to the Sharia.‖71 At the inaugural session, in his presidential address, Attaullah

Shah Bukhari appealed to the Indian Muslims to cooperate with MAI in its struggle to safeguard the rights of the Muslims by using the means of separate electorates and a separate religious organization for their representation. Although Ahrars had parted ways with INC, they were continued to be branded as supporters of Congress in newspapers like Zamindar and Inqilab. However, this impression was dissolved with the passage of time. Zamindar newspaper emerged as leading mouthpiece of MAI and it praised its establishment ―to raise the political consciousness of the [Muslim] community.‖72

In 1936, MAI sent a deputation to Hijaz to meet the Saudi King and express its solidarity and develop pan-Islamic cordiality in leading Muslim countries. The deputation included personalities, such as Sayyid Muhammad Daud Ghaznavi (founder first

Secretary General, 1929-1932), Mazhar Ali Azhar (b. 1895-d. 1974) and Zahoor Ahmad

Bugwi.73 The pan-Islamism remained an important characteristic of Muslim organizations throughout India. This trend was reflected in objectives of organizations as well as the selection of issues on which these organizations expressed their opinion and

70 Afzal Haq was called as ―Mufakkar-i-Ahrar‖ (ideologue of Ahrars) and his colleagues referred to the party as ―party of poor folks.‖ Janbaz Mirza, Karavan-i-Ahrar, vol. 1, 82. 71 Awan, Political Islam in Colonial Punjab: Majlis-i-Ahrar 1929-1949, 15. 72 Zamindar (Lahore), January 6, 1930. 73 K. K. Aziz, Public Life in Muslim India, 1850-1947, 143. 202 mobilized the masses. The Khilafat Movement was the zenith of pan-Islamism in India but the trend continued even after movement ebbed away.74

Peter Hardy argued that the ―Ahrar movement cooperated politically with

Congress, it stood for an India of federated, religiously-inspired radicalism, rather than for a national secular state.‖75 INC was able to use this support of Ahrars against the

Muslim League. The bitter reality for all Muslim groups such as Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Hind, the Ahrar Party and the Nationalist Muslims Conference was that, although they were created to counter the agenda of Muslim League, they were unable to win over majority of the Muslims converted to the creed which gave nationalism a place subordinate to religion.76

The impact of activities of organizations such as MAI continued to be felt by

Muslims of the Punjab in the shape of increasing religiosity and in the politics of religio- political parties who preferably used religious idioms and to attract maximum following.

An example in point is the ―Tehreek-i-Khatam-i-Nubuwwat [which] was a set of demands put forward by the ulema and some religio-political parties—especially Majlis- i-Ahrar—during the 1950s whose influence was mostly concentrated in urban centres of

Punjab.‖77

74 For details, see M. Naeem Qureshi, Pan-Islam in British India: The Politics of the Khilafat Movement 1918-1924 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2009), especially chapter, ―Pan-Islam in the Indian Environment,‖ 1-59. 75 Hardy, Muslims of British India, 216. 76 Muhammad Iqbal Chawla, Wavell and the Dying Days of the Raj: Britain‟s Penultimate Viceroy in India (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011), 38. For more details, see M. Rafique Afzal, A History of the All- India Muslim League 1906-1947 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013). 77 Ali Usman Qasmi, The Ahmadis and the Politics of Religious Exclusion in Pakistan (London: Anthem Press, 2015), 1. For detailed study of Khatam-i-Nubuwwat, see Shorish Kashmiri, Tehrik-i-Khatam-i- Nubuwwat (Lahore: Chitaan Publications, 2017). 203

3.3.5 Khaksar Movement of Allama Inayatullah Mashriqi

Khaksar Movement, a paramilitary organization of the Muslims of British India, was established in April 1931 in Lahore. The founder of the movement was Allama

Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi (b. 1888-d. 1963), who was an expert mathematician, religious scholar and a Cambridge Graduate. Mashriqi came from a distinguished Rajput family from Amritsar. His forefathers had held positions in the Mughal court. He was an educationist and had been a nominee of Nobel Prize for Literature for the year 1926. The rationale of its establishment was expressed by Allama Mashriqi himself that India witnessed a persistent conflict of Hindu and Muslim communities, sometimes implicit and sometimes explicit, which dated back a period not less than a millennium. In such a situation, it was urgent to make Muslims of India politically, economically and socially strong and disciplined against the British and the Hindus.78 He established this movement with the aim of reviving the Muslim military tradition in India. The Khaksar movement was a socio-religious reform movement and its main object was to get India liberated from British Raj and establish a Hindu-Muslim Government in India.79 Further, the movement was inspired by Adolf Hitler (b. 1889-d. 1945) and the ranks and files of it were organized by its founder on paramilitary lines wearing khaki military uniform and parading in streets carrying showels.80 The first recorded demonstration of the movement took place on August 25, 1931 at village Pandoki, 23 miles away from Lahore. However,

78 Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, Isharaat (Lahore: Al-Tazkirah Publishers, 1931), 47. 79 De Amalendu, History of the Khaksar Movement in India, 1931-47 (Kolkata: Parul Parakashni, 2009), 72. 80 A. D. Muztar, Khaksar Tehrik Aur Azadi-i-Hind: Documents, vol. vii (Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 1995), 1. 204 the first paramilitary style demonstration of the Khaksar troops in Lahore took place in

February 1932.81

Khaksar movement stressed upon the urgency of Jihad or holy war for Muslims of

India and the unity among party members.82 According to Khaksar ideology, blood and rule had a deeper relationship with each other. A nation that could not offer its blood, could not become ruler. The Muslims had been ruling the world till the time they considered the importance of Jihad and used the sword to protect their rights and interests. When they left Jihad behind and became accustomed to luxury and comfort, they became lethargic and slaves of other nations.83 Khaksar movement wanted to make the Muslims soldiers of Islam and Allah. It wanted to inculcate among its members qualities such as equality, service, humbleness and hard work. The movement expressed its desire to overcome the world with the power of Islamism.84 Allama Mashriqi wanted to make the Muslims strong through military drill so that when the moment of destiny of

India comes, then no other force should be able to overpower them. He wanted to reform the Muslims and remove their habits of lethargy and sectarianism.85

Khaksar Movement became popular in Punjab although it followed military style decorum while Punjab remained by and large a loyal province given the role of local notables as intermediaries between people and the Raj. An important reason was the

81 Safdar Saleemi, Khaksar Tehreek Ki Sola Sala Jaddojehad (Lahore: Azad Hindustan Kitab Ghar, n.d.), 35-36. 82 Muhammad Akeel Arif, ―Political Struggle of Khaksar Movement, 1939-1947,‖ (Unpublished M. Phil. Diss., Government College University Faisalabad, 2016), 2. 83 Weekly, Al-Islah, October 24, 1936. 84 Azmat Ullah Bhatti, Al-Mashriqi, Vol. II (Lahore: Shahbaz Shaukat Press, 1993), 30. 85 Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, Qaul-i-Faisal (Lahore: Al-Tazkira Publishers, 1935), 30. 205

Punjab‘s involvement in military tradition introduced by Ranjit Singh and further developed by the colonial rule. Punjab, by the late nineteenth century and with the onset of Great Game, became to all intents and purposed the garrison province of the British

Raj in India. According to Tan Tai Yong, Punjab was not only home to the bulk of soldiers of the Indian Army, resources were also generously expended for military purposes and ―the scale of capital invested on building a military infrastructure in the province was not replicated elsewhere in colonial India: in the 1880s the Government of

India (GoI) poured billions of rupees into the Punjab for the building of strategic railways, roads and cantonment towns.‖86

A major showdown of the Khaksars took place with the provincial government of

UP at a place known as Bulandshaher in 1939 which resulted in deaths of its several workers.87 The government in UP had already banned Khaksar‘s entry into the province, but they managed to enter and defy the orders of administration. This incident was followed by a more severe confrontation with the Unionist regime of Sir Sikandar Hayat

(b. 1892-d. 1942) in Lahore.88 The Khaksars had applied for permission to the Punjab government for opening a radio station in Lahore which was declined by the government.

Moreover, the Punjab government issued orders in 1940 to stop military style drilling and processions.89 The Khaksars defied the government orders on March 19, 1940 and paraded the streets. The police opened fire killing a large number of Khaksar volunteers.

86 Yong, The Garrison State, 20. See also Malcolm Lyall Darling, At Freedom‟s Door (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011), 309-312. 87 Iftikhar Haider Malik, Sir Sikandar Hayat: A Political Biography (Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 1985), 64-74. 88 Chawla, Wavell and the Dying Days of the Raj, 41. See also, S. Qalb-i-Abid, Muslim Politics in the Punjab, 1921-47 (Lahore: Vanguard Books, 1992). 89 Chawla, Wavell and the Dying Days of the Raj, 41. 206

The Punjab government banned the Khaksar party, arrested its leaders and locked down its offices.90

Jinnah issued a statement against the killing of Khaksars and gave a gesture by visiting the injured Khaksar workers in a hospital when he was visiting Lahore for AIML session. This gesture helped ease tensions between the Muslim League and the Khaksars for few years, but an assassination attempt on Jinnah by a Khaksar worker, Rafiq Sabir, permanently damaged these relations. Both the Khaksars and the Muslim League were working for the rights of Muslims, yet they diverged in their approaches. Allama

Mashriqi was vehemently against the Muslim League and felt himself closer to the

Congress because both were championing Indian nationalism. Khaksars‘ leading voice was the newspaper Al-Islah which played a major role in widening the gulf between the

Khaksars and the Muslim League.91

The movement spread from its base in the Punjab to Sindh, Baluchistan and the

Frontier province in the late British period. In the North Western Frontier Province

(NWFP), which was part of Punjab till 1901, Khasar Movement spread under the charismatic leadership of Allama Mashriqi himself. Some important Khaksar leaders in

NWFP included Mulla Marwat, Maulana Shakirullah and Maulana Abdul Rauf

Andalib.92 Mulla Marwat played a dynamic role in popularizing the Khaksar Movement in the Frontier Province.93 A pro-Muslim League group of the Khaksars was reported to

90 Civil and Military Gazette, March 20, 1940. 91 Safdar Salimi, Khaksar-i-Azam aur Khaksar Tehreek (Lahore, 1957), 32. 92 Muhammad Tariq, ―Mulla Marwat: Life and Career in the Politics of British N. W. F. P.,‖ Historicus, Pakistan Historical Society, vol. LXV, no. 4 (October- December, 2017), 77. 93 Tariq, ―Mulla Marwat: Life and Career in the Politics of British N. W. F. P,‖ 77. 207 have met with the tribes through the old Khilafat Committee members to apprise them of the threats to Muslims in India posed by Hindu nationalism.94 The Khaksar ideology and politics opposed the ‗loyalism‘ of the Unionists and the ‗communalism‘ of the Muslim

League both. However, the period of growing popularity of the Muslim League in the

Punjab was the period of decline of the Khaksar movement. Yet it remained and operated as a small urban radical movement after independence and supported some political alliances. The aims and objetives, ideology and activities of Khaksars reflected that it was a Muslim communal organization. It, however, did not extend support to the Muslim

League because Khaksars believed in Indian nationalism but the government of the

Muslims.

In short, Muslim communal organizations established in India differed from each others‘ objectives, ideological orientation, organization, mechanism, strategies, methods and tools to materialize what they deemed the Muslim society to be. While the objectives of AKK were of pan-Islamic in nature, and it envisioned to establish a fund to finance the

Muslims internationally wherever they were in trouble, the Khaksars strove to achieve their anti-imperialist aims at the same time promoting social welfare activities for the

Muslims of India. AKK provided leadership to the Khilafat Movement by spreading its network throughout North India. Khilafat Movement could not have been so much successful, had the AKK not provided it a platform and trained cadre of leaders. The focus of aims and objectives of MAI was to make the Muslims realize urgency of rectification and consolidation of their beliefs and practices due to challenges of Christian

94 Sana Haroon, Frontier of Faith: A History of Religious Mobilization in the Pakhtun Tribal Areas c. 1890-1950 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011), 156. 208 missionaries and the Arya Samaj. In accordance with the MAI‘s particular understanding of Islam and the nature of Muslim society in colonial India, it directed its activities to counter the colonial administration, on the one hand, and to reform the Muslims of India, on the other hand. The ideology of MAI shifted from theological to political after the establishment of Pakistan. The expression of this shift was the establishment of Khatam- i-Nubuwwat (the Finality of the Prophethood) movement and its unprecedented promotion.95 MAI played important role in sharpening Muslim identity by using symbolism of Islam in the arena of politics.

The first important Muslim anjuman was established in Punjab under the patronage of the British themselves. It played significant socio-political role for Muslims of the Punjab.

3.4 Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore (AIPL)

AIPL was the first Muslim organization established in 1869, exclusively for the protection of the rights and interests of Muslims of Punjab. Before this, first Punjabi non- communal organization, established on January 21, 1865 at Shiksha Sabha Hall, was

Anjuman-i-Ishaat-i-Mutalib-i-Mufida-i-Punjab (the Society for the Diffusion of Useful

Knowledge) known as Anjuman-i-Punjab Lahore.96 It was established with two fold objective of reviving ancient Oriental learning and diffusion of useful knowledge through the medium of Urdu language. The Anjuman established a madrassa in the building of a path shala of Shiksha Sabha of Lahore. After taking possession of the building, it added

95 Tahir Kamran, ―The Pre-History of Religious Exclusionism in Contemporary Pakistan: Khatam-i- Nubuwwat, 1889-1953,‖ Modern Asian Studies (2015). 96 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 84. 209

Arabic and Persian to Hindi and Sanskrit which were being already offered. This school was later developed to become Oriental College. Dr. Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner (b. 1840- d. 1899) was the leading figure of Anjuman-i-Punjab while Lepel Griffin (b. 1838-d.

1908) served as its secretary.97 Its journal, Anjuman-i-Punjab, was aimed at acquainting the local people with English thought, Government expectaions and current affairs, and familiarising the Government with needs and requirements of people. Since Anjumani-i-

Punjab only presented the official narrative of the Punjab Government, the Muslims established AIPL on communal basis, for the protection of the rights of Muslim community.

3.4.1 Establishment of AIPL

The peculiar colonial challenges and dismal conditions of the Muslim community forced few notables of Lahore to establish an organization of Punjabi Muslims. By the resolution of Khan Barkat Ali Khan98 (b. 1821-d. 1905)—a Muslim notable and a Tehsildar of

Lahore—Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore was established in 1869. This was the first socio-religious organization which worked for the socio-religious elevation of the

Muslims of Punjab during the British period. It was originally ―set up to take over and maintain the Badshahi Mosque which had been converted, during the Sikh rule, into a

97 Although being an orientalist, Leitner was a passionate supporter of indigenous forms of education. He worked to promote oriental languages as well. 98 Khan Bahadur Barkat Ali Khan was an important social and political figure of Lahore. He was born in Shahjahanpur in 1821. He started his practical life in Police department in 1846. In 1869, he was appointed Extra-Assistant Commissioner. He served as the founding father of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, trustee of Aligarh College, member of Punjab Association, Vice President of Lahore Municipality, and fellow of Punjab University, Lahore. He was considered a staunch supporter of educational movement of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Barkat Ali Khan established the Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore. Due to his contribution, Lieutenant Governor in 1902 dubbed him as ―the Patriarch of the Lahore Muslims.‖ S. M. Ikram, Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan (Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1977), 205. See also Ikram Ali Malik, ―Anjuman-i-Islamia Lahore,‖ Al-Maaraf, (July-1983), 16-20. 210 magazine for storage of gunpowder, etc., but was now being restored to the Muslims by the British.‖99 Although the primary aim of this Anjuman was the rehabilitation work and taking care of Badshahi Mosque, it expanded its scope with the passage of time and its objectives included: i) to think over and bring into action the proposals regarding the religious, moral, educational and social welfare of the Muslims of Punjab; ii) to provide scholarships to Muslim students to promote their education; iii) to protect Muslim auqafs and take proper care of those which are under custody of the Anjuman; iv) inculcate in

Muslims loyalty towards the British government; and v) approach the government to present proposals regarding protection of the rights of the Muslims.100 According to Mian

Shah Din (b. 1868-d. 1918), an important objective of the establishment of Anjuman-i-

Islamia Punjab was to eradicate in Muslim elite, the carelessness regarding the development and welfare of their community.101 The organization, as its name suggests, was aimed at promoting the rights of Muslim community on the basis of religious exclusiveness. Being the forerunner of all later anjumans, this anjuman can be called as

―mother of all Muslim societies‖ in Punjab.102 The Anjuman ―reflected the emerging structure of British authority among the Muslim rais of the city.‖103 It urged for encouraging Muslim loyalty towards the British and government and carrying the views of Muslim community to the government.

99 Ikram, Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan, 203. See also, Malik, Sikandar Hayat Khan, 50- 51. 100 Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore Ka Sehmahi Risala [Quarterly Magazine of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore], January-March 1929 (Lahore: Himayat-i-Islam Press, 1929), 13. According to Rajmohan Gandhi, the aims of ―guarding their community against perceived threats from other communities while building relations with the British,‖ was professed by organizations of all three communities, the Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs during the British period. See Gandhi, Punjab, 247. 101 Mian Shah Din, ―Muslim Societies in the Punjab,‖ The Indian Magazine, no. 205 (January, 1888), 186- 192. 102 Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore Ka Shashmahi Risala [Bi-annual Magazine of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore] January-June, 1930 (Lahore: Himayat-i-Islam Press, 1930), 13. 103 Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, 125. 211

The Sikhs of the Punjab had very bitter memories about the rule of Mughal

Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (r. 1658-1707) because of the state oppression that was meted out to them throughout his reign. The Sikh leaders bore a heavy hand and suffered exemplary cruelties at the hands of Mughal armies. However, when the Sikhs successfully established their rule under Ranjit Singh (r. 1801-1839), there were many leaders among them who wanted to turn scores with the Muslims. Badshahi Mosque, a symbolic representation of Mughal architecture and grandeur, was built by Aurangzeb so the Sikhs turned it into a military camp and a storehouse of artillery ammunitions was established in it.104 Moreover, the structure of the Mosque could not be maintained and it deteriorated speedily during the Sikh ascendancy. The Muslims were very much concerned about this but being weak economically and politically, they could not get the

Mosque back from the Sikh administration.

The Muslims were split into many sects and factions, and there was a severe kind of bitterness among them against each other. This disunity was not only confined to speeches and writings of various Muslim sects against each other but they were pursuing civil and criminal litigations among them creating sectarian tensions. It seemed as if among Muslims, the long night of hopelessness was so prevailing that it was difficult to hope for a re-assertion by this community.105 Ranjit Singh was complacent towards other religious communities and he did not persecute people on religious discriminations.106

However, his successors could not perpetuate his accommodationist policy and bitter

104 Ikram, Modern Muslim India and the Birth of Pakistan, 203. 105 Anjuman Islamia Punjab ki Salana Report, 1886 [Annual Report of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, 1886] (Lahore: Himayat-i-Islam Press, 1886), 1. 106 Lt. Col. H. L. O. Garrett and G. L. Chopra (eds.), Events at the Court of Ranjit Singh 1810-1817 (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2002). 212 clashes erupted among the Sikh chiefs. The successor chiefs were particularly discriminatory towards the Muslims. Moreover, after Ranjit Singh the Sikh kingdom was split into many small principalities, and being internally weak, these Sikh chieftains were intolerant. With the advent of the British suzerainty, the Muslims of Punjab felt a sigh of relief, and they hoped that they could be dealt with equally with the other religious communities. Moreover, the British annexation of Punjab ensured economic, political and administrative stability long desired by the inhabitants of Punjab.

3.4.2 Organizational Structure of AIPL and its Office Bearers

In 1886, following were the office-holders of the Anjuman-i-Islamia, Punjab: Nawazish

Ali Khan (b. 1901-d. 1890)107 (Life President), Nawab Abdul Majid Khan (President),

Nasir Ali Khan Sahib Bahadur (Vice President), Khan Bahadur Faqir Syed Jamal-ud-Din

(President Managing Committee), Khan Bahadur Barkat Ali Khan (Honourary General

Secretary for Life), Khan Bahadur Raja Jahan Dad Khan and Sardar Muhammad Hayat

Khan (Secretaries for life), Munshi Muharram Ali Chishti, Editor Rafiq-i-Hind (Joint

General Secretary), Maulvi Muhammad Fazal-ud-Din (Financial Secretary), Maulvi Inam

Ali (Corresponding Secretary), Munshi Muhammad Shahamat Khan (Assistant

Secretary), and Haji Karim Bakhsh. The total number of members of Anjuman was seventy in 1886, and most of the office bearers were either landed elite or were government officials belonging to Lahore. There were eight honourary members and

107 On the death of his father Ali Raza Khan in 1866, the title of Nawab was passed on to Nawazish Ali Khan. He devoted his whole life to the public interests and earned a lofty position among the nobles of Punjab with regard to honour and dignity. He was appointed as Honourary Assistant Commissioner in 1877. He served as President of the Lahore Municipal Committee for three years. In 1885 the Companionship of the Indian Empire (C.I.E.) was conferred upon him and was nominated as an Additional Member of the Legislative Council in 1887. See W. L. Conran and H. D. Craik, The Punjab Chiefs (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2004, first pub. 1909), 253-259. 213 eleven were from outside Lahore. The membership was kept open and every Muslim from any province could be a member of this Anjuman, although the name of organization had the word ‗Punjab‘ in its title (for details of rules and regulations, see

Appendix II).108 Each member was expected to deposit membership fee of three rupees per year or four annas per month. It was mandatory to deposit fifty rupees to be a life member. A clause of the rules of Anjuman permitted free membership for socially active

Muslims or Muslim religious scholars, who could render benefits to Muslim community and the organization itself.109 AIPL served the Muslim community of Punjab in many ways and it, being the first Muslim organization, represented Muslims in many significant issues.

3.4.3 Services of AIPL for Punjabi Muslims and Formation of Muslim Identity

The Badshahi Mosque was handed over to a Committee of notable Muslims on June 11,

1856 and it was, soon after, opened for prayers and other religious gatherings, yet its rehabilitation was a challenge for the Muslim community of Lahore.110 This was a task that necessitated huge financial support for which Barkat Ali, a Tehsildar of Lahore, levied a tax on the movement of food items to collect revenue. However, its collection had to be stopped due to various complaints and interference from the government. The

Anjuman played a very important role to accomplish this task, and Muslims were encouraged to show up in great number in the Mosque on religious occasions. A deputation under the leadership of Anjuman was formed to meet R. P. Nisbet, Deputy

108 Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore Ka Shashmahi Risala, Jan-Jun 1930 (Lahore: Himayat-i-Islam Press, 1930), 2-5. 109 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 3. 110 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 4. 214

Commissioner of Lahore, and requested him for financial support which was granted and

Anjuman received Rs3000 for cleaning and maintaining the said Mosque.111

The ‗Badshahi Mosque Rehabilitation Fund‘ was established by the Anjuman.

The Lahore Municipal Committee and District Board promised to give huge sum of money. The Fund received Rs20,000 soon from the members of Muslim community. The

Fund and official support both collected Rs100,000 through which the rehabilitation work of the Mosque was completed. Some non-Muslim notables which included Raja Harbans

Singh, Pandit Motilal, Pandit Badrinath, Munshi Harsukh Rai and Lala Nehal Chand supported financially too. An amount of almost Rs31,000 was thus raised through which work on rehabilitation of the Mosque was started.112 Furthermore, the government assistance and donations of general public made the amount of Rs100,000 through which the restoration work was successfully completed.113 For showing communal strength and

Muslim solidarity almost 6000 Muslims offered Eid prayer in Badshahi Mosque in 1876.

To make it a central place for Muslims and to restore its previous glory, special efforts were made to achieve huge congregations on various religious occasions like Eid Milad- un-Nabi (birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad PBUH). The Anjuman used to give financial support and investitures to Imams of various mosques. It would also make arrangements of refreshments and lighting for the gatherings in Badshahi Mosque on various religious congregations. A madrassa was also established in mosque so that

111 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 4 112 Abdullah Chughtai, Badshahi Masjid (1972), 38. 113 Saeed, Musalmaaan-i-Punjab ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 4. 215

Muslim children could be taught religious education.114 The Anjuman established other institutions as well unless AHIL took over as the leading Muslim organization for rendering educational services.

AIPL made efforts and got control of various other mosques in Lahore including

Texali Gate Mosque. A mosque and some shops were constructed in Gumti Bazar with an amount of Rs5000. R. P. Nisbet, Deputy Commissioner, handed over the Sunehri

Mosque to the Anjuman as well. Another achievement of the Anjuman was that Muslims had difficulty getting permission to bury the dead in Miani Sahib, Shah Abul Ma‗ali and

Misri Shah graveyards of Lahore. The Anjuman strove hard and this issue of the Muslim community was re-dressed.115 Religion provides symbols to its adherents from cradle to the grave. Therefore, control and management of the graveyards was sought to be the duty of Muslims through using the platform of the Anjuman.

AIPL did much for the social unity of Muslims of the Punjab. In 1873, the Ahl-i-

Hadith116 sect of Muslims tried to desecrate the graves in the vicinity of Chinianwali

Mosque. Barkat Ali Khan, General Secretary of the Anjuman, and some other notables strove hard to appease the community and eradicate bitterness on this issue. The discord between Ahl-i-Hadith and Ahl-i Sunnat-wal-Jamaat117 on this issue was resolved

114 Masood Akhtar Zahid, ―Islamia Anjumans and Educational Development: Perspectives on the 19th Century British Punjab,‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVI, no. 2 (July-December, 2013), 1-23. 115 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 5. 116 Ahl-i-Hadith is a religious movement that emerged in Northern India in the mid-nineteenth century from the teachings of Syed Nazir Husain (b. 1805-d. 1902) and Siddiq Hassan Khan (b. 1832-d. 1890). Its adherents regard the Quran, Sunnah and Hadith as the sole sources of religious authority. 117 It is a religious organization which represents the Barelvi school of thought. 216 amicably with the efforts of Barkat Ali Khan.118 So much so that litigation charges between these two parties were voluntarily borne by the Anjuman so that the differences between warring factions could be eradicated.

AIPL was sensitive towards pan-Islamic issues as well. During the Russo-Turkish

War (1877-78), the Anjuman collected funds for the displaced Turks. A grand congregation was held in January 1877 in Wazir Khan Mosque, Lahore for this purpose and Maulvi Barkat Ali delivered an elaborate speech in which he shed light on the important role of Ottoman Caliphate for the Muslim brotherhood and the unity of

Ummah. The Muslims of Punjab actively contributed in the fund. An amount of Rs22,000 was collected which was sent to the displaced Turks. In 1879, the Anjuman collected funds for the poor Muslims of Bulgaria. The Muslim women, for the first time, enthusiastically took part in this fund raising campaign.119 By the end of that year, the

Anjuman was able to send Rs5000 to the Turk Counsel in Bombay.120 It was a pan-

Islamic struggle of the anjuman, and in this regard it was a forerunner of Anjuman-i-

Khuddam-i-Kaaba and Khilafat Movement.

In 1884, the British government officials, Col. Beaden and W. O. Clarke, handed over Muslim relics kept in the Lahore Fort to the AIPL, considering this organization as the true representative of Muslim community of Lahore. This proposal was first floated by Mayo School of Arts.121 On March 21, 1884, a procession under the Anjuman carried

118 Rafiq-i-Hind, December 2, 1884. 119 Akhbar-i-Anjuman-i-Punjab, January 01-08, 1877. 120 Akhbar-i-Anjuman-i-Punjab, December 07, 1877. 121 Tahir Kamran, ―Lockwood Kipling‘s Role and the Establishment of the Mayo School of Art (1875- 1898),‖ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (2015), 1-19. 217 these relics to the Badshahi Mosque. The Muslims of Lahore were very exuberant at this occasion, and praiseful of the British government. Many people belonging even to far flung areas reached there to see these relics because of symbolic significance of relics for religious identification with Muslim community. The Anjuman acquired a role of being representative organization of Punjabi Muslims through offering such momentous services.

The AIPL was considered as the most important representative organization of the

Muslims of Punjab, and the British government sought the opinion of the Anjuman on many issues. In 1886, the Imperial Legislative Council solicited opinion of the Anjuman on drafts of three laws, i.e. Bill of Copy Rights of Authorship and Newly Invented

Things, the Amendment Bill of Civil Procedure and Act of Hearing, and the Bill of

Defaulting. Likewise, the government asked for the opinion of the Anjuman on the rules made for Auqaf‘s administration of the dargah of Khawaja Moin-ud-Din Chishti (b.

1142-d. 1236) of Ajmer. The Anjuman took time and responded to the government after detailed analysis of these rules and gave its opinion. The government took the Anjuman into confidence on its policy of technical education in the Punjab. The Anjuman sent

Khan Bahadur Dr. Rahim Khan as its representative to the Punjab Educational

Conference on 1886.122

The Public Service Commission asked the opinion of the Anjuman in a questionnaire, in 1886, which was replied by Maulvi Inam Ali (the Correspondence

Secretary) in English language and he apprised the government about the opinion,

122 The Tribune, December 30, 1886. 218 complaints and suggestions of the Muslim community.123 The Anjuman represented

Muslims as a community regarding matters of their concern in Punjab. Various communal organizations were working for the interests of their respective religious communities. Thus, communal demarcations were in the process of formation, not only in Muslims of the Punjab but other religious communities as well.

In January 1887, AIPL wrote a petition to the Government of Punjab in which a detailed description of the causes of educational backwardness of the Muslims was given and special assistance of the government was demanded.124 According to this petition, the

Muslims of Punjab were concerned about their educational backwardness and they desired its rectification. However, the Muslims could not equip themselves with proper education because of poverty. Education was costly and the Muslims could not afford secondary and higher education. The Education Commission of Punjab recommended special measures to be taken for compensation of educational backwardness in Muslims.

The governments of Bombay and Bengal announced financial aid and scholarships for this purpose. The Anjuman declared that the petition was in accordance with the principles of British government, and that it was necessary to circumvent failure of a

‗nation‘ or community. Less representation of Muslims in government jobs made the

Anjuman realize that a petition to the government was necessary.

In political matters, the Anjuman adopted the policy of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and it emerged as his main supporter in the Punjab. Like Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the Anjuman

123 Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab ki Salana Report, 1886 (Lahore: Himayat-i-Islam Press, 1886), 18-19. 124 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab Ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 13-14. 219 believed in loyalty towards the British government, and stressed the importance of this loyalty and its benefits for the Muslim community of the Punjab. One of the primary concerns of the Anjuman remained its unconditional loyalty towards the British government. When Sir Syed visited Punjab, AIPL used all resources at its disposal to make this visit all success.125 Majority of the office bearers of the Anjuman were Rais (tr. aristocrat) and title holders of the British. Moreover, many government servants, serving or retired, used to take part in the proceedings of the Anjuman.

The British government introduced the Land Alienation Act (XIII of 1900) in which certain tribes were notified as agricultural tribes, while others were notified as non- agricultural ones.126 Alienation of land was prohibited, through this Act, from agricultural tribes to the non-agricultural tribes. Moreover, no land could be acquired as mortgage by agricultural tribes for a period of more than twenty years. This Act became a communal problem in Punjab.127 The affected classes, traders and lawyers, initiated agitation against it.128 There were mass Muslim meetings in towns and rural areas who appreciated this government intervention for the protection of Muslim peasantry because majority of the

Muslims were peasants in Punjab.129 As far as this act was concerned three important inferences can be drawn regarding its impact: first, there was a discernable decrease in sale and mortgage of land in the post-1901 period. Second, the money lenders could not

125 Maulvi Syed Iqbal Ali, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Ka Safarnama-i-Punjab (Lahore: Majlis Taraqqi-i-Adab, 1973), 92-94. 126 Annual Report on the Working of the Punjab Alienation of Land Act XIII of 1900 (Lahore: The Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1902). 127 N.G. Barrier, The Punjab Alienation of Land Bill of 1901 (Duke University Monograph and Occasional Papers Series, 1965), 64. 128 M. Mufakharul Islam, ―The Punjab Land Alienation Act and the Professional Moneylenders,‖ Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (May, 1995), 271-291. 129 Barrier, The Punjab Alienation of Land Bill of 1901, 67. 220 be effectively controlled by this Act because they continued purchase of land through benami acquisitions. Third, as a protective legislation this act was similar to other legislations enacted by the colonial government regarding moneylenders and landlords.

Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab rose up to the occasion and submitted a memorandum in support of the Act.130 The educated Muslims of Punjab supported it realizing its importance for the community.

It was through the Alienation of Land Act that the British wanted to safeguard the influence of the rural power wielders by privileging the tribal identity as against the rising trend of religious identities. Actually the religious revivalists, propelled by their own insecurities arising out of their all-time decreased role in public life, manipulated the past to address the demanding contemporary challenges. At the same time, the modernizing drive of the British colonial state directly threatened religious outlooks and the socio- economic stability of the rural areas from where the Raj was recruiting majority of its

Army recruits. Being hard-pressed by these conflicting considerations, the Raj ensured passing of Land Alienation Act. However, the process created a yawning divide between the political cultures of urban and rural areas. Talbot opines that in the Punjabi villages,

―politics revolved around the factionalism of tribal society,‖ while the ―conflict in the towns was structured around religious identity.‖131 The Land Alienation Act was a source of resentment and conflict both in the rural and urban areas of Punjab because most of the landed elite had shifted to urban landscape and held their lands as source of their power.

130 S. Bhatya, Social Change and Politics in Punjab (Delhi: 1987), 236. 131 Ian Talbot, Khizr Tiwana, 5-6. 221

On November 30, 1907, leading Muslims from various parts of Punjab met in

Lahore and established Punjab Provincial Muslim League.132 In the meeting, 23 participants represented Lahore and 21 represented Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab from various other towns of the province. Those who telegraphed their support were 13 in number.133 It was established as a branch of All India Muslim League to safeguard the political interests of the Muslims in the Punjab, and to infuse in them a spirit of enlightened patriotism regarding their community.134 Mian Shah Din135 was elected as

President and Mian Muhammad Shafi (b. 1869-d. 1932) as General Secretary of the provincial Muslim League. Like many other educated Lahoris, both cousins, Mian Shah

Din and Mian Muhammad Shafi ―asserted a distinctly Muslim public identity, even as they associated themselves with the power and culture of the colonial state.‖136 As the early leaders of Lahore Professional Society who could challenge the Hindu dominance in the Bar, both of them publicly stressed the importance of Muslim education and

Muslim political unity. Both played very active role in Lahore‘s early Muslim anjumans such as AIPL and AHIL.

When extremist activities, in the Government perspective, started in Punjab, the

Anjuman took notice of it and in one of its congregations, Munshi Shams-ud-Din Shaiq called for the attention of community towards this trend. He declared that the Muslim

132 Paisa Akhbar, December 3, 1907. 133 Paisa Akhbar, December 3, 1907. 134 Zarina Salamat, The Punjab in 1920s: A Case Study of Muslims (Karachi: Royal Book Company, 1997), 35. 135 Mian Shah Din was born at Lahore in the Arain Mian Family of Baghbanpura. He graduated from Government College Lahore in 1887 and proceeded to complete Law degree from England. While in England, he established the Anjuman-i-Islamia London, on November 10, 1889. He was appointed as the first Judge of the Punjab Chief Court in 1908. In 1891, he established Young Men Mahammedan Association at Lahore. 136 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 90. 222 community was watching it and considered it as ‗irresponsible behaviour.‘ He alleged that some newspapers and journals were instigating people against the government which was ‗despising and dangerous.‘ The Muslims not only disapproved it but abhorred it and the ―Paishwa magazine of a so-called Muslim‖ and its essays were as disrespectful of

Muslims as were for the government. The Anjuman was also critical about Swadeshis, revolutionaries and agitators who branded themselves as ‗freedom lovers,‘ and Anjuman branded them openly as ‗agitators.‘ Munshi Shams-ud-din was concerned about the

―conspiracies of Hindus‖ whose ―anti-peace and divisive material‖ might wrongfully be taken as ―Muslim opinion.‖137 Thus, he stressed that it was incumbent upon the Anjuman to make it clear to the government and public that such opinion and behavior had nothing to do with the Muslim community. In 1910, the Anjuman called for the people to

―eradicate anarchism‖ and ―cooperate with the government‖ for this purpose and ―inform the government about agitators.‖138

In 1911, the Delhi durbar was held for the coronation ceremony of King George

V (r. 1910-1936) when the King and Queen Marie (b. 1875-d. 1938) visited India.139 The

Anjuman held its consultative session for this matter on November 26, 1911 and it gave some recommendations for holding this durbar. The President of Punjab Provincial

Muslim League, Mian Muhammad Shafi, ―expressed deep emotions of gratitude and loyalty of the Muslim community on the auspicious coronation ceremony of the King.‖140

It was symptomatic of the central creed of this organization that it supported the British

137 Paisa Akhbar, August 10, 1909, 5. 138 Paisa Akhbar, September 2, 1910. 139 Burke and Qureshi, The British Raj in India, 140-41. 140 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 7. 223 government and remained loyal towards it. Moreover, its leadership, mostly being British title holders were praiseworthy of the Raj and supported it while petitioning for the protection of rights of Muslims.

The Punjab provincial Muslim League was facing problems of internal dissention while it wanted to present an address to the viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge (b. 1858-d.

1944) on his visit to Punjab in March 1917. The private secretary to the viceroy advised

Tajuddin to present a combined address on behalf of all Punjabi Muslims. However,

Tajuddin could not work out a solution to the problem of disagreements. Eventually, the viceroy was presented a combined address from the Shafi League, the AHIL and the

AIPL.141 Despite their being social welfare organizations, AHIL and AIPL played a significant role in the politics of Punjab when Punjab provincial Muslim League was weak in the province.

A conflict arose in Punjab when Mian Fazl-i-Husain (b. 1877-d. 1936) asked the

All-India Muslim League at the Karachi session to affiliate the Punjab Muslim League that he and some other notable Muslims had established in February 1906. It arose as a result of split in Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam which produced two parties. One inspired by Mian Shah Din which followed strictly Sir Syed‘s tradition of eschewing politics and the other desiring political advancement but not at the cost of Muslim interest. The latter group was led by Fazl-i-Hussain. He coined the name ―Muslim League‖ for this organization and it was the first organization which called itself ―Muslim League.‖142 The

141 Afzal, A History of the All-India Muslim League, 1906-1947, 50. 142 Hussain, Fazl-i-Hussain, 95-6. 224

All-India Muslim League deferred decision on this issue till the Aligarh session of the party was held. The two rival Muslim Leagues divided the Muslim political and educated circles in the Punjab especially the AHIL and the students of Islamia College, Lahore.143

However, AIPL maintained its neutrality in this conflict and since notables involved were engaged in both organizations, AIPL and AHIL, the political differences could be ameliorated.

Mian Fazl-i-Husain144, as Education Minister (1921-26), issued orders establishing quota for the Muslims in education and public services.145 He vigorously launched a movement to improve the schooling of Punjab‘s backward communities and areas.146 Since Muslims comprised of the bulk of these backward communities, he ensured for them lion‘s share of free scholarships and expansion of schools. As a minister, he helped his backward community in order to raise it to the level of other communities, to make Muslims able to take an equitable share in political, economic and social development.147

In the domain of higher education, Fazl-i-Husain ordered a ―reservation of 40 per cent of places for Muslims in prestigious institutions like Government College in Lahore

143 Afzal, A History of the All-India Muslim League, 1906-1947, 13. 144 Mian Fazl-i-Husain, a lawyer by profession, was involved in the initial political activities of both Punjab Congress and Muslim League. He was elected as member Punjab Legislative Council on Muslim landholders‘ seat. He served in various capacities including Minister for Education (1921-26), Revenue Minister (1926-30) and member of Viceroy‘s Executive Council (1930-35). 145 As far as Fazl-i-Husain‘s interest in educating Muslim community was concerned, he was impressed by his father, Mian Husain Bakhsh, who on his retirement from Government service in 1904, devoted his life for the service of his community. He was a leading and active member of AHIL. Later, under the support of the Anjuman, he opened Islamia Schools in Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Abbotabad, Kohat and Batala. For details, see Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 56-7. 146 Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History, 71. 147 Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 381. 225 and the Lahore Medical College.‖148 He, thus, fixed a definite percentage for their admissions in government colleges. Such prestigious centres of learning had been Hindu preserve previously. Thus, a group of urban non-Muslim councillors including Lajpat Rai

(b. 1865-d. 1928), Raja Narendra Nath (Hindu Mahasabha leader) and Manohar Lal held a meeting in 1927 with the Governor of Punjab and protested against the pro-Muslim policies of Fazl-i-Husain. Almost 26 non-Muslim councillors signed a memorandum and appealed to the Governor to take action against Fazl-i-Husain for abuse of constitutional authority. The Governor was also urged by the delegation to constitute a committee with one representative from each community and a European to examine the situation.149 The group demanded that Fazl-i-Husain‘s orders establishing Muslim quota should be cancelled because it promoted communalism. However, the Governor remained unshaken and he supported his minister.150 The Hindu press backed the opinion of Hindu urbanites and unleashed a propaganda campaign against Fazl-i-Husain and his policies, even charging him with destroying Hindu-Muslim unity.151

The anjumans and associations of Muslims of Punjab strived hard to educate the

Muslim community of Punjab to empower them economically and politically. Mian Fazl- i-Husain, who was active member and patron of AIPL and AHIL, himself believed in educational advancement of the Punjabi Muslims, both male and female.152 Due to the

148 Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History, 71. 149 Civil and Military Gazette, August 23, 1923. 150 Zamindar, August 24 and 30, 1922. 151 Salamat, The Punjab in 1920s, 167. 152 The Governor of Punjab Sir Henry D. Craik, while laying foundation stone of Fazl-i-Husain Memorial Library in Government College Lahore, remarked that ―In the sphere of education he was particularly conspicuous and no one in my time has done to fling wide open the gates of knowledge and draw the multitudes in. Under his (Mian Fazl-i-Husain) guidance education became, not a prerogataive of a few but the cheap possession of many.‖ Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 385. 226 efforts of the Unionist Party and Mian Fazl-i-Husain in the field of education for

Muslims, the level of female education also increased as compared to other provinces of

Frontier and Baluchistan. For example, in 1932, 1.6 per cent of the total female population of Punjab was receiving education while this ratio in the North Western

Frontier Province was 0.5 and in Baluchistan 0.4.153

To counter the campaign against Fazl-i-Husain, the Muslims held meetings to defend his policies. The President of the Punjab Provincial Muslim League censured the

Congress against urging and leading agitation against the Education Minister.154 The

Anjuman-i-Islamia, Amritsar155 rose up to the occasion and launched a protest against what it termed as narrow-spirited memorial to the Governor, and ―pledged its unqualified support for communal representation initiated by Fazl-i-Husain.‖156 The Anjuman declared that still a great deal was needed to be done to rectify the injustices meted out to the Muslim community.

Since the leadership of anjumans hailed from rais and title holders of the Raj, they were mostly supporters of a cordial and collaborative relationship with the British

Government. For instance, Khalifa Imad-ud-din went so much ahead in expressing his

153 Government of India, Progress of Education in India, Eleventh Quinquennial Review (Shimla, 1938), 243. 154 Civil and Military Gazette, September 1, 1922. 155 In April, 1873, Majlis-i-Islamia Amritsar was established by few Kashmiri Muslims. They included Khan Bahadur Agha Qalb-i-Abid, Khan Bahadur Munshi Muhammad Mehdi, Haji Khan Bahadur Shah Muhammad, Khan Bahadur Mian Muhammad Jan, Saif-ud-Din, Khan Bahadur Shaikh Ghulam Hassan and Mian Asad Ullah. On December 13, 1882, this organization was renamed as Anjuman-i-Islamia Amritsar. Its objectives included: a) Publication of religious and modern knowledge; b) Reform and welfare of the nation; c) to present national interests to the government; d) to pusue national interest and work on proposals; e) to discuss political affairs intermittently; and f) to provide scholarships for higher education. For detailed study, see Ahmad Saeed, Anjuman-i-Islamia Amritsar (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab, 1986), 7-8. 156 Civil and Military Gazette, September 1, 1922. 227 emotions of loyalty, and declared that Muslims of Punjab should follow the Khalifa-tul-

Muslimin (Caliph of the Muslims) who sent his son Zia-ud-Din Affendi to receive the

Honourable King George V at Port Said, and the Muslims of the Punjab should also reach

Delhi to see the Honourable King. Imad-ud-din also stressed that Muslims of Punjab should arrange for lighting, as was done by Khalifa-tul-Muslimin on the sides of

Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, he suggested that the Mosque under construction besides the Islamia College, Lahore of AHIL should be named as ‗Durbaar Mosque.‘157 The editor of Paisa Akhbar, a newspaper, Munshi Mehboob Alam (b. 1863-d. 1933) expressed feelings of Muslims to the Honourable King in these words: ―the ship on which you are coming is named as Madina.‖158 Since the identities are not only formed through the appropriation of literary texts but also by material production.159 Muslims have propensity to bring religious buildings—mosques and shrines—to appropriate identities.

Moreover, AIPL was pro-British enough to eulogize the coming of King to India and felt the necessity to celebrate the occasion by this Muslim platform of public sphere.

On the arrival of King George V to India, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan (b. 1873-d.

1956), the editor of newspaper Zamindar delivered a long and emotional speech.160 Zafar

Ali Khan emerged as leading figure in the early twentieth century with the rise of vernacular press in the Punjab. The Urdu press developed as a political force among

Muslims of Lahore with launching of Paisa Akhbar (first Urdu daily with a mass circulation) in 1880s. Zafar Ali Khan, an Aligarh graduate, moved his newspaper

157 Paisa Akhbar, November 27, 1911, 8. 158 Paisa Akhbar, November 27, 1911, 8. 159 David Gilmartin and Bruce B. Lawrence (eds.), Beyond Turk and Hindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000), 8. 160 Zamindar, November, 1911. 228

Zamindar to Lahore in 1911 and rose to prominence throughout Punjab due to his reputation as a leading public spokesman for symbolically defined Muslim interests.161

With his emotional and charged style, he defended the symbols of Muslim cultural identity against the British and India‘s other religious communities. Zafar Ali Khan played a significant role in popularising the Khilafat Movement in Punjab. Nonetheless, the ―importance of the press in the definition of Muslim community identity derived not just from the increasing political influence… but from the particular character of the ideal of community they expounded.‖162 In fact, the particular conception of Muslim community that was popularized in nineteenth century press in Punjab was grounded not in any organization or code of conduct, but the inheritance symbolized by potent religious symbols like the Prophet, the Quran and the mosque.

The British government, during the first World War, declared January 6, 1918 as the ‗Day of Praying‘ for the ruled so that they could pray for the success of the British.

On that day, the AIPL held a session in the house of Khan Bashir Ali Khan in Lahore in the Presidency of Mian Muhammad Shafi. While pointing out the significance of the day,

Mian Muahmmd Shafi said: ―Our Government has declared today as the day of prayers for the faithful subjects so we should participate in it.‖163 Other attendees approved of it and then the Imam of Badshahi Mosque prayed for the success of the British government which was at war at that time.164 Mian Muhammad Shafi, besides supporting Muslim anjumans particularly AIPL and AHIL, provided patronship to biradari identity based

161 Gilmartin, Empire and Islam, 78-79. See also Ahmad Saeed (ed.), Roznama Zamindar aur Tehrik-i- Azadi (Islamabad: Muqtadara Qaumi Zaban, 1988). 162 Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, 131. 163 Paisa Akhbar, January 8, 1918. 164 Paisa Akhbar, January 8, 1918, 6. 229

Arain anjuman. Under the assertion of distinctive Muslim cultural identity there was the strong connection between loyalty to Arain biradari identity, British Empire and Islam.

A point to be noted is that where AIPL was ready to go to any length to declare its loyalty to the government, the British could be seen roaming about in the Badshahi

Mosque in their boots and shoes. One commented in a letter to the editor written in Paisa

Akhbar newspaper: ―what a tragedy that a mosque is being desecrated.‖165 Many newspapers reported such incidents taking place during that period. Sometimes even dogs were carried along by the British with them in the Mosque. Interestingly, the Anjuman, which was a staunch supporter and loyal to the British government, was forced to launch a protest against the government. On the incident of Cawnpore Mosque when the government of United Provinces (UP) demolished a part of it, a wave of resentment spread throughout the Indian Muslims. AIPL also took serious notice of it and a meeting was held on July 23, 1913. A resolution was passed in this session in which a ―respectful protest was launched before the British government.‖166 The Anjuman declared that the

Indian Muslims were in grief over this incident and that the government should order rehabilitation of this Mosque so that Muslims be grateful to it.167

In one of its pan-Islamic missions, the Anjuman called for a meeting on the War of Tripoli. Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, editor of daily Zamindar, spoke in length on the occasion about the difficulties of Ottomans and Arabs. An essay ―House of Arab Martyr‖

165 Paisa Akhbar, August 24, 1909, 8. 166 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab ki Samaji and Falahi Anjumanein, 09. 167 Paisa Akhbaar, July 24, 1913. 230 of Khawaja Hassan Nizami (b. 1878-d. 1955) was read on the occasion.168 The emotions of people were stirred and then donations were collected which amounted to Rs506. The

Red Crescent Society was established on the same session, in which Sir Nawab Fateh Ali

Khan Kazibash (b. 1862-d. 1923)169, Khan Bashir Ali Khan and Zafar Ali Khan were appointed Secretary and Joint Secretary respectively.170 On June 4, 1912, the Anjuman, on the resolution of its Finance Secretary Abdullah Khan, donated Rs250 for affected

Muslims in the war of Tripoli.171

When the Russians bombarded the mausoleum of Imam Ali Raza in 1912, AIPL reacted sharply and organized a meeting in the Presidentship of Nawab Fateh Ali Khan

Kazilbash on 4 June 1912 and expressed displeasure on Russian aggression.172 They declared that this bombardment had disturbed Muslims worldwide. The Anjuman expressed its gratitude to the British Foreign Minister for censuring the Russians for committing this aggression. AIPL remained active towards safeguarding the symbols of

Muslim identity within India and abroad.

The Khilafat movement created unprecedented fervour in Muslim masses including women and the political temperature remained very high for many years. The

168 Marcia Hermansen, ―Two Sufis on Molding the New Muslim Women: Khwaja Hasan Nizami (1878- 1955) and Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927),‖ in Barbara D. Metcalf (ed.), Islam in South Asia: In Practice (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009), 328. 169 He was an influential figure of the Kazilbash rais family of Lahore. Fateh Ali Khan inherited the title of Nawab and a seat in provincial Darbar from his uncle Nawab Nasir Ali Khan Kazilbash. In 1897, he was nominated a member of Punjab Legislative Council. In 1902, he proceeded to England as one of the representatives of Punjab for the Coronation of His Majesty, the King. He received the title of Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. In 1904, he was made an additional member of Governor General‘s Legislative Council. For details about Kazilbash family, see Conran and Craik, The Punjab Chiefs, 253- 259. 170 Paisa Akhbar, November 8, 1911, 8. 171 Paisa Akhbar, June 6, 1912, 8. 172 Saeed, Muslamanan-i-Punjab Ke Samaji Aur Falahi Anjumanein, 10. 231 movement for the renunciation of titles and honourary offices put up an impressive popular acclaim and pressurized the trustees of the Muslim educational institutions to reject government aid or disaffiliate themselves from the government universities.

However, people did not respond to such expectations of the leaders. The Aligarh

Muslim College and the educational institutions run by AHIL presented a formidable resistance to the demand.173 The All-India Muslim League expressed its displeasure on the actions of trustees of these educational institutions which had not refused Government aid or did not disaffiliate from the public universities.

AIPL and Aligarh Movement became close collaborators because of the similarity of their approach towards the government, and the problems being faced by the Muslim community. Barkat Ali Khan, on the platform of the Anjuman, played very important role to propagate the views of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Aligarh Movement in the Punjab.

The Anjuman invited Sir Syed Ahmad Khan to Punjab twice in 1873 and 1874. It was the

Anjuman which was behind the success of these visits of Sir Syed Ahmad. Before Sir

Syed Ahmad Khan‘s visit of 1874, Barkat Ali Khan visited Amritsar, Gurdaspur,

Ludhiana and Malerkotla and requested the local notables that Sir Syed should be received with high honour and dignity. Muharram Ali Chishti, Joint Secretary of the

Anjuman, appealed in his newspaper Rafiq-i-Hind for donating wholeheartedly to Sir

Syed Ahmad Khan and his Aligarh Movement.174 Chishti issued a special edition of his newspaper on the arrival of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in Lahore.175 Moreover, Mian Shah

Din and Mian Muhammad Shafi were active and strong supporters of Sir Syed‘s Aligarh

173 Afzal, A History of the All-India Muslim League, 1906-1947, 143. 174 Rafiq-i-Hind (Lahore), January 19, 1884. 175 Rafiq-i-Hind (Lahore), January 19, 1884. 232

Movement and provided socio-political and financial support to the cause of Sir Syed as well as AIPL.

The Anjuman arranged for a lecture of Sir Syed on Islam in Lahore and presented him a memorandum. At the end of this august event, Barkat Ali Khan presented Sir Syed an amount of Rs2074 as a donation from Lahore. This visit remained successful and Sir

Syed bagged huge amount in addition to creating communitarian consciousness in the

Muslims of Punjab. Moreover, the doubts of people regarding the ideas of Sir Syed

Ahmad Khan were also dispelled, and participation of the people of Punjab in Aligarh

Movement was further encouraged. Without the support of AIPL, Sir Syed could not have so successfully campaigned in Punjab for the cause of his multi-dimensional

Aligarh Movement.

Close cooperation between the Anjuman and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan continued. It was one of those organizations which sent a memorandum to the British Parliament against Bradlaugh Bill.176 This memorandum was about the concerns of Muslims regarding the expansion of local councils on the basis of electoral principles. The

Anjuman believed that India was inhabited by many nations and the attitude of majority

176 Charles Bradlaugh was an important and notable free thinker and liberal personality of Victorian England. He was one fo the earliest advocates of Women‘s right to vote, birth control, republicanism, trade unionism and social reform. Bradlaugh had a deep interest in Indian Freedom Movement and he participated to the fifth annual session of Indian National Congress held in Bombay in December 1889. It was in his honour that Bradlaugh Hall was built on Rattigan Road Lahore. It was one of the most famous buildings of colonial Lahore abuzz with abounding political activities, literary gatherings and mushairas everyday. Stalwarts of Muslim identity such as Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Mian Iftikharuddin and Malik Barkat Ali spoke many times on this platform. Muhammad Ali Jinnah is reported to have delivered speech on May 24, 1924 in a Khilafat Movement Session. Punjabi peasant movements such as Pagri Sambhal Jatta were also facilitated by this Hall. Aown Ali, ―Revolution to Ruins: The Tragic Fall of Bradlaugh Hall,‖ Daily Dawn, 26 September, 2015. See also, Majid Shaikh, ―Harking Back: Fun of Getting to Know our Own Backyard Well,‖ Daily Dawn, April 12, 2015. 233

Hindu community made the Muslims feel insecure. It wanted the principle of nominations to be perpetuated.177 Sir Syed had the same position on the introduction of representative politics in India.

AIPL supported the establishment of United Indian Patriotic Association in 1889.

It also supported Sir Syed Ahmad Khan on the issue of trusteeship of Muhammedan

Anglo Oriental College Aligarh, and seconded the appointment of Syed Mehmood for this position. The Anjuman and Barkat Ali Khan took keen interest in All India

Mohammedan Educational Conference. On the suggestion of Haji Muhammad Ismail, the

Anjuman invited Muhammedan Educational Conference to hold its conference in Lahore in 1898. In one of his lectures, Barkat Ali Khan highlighted the services rendered by Sir

Syed Ahmad Khan for the educational and economic advancement of the Muslims of

India.178 After this session, AIPL strove hard to maintain its close ties with Educational

Conference. The Anjuman held a meeting in September 1902 and decided to encourage

Muslims of the Punjab for their maximum participation in annual gatherings of

Educational Conference. In the same meeting, the Anjuman decided that it would participate in the Delhi session of Mohammedan Educational Conference to support its demand for a Mohammedan University. The Anjuman continued to hold meetings in support of Mohammedan Educational Conference and made necessary arrangements and delivered lectures to highlight the importance and objectives of Educational Conference among the Muslims of Punjab.

177 Maulvi Syed Iqbal Ali, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Ka Safarnama-i-Punjab (Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University, 2009, first published in 1884), 186-8. 178 Chaudhvin Sadi (Rawalpindi), April 1, 1898. 234

Sir Syed was grateful to the Muslims of Punjab for their support of Aligarh

Movement. Factors such as loyalty to the British Government, working for welfare and development and seeking educational opportunities for Muslims had brought Sir Syed

Ahmad Khan and notables of the politics of Punjab closer to each other.179 The Muslims of Punjab were saddened on the demise of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 1898. Barkat Ali presided over a condolence reference in Lahore on March 29, 1898. The notables of

Lahore expressed their desire to establish a memorial to commemorate his services for the Muslims of India. An additional committee was appointed in the same meeting for the purpose of memorial. Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk (b. 1837-d. 1907) along with a deputation visited Lahore in July 1898 for Sir Syed Memorial Fund. The Anjuman supported this delegation for its success. Barkat Ali Khan personally supervised all arrangements, and result was that many non-Muslims of Lahore also contributed in it. A large public gathering was held in Lahore to collect donations for Sir Syed Memorial Fund in which

Rs5000 were collected, and Rs8000 was promised by the people of Punjab.180

AIPL strove hard for the educational uplift of the Muslims of Punjab. It established a madrassa within the premises of Badshahi Mosque soon after its establishment. This institution imparted both religious and modern education. The

Anjuman spent a huge amount to make this institution a success. A committee was established under Muharram Ali Chishti for this purpose. Munshi Fazal-ud-Din replaced

Chishti as Secretary of the Committee. However, this educational institution could not become successful. Some members of the Anjuman wanted the annulment of this

179 Hafeez Malik, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Muslim Modernization in India and Pakistan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), 167. 180 Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore ka Shashmahi Risala, July-Dec, 1928, 11. 235 institution in 1886. An additional committee was formed for this purpose. It was proposed in this committee that some Muslim madrassas were already working, and a new one was being established by AHIL. It was thought better that all madrassas should be merged into the institution of AIPL. It proposed to AHIL that it should support

Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab instead of establishing its own institution. However, AHIL surpassed AIPL in educational services, and it was able to establish a huge network of educational institutions.

AIPL held the view that since there were many schools of the Hindus and

Christian missionaries besides government institutions, therefore Muslim schools should be better administered, and its teachers should be so much qualified that parents should prefer the Muslim school. Otherwise, there was no use of simply giving an Islamic name to a school. It believed that there should be a huge amount of money to start a school.

Hence, AIPL remained wedded with its own school. Furthermore, it used to help needy students. For instance, it provided school fee and admission fee in addition to establishing many scholarships for Muslim students.

The Punjab government was sympathetic and it agreed to the points presented by

AIPL. The Government conceded that although a large number of Muslim children were enrolled in public schools, yet their overall number in Anglo-vernacular schools and Arts colleges was far less than the Hindus and Sikhs. Moreover, their representation in government offices was the least.181 The Punjab Government responded by announcing

Jubilee Scholarships for five years. Education administration was advised to give

181 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab Ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 13. 236 precedence to neglected areas and communities in educational support, and the authority of fee concession was devolved to facilitate it.182 A circular was issued to government offices to maintain the proportion of Muslims in jobs. Muslim students were given scholarships and concession in fee. These scholarships and fee concessions proved to be highly beneficial for Muslim students enrolled in public schools. The Anjuman, too, declared three Mohammedan Jubilee Scholarships from its own resources and these were increased to four scholarships soon after.183 It finalized rules for disbursement of these scholarships as well. In June 1889, Shaikh Khairuddin, the secretary of Anjuman‘s

Educational Committee, declared five scholarships for college students of Muslim community.184 In recognition of the services of the Anjuman in the field of education, the

Government of Punjab requested the Anjuman in 1888 to nominate its representative for the Provincial Educational Conference.185

In 1891, Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab requested the Government of Punjab to continue the Jubilee scholarships for five more years and this request was accepted by

Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, Sir James Lyall (r. 1887-92) who issued orders to perpetuate these scholarships till 1896-97. Anjuman was of the opinion that although the number of Muslim students had increased in government schools and colleges yet poverty was hindering their achievement of excellence in educational field so they needed scholarships to continue. The Anjuman again requested the Punjab Government to extend the Jubilee Scholarships for next five years too.

182 Saeed, Musalmanan-i-Punjab Ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein, 13. 183 Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab ki Salana Report, 17-18. 184 Tribune, June 26, 1889. 185 Tribune, July 4, 1889. 237

AIPL tried its best to secure the share of Muslims in government jobs. Lieutenant

Governor of Punjab, Sir James Lyall was newly appointed when he received an application in 1887 from AIPL, to attract his attention to the issue of jobs for Muslims of

Punjab.186 The Governor promised to consider and work on this application.187 James

Lyall reversed the orders of Henry Lawrence that ―my men are expected to extend equal rights to all native religions and to align with none‖188 by recommending that the Hindus‘ monopoly of government posts should be broken by favouring suitable Muslim applicants until the Hindu-Muslim ratio in government service bore ―some relation‖ to their numerical proportions ―among the upper and middle classes of the population.‖189

Lyall‘s policy was ―based more on a sense of fairplay than on a Machiavellian divide and rule policy.‖190 In June 1887, the Anjuman issued a reminder to the Government for jobs for Muslims and insisted to issue a circular in this regards to various departments of the government. The government replied that a circular had already been issued and government would do everything to increase the number of Muslim job holders in government departments. Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick (b. 1827-d. 1920) was appointed

Governor in the Punjab and the Anjuman presented a memorial to him appreciating the efforts of previous governors and requesting the Jubilee Scholarships to continue. The

Anjuman, moreover, apprised the new governor regarding the inaction on circular calling

186 Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 68. 187 Tribune, April 27, 1887. 188 Barrier, ―The Punjab Government and Communal Politics,‖ 525. 189 Talbot, ―State, Society and Identity: The British Punjab, 1875-1937,‖ 14. 190 Talbot, ―State, Society and Identity: The British Punjab, 1875-1937,‖ 14. However, to Rabia Umar Ali, ―the core of British command and control remained a policy based upon promoting a communal schism between the two major communities of India—the Hindus and the Muslims—to facilitate and secure their occupation.‖ She contends that ―the differences among these two groups already existed and varied from religion to culture and from economy to politics, but grew out of proportion under the aegis of imperialism.‖ See Rabia Umar Ali, Empire in Retreat: The Story of India‟s Partition (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012), 1. 238 for increase in government jobs.191 The governor replied to Anjuman and promised to put in efforts for the requested favour.

Lyall‘s policy of breaking monopoly of the Hindus with ratio to the Muslims in

Government jobs made it clear that agitation could influence decisions of the British

Government. It encouraged petitioning and the discussion of communal issues which frequently inflamed the situation. For example, a great deal of communal tension was created at the time of announcement of Hunter Education Commission in 1881.192

Muslims garnered hopes that it would recommend special privileges for them. The

Hindus countered by demanding that Urdu should be replaced by Hindi as the official vernacular language as in Bihar. For instance, the educated Muslims in the urban centres established associations for the defense of Urdu such as Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Urdu.193

The Anjuman remained watchful of the grievances of Muslims of Punjab and tried to attract the attention of government towards them. It requested the Government in 1888 to take suitable steps for the eradication of unlawful use of Muslim auqaf (endowments) in Punjab. It tried to stop the activities of Christian missionaries against Islam as well.

The Christian missionaries were resisted by all Muslim organizations in the Punjab. The

Anjuman protested vigorously in 1881 against a blasphemous writing of a Christian missionary. Likewise, it protested in 1892 against the magazine of a priest named

Williams who sought pardon later and his magazine was also stopped.194 The Anjuman

191 Rafiq-i-Hind, March 9, 1889. 192 Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 68. 193 Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 68. 194 Paisa Akhbar, April 25, 1892. 239 issued a memorial to Governor in 1898 against a blasphemous book titled ―Ummahat-ul-

Mominin.‖

AIPL remained very active in various issues being confronted by the Muslim community of the Punjab. For example, when wheat was started to be exported in 1891, it issued a memorial and raised concerns and demanded the establishment of a Punjab

Council so that a planned and coordinated policy could be formulated in this regard.195

On another occasion, it bitterly criticized the proposed Punjab Court Bill and issued a memorandum to the government in this regard.196

The Anjuman opened a reading room in famous Barkat Ali Muhammedan Hall, in

Lahore, in 1912 where newspapers and journals of English and Urdu were subscribed and readers could sit and read them. In 1914, this reading room was electrified to provide sufficient light and electric fans for readers.197 The managing committee of the Anjuman resolved in 1913 that the pulpits of the mosques under its supervision including the

Badshahi Mosque and Sunehri (Golden) Mosque should not be used to deliver political speeches in it. It was, moreover, resolved that a board stating ―Political Speech is not allowed in Mosque Premises‖ was to be fixed outsides the mosques. In fact, the wars of

Balkans and Tripoli changed the political scene of India and the Muslim community was galvanized by many organizations and personalities in a frantic drive of pan-Islamism.

Resultantly, all mosques became centres of political activity. The Secretary of the

Anjuman Bashir Ali Khan got furious on it and expressed his displeasure.

195 Tribune, July 25, 1891. 196 Tribune, August 19, 1899. 197 Muhammad Waqas, ―The Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore (1947-77),‖ (M. Phil. Diss. Department of History and Pakistan Studies, University of Sargodha, Sargodha), 28. 240

The British creation of an all-white, known as Simon Commission, inadvertently provided opportunity to Indian nationalists to gather their ranks for unity. The

Commission was led by John Simon and arrived in India in November 1927. It was to enquire into the conditions and requirements for future constitution of India. One the one hand, INC was hardpressed to chalk out course of action for future which it did by boycotting the Commission and appointing its own committee under Motilal Nehru to consider the elements of constitution. The AIML led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah ―offered to cooperate [with INC] on the basis of a reasonable charter of safeguards for the Muslim minority, but was rebuffed by the Congress acting under pressure from a fringe group known as the Hindu Mahasabha.‖198 According to Jalal, interestingly ―it was about this time that the term ‗communal‘ acquired its pejorative connotation as the lesser other of nationalism. Claims to speak for Muslim interests by any individual or organization outside the Congress fold now ran the risk of being labelled ‗communalist‘‖.199

Although the Congress and the Muslim League, at central level, decided to boycott the Simon Commission, Sir Shafi‘s group of Muslim League and Sikhs decided to cooperate in Punjab. It was mainly due to Punjab‘s overall cooperation with the British government.200 The communal situation in India was growing worse, especially after the murder of Swami Shradhanand, an important leader of anti-Islam Shuddhi movement, in

1926. It was followed by a most serious communal carnage at Kulkathi in the Brisal

198 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, 119. 199 Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, 119. 200 The report of statutory Simon Commission was published in May 1930. Its first volume contained a survey of ―Indian political, communal, constitutional, administrative, financial and educational systems and an examination of the problems facing the country.‖ Except for the Daily Herald, the report was welcomed by the entire British press, often with glowing tributes. See, K. K. Aziz, Britain and Muslim India (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2006), 118. 241 district of Bengal in March 1927.201 It happened due to ―attack of an armed Muslims band on a Hindu procession that was passing a Mosque with music.‖202 However, the affectees who suffered most were the Bengali Muslims. The Bengal Muslim Conference raised its voice against the behaviour of Bengal Government. The Punjabi Muslim leaders such as Sir Abdul Qadir and Mian Shafi, in capacity of representing AIPL, expressed solidarity for affected Bengali Muslims.203

The AIPL and AHIL supported Simon Commission when it visited Punjab from

March 10-20, 1927. The representatives of these Muslim organizations and Sir Shafi group of Muslim League warmly welcomed them. Moreover, members of the Council of

State, Central and Provincial Legislatures welcomed it. Indian Chiefs Association and local bodies also expressed their gratitude.204 Sir Zulfiqar Ali Khan hosted a largely attended reception at his residence. The local bodies in the Punjab passed resolutions in favour of cooperating with the Commission.205 The members of the Commission attended a meeting of the Punjab Legislative Council at the invitation of its President, Chaudhary

Shahabuddin.206

AIPL did everything possible for the development and prosperity of the Muslims of Punjab and it attained the status of an important representative body of the Muslim community. It received its share of criticism too. Some were apprehensive of the

201 Qalb-i-Abid and Abid, Communalism in India, 24. 202 Qalb-i-Abid and Abid, Communalism in India, 24-25. 203 Qalb-i-Abid and Abid, Communalism in India, 24-25. 204 Civil and Military Gazette, March 12, 1928. 205 Qalb-i-Abid, ―The Muslim Demand for Separate Electorates,‖ Journal of Pakistan Historical Society, vol. XXXVII (October, 1989), 53. 206 Salamat, The Punjab in 1920s: A Case Study of Muslims, 314. 242 influential position of Barkat Ali Khan. It had to bear some economic loss due to a fraud committed by one of its employee in 1890. When Muhammad Saadat Ali Khan replaced his father, Khan Bashir Ali Khan as Secretary after the death of the latter, the newspaper

Paisa Akhbar criticized this appointment in its editorial with the title ―Is Anjuman-i-

Islamia a family property?‖ The newspaper commented that it was an organization of few reformers of the Punjab, dedicated only for Muslim community and could not be restricted to family.

In July 1923, the Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Amritsar branch, presented its own assessment of the communal situation in Punjab in an Urdu pamphlet. It levelled serious allegations against the Hindu press for publishing exaggerated accounts in the communal riots of mid-1922.207 In this pamphlet the Anjuman quoted various speeches of Madan

Mohan Malaviya (b. 1861-d. 1946) in which he urged the Multan rioters to organize themselves and send their ladies to learn the use of kirpans (tr. daggers) and lathis (tr. batons). The so-called citizen guards were, in fact, Hindu organizations, the pamphlet said. In Amritsar, the pamphlet reported the Hindus resorting to throwing bricks on

Muslims. The kutcha bandis (tr. areas declared out of bounds) were erected in the areas of Hindu strongholds and attacks on Muslims used to be planned in these areas. Some instances were pointed out in which Muslim shopkeepers boycotted openly and Hindu vegetable sellers started this job in different quarters temporarily. The Hindus issued posters, organized demonstrations, and held processions against Muslims to provoke disturbances.208

207 Salamat, The Punjab in 1920s: A Case Study of Muslims, 265. 208 Anjuman-i-Islamia Amritsar‘s published poster cited in Civil and Military Gazette, July 6, 1923. 243

Since the Anjuman was mandated to encourage loyalty to the administration and carry the views of the Muslim community to the government, it jumped into conflict over control of the Shahidganj mosque, which was in the hands of Sikhs. The Sikhs had control of this site since eighteenth century and they attached a special significane to this because of Sikh martyrs perpetrated here during the Mughal period: hence, the name

Shahidganj. Though, a Muslim ―claiming hereditary rights as a descendant of mutawallis of the mosque had filed a personal appeal for the return of the mosque in the 1850s,‖ the first serious effort to re-claim the control of mosque was initiated by AIPL in 1920s.209

According to Gilmartin, ―ironically, this claim was lodged in a context that called into question not only the right of the Sikhs to control the site but also the political foundations of the authority of the Anjuman Islamia itself.‖210 The whole affair was necessitated by the passage of Sikh Gurdwaras and Shrines Act of 1925 that severed

Gurdwaras from control of hereditary pro-British custodians and placed in the hands of elected Sikh committees. It was meant to institutionalize Sikh identity independent of colonial power structure. The establishment of Gurdwaras Tribunal was the immediate concern of the Anjuman because it was given power in the Act to rule over Sikh claims of property.

The appeal of AIPL was precipitated by passage of an Act which threatened to revolutionize the administration of religious sites in the Punjab. After a long disagreement among the Sikhs, ―the passage of the Sikhs Gurdwaras and Shrines Act of

1925 had officially removed Sikh gurdwaras from the hereditary pro-British custodians,‖

209 Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, 125. 210 Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, 125. 244 and control given to popularly elected Sikh committees.211 Although this act applied only on Sikhs, but it had implications for the vicissitudes of religious authority within all religious communities of Punjab. It provided the Anjuman an opening to press to claim back the control of Shahidganj mosque.

For the Anjuman, ―the most critical feature of the Act in the short run was its establishment of a Gurdwaras Tribunal which was now given the power to rule on the validity of Sikh property claims.‖212 It entered in appeal, in the case of Shahidganj, arguing that though being in Sikh possession for long and their sacred association for the place, Shahidganj was still as mosque and the property belongs to Muslims and not Sikhs.

The anjuman ―was the most prominent organization in Lahore in the administration of mosques‖ but it had ―changed little in its basic structure or orientation since its founding, remaining closely tied to the influence of urban notables and to the British administration.‖213 The basic foundation or the raison d‟etre for expressing community solidarity was changing in the politics of Punjab of twentieth century. Now Muslims of

Lahore tended to support the more socially and educationally activist AHIL that was trying to emphasize on combination of English education and Islamic culture.

AIPL had an important connection to the Shahidganj and it, therefore, actively participated in agitation of 1935. This incident is considered as a milestone in the development of Pakistan Movement in the province of Punjab. It was flared up when the court dismissed the claim of AIPL to the site, and confirmed the control of Shiromani

211 Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, 125-26. 212 Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, 126-27. 213 Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, 126-27. 245

Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee (SGPC).214 The intention of SGPC to demolish the nearly defunct mosque and build shops on the land instigated widespread protests.

Initially, MAI stood aloof and did not take part actively in protests. Maulana Zafar Ali

Khan spoke vociferously against MAI on July 14, 1935, and afterwards founded the

Majlis-i-Ittehad-i-Millat to actively lead Shahidganj protests.215 It diminished the public support for Ahrars so much so that they were unable to hold meeting for the whole year.

The Majlis-i-Ittehad-i-Millat held series of public meetings at the Mochi Gate Lahore and

AIP supported the Punjabi Muslim public opinion on the important issue of Shahidganj mosque.

To resolve a controversy over the representation of Punjabi Muslims as a ‗political community‘ or an ‗Islamic community‘ was attempted to be resolved by electing Pir

Jamat Ali Shah as amir-i-millat. The agitation, however, went through many vicissitudes after Pir‘s departure in 1936 and ended when Privy Council confirmed the site in the control of the Sikhs. While observing a civil disobedience, many Muslims courted arrest in a march towards the mosque. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, too, visited Lahore to strike a settlement but could not succeed. In 1937, an All India Muslim League resolution called for restoration of this site to the Muslims which stirred a rift between Ahrar Party and

Majlis-i-Ittehad-i-Millat. Again, in 1937, the Muslim League tried to ―to force the passage of a bill in the Unionist-controlled Punjab Legislative Assembly that would have restored the the site to the ‗Muslim community‘‖ which was, certainly, a move to

214 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 59. 215 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 59. 246 embarrass the Unionists.216 The move though failed, it proved that emotional symbolism of mosque still held power for galvanizing community. The eventual sidelining of this issue could take place only after its replacement with more potent issue, in 1940, in the form of demand for a separate state for Muslims of India.

Sir Geoffrey deMontmorency, in his address to members of Anjuman-i-Islamia at

Sargodha, which was although not a branch of AIPL but an independent organization, on

April 12, 1930, expressed his gratitude on being welcomed and stated that he relized as

Colonization Officer, ―the useful functions which your Anjuman can perform in a colony town.‖217 He stated that ―in such matters as the choice and allotment of sites for mosques, idgahs, graveyards and the like and troubled by the problem of what bodies would make them responsible for their care and prevent the diversion of the sites to other uses or encroachment.‖218 He suggested that the Anjuman was ―admirably equipped to fulfill‖ such functions. Geoffrey deMontmorency pointed out another function of the Anjuman that it ―can also bring matters affecting the sentiments of its coreligionists to the notice of the authorities and remove misunderstandings by discussion on matters which concern them.‖219

AIPL was one of the earliest social organizations of Muslims of the Punjab. Since the focus of its endeavors was for the promotion of educational and economic interests of the Muslims of Punjab, it was in essence a communal organization which helped sharpen

216 Ian Talbot, ―The 1946 Punjab Elections,‖ Modern Asian Studies, No, 14 (January, 1980). 217 Speeches of His Excellency Sir G. F. deMontmorency, 1930-1933, Vol. II., 107. He served as Governor of Punjab during the period 1930-1933. 218 Speeches of His Excellency Sir G. F. deMontmorency, 1930-1933, Vol. II., 107. 219 Speeches of His Excellency Sir G. F. deMontmorency, 1930-1933, Vol. II., 107. 247

Muslim religious identity by using, what Oberoi refers to as, ―texts, myths, symbols and rituals.‖220 Despite the scarcity of resources, it was able to render valuable services for the Muslims of Punjab in terms of raising their consciousness of rights of Muslim community. The Anjuman promoted the markers of Muslim identity through using

Muslim religious symbols which were used in Muslim politics in the closing decades of the British Raj. AHIL, however, did the same job through rendering educational and social services to the Muslims of Punjab.

220 Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries, 4. See also T. N. Madan (ed.), Religion in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991). 248

Chapter 4

Muslim Communal Organizations and Muslim Identity: The Case of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore

“Communal ideologies claim to base themselves on an appeal to tradition. But tradition, as is well known, is not a given package of ideas and practices. Traditions are invented or are put together through a selection of items from the past and the selection is deliberate and frequently relates to the social underpinnings of the group involved in present times. Each of the communal ideologies is careful to pick items from the religious beliefs and practices applicable to its community. And the traditions therefore are socially segregated as well…. Communal ideologies, because they use religion for political purposes in the context of a changing and modernizing society, also attempt to refashion the religion.” (Romila Thapar, The Past as Present, 122-23)

Various organizations in Punjab during the colonial era self-appropriated as their agenda to work for the development of the Muslim community and protection of their social- political and cultural rights. Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore (AHIL), which is the focus of present chapter, established a vast network of educational institutions for better educational opportunities for the Muslims living in this part of Indian subcontinent. It not only offered many services in social fields such as managing orphanages, providing medical services, establishing printing press and a dedicated newspaper as its mouthpiece, but also engaged its preachers for countering proselytizing activities of

Christian missionaries in the province. It becomes evident that all of its socio-political activities were centred on institutionalization through which it emphasized on using religious symbolism to promote Muslim identity consciousness which, later on, in the closing decades of the Raj, took the form of Muslim nationalism.

249

4.1 Communal Cognizance of Punjabi Muslims and the Formation of AHIL

Being threatened by their plight and anti-Muslim activities of Christian missionaries and

Arya Hindus, some influential members of the Muslim community engaging into consistent efforts extending over a period of six months, established Anjuman-i-Himayat- i-Islam (The Association for the Service of Islam) at Lahore. Its first session was held in

Masjid Bukkan Khan in locality known as Mochi Darwaza (Mochi Gate) on September

24, 1884 (Zilhajj 3, 1301 AH).1 This intended to serve four major objectives;

1. To counter the Christian missionaries.

2. To establish such educational institutions for the Muslims that should impart both

traditional and modern education.

3. To establish orphanages for Muslim orphans and make arrangements for their

education; and

4. To preach and publish Islamic teachings.2

Later, some changes were made in its objectives focusing upon the well-being of the deprived segments of the society. The new objectives of Anjuman were as follows:

1 Khawaja Muhammad Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore (Lahore: Anjuman-i- Himayat-i-Islam Press, n.d.), 1-2. Hayat served as publicity incharge of AHIL for a long time. According to Hayat, the audience was more than two and half hundreds in number. Since the history of the sessions held by the Anjuman started to be recorded and its objectives were managed to be communicated in published form on the same day, it is regarded as a day of Anjuman‘s inauguration. Anjuman and its all sub- organizations celebrate September 24 as the day of its establishment and holiday is observed in its institutions. 2 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risala [Monthly Magazine of AHIL], March-April, 1893, i. For aims and objective and list of presidents of AHIL, see Aziz, Public Life in Muslim India, 1850-1947, 73-74. 250

1. To rationally and intelligently answer, through verbal discussion or in writing, any accusation advanced against Islam, and to promote the propagation of Islam.

2. To impart suitable and necessary education to Muslim boys and girls, and save them from abjuring their own true faith.

3. To take upon to itself the maintenance and education, to the best of its ability, of Muhammadan orphans, and to render all possible educational aid to poor Muslim boys and girls, so as to save them from falling into the hands of the followers of other religions.

4. To improve the social and intellectual condition of Muslim community and initiate measures conducive to the creation and preservation of friendly feelings and concord between the different sects of Islam.

5. To bring home to the Muhammadans the advantages of loyalty to the British Government.

6. For the realization of its objectives, the Anjuman shall appoint preachers, issue a monthly magazine, establish educational institutions and orphanages, and to make use of other essential means.3

Many of the major decisions regarding its organization, establishing sub-organizations, rules of membership, distribution of portfolios, fund raising, developing its infrastructure and drawing the strategies to achieve the mentioned objectives were taken by its founders. Hence, Qazi Khalifa Muhammad Hamid-ud-Din (b. 1830)4 was elected as

President, Maulvi Ghulam Ullah Kasuri as General Secretary, Munshi Chiraghuddin and

Munshi Pir Bakhsh as Vice General Secretaries, and Munshi Pir Bakhsh as Finance

3 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ki Athveen Salana Report, 1892 [Eighth Annual Report of AHIL, 1892](Lahore: Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 1893), 1. 4 Founding president of the Anjuman, Qazi Khalifa Hamid-ud-Din came from a long established scholarly family in Lahore. His father Khalifa Ghulam Ullah taught Islamic subjects in a mosque situated in the Shah Almi (popularly known as Shalmi) Gate area. 251

Secretary. A rental house in Dubbi Bazar, paying Rs2.5 per month, was decided to be the

Head Office of this organization.5 A renowned theologian Maulvi Syed Ahmad Ali Shah

Dehlavi, along with an orator, was assigned a duty to deliver sermons and debate with the

Christian missionaries in different localities. He agreed to accept a very small amount to perform such scholarly and religious services. The membership was restricted to the

Muslims only and fee was determined to be 4 annas.6 It was decided that the weekly sessions would intermittently be held in the small headquarters by engaging the chiefs of different biradaris so as to make public opinion in favour of the Muslim community and to motivate them to cooperate with the organization for achieving the agendas of AHIL.

The AHIL leadership realized that the Christian missionaries had expedited their activities by considering Punjab a populated area, having the potential for conversion to

Christianity.7 This can also be observed that it was Arya Samaj (est. 1875)8, a Hindu missionary organization, that recognized this challenge and responded to it in favour of

Hindu community and its identity consciousness. It had gradually become a very powerful community body by receiving an unprecedented popularity in the province of

Punjab. Brahmo Samaj (est. 1828)9 and Arya Samaj were such Hindu communal

5 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 1-2. 6 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla [Monthly Magazine of AHIL], March-April 1893, 1. 7 The American Presbyterian Mission entered Lahore in 1849 and Forman Christian College emerged as its principal institution. The Church Mission Society established its branch in Lahore in 1867 while the Methodist Episcopal Mission started its work at Lahore in 1883. The Punjab Religious Book Society had its central depository in Lahore from where Christian religious and other works in English and the vernaculars were supplied. For details, see Imperial Gazetteer of India: Provincial Series, Lahore vol. I &II (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 2013), 20-21. 8 The presence of Arya Samaj in colonial Punjab from 1877 onwards was promoted by leading figures such as Lala Lajpat Rai, Swami Shradhananda (b. 1856- d.1926) and Hans Raj (b. 1864-d. 1938). Its educational impact was immense resulting from activities of DAV College and Schools contributing to communalism. 9 Brahmo Samaj was one of the most influential socio-religious reform movements of colonial India. It was the first to respond to the challenges of modernity. It was started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy (b. 1774-d. 252 organizations that countered religious onslaught of the Christian missionaries. These were then followed by many Muslim communal organizations with the express purpose of countering religious inroads of missionaries. The progress of Christian missionaries can be estimated by the fact that a Syed Zaadi (daughter of a Syed) along with her three children had converted to Christianity in 1883.10 This incident was perceived as a great challenge and caused indignation for the Muslims of Lahore and led to the establishment of AHIL. The lady, although, reverted back to Islam, she left an admonitory mark for

Muslims. In the wake of this incident, AHIL originated and commenced serious efforts to counter such encroachment in their religious fold.

Christian missionaries had the patronage of Punjab Government under the influence of ―Raj and the church [which] advanced side by side.‖11 Stanley Brush observing this situation felicitously called it as ―Punjab evangelical entente.‖12 Their activities were not restricted to the propagation of Christianity rather some of them believed that disgracing Islam and its Prophet (PBUH) by levelling various allegations is a part of their religious obligation. They had become so much ambitious towards conversion that they did not miss even markets and city-squares for expressing their views. The worrisome attitude of leadership about this situation is reflected by the

1833) and Debendranath Tagore (b. 1817-d. 1905) on August 20, 1828 in Calcutta. It pioneered socio- religious and educational advancement of the Hindu community in nineteenth century India. It agitated against idol-worshipping and called for belief in one God. It also protested against hegemony of Brahmins and complexity of religious rites. The Samaj stressed on reading religious texts directly after the revolution in publications had made individual access to reading material possible and affordable. It, however, gave precedence to consulting Upanishads as against Veds. For detailed study see Mubarik Ali, Tarikh aur Mazhabi Tehreekein (Lahore: Fiction House, 2015), 63-73. 10 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 1-2. 11 Stanley Elwood Brush, ―Protestants in the Punjab: Religion and Social Change in an Indian Province in the Nineteenth Century,‖ (Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Berkeley: University of California, 1971), 155. 12 Brush, ―Protestants in the Punjab: Religion and Social Change in an Indian Province in the Nineteenth Century,‖ 218. 253 literature it published, which quotes an incident that in March 1884, a clergyman in a garden of Lahore, outside Delhi Gate, expressed publically his scathing views about

Islam. This infuriated some enthusiastic young Muslims like Chiraghuddin who interrupted him but was thrown out of the place and disgraced. This incidence alarmed the Muslim community and it perceived a challenge to their religious integrity and prestige. Thus, they thought about a practical strategy to cope with these circumstances so that Muslims, as a community, could exert their social influence to stop such incidents.13 It was against this backdrop in Punjab that various Muslim organizations including AHIL emerged to safeguard Muslim identity and interests.

4.2 The Founding Fathers of AHIL

AHIL before September 24, 1884, enrolled about 200 persons as its members, who till

December 1885 increased up to 600. Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam (1938)

[A Short History of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam], one of the primary sources on the establishment of this organization, mentions merely those notable personalities who had shown greater enthusiasm and participation in its sessions during 1884-85.14 It assigned the portfolios and responsibilities to its veterans: Qazi Khalifa Hamid-ud-Din, first

President; Maulvi Ghulamullah Kasuri, General Secretary; Munshi Chiraghuddin and

Munshi Pir Bakhsh, Deputy General Secretaries; Munshi Abdul Rahim Dehlavi, First

Finance Secretary; Shaikh Rahim Bakhsh (Trader Anarkali), Later Finance Secretary;

Maulvi Syed Ahmad Ali Shah, Sermonizer; Haji Mir Shamsuddin, General Secretary

(later); Mirza Abdul Aziz Dehlavi; Munshi Shumsuddin Shaiq; Munshi Muhammad

13 Saeed, Islamia College Lahore Ki Sad Sala Tarikh, 1892-1992, 3. 14 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 2-3. 254

Kazim, first Controller Examinations and Accounts; Hafiz Bahadur Din; Munshi

Najamuddin, alias Baba-i-Anjuman (lit. Father of the Anjuman); Haji Mehbub Alim,

(editor Paisa Akhbar); Munshi Mehr Ali; Seth Ali Bakhsh, Hall Vice President Anjuman;

Maulvi Muhammad Ali, Preacher; Shahzada Mirza; Abdul Ghani Gurmani; Mistri

Muhammad Alam; Maulvi Karam Bakhsh; Khan Bahadur Shaikh Khuda Bakhsh, District

Magistrate; Khan Bahadur Shaikh Khairuddin; Khalifa Imaduddin; Maulvi Daust Ali;

Khalifa Muhammad Amin, Later Finance Secretary; Munshi Muhammad Jan; Mirza

Abdullah; Mirza Ahmad Beg; Mian Muhammad Chittu; Munshi Muhammad Ishaq;

Maulvi Ahmad Din Advocate; Maulvi Rahim Bakhsh, Writer Islamic Book Series; Syed

Amir Shah, Risaldar Major Bahadur; Munshi Muhammad Ghazanfar; Dr. Muhammad

Din; Maulvi Abdullah; Engineer Shaikh Izad Bakhsh, Writer. During next two to three year, the persons who became active members of the Anjuman included Maulvi Ahmad

Baba Mukhdumi; Haji Nizamuddin, Finance Secretary; Mufti Muhammad Abdullah,

President (later); Maulvi Muhammad Fazal Din, Advocate; Maulvi Muhammad Yasin;

Hakim Muhammad Ali, the founder of Ruh Jeevan Booti.15 The names of the founders of

AHIL included notable Muslims from diverse social and economic backgrounds as well as social status and class.16

15 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 2-3. 16 According to the Honours Board placed in the library of the Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore, these sixteen personalities were the founders of the Anjuman. Monthly Himayat-i-Islam (Lahore), January 1991, 21. Qazi Khalifa Hamid-ud-Din, Maulvi Ghulam Ullah Kasuri, Mian Karim Bakhsh, Khalifa Imaduddin, Shaikh Khairuddin, Khan Najamuddin Khan, Dr. Muhammad Din Nazir, Haji Mir Shamsuddin, Munshi Abdul Rahim, Munshi Shamsuddin Shaiq, Munshi Nizamuddin, Munshi Chiraghuddin, Shaikh Abdul Aziz, Munshi Pir Bakhsh, Maulvi Saeed Ahmed Ali Shah Mirza Arshad Gorkani, Shaikh Rahim Bakhsh, Munshi Muhammad Kazim, Hafiz Bahaduruddin, Munshi Najamuddin famously known as Baba-i-Anjuman, Haji Mehboob Alam, Munshi Mahar Ali, Seth Ali Bakhsh, Maulvi Ali Muhammad, Shehzada Mirza Abdul Ghani Gorkani, Mian Fateh Din, Mistri Muhammad Alam, Maulvi Karam Bakhsh, Shaikh Khuda Bakhsh, Maulvi Dost Ali, Khalifa Muhammad Amin, Munshi Khan Muhammad, Mirza Abdullah, Mirza Ahmed Baig, Mian Muhammad Chitto, Munshi Muhammad Ishaq, Maulvi Ahmed-ud-Din Wakeel, Maulvi Rahim Bakhsh, Syed Amir Shah, Munshi Muhammad Ghazanfar, Dr. Muhammad-ud-Din, Maulvi Abdullah 255

4.3 Politics of Conversion and the Role of AHIL

Soon after its establishment, the Anjuman started its activities of delivering sermons. In September 1884, Maulana Ghulam Dastgir Kasuri had written a pamphlet responding to a pamphlet titled Tehrif-ul-Quran [Textual Distortion of the Quran] started by the Christians. In 1886, the Anjuman became famous throughout the province for its litigation with the renowned Bishop of Punjab named Newton.17 Several dignitaries from other cities offered their services as honourary lawyers in religious affairs of AHIL which were accepted with gratitude. The AHIL won this case and the occasion was celebrated enthusiastically. Lectures on different Islamic themes were delivered in its sessions and published later in Himayat-i-Islam monthly magazine which was started one year after its establishment.

The AHIL involved Muslim preachers and debaters for engaging in religious disputations with the Christian missionaries and the preachers of Arya Samaj. They visited cities, towns and villages of Punjab and prepared the minds of the Muslims to deal with Christianity and made them conscious that their religion was under an unprecedented threat due to conversion attempts by the Christian missionaries and the

Arya Samaj. Services of Maulvi Syed Ahmed Ali, Munshi Shams-ud-Din Shaiq, Maulana

Abdul Majeed Dehlavi, Maulana Muhammad Ibrahim, Syed Muhammad Shah Gilani,

Maulvi Muhammad Mubarak and Mian Allah Diya were unforgettable in this regards because they remained engaged in scholarly religious disputations for a long time. Owing

Engineer and Shaikh Izad Bakhsh. Similarly, Maulvi Ahmed Baba Makhdumi, Mufti Muhammad Abdullah, Maulvi Muhammad Fazal-ud-Din Wakeel, Maulvi Muhammad Yaseen and Hakeem Muhammad Ali were included in founder members of the Anjuman. 17 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 4. 256 to their efforts, hundreds of Muslims converted to Christianity were re-entered into the fold of Islam. Two girls of an exiled Afghan royal family were also among those who had converted to Christianity and returned to Islam because of the endeavours of these preachers.18 A committee formed for reversion of such Muslims was called Ishaat-i-Islam

Committee.19

Observing the changing circumstances AHIL revised its objectives and strategies to pursue them. Its management committee received a letter from Maulvi Riazuddin on

November 10, 1895 after which it was felt necessary to slightly alter its objectives.

Riazuddin had written a letter of complaint to the Management Committee prescribing that a nau-Muslim Fund be established under its auspices so that newly convert Muslims could be given economic aid because most of them belonged to poor classes of society.20

Due to the lack of nau-Muslim Fund, and not having any clear description about helping the newly convert Muslims in the objectives of AHIL, a discussion was started whether it should add a clause in its objectives pertaining to helping newly convert

Muslims. Moreover, the strategies to provide funds assisting them were also to be revised. To aid such Muslims, after a long discussion, it was decided: a) AHIL would take the responsibility of helping the newly convert Muslims; b) nau-Muslim Fund would

18 Anjumani-i-Himayat-i-Islam ka Mahvari Risala, Jan, 1894, 7. 19 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, February 1914, 3. 20 Register Sessions Managing Committee, 14-10-1893 to 19-04-1896 (Lahore: Anjuman-i-Himayat-i- Islam, n.d.).

257 merely serve this very objective; c) appropriate efforts would be made to enhance the resources and fund raising.21

The establishment of nau-Muslim Fund remained a matter of controversy within the members of AHIL for long. Some of the members endorsed the decision but the rest opposed it vigorously regarding it irrational, doubting its practicality. However, this issue remained undecided and could not be resolved until April 26, 1896. 22 The Secretary of

AHIL elaborated that it was far better to accomplish one task at a time rather than becoming a jack of all trades and master of none. He doubted this objective as unnecessary one, since it had already overburdened its agendas. Munshi Taj Din, Shaikh

Sahib (Lawyer of the AHIL) and Mir Nisar Ali seconded his disposition. However, Khan

Najam-ud-Din opposed it using elaborate rhetoric, making the point that the members should have faith in God. Eventually, Khalifa Imad-ud-Din affirmed that this objective must not manifestly be added to objectives and directed to continue the proceedings on previous pattern.23

Nonetheless, the AHIL initiated a proper fund. It, however, was not originated by the AHIL itself but people had greatly stressed on it in an annual session and the proposers had donated some amounts for this fund as well.24 From then onwards an exclusive fund was formed named as ‗Nau-Muslim Fund.‘ A deserving newly convert

21 Register Sessions General Council 14-09-1884 to 15-12-1901 (Lahore: Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, n.d.), 6. 22 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Ki Giarvin Salana Report, 1896 (Lahore: Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 1896), 14. 23 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Ki Giarvin Salana Report, 1896, 14. 24 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, July 1895, 4. 258

Muslim whenever came to AHIL asking for some assistance, this fund was used for the said purpose.25

There were three main reasons behind AHIL‘s apathy towards this Fund and later its failure, which are as follows:

1) Other basic affairs of the AHIL were being adversely affected because of saving

money for this Fund.

2) Importance and difficulties of this issue can be estimated by the fact that the

Anjuman Hami-i-Nou-Muslim [Anjuman for the Support of Newly Convert Muslims],

Amritsar, which was particularly established for this purpose, was closed after a short

period of time because it could not meet the required demand of funds.

3) In April 1908, a person from Amritsar Hafiz Abdullah, who was blind, had re-

converted to Islam from Christianity on the condition that the AHIL would help him

financially. The AHIL aided him and arranged a residence for him. But after some

time, he again converted to Christianity and gave the excuse that he did not enjoy

freedom in Islam as he did in Christianity. This action was very disheartening for the

officials of the AHIL and after this incident the Fund was not given further

attention.26

However, this Fund left an indelible mark on the way politics of number in various religious communities was going on unfettered. Such kinds of activities were organized

25 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, June 1895, 1. 26 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, January 1909, 15. 259 on communal basis and these further promoted communal consciousness in the common people.

4.4 AHIL’s Donations: Donors and the Development of Muslim Consciousness

The political economy of an organization determines its rationale and course of action.

The challenges of colonial state and modernity necessitated re-organization of state and society. For achieving its objectives, AHIL needed financial resources. These resources were received from the elite-middle class landlords as well as the commoners. The elite- middle class landlords were collaborators of the Raj and recipients of titles. At the same time, they supported the AHIL because it promoted their community interests and played the role in developing coordination and cooperation among them. The commoners having relatively lesser knowledge of the challenges, nonetheless, were motivated due to religious affinity, emotionalism and conventionalism.

From its very outset, its major economic source had been the generosity and philanthropy of the Muslims of Punjab. The dignitaries of the organization, enjoying higher socio-economic status in the society, themselves contributed a lot in operationalizing its activities. The presidents, besides paying the monthly fee, extended their economic assistance (in the form of sadaqat or charity) while attending its sessions.

They provided donations in cash instantly, during every session of it. The AHIL had started its activities with a meagre amount of fifty four rupees. It started a campaign in

1885 named as Muthi Bhar Atta (a handful of flour).27 Under this movement, its workers

27 Waqas, ―The Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore (1947-77),‖ 59. 260 kept chatori (earthen pots) in houses of Muslims. Women would drop a handful of flour in them at times of meal. On decided day, bearers of the AHIL would receive this flour, sell it, and returns were used for the fulfilment of its expenditures. It is interesting to note that the AHIL did not hire any employee for collecting flour initially. There was no servant, rather some of its members voluntarily took this responsibility.28 Baba-i-

Anjuman, Munshi Najamuddin, being such a volunteer, devoted half of his day for this mission.29 During the collection of flour by the workers, the streets of city were roared with the chorus ‗aata pa chatori, sadqa jaan pyari da‟ (give handful of flour, as charity of your precious life). Collecting flour in the same way remained the practice till a cleric and a servant were appointed for this job.

Apart from flour, some people helped the AHIL through their writings and other literary works. As mentioned earlier, in September 1884, Maulvi Ghulam Dastgir Kasuri wrote in response to a pamphlet titled Tehrif al-Quran [Textual Distortion of the Quran] by some Christian author and offered it to the AHIL for affording the expenditures of its publication and depositing the earning in its treasury.30 AHIL published it and this was how it started publishing the literature. Next year, it started publishing its text books and systematized the sale of the books which it published. The Prime Minister of Patiala,

Khan Bahadur Khalifa Syed Muhammad Hassan, gave three hundred copies worth Rs970 of his book Ejaz-ul-Tanzil.31 In 1884, the AHIL started collecting skins of sacrificial

28 Fiaz Hussain Qadri, An Introductory Pamphlet (Lahore: Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, n.d.), 13. Qadri served as Secretary Finance of the Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore. 29 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 3. 30 Muhammad Hanif Shahid, Iqbal Aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam (Lahore: Kutb Khana Anjuman-i- Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 1976), 32. 31 Syed Razi Wasti, Muslim Struggle for Freedom in British India (Lahore: Book Traders, 1993), 221. 261 animals as well to add to its financial resources as it was done by many Muslim organizations of the time including Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore and Amritsar.32

The first annual session of the AHIL was held in 1886 and the practice of receiving donations was started. Syed Amir Ali Shah provided Rs200, Mian Muhammad Chittoo and the widow of Shaikh Ghulam Muhammad gave Rs100 each, while Rs50 were given by each Syed Fateh Ali Shah and Mian Muhammad Boota as donations in this session.

The Muslim merchants of Lahore kept some donations boxes in their shops in which they and their customers used to drop some coins for the support of the AHIL.33 Leading

Muslim shopkeepers of Lahore adopted this practice to add to its resources.

The rulers of Muslim princely states also patronized the Anjuman. In 1886, Shaikh

Miran Bakhsh, Private Secretary to the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir donated

Rs700.34 In 1893, Her Highness Sultan Shah Jahan (b. 1838-d. 1901), Begum of Bhopal, sent Rs2000. Bhopal was the first princely state which aided the Anjuman financially.35

The Nawab of Bahawalpur fixed Rs600 as annual grant for the Anjuman. It was enhanced to Rs2000 in 1908 on yearly basis. A special grant of Rs50000 was also given for the construction of the college building.36

32 Ahmad Saeed, Anjuman-i-Islamia Amritsar, 1873-1947 (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab, 1986), 92. 33 Syed Razi Wasti, The Political Triangle in India, 1858-1924 (Lahore: People's Publishing House, 1976), 27. 34 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, September 1991, 19. 35 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, May 1913, 16. 36 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, November 1908. 262

In 1896, Prince Nasrullah Khan of Afghanistan (r. February 21, 1919- February

28, 1919) passed through Lahore en route to England and donated Rs5000 to the

Anjuman. In 1906, Amir Habibullah of Afghanistan (r. October 1, 1901-February 20,

1919) granted Rs6000 yearly.37 In 1907, when Amir Habibullah came to Lahore to lay the foundation stone of building of Islamia College, he increased the grant to Rs12000 per year. He also donated Rs30000 for the College and Rs20000 for the orphanage.38 In

1917, Sir Hamidullah of Bhopal presided over the annual meeting of the Anjuman. He donated a sum of Rs10000 and fixed an annual grant of Rs1800 for the female education.39 In 1923, the Nizam of Hyderabad sanctioned Rs300 per month. Afterwards he donated Rs30000 as well.40 Grants were also received from the Government of

Punjab, and between 1914 and 1939, the College received Rs1350000 in grant-in-aid from the Government grants.41

It was mainly due to the efforts of the Muslims of Punjab that AHIL came into being and was established on a firm foothold financially. Various noble men of Lahore and other parts of Punjab bought properties and donated to it. Mian Nasiruddin of Lahore donated a couple of acres of land outside Bhati Gate for the construction of a school and other people bore the expenses of construction of one or two rooms of the school. In July

1929, Mian Allah Bakhsh donated Rs2000 cash and loans extended worth Rs11000.

Nawab Fateh Ali Khan Kazilbash, Mian Muhammad Shafi (b. 1869-d. 1932), Khan

37 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, February-March, 1905, 33. For details, see Nurul Amin and Altaf Ullah, ―Islamia College Lahore Ke Kiaam Mein Afghanistan Ka Kirdaar,‖ Mujalla Tarikh- o-Saqafat-i-Pakistan vol. 28, no. 2 (July-December 2017), 59-72. 38 Syed Razi Wasti, ―The Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore: A Brief History,‖ Journal of Research Society of Pakistan (January-April 1966), 66. 39 Wasti, ―The Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore,‖ 66. 40 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, January 1924, 14. 41 Wasti, The Political Triangle in India, 1858-1924, 28. 263

Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh, Khan Bahadur Shaikh Inam Ali, Fakir Iftikharuddin,42and

Nawab Sir Muhammad Shah Nawaz Khan of Mamdot (b. 1883-d. 1942) were amongst those who gave grants and subsidies to the Anjuman and donated resources.43

In 1887, an individual of Ferozepur devoted a house to the Anjuman. Afterwards this trend kept on increasing and several people arranged a continuous source of income by devoting their houses, lands and shops to it. Some other examples in this connection are as follows: Hakim Badruddin donated a house in February 1895; Mian Fazal Ilahi

Wazirabadi handed over four houses and four shops in August 1898; Mr. Ahmed donated

22 kanals of land; Haji Karam Bakhsh gave 47 kanal 3 marla land in September 1904 and

Shaikh Piran Ditta donated his property in November 1905 for the orphanage. Maulvi

Ahmed Shah donated a Haveli (mansion) worth Rs2000 in April 1906. Masum-un-Nisa dedicated her agricultural land in November 1907. Rukn-ud-Daula, Nawab Azmat Ali

Khan, bestowed a lion‘s share of his immovable property in September 1908. In

November 1908, Sardar Haji Husain Bakhsh donated two masonry houses worth

Rs10500. He also offered two more houses on the condition that they would remain in his custody till death. After his death, the Anjuman could take them over but it had to follow the conditions mentioned in deed of endowment.

In April 1913, the widow of Maulvi Muhammad Din handed over her agricultural land along with jewellery to the Anjuman and directed to donate other immovable properties after her death. In 1917, Mian Nizamuddin, Vice President of the Anjuman,

42 Faqir Syed Iftikharuddin was from the famous Faqir family of physicians of Lahore. They were very influential during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Faqir Khana Museum of Lahore belongs to this family. 43 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 3-10. 264 bestowed a masonry house.44 Moreover, the Anjuman bought properties from time to time with its funds so that they could be utilized at the time of need.45 The eighth Annual

Report of Anjuman states that in January 1892, Hafiz Shaikh Ghulam Mohyiuddin Vakil- i-Anjuman [the Advocate of Anjuman], went to Gurdaspur to collect funds. A session was held and it was attended by huge gathering of notables and Government servants.

Attendees, on the call of Vakil-i-Anjuman, contributed R400 for the organization and

Rs3000 for college fund.46

In the same vein, when the library was established, some authors started donating their books for it. The Prime Minister of Patiala, Khan Bahadur Khalifa Syed Muhammad

Husain, was the most prominent in this regards. As pointed out earlier, he rendered 300 copies of his celebrated book Ejaz-ul-Tanzil, which yielded a sum of Rs975. Therefore, the library too became a reasonable source of income. Similarly, on the event of Eid-ul-

Adha the volunteers went to the Muslim families to collect the skins of sacrificial animals. Later on, this practice became one of the major sources of income for the organization. By initiating a practice of collecting skins of sacrificed animals, it becomes clear that, the Anjuman on the one hand operationalized a mechanism of one of the highly valuable economic resources and attempted to develop a sympathetic feeling of the community towards each other. On the other hand, this also resulted in acquiring the cooperation of the Muslim masses to help and promote its cause and activities.

44 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, July 1917, 1-4. 45 Register Sessions General Council 14-09-1884 to 15-12-1901 (Lahore: Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, n.d.). 46 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore Ki Athvin Salana Report for Year 1892 (Lahore: Anjuman-i- Himayat-i-Islam, 1893), 3. 265

As mentioned earlier, after winning a munazra (debate) with a renowned

Christian missionary named Newton of Ludhiana Mission, in 1886, the AHIL became popular outside Punjab as well.47 Resultantly, people from outside Punjab also sent requests to serve as its volunteers. They rendered their services pertaining to fund raising and popularizing its mission and objectives in the areas and regions they belonged to.

Among them was Maulvi Muhammad Bashiruddin Ahmad Khan who convinced the

Anjuman-i-Hyderabad to deposit five per cent of its income and savings to the AHIL and he himself sent Rs500 instantly. This way of receiving donations out of the funds of any other organization was discontinued later. It then started sending its ambassadors for fund raising.

Initially, no salaried or paid persons were hired to display the posters for publicity of annual sessions; rather this work was performed by volunteers and members. They were full of humble commitment and zeal of Muslim nationalism. The importance of these sessions can be judged from the fact that the most revered personalities of Punjab presided over them considering it an honour: for example, personalities like His Highness

Nawab of Bhopal, His Highness Nawab of Bahawalpur, Nawab Sir Muhammad Saeed of

Chattari and Sir Akbar Haidari of Hyderabad presided some of the sessions.48

47 J. S. Grewal, ―Christian Presence and Cultural Re-orientation: The Case of the Colonial Punjab,‖ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 51 (1990), 535-42. Also see Yaqoob Khan Bangash, ―Missionaries, Christianity, and Education in 19th Century Punjab,‖ FWU Journal of Social Sciences, v.12, n. 1 (2018), 156-63. For a detailed study of religious disputations and Munazara culture, see Powell, Muslims & Missionaries in Pre-Mutiny India, 6-42. 48 In 1887, AHIL managed to install various charity boxes in front of shops owned by Muslim shopkeepers, such as Shaikh Husain Bakhsh, a merchant from Dabbi Bazar, who used to collect money from customers and put some of his own income, and this tradition continued. In the same year, Shaikh Mahr Ali of Hoshiarpur won a judicial case and donated Rs1100. This was the highest amount which the Anjuman had ever received so far. In the next year, Shaikh Miran Bakhsh, private secretary of Maharaja of Jammu and 266

In the beginning of the year 1886, the AHIL laid the foundation of Madrassa-tul-

Muslimin and fixed a trivial amount of monthly fee for the students. The strength of the students, later on, increased manifold and some resources were generated this way. In

1887, it established an orphanage which was registered by Punjab Government in 1892 and the orphans coming from different districts were enrolled. Hence, it began to receive annual financial aid from different district boards, first being District Hoshiarpur. In

1893, Nawab Shahjahan Begum, princess of the Bhopal state, being informed about the role of this organization, provided a donation of Rs2000 which was the first donation received form some Muslim princely state.49

In 1893, the Nawab of Bahawalpur state, visited orphanage of the AHIL. Next year, its delegation reached Bahawalpur.50 At the court, Professor Maulvi Asghar Ali

Ruhi of Islamia College, recited a qasida (a eulogy) in praise of the Nawab, and received a donation of Rs600 per annum. After 1908, this donation was increased up to Rs2000 per annum and was being received till 1940s. The court of Bahawalpur had close relations with the Anjuman and provided it with financial assistance starting from its early years. Besides the annual donations, it also received financial assistance from the court which was estimated to be Rs100000. The major of these donations include:

Rs50000 at the time of laying foundation of purpose-built building of Islamia College

(est. 1908) and Rs50000 by Nawab on his visit to the Anjuman.51 The Government of

Afghanistan took keen interest in the construction of Islamia College, Lahore. AHIL

Kashmir, bestowed Rs700 and this was the second highest amount received. Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 5. 49 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 5. 50 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 5. 51 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 6. 267 established its relations with Afghanistan Government right from 1894. Amir Abdur

Rehman donated Rs4005 on different occasions. Amir Habibullah (b. 1891-d. 1929, r.

1901-1919) donated, in sum, Rs56000 to the Anjuman and Islamia College. The total financial contribution of Afghanistan, thus, makes an amount of Rs60005.52

Punjab Government made a considerable contribution and assisted the Anjuman by providing an annual grant. It also provided a grant meant for non-Governmental

Schools. The Government gave Rs100000 for building and construction projects of its schools. Moreover, between the years 1914 to 1930, it provided Islamia College with a special grant of Rs1300000 approximately. Later, this grant was changed into Rs59800 per annum. Furthermore, from 1935 to 1947, Punjab Government provided the Anjuman with donation of Rs30000 in three installments for its orphanage. On the occasion of its

Golden Jubilee in 1938, it acknowledged the services of the Anjuman and provided it a fund of Rs50000.53

Overall, the major source of income of AHIL was generosity and compassion of the Muslims of Punjab and the precedents which the Punjabi Muslims set by donating money and resources in other forms. On every occasion, they rose up and always contributed overwhelmingly. When Islamia College was being constructed, many contributed by constructing its rooms, each of which was approximately built at the cost

52 Nurul Amin and Altaf Ullah, ―Islamia College Lahore Ke Kiaam Mein Afghanistan Ka Kirdaar,‖ Mujalla Tarikh-o-Saqafat-i-Pakistan vol. 28, no. 2 (July-December 2017), 67. 53 In 1896, a delegation arrived at the court of governor of the Rampur State and returned by receiving a grant of Rs300 per annum. In 1917, His Highness Nawab Sir Hamidullah Khan (b. 1894-d. 1960), prince of Bhopal State, presided over an annual session of the Anjuman and provided Rs10000 in cash and announced Rs1800 per annum dedicated for women education. Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i- Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 6-7. 268 of Rs4000. Rais-i-Azam (the great rais) of Lahore Mian Nasiruddin donated the land of thousands of rupees value, for the construction of Islamia High School. Several people purchased lands and donated, the most prominent among them were Mian Muhammad

Husain who was a resident of Mian Mir, and Syed Mubarak Shah of Multan.54 Through the property donated by the former, the Anjuman received monthly income of Rs200 for each house. Through the latter, it received Rs350 per month from each rented bungalow.

Apart from all these, there were some land grants which were not in the possession of it, yet it received their partial income at the will of their donors. From the donation of

Nawab Muhammad Azmat Ali Khan of Karnal, it received one-eighth of his total income which was estimated about Rs800 per annum.55

The Anjuman was very conscious of the concept of Halal (lawful) and Haram

(unlawful) in respect of donations. A prostitute who was reported to have repented of sins and wanted to hand over her property and houses to the Anjuman, could not do so because its Management Committee refused to receive it. Such kinds of donations were

54 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam ka Mahvar Risala, December 1923, 30. 55 Out of Punjab, the Anjuman received Rs200 per annum from the donation given by Masum-un-Nisa, resident of District Barelli. In 1938, it received two major donations. First was a residential house of Rs18000 in Gujrat, given by Khan Bahadur Shaikh Abdul Aziz, retired DIG Police. Second was three hundred acres of agricultural land in Muzaffargarh given by Mian Shah Nawaz, C.I.E. The income from this land was multiplied after the completion of Thal Canal because the canal turned this land into a highly productive tract. Some people donated lands whereas others supplied the Anjuman with cash grants so that it could purchase property in accordance with its own requirements. In 1929, Mian Allah Bakhsh, who was a Punjabi dignitary serving in the State of Hyderabad Deccan, provided a cash of Rs22000 and further handed over an amount of Rs11000. Haji Nawab Sir Muhammad Fateh Ali Kazilbash, K.C.I.E. of Lahore, Sir Muhammad Shafi of Baghbanpura, Khan Bahadur Shaikh Khuda Bakhsh, Khan Bahadur Shaikh Inam Ali, Khan Bahadur Shaikh Amir Ali and Shaikh Asghar Ali ICSCB (retired Financial Commissioner) of Lahore, Mian Abdus Samad of Bardat Khana, Faqir Syed Iftikharuddin of Faqir family of Lahore, Qazi Khalifa Hamid-ud-Din and his son Khalifa Hammad-ud-Din of Khalifa Family, Haji Sir Rahim Bakhsh KCIE of Karnal, Raja Jahandaad Khan of Gakkhar, Khawaja Abdus Samad Kukru of Baramula Kashmir, Nawab Sir Muhammad Shah Nawaz of Mamdot and Khan Bahadur Nawab Muzaffar Khan CIE (president of AHIL) were important personalities who contributed generously in the funds of AHIL. Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 7-8. 269 recorded to have been rejected earlier as well.56 The AHIL, being a social reform and welfare organization and a representative body of Muslims of the Punjab, tried to keep up a certain image of piety and this was the case in financial affairs too.

In short, the story of phenomenal growth of AHIL can be estimated by increase in its financial resources in colonial period. In 1884, its income was Rs754 while expenditure was Rs344. At the time of partition and establishment of Pakistan,

Anjuman‘s income was just over 10 million rupees and expenditure was about nine million rupees. Initially the house was hired on two and a half rupees per month, while at the time of partition of India the worth of total property of AHIL was approximately seventy million rupees. Additionally, properties which were left in India as a result of partition were of ten million rupees. 57

4.5 Organizational Structure of AHIL

A highly disciplined and well-administered organizational structure of AHIL played a significant role in streamlining and regularizing its activities and in achieving its objectives. This organization over the course of time devised and incorporated various dynamic strategies and drew new rules to improve its functioning. In 1884, its

Management Committee was comprised of the following five members:

1. Qazi Khalifa Imaduddin (President) 2. Molvi Ghulamullah Kasuri (General Secretary) 3. Munshi Chiraghuddin (Secretary)

56 Register Sessions Managemant Committee, 14-10-1893 to 19-04-1896 (Lahore: Anjuman Himayat-i- Islam, unpublished, n.d.). 57 Shaikh Akbar Ali, Anjuman Kay Tamiri Karnaamy: Aik Mukhtasar Jayeza (Lahore: Anjuman Himayat-i- Islam, n.d), 3. 270

4. Munshi Pir Bakhsh (Secretary) 5. Munshi Abd-ur-Rahim (Treasurer) 58

These five were the initial office bearers of AHIL in 1884. Four members were further added to this Committee in 1885. With the expansion of work, the number of officials was increased. It was registered under Societies Registration Act 21 of 1860. Its constitution was framed, rules book was compiled, and its membership was open for every adult Muslim. Its highest administrative body was named General Council, which was first formed in 1910. It was elected after every three years through its members, and then it selected its office-bearers as President, Deputy President, Secretaries, Financial

Secretary, Auditor-cum-Accountant, Engineer and Store-keeper. Honourary in nature, these posts were non-paid. The administration of educational institutes, orphanages and other institutions was supervised by different committees. Every year, their members were elected by the General Council. These committees operated on the pattern of independent institutions and were given sufficient autonomy. Esteemed personalities from different parts of Punjab were elected in its General Council.59

Recognizing extension of its activities and work-pressure, the organization included further eleven to fifteen members in sub-committees. Every committee had a

Chairman and a Secretary. Most significant committees were as follows:

1. Boys College Committee 2. Girls College Committee 3. Tibbiyah College Committee [for Eastern Medicine] 4. Schools Committee

58 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, July 1995, 28. 59 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, September 1988, 46. 271

5. Women Education Committee 6. Junior Model School Board 7. Publishing Committee 8. Dar-ul-San‟at Committee [for Issuing Certificates] 9. Finance Committee 10. Property Committee 11. Construction Committee 12. Dar-ul-Shafqat (Men) Committee [for Male Orphanage] 13. Dar-ul-Shafqat (Women) Committee [for Female Orphanage] 14. Milli Dar-ul-Ittfaal Committee [for Children of the Community] 15. Education Committee for Adults 60

The record of the AHIL shows that there were several prominent persons of Punjab working as its officials, administrators and members of its General Council. It testifies to the dynamism, accommodation and pluralism of the Anjuman as far as the sects within

Islam were concerned. Scholars, representatives of landed gentry, and Government officials remained in General Council along with wealthy people who were its consistent donors. Additionally, famous writers, intellectuals, politicians, lawyers, businessmen, industrialists, doctors, social workers of Lahore and other distant areas of Punjab were included in its General Council.61

60 Eighty Years in Retrospect (Lahore: Publicity Committee Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 1965), 8. 61 According to the facts given in book published by Anjuman itself (date of publication is not available), the members of General Council in office were as follows: Honourable Khan Bahadur Sir Shaikh Abdul Qadir (BA, Barrister-at-Law, Retired Judge High Court, Ex-Member India Council), President; Nawab Nisar Ali Khan Kazilbash (Rais-i-Azam Punjab), Senior Vice President; Khan Bahadur Maulvi Inam Ali (BA, Retired Session Judge, Lahore), Khan Bahadur Maulvi Ghulam Mohyuddin (Advocate, MLA Lahore) and Seth Ali Bakhsh (Import Agent Saleem Building Lahore) Vice Presidents; Syed Mohsin Shah (BA, LLB, Advocate Lahore), Honourary Secretary; Shaikh Azim Ullah (BA, LLB, Advocate Lahore), Honourary Financial Secretary; Khan Muhammad Abdur Rehman Khan (Government Pensioner Lahore), Honourary Examiner; Khawaja Ghulam Dastgir (BA, Superintendent Account Office General Lahore), Honourary Assistant Auditor; Khan Bahadur Chaudhary Inayatullah (Retired Executive Engineer Lahore), Honourary Engineer; Malik Noor Ahmad (Rais Qilla Gujjar Singh and Trader Karachi-Lahore), Honourary Store Keeper. See Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 40. 272

On insistence of its advisors and adherents, AHIL decided to co-opt members from Muslim princely states of India. It was also decided that half members of General

Council would be taken from Lahore and half from areas outside it. Besides its life- members, Old Boys or alumni of Islamia College and donors were also given representation in General Council. Consequently, the number of members of General

Council reached to 150 in 1941. Out of total, fifty members were from Lahore and fifty from other areas. Eleven sub-committees were formed which worked under the General

Council.

The administrative duties were distributed between committees and the General

Council. In some matters, sub-committees had absolute authority. However, in financial matters these committees could not overrule the budget allocated. As far as the financial matters were concerned, financial committee was supposed to discuss the matters and then forward them to the General Council. All the proceedings of sub-committees were supposed to be submitted before General Council and it issued orders in accordance with the rules of business. All committees—with the exception of finance committee, publicity committee and women committee—elected their chairman. General Council had some honourary members too.62 These were elected at the inauguration of every new council after three years.

The sessions of Council were held on first Sunday of every month. Every sub- committee was supposed to explain before the Secretary of General Council, if needed.

62 a) President b) Senior Vice President c)Various Vice Presidents d) Secretaries e)A Financial Secretary f) Examiner g) Auditor h) Controller of Stores i) Engineer 273

All actions and activities were performed in accordance with its Constitution, which had been published in a booklet form and every member was entitled to its copy without any charges.63

In 1908, AHIL perceiving new administrative challenges and disputes within its members established a committee to draw new rules and regulations. It included Sardar

Zulfikar Ali Khan, Sir Shaikh Abdul Qadir and Shaikh Asghar Ali. According to new rules, two positions of secretaries were created. Therefore, both persons, i.e. Haji Mir

Shamsuddin and Shaikh Abdul Aziz, became secretaries on August 10, 1910. This procedure, according to newly formulated rules, remained in vogue till April 1920.

During these days, the political environment of the Punjab witnessed immense anarchy and chaos due to post-World War I situation and Khilafat Movement.64 Since Shaikh

Abdul Aziz was a Government official so he had to resign from the office. Allama Sir

Muhammad Iqbal replaced him, as Secretary of AHIL, on March 31, 1920.65

The Anjuman again decided, in 1922, to have one office of General Gecretary and

Khan Bahadur Maulvi Ghulam Mohiyuddin advocate was appointed. In 1924, the financial conditions of AHIL deteriorated. Shaikh Abdul Aziz replaced the office of

Allama Muhammad Iqbal (b. 1877-d. 1938) and became secretary for second term. By

63 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam ke unattisvein Salana Jalsay ki Roedad [Narration of Twenty Nineth Annual Gathering of AHIL], September-October-November, 1914, 45. 64 For detail see Zarina Salamat, The Punjab in 1920s: A Case Study of Muslims (Karachi: Royal Book Company, 1997). World War I had created many complex problems for the British Raj as well as for the Indians. Indians took part in the war effort because the British had promised to give constitutional package at the end of war. Afterwards Khilafat movement along with Gandhi‘s non-cooperation movement became rallying cry of the Indians and agitational politics became norm of the day. As far as Punjab was concerned, Ghadar Movement also became very popular and urban areas sent many freedom fighters to play role in this struggle against the British Raj. 65 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 56. 274 the virtue of his wisdom and hard work, he restored the financial position of the

Anjuman. In 1925, the controversies among the members increased to such an extent that almost thirty of its members resigned. In the same vein, Haji Mir Shamsuddin resigned from his office as secretary. For his life time services, the Anjuman elected him as life time President.66 For few months, Shaikh Abdul Aziz and Shaikh Ghulam Mohiyuddin continued serving. Finally, the matter was handed over to a committee consisting of persons such as Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi, Sir Mian Fazl-i-Husain and Shaikh Sir

Abdul Qadir.67 According to their decision, Shaikh Abdul Aziz became General

Secretary, and Maulvi Ghulam Mohyuddin and Shaikh Azim Ullah joint secretaries. In

1926, Fazl-i-Husain, Sir Abdul Qadir and Mian Muhammad Shafi reformed the constitution of AHIL to make it more workable and efficient.68

The Anjuman revised its constitution in 1932 again, and the powers of office of

General Secretary were reduced. Financial Secretary, whose responsibilities were to take care of financial matters as third secretary, became the in-charge of constructions and finance departments. In 1935, Khalifa Shujauddin replaced Maulvi Ghulam Mohiyuddin as secretary after his resignation. Later, in 1936, Khalifa Shujauddin and Shaikh Azim

Ullah were elected secretaries once again. Moreover, Haji Munshi Nizamuddin was appointed as Financial Secretary who was regarded as one of the founding fathers. He

66 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 16. 67 Sir Fazl-i-Husain was taking interest in AHIL even before settling in Lahore. He persuaded some leading Muslims in Sialkot to establish a Muslim organization. Thus, foundation of a local Anjuman-i-Himayat-i- Islam was laid. The Anjuman soon started a High School and later it established a large number of primary schools. In 1903, Fazl-i-Husain helped the Anjuman of Silakot and founded a Madrassa-tul-Quran to bring up orphans and educate them. When he settled in Lahore in 1905, he soon started taking part in activities of AHIL. In Lahore, put himself in close association with the Punjab University, the Education Department of Punjab Government and AHIL. For details, see Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 51. 68 Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 69. 275 served in this capacity for most of the time during the period 1889-1940. The Anjuman benefitted from his expertise in financial matters. Intermittently, he visited various

Muslim princely states and convinced the rulers for financial support in fund raising campaigns for the Anjuman.

In 1937, Khalifa Shujauddin along with his other companions resigned from his office. To replace them, Abdur Rehman O.B.E. and Nawab Muzaffar Ali Khan C.I.E. were appointed secretaries and Haji Munshi Muhammad Hafiz as Honourary Finance

Secretary. Muzaffar Ali Khan was elected President because Allama Muhammad Iqbal resigned due to his poor health. Shaikh Muhamamd Hassan became secretary in the place of Muzaffar Ali Khan. After four months, when Abdur Rehman went to Delhi, Haji

Rahim Bakhsh became new secretary. In September, 1937, Haji Munshi Muhammad

Hafiz passed away and Khan Abdur Rehman, who was serving the Anjuman temporarily during the period of his sickness, became Finance Secretary. Unfortunately, they could not work in collaboration and all of them resigned. The matter was handed over to president of the Anjuman, Muzaffar Ali Khan. He mediated and decided in favour of Haji

Mir Rehmat Ullah Humayun, Shaikh Azim Ullah and Haji Munshi Nizamuddin. The first two were appointed as secretaries and the third one as Finance Secretary.

In 1938, the Anjuman celebrated its golden jubilee. Owing to the hectic official engagements, on the wish of the General Council, long time worker Malik Muhammad

Sharif who was the son of Ferozuddin, accepted the office of Honourary Assistant

Secretary. He served the office for one and half years with dedication. After the term of three years, on April 28, 1940, the elections of General Council were held, and

276 consequently, Mian Abdul Majid (Barrister-at-Law) and Syed Mohsin Shah became

Honourary Secretaries and Mian Aminuddin (retired inspector of Banks) the Finance

Secretary.

The organizational structure of AHIL was as dynamic as this organization itself was. With the changing circumstances and emerging new challenges, it, as it becomes evident, continued to change its rules and regulations. There were mutual rivalries, intrigues, jealousies and wrangling among the members and office bearers. Sometimes, founding fathers would intervene and solve the problems so that the organization itself might not suffer. The Anjuman provided Muslims a public sphere where they, despite internal issues and problems, were institutionalized.69 It was due to this reason that, when the peculiar challenges ended after partition and independence, this organization experienced its downfall. It was due to its organizational strength that it became the largest socio-religious reform movement of Punjabi Muslims. Since AHIL was established to respond to unique and unprecedented challenges, its growth and development was also extraordinary.

4.6 Intellectual and Literary Contribution of AHIL: Writers and Writings

One of the glaring aspects of AHIL‘s credential was that it gathered a galaxy of Muslim scholars and intellectuals who not only performed their intellectual services but offered

69 The term public sphere denotes the existence of arenas that are not only autonomous from the political authority but are also public in the sense that they are accessible to different sectors of society. The concept of public sphere implies that there are two other spheres which culturally and institutionally differentiate the public sphere. These are the official sphere and the private sphere; the public sphere in between the two. For details, see Shmuel N. Eisenstadt and Wolfgang Schluchter, ―Paths to Early Modernities: A Comparative View,‖ Daedalus, vol. 127, no. 3 (1998), 1-18. 277 invaluable financial assistance as well. Many writers, poets, orators, theologians, philosophers, academicians were associated with it, who themselves or by channelizing their social contacts contributed significantly to enhance its economic resources. The intellectual and literary atmosphere in the annual sessions of the AHIL promoted many literary and intellectual figures.

It introduced many personalities in the contemporary literary landscape of colonial Punjab. The most prominent of them was Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal.70 Many writers and poets donated their writings to the Anjuman to be published, sold and income be appropriated by it for its social activities. In this regards, the most prominent personalities were Mirza Abdul Ghani Gurgani and Dr. Hafiz Nazir Ahmad Khan

Dehlavi. The former attended the first session of its Advisory Council. On September 24,

1884, he read a comprehensive essay on five tenets of Islam and later continued to participate in its annual sessions regularly. He immensely contributed in fund raising for

AHIL by his scholarship and writings. Hafiz Nazir Ahmad participated in its annual session for the first time in 1886 and later he regularly attended and financially supported it.

Another prominent personality of Punjab, Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi (b. 1869-d.

1932) was introduced to Anjuman in 1893 and he remained closely associated with it for the rest of his life. He was one of the celebrated guardian figures of the AHIL. In the same year, Khan Bahadur Sir Abdul Qadir (b. 1872-d. 1950) was introduced, who rendered immense services and played a leading role in resolving the problems of and

70 For details see Shahid, Iqbal Aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam. 278 offering support to Anjuman. In 1893, he presented his essay on Kalima Tayyiba (the basic religious formula of Islam) in annual session which became very popular. When

Islamia College was declared a degree college and there was paucity of qualified staff who could serve college, he felt need and offered his teaching services although he was busy as Chief Editor of the newspaper Punjab Observer.71 He was assisted by Abdul

Aziz (later Honourary General Secretary of the AHIL) and Mian Abdul Aziz (later

Financial Commissioner Punjab).72

Hakim Muhammad Amin-ud-Din delivered his first scholarly lecture in annual session of 1894 and offered his services to AHIL for many years. In the second decade of its establishment, Chaudhary Sultan Muhammad Barrister, Maulvi Muhammad Din

Bahawalpuri, Khan Ahmad Husain Khan and Shaikh Izzat Bakhsh regularly attended the annual sessions and propagated their invaluable ideas. They also convinced their fellows to assist AHIL financially. Munshi Miran Bakhsh entertained the people by reciting his humorous poetry in melodious voice. Nawab Sirajuddin was also one of the prominent writer-contributors.73 His affiliation with AHIL was a lifelong one.

Allama Muhammad Iqbal emerged as a leading figure associated with AHIL in

1900 and he was introduced to the public through reciting poetry in its annual sessions.74

He recited his emotional and moving poem titled ―Naala-i-Yatim.‖ The way he inspired the people was highly spell-binding. His poetry left far reaching impressions on the hearts

71 Saeed, Islamia College Lahore ki Sad Sala Tarikh, 26-7. 72 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 11. 73 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 11. 74 Muhammad Abrar Zahoor, ―Ahd-i-Bartania Ke Punjab Mein Muslim Shanakht Ki Taamir Keleye Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam Ki Shaeri Ka Kirdaar,‖ Mujalla Tarikh-o-Saqafat-i-Pakistan vol. 26, no. 1 (April-September, 2015), 34. 279 of people.75 It was so ecstatic that Munshi Abdul Aziz of Paisa Akhbar stopped him to recite a piece of his poetry so that thousands of published copies could be sold first. The price was fixed at Rs4 per copy and consequently, all of copies were sold out instantly but the demand remained persistent. Hence, some of the people returned purchased copies as donations to the Anjuman after reading. None of those was sold less than Rs50.

These copies were resold immediately. The father of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Nur

Bakhsh, himself purchased one of its copies for Rs16. Iqbal appeared on the stage of

Anjuman for many years. He recited his popular poems such as Shikwa and Jawab-i-

Shikwa from the platform of the Anjuman.76 He was very kind to this organization and its endeavors for the Muslims of Punjab. He was selected as Honourary General Secretary of

Anjuman on March 31, 1920.77 He served as General Secretary and President of

Anjuman for periods respectively, from 20 April to September 1924 and from 1934 to

1937. According to will of Iqbal a huge collection of his books was donated to Islamia

College.78

Mian Fazl-i-Husain (b. 1877-d. 1936) was one of the prominent guardians of

AHIL. He started practicing law in Sialkot after returning back from England. It was since then that he took keen interest in its activities. He delivered three lectures at the annual sessions in 1902, 1903, and 1904 in which he expressed his views for reorganizing the Muslim community on social, religious and political grounds.79 He continued

75 Zahoor, ―Ahd-i-Bartania Ke Punjab Mein Muslim Shanakht Ki Taamir Keleye Anjuman Himayat-i- Islam Ki Shaeri Ka Kirdaar,‖ 34. See also Gail Minault, ―Urdu Political Poetry during Khilafat Movement,‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 8, no. 4 (1974), 459-71. 76 Shahid, Iqbal Aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 16. 77 Shahid, Iqbal Aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 94. 78 Shahid, Iqbal Aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 95. 79 Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 64. 280 delivering his lectures intermittently in annual sessions. When he went to Lahore for his professional pursuits, he increased his involvement. He remained Secretary of College

Committee for a long period.80 It was due to his interest in the promotion of education that Islamia College received worthy grant in 1914 from the Punjab Government.

There is no denying in that a large number of scholars and intellectuals delivered their speeches at the platform of the Anjuman and most prominent of them include Qazi

Muhammad Salman Patialvi, Qari Shah Salman (the sajjada nashin of Phulwari Sharif),

Sahibzada Zahoor-ul-Hassan Batalvi, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (b. 1888-d. 1958),

Maulana Shibli Naumani (b. 1858-d. 1914), Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali (b. 1837-d.

1914), Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk Syed Mehdi Ali (b. 1837-d. 1907) and Sir Syed Ahmad

Khan. Besides them, Maulana Sanaullah Amritsari (b. 1868-d. 1948) participated in annual sessions of the Anjuman in 1896. Even when he was extremely old person, yet he inspired the people every year by his active participation. Among the contemporary poets, Khawaja Dil Muhammad (Principal Islamia College) inspired the people by reciting his poetry every year. AHIL, by providing Muslim intellectuals a forum to promote their scholarship and by acquiring their intellectual and financial contribution, played the role of a think tank for the Indian Muslim society, particularly that of Punjab.

So, the dedication and commitment of these ideologues associated with it and its cause were overwhelming and emphatic.

They were mainly concerned with deteriorating political situation of Indian

Muslims and their renaissance. The themes of the poetry recited at the general gatherings

80 Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 359. 281 and annual sessions of the Anjuman included the downfall of Muslim empires, social and economic backwardness, moral depredations, glorification of the Muslim past, challenges of Christian missionaries and Hindu reform movements, issues and problems of Hajj, educational challenges for the Muslims, pan-Islamic concerns of Indian Muslims,81 and colonialism and its challenges for Muslim countries. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Aligarh movement was considered as their role model by the leaders of the Anjuman. AHIL also took keen interest in the political developments of Indian subcontinent, and especially in the Punjab. It supported the politics of All India Muslim League and Jinnah. For instance, according to Roger D. Long, after 1945,

an election office was set up at Islamia College, Lahore, and 200 students were deputed to tour 20 constituencies covering 400 villages. In the course of the campaign it claimed that 60,000 villages were visited by these student campaigners…. The students were carefully coached to express their messages in religious terms and to equate the Muslim League with Islam. Dawn recorded their names and activities.82

Islamia College, Lahore emerged as the main citadel of Muslim Students Federation.

Muslim identity became the rallying ground for almost all activities of the AHIL.

4.7 Countering Christian Missionaries and Preaching Islam

The Punjab Government adopted the policy of neutrality in religious affairs but some officers were supportive of the Christian missionaries. The supporters believed that the conversion of natives to Christianity was the greatest blessing that the colonial rule could

81 For detailed analysis of the importance of pan-Islamism for Indian Muslims, see chapter ―Pan-Islam in the Indian Environment,‖ in Qureshi, Pan-Islam in British India, 1-58. 82 Roger D. Long, ―Dawn Delhi IV: The Making of Pakistan,‖ Daily Dawn, September 23, 2017. 282 offer. Even during the early years of British rule, officials observed Sundays with religious ferver and public work projects were halted.83 The Punjab Government started openly supporting missionaries with the land grant of 2,000 irrigated acres in Chunian to the Church Missionary Society for establishing a Christian colony.84 Later, in 1880s, a network of mission stations was established throughout Punjab of which the Church

Mission Society ran 113 schools. In the next twenty years, the number of copies of newspapers and tracts espousing Christian opinion rose to 300,000 annualy and the Urdu weekly Nur-i-Afshan sold 500 copies in the Ludhiana District alone.85 To counter such a challenge, in 1885, a magazine, Akhbar-i-Himayat-i-Islam, was started for missionary activities of the Anjuman.86 This paper published invaluable essays discussing the objections of Christian missionaries leveled against Islam and their appropriate rejoinders by the Muslim theologians and intellectuals. This magazine was distributed free of cost among members and non-members alike. Its circulation had been up to five thousand copies. It was converted into a weekly newspaper in 1926 and this newspaper rendered the same services.87 The newspaper worked as a mouthpiece for expressing socio- economic and political issues and concerns of Punjabi Muslims.

In 1886, Madrassa Talim-ul-Quran was inaugurated and Qazi Khalifa Hamid-ud-

Din, first president of AHIL, started delivering lectures in this institution. The Anjuman‘s published text books were part of curriculum in several Government schools of provinces

83 Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 70. 84 Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 70. 85 Barrier and Wallace, The Punjab Press 1880-1905, 23. Nur-i-Afshan was published by the Presbyterian Mission from Forman Christian College Lahore. It was one of the leading magazines expressing and preaching the message of Christian missionaries in Punjab. 86 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 32. 87 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 32. 283 and princely states. In schools, the theological literature was part of the syllabus of class four and the translation of the Quran was compulsory in the classes above four. In this school, various subjects/branches of Islamic knowledge such as Quranic exegesis, hadith and Muslim jurisprudence were taught along with modern science and English education.

These subjects were taught in such a way that a primary passed student could learn

English language as well as could become a theologian in six years.88

Likewise, a college named as Ishaat-i-Islam College was established in 1930, considering the gravity of the problem of apostasy and challenges by propagation of the

Christian missionaries in the province. The purpose of establishment of this college was to produce such Muslim preachers who could serve the cause of Islam within and outside

India. From its very outset, AHIL appointed its preachers, one of which was Sufi Ghulam

Mohiyuddin who was one of the pious figures of family of Diwan Mulraj (wali-i-

Multan). His real name before converting to Islam was Diwan Ram Saroop. His services, rendered during early period of the Anjuman, were highly acknowledged and appreciated. It was he who was invited to the Royal Court of Afghanistan, and it was due to his efforts that he succeeded in acquiring Rs6000 annual assistance for the Anjuman from Kabul.89 Due to the preaching services of the AHIL, hundreds of Muslims who had been converted to Christianity re-entered into the fold of Islam again. Thus, Akhbar-i-

Himayat-i-Islam and Ishaat-i-Islam College played a significant role in rendering missionary services for disseminating Muslim public opinion in the people of Indian subcontinent, particularly of the Punjab.

88 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 33. 89 Ahmad Saeed, Islamia College Lahore Ki Sad Sala Tarikh (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, 2001), 55. 284

4.8 Colonial Context of Modern Education and Muslim Identity Construction

During Muslim rule in India under Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire, educational system was based upon traditional and informal arrangements. The education system based upon certifications and broader network of public schools was first introduced by the British Raj. Starting from Fort William College, the British introduced modern education and public schools. They wanted to educate Indians so that they could get employment at subordinate positions in the British colonial administration. The Christian missionaries were the first, besides the colonial administration, to establish hospitals and schools throughout Punjab. The Hindu organizations such as Brahmo Samaj and Arya

Samaj were quick to take up the responsibility of establishing schools for their co- religionists. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was the first Muslim leader who realized the urgency of establishing modern educational institutions and he started Aligarh Movement. AHIL followed Sir Syed Ahmad as a model, and its leaders and workers used to call him as

Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader) of the Muslims of India. The Anjuman was doing the same job of educating the Muslims of Punjab, which Sir Syed was doing in the shape of

Aligarh movement. However, its educational institutions were meant for the general public as compared to the elitist approach of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Moreover, Syed

Ahmad‘s educational programme was supported mainly by AHIL‘s socio-cultural and educational activities in Punjab.90 In line with Aligarh‘s approach, AHIL discouraged political activities aimed against the British and it focused only on social uplift of the

Muslim community of Punjab through education.

90 Malik, Sikandar Hayat, 24. 285

Only twenty seven years after the annexation of Punjab, the British Government placed all the public sector schools under the charge of local bodies (Municipal and

District Boards) as directed by Calcutta following the Hunter Report of 1882 and stopped further opening of schools in public sector.91 Having become accustomed to the state‘s role in the provision of education, the Punjabis viewed this move as detrimental to the cause of education. The move was severely criticized by the Tribune and the nationalist press in general.92 To make up for the withdrawal of Government‘s role, a number of socio-religious reform and communal organizations of the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs stepped forward to fill the gap. They established educational institutions mainly on self- help basis and challenged the missionary monopoly of private sector education in the province. Religious freedom assisted the work of these organizations and communal concerns placed them in charge of community development projects. Ruchi Ram Sahni, an outstanding intellectual, educational and social personality of colonial Punjab, wrote that,

The old system of education was discredited; the social system of a Pandit or a Maulavi had considerably gone down, while the education in pure indigenous classics had almost completely lost its commercial value. The only use that could now be made of the men well-versed in the old learning was to officiate at religious rituals and ceremonies. But religion itself was at its lowest ebb. The Government‘s open and even ostentatious profession of an attitude of neutrality in religion dealt the last fatal blow at it.93

91 Masood Akhtar Zahid, ―Local Self-government and Education in India: Explorations into the Late 19th Century Punjab,‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVII, no. 1 (January-June, 2016), 4. 92 Zahid, ―Islamia Anjumans and Educational Development: Perspectives on the 19th Century British Punjab,‖ 6. 93 Sahni‘s memoirs originally titled ―Self-Revelations of an Octogenarian,‖ published as, Burra, A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab, 214. 286

The operations and activities of communal organziations by dint of the religious freedom ensured by the British administration and communal consciousness placed them in-charge of community development projetcs. These anjumans, samajs, associations became ―self-appointed, communicative agents of communal ethos and pushers of communal interests.‖94 These Muslim associations made the Muslims perceive themselves as a nation in the sense Anderson defined it and Veer explained it as religious nationalism in South Asian context.95 They were fed by communal polarization and, having established community schools, fed this type of ideology further through these educational institutions. The Christian missionaries‘ virtual monopoly of private schools unnerved the leaders of these communal organizations. Moreover, compulsory teaching of Bible in schools of missionaries became talk of the town. Given the opportunities created by the Government policy, AHIL pioneered modern education for the Punjabi

Muslims as a ―vehicle of self-expression, social transformation and political empowerment of the community.‖96

4.9 Educational Network of AHIL

Influenced by the modern educational trends which British Raj introduced and some

Hindu and Muslim community organizations followed to incorporate them with that modernization through education, AHIL showed vigorous interest in establishing

94 Zahid, ―Islamia Anjumans and Educational Development: Perspectives on the 19th Century British Punjab,‖ 6-7. 95 For an analysis of nations as ‗imagined communities,‘ see Anderson, Imagined Communities. For religious nationalism, see Veer, Religious Nationalism. 96 Zahid, ―Islamia Anjumans and Educational Development: Perspectives on the 19th Century British Punjab,‖ 22. 287 educational network.97 Through establishing schools, seminaries and colleges, it imparted both modern and religious education to the Muslim students. Lahore emerged as the major centre of modern education, not only in the Punjab but the whole of North India.

By the close of the colonial era, Lahore had almost three hundred educational institutions.98

AHIL, thus, established Madrassa-tul-Muslimin in 1886 in which thirty male students were enrolled. The school was upgraded, in 1888, to middle standard within two years only and a high school the next year. The college classes were started in next three years (1892) and the number of registered students rose up to 770. The Anjuman established four high schools, one middle school and many primary schools and one highly prestigious college. The total number of students, enrolled in the institutions of the

Anjuman, reached up to 5500 and the strength of teachers to 275.

In 1912, due to the increase in number of students and opening of various schools by communal organizations such as the Hindu Mahasabha, Arya Samaj and Singh

Sabha,99 the Anjuman opened its more schools in Lahore and its peripheral areas and a committee, called as Primary Education Committee, was established for the administration and organization of these schools. This committee also opened primary

97 Tim Allender, Ruling through Education: The Politics of Schooling in the Colonial Punjab (New Delhi: New Dawn Press, 2006), 185-191. 98 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 28. 99 The Singh Sabha movement was established as a reaction to the Arya Samaj‘s attempts to reconvert lower caste Sikhs to Hinduism through the Shuddhi (purification) ritual. The reformers of Singh Sabha addressed these issues: 1) to remove Hindu images from Sikh shrines; 2) to purify folk religion; 3) to establish a distinct code of doctrines for the community. Famous Singh Sabha leader, Kahn Singh Nabha‘s (b. 1861-d. 1938) riposte to the Aryas contained in his famous tract Ham Hindu Nahin (We are not Hindus) was published in 1897. See Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries, 216-252. 288 schools in various tehsils of Lahore including that of Chunian and Kasur. Gradually, these schools increased in number to 63 and the process of establishing schools continued till 1926.

The Punjab Government issued orders for free primary education. The Anjuman handed over majority of its schools to Municipal Committee, Lahore and District Board,

Lahore. The Government agreed that the schools, in which Muslim students would be more than sixty per cent, would implement AHIL‘s curricula and text books. By virtue of this, the Anjuman saved much of its expenditures. Moreover, a reasonable number of

Muslim teachers got employment in these schools. According to these terms and conditions, some senior students of Ishaat-i-Islam College used to impart religious education in these schools and received some allowances from the Anjuman. Establishing schools was need of the hour for the Muslim community because they were lagging behind in the field of education than other religious communities, especially the Hindus.

Through providing schooling to the Muslim children, the Anjuman was not only preparing them for their future life, it was also making them Muslim identity conscious.

An example in point is the role, played by Islamia College, Lahore of the AHIL during

Pakistan Movement.

4.9.1 Schools of AHIL

AHIL established a large number of educational institutions, especially schools for the

Muslims of Punjab. However, most prominent of them in Lahore included Islamia High

289

School Sheranwala, Islamia High School Bhaati Gate, Watan Islamia High School, and

Islamia Middle School, Multan Road.

4.9.2 Islamia College, Lahore and Promotion of Muslim Identity Consciousness in Punjab

Islamia College Lahore was the most prestigious educational institution of AHIL.100 It developed a close linkage with Muslim identity consciousness and later Pakistan movement. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of a separate state of Pakistan established on the basis of Muslim religious nationalism, developed an intimate contact with this college and he visited it many times during Pakistan Movement. In fact, Islamia College served as vanguard of the politics of Muslim League in Punjab.101 Muslim Students

Federation, the student wing of Muslim League, was started in this college and it remained citadel of Muslim student politics in Punjab. The first Pakistan Conference was held in the vast playgrounds of Islamia College, and M. A. Jinnah graced the occasion.

Moreover, the arrangements for the historical session of 1940 of the All India Muslim

League in which famous Lahore Resolution (later came to be known as Pakistan

Resolution) was passed were made by the Muslim Students Federation consisting mostly of Islamia College students.102

Established by AHIL, this college was ―the only Muslim National College in the province.‖103 The objective was to provide young Muslims with higher Western

100 Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 74. 101 Saeed, Islamia College Lahore ki Sad Sala Tarikh, 395. 102 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, April 10, 1970. 103 Punjab Government, Lahore District Gazetteer, 1916, Vol. XXX A (Lahore: Government Printing, 1916), 229. 290 education accompanied by religious and moral instructions. As it was intended especially for the children of poor parents, the fee was charged very low. The college was established in 1892 and was confined to Intermediate classes up to 1900 when BA classes were also introduced.104 In 1905, arrangements were made for teaching up to the MA standard. The subjects taught in FA classes in year 1916 were English, Mathematics,

Philosophy, History, Physics, Chemistry, Arabic and Persian.105

Regarding the educational services of the AHIL, Islamia College Lahore had unparalleled significance.106 In 1892, FA first year classes were inaugurated and two rooms from Sheranwala School were allocated for this college. One of these was allocated for education and other one was divided into three portions, i.e., for Principal,

Staff and Office. Next year, another room was taken for second year classes. Therefore, till 1900 these three rooms were considered as the building of Islamia College, Lahore. In

1901, an upper storey was constructed over these three rooms and the college continued in the same conditions till 1907.107 However, in 1905, Anjuman purchased a land of five kanals between Railway Road and Brandreth Road with cost of Rs51000. In next year,

Anjuman also purchased adjacent land of fifteen kanals with cost of Rs24667.

104 Punjab Government, Lahore District Gazetteer, 1916, Vol. XXX A, 229. 105 Punjab Government, Lahore District Gazetteer, 1916, Vol. XXX A, 236. 106 Amin and Ullah, ―Islamia College Lahore Ke Kiaam Mein Afghanistan Ka Kirdaar,‖ 59-72. Presently, there are three Islamia colleges in Lahore. Historically, they represent three major educational movements in colonial North India. These movements represented three communities namely the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. Ironically, because of their separate religious histories stretching over centuries, they established educational institutions on communal lines. Of these three, the Anjuman established Islamia College on Railway Road, Lahore. The DAV (Dayananda Anglo Vedic) College was also renamed as Islamia College after partition of India. See Majid Shaikh, ―Harking Back: The Complex Story of Lahore‘s Islamia Colleges‖ Daily Dawn, June 18, 2017. 107 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore ka Mahvari Risla, April 10, 1970. 291

When Mian Fazl-i-Husain permanently settled in Lahore in 1905, he practically began to participate in the multifarious activities of AHIL. He became member of the

General Council, was elected as member of the Managing Committee and Secretary of the College Committee, continuing to perform these duties in these offices till 1921, when he was made minister of the Punjab Government. Islamia College Lahore was the most important of all educational institutions of the Anjuman and he, as Secretary of

College Committee, was the chief organizing spirit for almost fifteen years. In 1906, he organized a deputation and secured a grant of Rs50,000 from the Government to extend the college building and construct Rivaz hostel.108

Many Afghan notables including Amir Habibullah Khan, Prince Nasrullah, Dr.

Abdul Ghani, Najaf Ali, Muzaffar Khan Marwat, Nabi Bakhsh and Sultan Muhammad

Khan supported the establishment and uplift of college from time to time.109 In 1907,

Amir Habibullah Khan of Afghanistan laid the foundation stone of the building of

Islamia College and in the same year, the construction of Rivaz Hostel was started. 110

Similarly, the Anjuman invested Rs460,000 till 1940. The ground of Islamia

College was one of the most prestigious among the Governmental and non-Governmental educational institutions. The map of preliminary building was drawn by one of the

108 Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 67-9. 109 Amin and Ullah, ―Islamia College Lahore Ke Kiaam Mein Afghanistan Ka Kirdaar,‖ 59-72. 110 Ahmad Saeed, Islamia College Lahore Ki Sad Sala Tarikh, 1892-1992 (Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab, 1992), 19. When in 1908 the building of Rivaz Hostel was completed, some of the classes of college were transferred into the Western part of it. This building was completed in 1913. College building had been increasing as far as it was needed. Therefore, till 1940, the first construction with cost of Rs175,000 besides the cost of land was completed. In the separate compound of the land, a library, a reading room was constructed with cost of Rs25,617 which was later on demolished for realizing the deficiency, of playground. For fulfilling this very deficiency the Anjuman also purchased further land with cost of Rs75162 and constructed a gymnasium with cost of Rs10623. 292 founding fathers of the Anjuman Engineer Mian Muhammad Abdullah who also supervised its entire construction. In its centre there was Habibia Hall and its Eastern side the building was called as Bahawalpur wing.111 The office of the college, principal office,

Physics Theatre and laboratory were situated in the same wing. 112 The classes of FA/F.Sc and BA/BSc, and MA classes of the disciplines like Arabic, Persian, History, Philosophy,

Economics, Political Science, and Mathematics were taught. Since 1906, the only subject of MA was of Arabic.113

To facilitate the college and the Boards, there was a dispensary adjacent to the college providing the medicines free of cost. Nationalist figure, Dr. Feroz-ud-Din, retired

111 Habibia Hall was named after King Habibullah of Afghanistan who laid the foundation stone of this historical college. 112 The endurable legacy of Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam is reflected in naming the DAV College Lahore (presently Islamia College Civil Lines) and names of its hostels on the names of Islamia College Lahore built and owned by Anjuman. The Crescent Hostel and Riwaz Hostel used to be names of Islamia College of Anjuman. Later on, when the name of DAV College was changed and replaced with Islamia College Civil Lines, the names of its hostels were also changed and replaced with Crescent Hostel and Riwaz Hostel. The cultural and educational legacy of Anjuman is reflected by many things. For instance, the Anjuman used to arrange a Quran Study Circle in its institutions during the colonial period. In all colleges of Lahore, the arrangement of Quran Study Circle with the same terminology of its name remained in vogue till late 1990s. There were three hostels adjacent to the college one of which i.e. Riwaz Hostel, constructed in 1908, was inside of the premises of the college. This Hostel had thirty seven cubicles and twenty seven rooms accommodating three students. Besides the residential rooms, there were three larger ones which included common room, prayer hall, and dispensary. The building of hostel was divided into two portions: the Western one of which included kitchen, dining hall and various bathrooms. In the same part, there was a residence of superintendent of hostel. The expenditures of the construction of this hostel may be estimated as Rs96551. excluding the cost of land. Second hostel, called as Crescent Hostel, was situated on Cooper road. For discussion on Quran Study Circle see, Zahoor and Mohyuddin, ―Anjuman-i- Himayat-i-Islam Ki Adabi aur Taleemi Khidmaat (1884-1934),‖ 35. 113 In 1926, this residence was demolished so as to construct the building for hostel. Among other college hostels of Lahore city it was a model hostel, possessing nearly cubicles. Till 1941, it was comprised of sixty six rooms, kitchen, common room and separate bath rooms. In its vast yard, there was a playground. For water supply, there was a separate tube-well. The expenditures spent over the construction of this hostel may be estimated Rs55762. The building of this hostel was handed over to Islamia College for women on rental basis. The third hostel situated in the East of the yard was Hailey Hostel. The Anjuman purchased constructed building of it by paying forty seven thousand rupee and later on it was amended according to the needs. It was extended by purchasing further land in South of the compound. This part was called Wilson Block. Both of these parts acquired the expenditures of Rs32561. Hence, the construction of Hailey Hostel became possible with Rs79561. This vast land along with the residence was purchased by Anjuman by paying Rs153000 in 1921. Zahoor and Mohyuddin, ―Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Ki Adabi aur Taleemi Khidmaat (1884-1934),‖ 35. 293 civil surgeon, voluntarily served there for long. In 1896, the strength of students in the college was eleven and was increased till 1941 with more than one thousand students. It was the very college which initially hired the teachers paying them low salaries had reached to the financial stability that it required the services of highly qualified teachers

Mr. Henry Martin, Mr. Leach Wilson and Allama Yousaf Ali by paying them recognizably high salaries.114 Its staff included eminent scientists like Dr. Malik Nazir

Ahmad and European qualified professors and renowned authors such as Khawaja Dil

Muhammad, mathematician (Principal of the College), Syed Abdul Qadir specialized in the discipline of History and Shaikh Ghulam Hussain in Economics.115

In short, Islamia College Lahore‘s role in Muslim identity consciousness and providing Muslim leadership in Punjab is significant. The arrangements of famous

Lahore Resolution of 1940 were carried out by the students of this college. During

Pakistan Movement and elections of 1945-46, the college students led the campaign for

Muslim League. The college provided educational opportunities to the Muslim middle class and lower-middle class who could not earn costly education. Therefore, the institution provided a large number of scholarships. Many towering personalities such as

Henry Martin, Vesey Hague, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, Sir Abdul Qadir, James Leitch

Wilson, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Alexander Wilson, M. A. Ghani and B. A. Qureshi remained associated with college as teachers or principals.

114 Henry Martin, a Lecturer at Aligarh, was persuaded by Mian Fazl-i-Husain to serve in Islamia College Lahore. The appointment of a non-Muslim was problematic but as long as Fazl-i-Husain was Secretary of the College Committee, Martin continued as Principal. He not only improved the enrollement, from 99 in 1910 to 473 in 1915, but also improved its discipline and quality of teaching to make it one of the leading colleges of Lahore. Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 68-9. 115 Saeed, Islamia College Lahore Ki Sad Sala Tarikh, 19. 294

4.9.3 Female Education and AHIL

Women in South Asia had generally been a marginal segment of society. Historically speaking, the females were confined to household sphere attaching it a concept of chadar and chardiwari (veiling and house). This trend and treatment of the Muslim society in

India was the consequence of religious influence of the ulema and nobility coming from

Central Asia, Middle East and Persia. One of the striking developments in Muslim identity under British rule was its acquirement of a female dimension. Traditionally the public realm was the domain of men while women belonged to the realm of domestic world. The man‘s world was, therefore, the arena of Muslim identity.116 The distinctive symbols of Muslim identity such as Mosque, madrassa and sufi shrines were the domain of public or men‘s realm. But during the British period, women became both guardians of

Islam in domestic space and extended their sphere of influence in the public sphere. This was the result, in part, of new ideas of womanhood and the status of women brought into

India by the official and non-official British impact. Moreover, women became a prime sight of the intersecting discourse of Islam, colonialism and modernity.

Right from the early nineteenth century the British brought issues of women in the public arena by launching campaigns against the burning of widows by the Hindus, female infanticide, child marriage and female seclusion. The Christian missionaries also took up such issues in which women were victims. The missionaries stressed upon

Muslim women‘s right to education and better health. They established zenana missions, zenana clubs and even published magazines especially for women. The twentieth century

116 Robinson, ―The British Empire and the Muslim Identity in South Asia,‖ 283. 295 witnessed increasing state intervention to create opportunities for women. The

Government established hospitals dedicated for women‘s health issues and maternity.

Muslim women attained recognition by the state in the shape of the Child Marriage

Restraint Act of 1929, the Shariat Application Act of 1937 and the Dissolution of Muslim

Marriages Act of 1939.117 The British Government conferred political rights by reserving seats for women in the Government of India Act of 1935. In short, by 1940s, the public role of Muslim women was widely acknowledged and Muslims themselves started taking lead in this arena.

The Muslim response to colonial rule played more important role in developing a female dimension to Muslim identity by bringing Muslim women to the public arena.

Reformist ulema, being confronted with the power of colonial state in public space, transformed their women folk being a dependent and weak gender to being central transmitters of Islamic values and symbols of Islamic identity.118 An example in point was Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi‘s influential book Behishti Zewar [Jewels of Paradise or

Heavenly Ornaments] meant to be a companion of women, a book designed to bring the cause of Islamic refom into the household.119 Thanvi‘s ideal woman was to be able to read and write Urdu, to fulfill her religious obligations, to keep her house in order, to bring up her children with due care and to be able to sustain appropriate relations with

117 Gail Minault, Secluded Scholars: Women‟s Education and Muslim Social Reform in Colonial India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998). 118 According to Tahir Kamran, ―When assessing the issue of women‘s empowerment in these postmodern, postcolonial times, it is also important to historicize how the role of women was re-assessed during the era of reform in India (mid-19th to early-20th Century) against the backdrop of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and his contemporaries‘ bid to make new social adjustments in British colonial dispensation. Political decline led to social decline. The family as a primary social unit in Muslim India was reconfigured during this period.‖ See, Tahir Kamran, ―Women‘s Empowerment,‖ The News on Sunday, November 4, 2018. 119 Francis Robinson, Islam and Muslim History in South Asia (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), 77. 296 those outside household in a dignified manner. Woman was given a role equal in responsibility and in human potential to men.120

Besides Ashraf Ali Thanvi, two other Muslim luminaries also attempted to contribute to enable women to shoulder the responsibility of renaissance of Muslim society in colonial India. They were Deputy Nazir Ahmad and Abul Kalam Azad. Ahamd wrote prescriptions such as Tabatul Nasuh and Mira‟atul Aroos in the form of Urdu novels. Abul Kalam Azad wrote Mussalman Aurat which also represented the same trend in Muslim middle-class elite that women should be empowered through education but education should not ―replace or supplant the integrity and primacy of the women‘s place within the chaddar and chardeewari.‖121 In the same vein Altaf Hussain Hali reiterated his emphasis by writing that ―aye maao behno betiyo duniya ki zeenat tum se hai, mulkon ki basti ho tumhi qaumon ki izzat tum se hai,‖ which was meant to place on women the responsibility of maintaining the social unit of family. There was an element of censorship on literature keeping in view the sensibilities of colonial state‘s Victorian conception of morality and its permeation in society and its adoption by the religiously conservative sections of society.122 The process produced a separate category of

―proscribed literature.‖

120 Barbara D. Metcalf, Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi‟s Behishti Zewar: A Partial Translation with Commentary (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). 121 Kamran, ―Women‘s Empowerment,‖ The News on Sunday, November 4, 2018. 122 An example in point is Ashraf Ali Thanvi‘s long list of novels, short stories and poetry particularly romantic verse, in the opinion of author, forbidden to young girls. He also advised that unmarried girls should not be allowed to read Sura Yousaf. For details see, Mubarik Ali, Mirror of History (Islamabad: Badalti Duniya Publications, n.d.), 36. 297

During the period of British Raj in India, it was Christian missionaries who emphasized on women education and they provided equal educational opportunities to them by establishing female schools and colleges in major urban centre of India, which, for instance, included St. Marry Schools, Convent School, Sacred Heart Schools and

Kinnaird College. This can be observed that some of the Muslim reformers like Sir Syed

Ahmad Khan who was highly motived to uplift the Muslims educationally, was not in the favour of women‘s formal educational training and political participation and he thought that men deserved priority.123 On his visit to Punjab, Sir Syed expressed concern at the movement among the Muslims themselves for opening schools for Muslim girls which were being supported by Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore. Despite a great deal of opposition by the conservative sections of Muslim society who were against purdah- observing girls going to schools, that AHIL started opening neighbourhood schools for girls in Lahore in the mid-1880s.124 Besides Aligarh Movement, other Muslim community organizations, particularly reform movements like Deoband and Nadvatul

Ulema also remained concerned merely with male education.

While for ulema women were primarily the custodians of household fortress of

Islam, for the Muslims who considered Western standards as a key criterion of progress women‘s western education, and their entry into public space became increasingly a measure of their progress and modernity. After Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, his followers such as Nazir Ahmad, Altaf Husain Hali, Shaikh Abdullah and Shah Jahan of Bhopal gave prime importance to women education. Their efforts led to the establishment of the

123 Dushka Saiyid, Muslim Women of the British Punjab: From Seclusion to Politics (New York: St. Martin‘s Press, 1988), 53. 124 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore Ka Mahvar Risala, March-April, 1914, 32. 298

Aligarh Girls High School in 1906 which by 1937 grew into a college offering degree classes. Then women created a literary space for themselves by writing short stories, novels and magazines such as Khatun, Ismat and Tehzib-un-Niswan.125

AHIL can be credited for realizing this socio-political dilemma and taking measures to deal with it very earlier when other ulema and reformists did not contribute in women education. Showing its concern towards female education, it held a session in

Badshahi Mosque of Lahore in 1885 raising voice for the female education and some amount for this objective was collected. As opposed to the approach of many contemporary organizations, AHIL remained committed to support female education and it practically worked for this cause. In this sense, its approach was contrary to Sir Syed

Ahmad Khan‘s Aligarh movement.126 In this aspect, AHIL was the forerunner of any other Muslim organization.127 Initially, the major focus of Christian missionaries‘ activities was female segment of society. Missionary women use to go to the noble families for sake of providing medical services. Ultimately, they pursued younger female children for their conversion to Christianity. Therefore, the Anjuman established five schools for Muslim female children in 1885 which were increased up to ten till 1886 and up to fifteen till 1894.128

125 Robinson, ―The British Empire and Muslim Identity in South Asia,‖ 285. See also, Saiyid, Muslim Women of the British Punjab, 103-5. Lahore was the home of two famous women‘s journals which were supporting women education. Sayyid Mumtaz Ali was the moving spirit behind Tehzib and Maulvi Mehboob Alam, the editor of Paisa Akhbar, started Sharif Bibi. 126 Muhammad Abrar Zahoor and Zafar Mohyuddin, ―Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore Ki Adbi Aur Taleemi Khidmaat (1884-1934): Aik Tajziati Mutalia,‖ Mujalla-i-Tarikh-o-Saqafat-i-Pakistan, vol. 28, no. 2 (July-December, 2017), 35. 127 Zahoor and Mohyuddin, ―Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Ki Adbi aur Taleemi Khidmaat (1884-1934), 34- 35. 128 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 34. 299

In these schools, besides the traditional education, the education of the Quran was imparted within four years completely. In the fifth year, some of the specific portions of the Quran were taught to them and they were supposed to learn necessary religious matters. When the common masses paid attention to English education, one of these schools was upgraded to middle level in 1935 and the learning in English language was also started. In 1932, this school also initiated secondary level classes. For this school, a magnificent building was constructed in Kucha Shaikh Azim Ullah on the Brandreth

Road Lahore with the cost of Rs48000. The strength of the female students in the school was more than eight hundred.129

4.9.4 Islamia College for Women

A substantial development in the field of Muslim women education could be observed regarding change of attitude towards their education in the founding of the Aligarh Girls‘

School and the efforts of the AHIL to establish girls‘ schools in Lahore.130 In June 1939, a high standard degree college was established by AHIL on Cooper Road which was affiliated with University of the Punjab. A rental building was hired from Islamia College for Boys and its boundary walls were elevated to sufficient height for requirements of a girls‘ college. For the time being, few rooms were allocated for this purpose and the remaining rooms were reserved for girls‘ residence. A magnificent map was passed for

129 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 34-35. 130 Saiyid, Muslim Women of the British Punjab, 61. 300 constructing the building of college. An amount of Rs50000 was estimated for the construction of this building.131

The major characteristics of this college included the simple Islamic dress of female students, religious education and observance of Islamic obligations. A Quran study circle was established, the purpose of which was that female students could have understanding of Quranic verses and other important Islamic principles. It can emphatically be said that the establishment of this college was unprecedented in India for

Muslim female students. The popularity of this cause can be judged from the fact that the strength of female students was increased up to 108 within a year. Due to the efforts of

Muhammad Husain (Honourary Secretary College) and Nawab Muzaffar Khan C.I.E.,

Chairman of the College Committee, the college produced exemplary results.132 AHIL‘s services regarding female education of the Punjabi Muslims were commendable, praised by the public as well as the Punjab government.

In 1885, the strength of female students was 169 and it reached to more than 1200 in 1941.133 Before 1922, the schools for female were under the committee of male schools but, a sub-committee for female was established in 1922, and the responsibilities of female schools were handed over to this committee. The services of Lady Sir Abdul

Qadir, Lady Mian Muhammad Shafi and her daughter Jahan Ara Begum Shah Nawaz (b.

1896-d. 1979) were taken for this committee. Lady Abdul Qadir provided financial assistance for fifteen years and held sessions for ladies of the Anjuman at her residence

131 Zahoor and Mohyuddin, ―Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore Ki Adabi Aur Taleemi Khidmaat (1884- 1934), 35. 132 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 20. 133 Hayat, Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 20-21. 301 and she collected funds of Rs2000 in one session. This activity remained postponed for four years (1935-1939) when she settled in England with her husband. However, when she came back, she started serving the Anjuman with same vigour again.

Without control over financial resources, a woman was entirely subordinate in

Punjabi society and major decisions were taken by men.134 The colonial rule both brought

Muslim women into public space and led to some Muslims even encouraging them to serve as bulwark of the defenders of their civilization. One way or the other, women came to represent a substantial part of Muslim identity in colonial Punjab. By providing general and technical education to women of the Punjab, AHIL equipped Muslim women for playing an important social and political role in the politics of Punjab. Women were also part of Muslim National Guard in the Pakistan Movement. The Anjuman‘s female schools and colleges played a significant role in bringing women in the mainstream social and political responsibilities.

4.10 Sponsoring Technical Education for the Muslims of Punjab: Services of AHIL

The initiation of departing technical education to the Punjabi Muslim community was in the wake of Anjuman‘s realization that the youth without being equipped with some technical education could not meet their financial needs and get respectable social stature.135 Moreover, the traditional technical education that they used to get informally living in biradari based family structure had lost its significance at large, owing to the introduction of new technology and machines by the East India Company and then by

134 Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries, 85. 135 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore Ka Mahvar Risala, March-April, 1914, 33. 302

British Raj. For getting employment in industrial sector, they therefore needed some modern technical education for which they had to establish some formal institutions providing that kind of education.

In 1885, when school for women education was started by the Anjuman, education for stitching, tailoring and embroidery became compulsory subjects. There was an important colonial context to it in the shape of First Punjab Exhibition (1864) and

Second Punjab Exhibition (1881-82) held in Lahore.136 The colonial state held these exhibitions with ―the objective of exploring different means that could be economically beneficial for the state and British traders.‖137 After the first exhibition, Baden-Powell, the curator, compiled a Hand-Book of the Economic Products of the Punjab in two volumes, describing the raw material products and the industrial arts of the province.138

Baden-Powell collected detailed information about the raw materials and industrial arts in each district of the Punjab, the potential export items, the yearly estimated volume of trade between Punjab and other cities such as Bukhara, Kabul, Bombay and Calcutta. He also assessed ―per annum estimates of internal trade in Punjab; yearly estimated imports

136 The Lieutenant Governor of Punjab was presented a proposal by J. L. Kipling, Principal of the Mayo School of Industrial Art, Lahore, for holding an exhibition of some of the arts and manufacturers of the Punjab at Lahore in the last week of 1881. The objectives of this exhibition were as follows: i) to ascertain the progress that has been made in the quality of native industry in the Punjab since the last Exhibition was held in 1864; and ii) to encourage further effort in the Punjab in the direction of genuine native work of original Oriental design. See Report on the Punjab Exhibition, 1881-82 (Lahore: Punjab Government Secretariat Press, 1883), 1-2. Also see, Hussain Ahmad Khan, Artisans, Sufis, Shrines: Colonial Architecture in Nineteenth Century Punjab (London: I. B. Tauris, 2015), 92-93. The construction of Tolinton Market Lahore, the Punjab Industrial exhibition and establishment of Mayo School of Arts were part of the colonial effort to promote local arts and crafts and connect them to international trading networks. Also see Syed Muhammad Latif, Tarikh-i-Punjab (Lahore: Takhliqat, 1994), 1069-70. 137 Khan, Artisans, Sufis, Shrines: Colonial Architecture in Nineteenth Century Punjab, 93. 138 Baden Henry Badel-Powell, Hand-book of the Economic Products of the Punjab, Vol. I (Roorkee: Thomson Civil Engineering College Press, 1868) and Hand-book of the Manufactures and Arts of the Punjab, vol. II (Lahore: Punjab Printing Company, 1872). 303 of European goods in Punjab; the trade routes in the province.‖139 The exhibitions of

Punjab government provided plateform to the local artisans and manufacturers to display their products and develop networks for their marketing and sale.

Many organizations embraced arts and crafts works and promoted it as part of

Punjab‘s economy and AHIL was no exception. The Anjuman itself provided threads and clothes and purchased the manufactured goods produced/prepared in those schools and the profit was deposited in its treasury. The gentry of the country used to purchase these goods in order to patronize it. Hence, in 1888 the session of Muhammedan Educational

Conference was held in Lahore and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Sardar Muhammad Hayat

Khan C.I.E. of District Attock purchased the clothes manufactured by the students of

AHIL. For the tailoring purpose, there was a dedicated school which was called Sir

Sikandar Girls Industrial School wherein the students were exempted from paying fee while AHIL provided the necessary equipment and machinery. The raw material in the shape of cloth and threads were brought by the students themselves and the finished products used to be their own property to be sold in the market. In supporting this school, the services of the residents of District Gujarat and Gujranwala were commendable. They assisted the Anjuman by providing Rs5145 to the Madrassa on the occasion of Golden

Jubilee. Regarding this assistance, the efforts of Khan Bahadur Nawab Fazal Ali M.B.E. who was acknowledged in the circle of the Anjuman as ‗Sir Syed of the Punjab,‘ were highly estimable.140

139 Baden-Powell, Hand-book of the Economic Products of the Punjab, vol. I, i-xxxv. 140 Hayat, Tarikh-i-Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 28-29. 304

AHIL was informed that the Government provided funds for national industrial institutions, and the institutions established by different religious communities were being benefitted by it.141 It was realized that the expenditures of the institutions were borne by the Government which were being administered by the communities and the

Muslims were still far behind in taking benefit of it. By the efforts of ex-president Nawab

Muzaffar Khan, the Anjuman succeeded in acquiring this financial aid. Hence, since

April 1, 1940, the expenditure of this institution was being borne by the Government and the Anjuman was administering this institution dedicated for the Muslim female students.

4.11 Muslim Identity Assertion through Unani Medicine

Authority is an evolving phenomenon and it is rooted in time and space. According to

Robinson, the Muslims of South Asia, when challenged by the colonial rule developed different strategies to assert their authority.142 Since the formal apparatuses of authority had slipped out of their influence, they carved out informal and, some times, symbolic avenues in social, cultural and political resources at their disposal to exercise authority.

One such expression of exercise of authority by the Muslims of South Asia in colonial period was the Unani143 hakims or the doctors of Mughal high culture. The authority was as pivotal for the doctor as it was for the religious leader. Alvi‘s research indicates excellent richness and complexity of the authority of Unani hakims in Mughal understandings of Unani Tibb supporting health as an aristocratic virtue, with

141 Report on the Punjab Exhibition, 1881-82, 1-2. 142 Francis Robinson, ―Strategies of Authority in Muslim South Asia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,‖ Modern South Asian Studies, vol. 47, no. 1 (2013), 1-21. 143 Unani or Younani medicine is the term for Perso-Arabic traditional medicine as practiced in Mughal India and in Muslim culture in South Asia. The term unani means Greek as the Perso-Arabic system of medicine was based on teachings of the Greek physicians. 305 voluminous literature in Persian, supporting Unani Tibb as a science.144 By the twentieth century, Shibli Numani described Unani Tibb as ―Islamic medicine.‖145 This medical tradition was recognized widely as a leading icon of Muslim identity and receiving its authority from the Muslim past. To Robinson, print, the newspaper press and book publishing played enormous role in creating a medical public sphere in Urdu language. In

1911, the Azizi hakims of Lucknow spearheaded an organization of Unani hakims with the basic purpose of rationalizing their traditions and presenting their interests to the

Government. However, the All-India Unani Tibb Conference organized by Azizi hakims was engulfed with Muslim communitarian consciousness. Its result was a set of medical practices handed down through great families of hakims became part of a national brand linked to Muslim community ―with much of its authority derived from its supposed indigenous roots, its national organization and its Islamic impress.‖146

AHIL established different institutions involving modern medicine which became popular with the advent of colonial state and Western knowledge. Likewise it promoted Unani medicine as a traditional representation of Muslim authority of the past and Islamic identity. In 1907, University of the Punjab handed over medical classes to the

Anjuman after taking them back from the Medical College of Lahore. The University approved the annual grant of Rs720 for its partial expenditure. AHIL had one lecturer of medicine who served but his services were insufficient. The Anjuman was in its initial

144 Seema Alvi, Islam and Healing: Loss and Recovery of an Indo-Muslim Medical Tradition, 1600-1900 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). 145 Robinson, ―Strategies of Authority in Muslim South Asia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,‖ 14. 146 Robinson, ―Strategies of Authority in Muslim South Asia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,‖ 15. See also Alvi, Islam and Healing: Loss and Recovery of an Indo-Muslim Medical Tradition, 1600- 1900. 306 years and it was focusing on the basic needs of the Muslim community, and consequently, could not pay sufficient attention to the medical education. Therefore, these organizations remained under the supervision of Principal of Islamia College,

Lahore. When the Anjuman got satisfied regarding its other activities, it started paying attention towards starting medical classes. A sub-committee was established under the

College Committee. The staff was increased and proper arrangements were made for imparting theoretical and practical medical education.

4.11.1 Instituting Himayat-i-Islam Tibbia College and Central Pharmacy

In 1926, after disconnecting the affairs of medical classes from Islamia College, the

General Council of Anjuman established a separate medical committee in 1926. A well- organized medical college was established. Proper arrangements were made for theoretical and practical medical education. A complete pharmaceutical laboratory, one lab of Unani (Greek or Eastern) medicine, one dispensary and two clinics were established. The renowned hakim physician of Punjab, Hakim Muhammad Hassan Qarshi served as its principal. The Unani hospital was handed over to Hakim Muhammad

Zakaria and museum and pharmacy was established within the premises. For illustration based education, diagrams and models were provided and library was enriched with various books in 1926. In 1931, a boarding house was constructed and, in 1932, the timing for education was increased for one hour more and the education for first aid and vaccination was managed and the class of Zubaida-tul-Hukma was converted to post- graduate class. The Anjuman constructed rooms on the shops situated on the Brandreth

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Road and handed over those to the medical college. The number of professors was seven and annual expenditures for their salary were approximately Rs10000, in 1938.147

In 1937, AHIL opened a central pharmacy where various kinds of Unani or herbal medicines were made available for the people of Punjab. In this pharmacy the students were trained to recognize the singular (mufrad) contents and preparation of the compound medicine (murakkab) and general masses could get good quality medicine. This pharmacy got popular day by day and was expected to be a good source of revenue for the Anjuman as well as promotion of Eastern medicine as a symbol of Muslim identity and resistance against the Western dominance in advancement of science and technology.148

4.11.2 Establishment of Unani and Charity Clinics

Unani medicine was considered, in popular discourse among the Muslims of India, as

Islamic medicine. Therefore, the use of unani medicine was used by the Anjuman as part of the promotion of Islamic symbolism.149 The clinic which was opened with the help of

Medical College of AHIL became a separate institution. This clinic was highly significant commercially. Hakim Muhammad Zakaria collected donations for charity medicine through personal influence and contributed in providing free medicine to the poor. The prescriptions to the patients were provided free of cost. Although Hakim, according to the rules, was allowed to check the patients going to their homes and receive

147 Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam ka Mahvari Risala, March, 1939, 5. 148 Hayat, Tarikh-i-Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 29-30. 149 Robinson, ―Strategies of Authority in Muslim South Asia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,‖ 1-21. 308 one third of the checkup fee, he was generous enough to deposit entire amount in the treasury of the Anjuman. Through renting his special services he got a room constructed spending Rs4000 for outdoor patients. For the construction of the room, an aristocrat of

District Multan, Khan Allahdad Khan contributed Rs2000.150

In clinic the poor and needy patients were facilitated for consultation, prescription and medication free of cost. To expand the scope of these services and to make them useful enough, a charity clinic was also opened. A qualified doctor was appointed as its incharge. The principal of the medical college was given another responsibility that he would give time to the patients as well. In this way, the poor patients were benefitted by the medical services. It was meant to create a sense of belonging and security in the poor

Muslims and thereby promote unity and communitarian solidarity in Muslim community.

4.12 Establishing Library and Publishing Quran

As Benedict Anderson makes clear, ―nationalism was an expression of participation in both a universal modern, scientific narrative and in the irreducible cultural particularity defining a distinctive people and history.‖151 The significance and utility of the modern scientific technology of printing developed and introduced by the British in India was gravely felt by the AHIL, and it promoted and patronized literary and scholarly activities for the Muslims of Punjab through various means. However, establishment of a library, the publication of authentic version of the Quran and the Himayat-i-Islam Press are significant enough to be explained briefly.

150 Hayat, Tarikh-i-Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 30. 151 Gilmartin, Civilization and Modernity, xxii. 309

AHIL started literary and scholarly activities to promote education among the

Muslims of the Punjab. Accordingly, in 1885, it set up a library.152 After the publication of Maulvi Ghulam Dastgir Kasuri‘s pamphlet, it published an Urdu textbook for class I in

1886 and readers for class I to III in 1887. These series got popular throughout Punjab and elsewhere. Encouraged by success, it published Urdu textbooks for Class IV and V.

It also published books of Islamic Studies in Arabic language, pamphlets of Islamic

Studies, Persian books, two textbooks of English for primary level and Arabic grammars.

The English and Arabic books could not become much popular, but the rest of books were sold in bulk quantity. In 1901, the preliminary books on the subject of geography were published.

When in 1920 the Department of Education Government of Punjab brought amendments in its educational policy, the Anjuman started a series of Jadid Kutub Urdu

(Modern Urdu Books) along with the books of Arabic and the stories of Indian history in three volumes. All of them were approved by the Education Department of Punjab

Government as supplementary textbooks.153 In 1924, a complete set of Urdu readers for female schools was prepared by AHIL and this series was also approved by the Punjab

Department of Education. In order to interpret religious affairs, fundamental tenets of

Islam, and Islamic History, various books were published such as Al-Amin, Akhlaq-i-

Muhammadi and Tulu-i-Islam. In 1927, AHIL started acquiring books according to royalty system.154 The books published in accordance with royalty system included

152 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 45. 153 Hayat, Tarikh-i-Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 31-32. 154 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 45.

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Professor Ghulam Husain‘s series of the books on economics, Indian history, history of

England, English, logic, Khawaja Dil Muhammad‘s books on English, Urdu and

Mathematics and Mian Abdul Hakim‘s series of books on anthropology and demography.

The outstanding service of the library was the publication of the Quran with accuracy. This publication system of aksi (lit. scanned) publications was acquired with the cost of Rs75000. The AHIL sent the copies of this Holy Quran, published on three types of paper, to various royal personalities such as Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,

Iran, Turkey, Egypt and the rulers of the princely states such as Bhawalpur, Bhopal,

Rampur, Malerkotla and Nizam of Hyderabad, Deccan. The paper was imported from

Europe to ensure quality. The cost of high quality was Rs25 and first class Rs5 and second class Rs3. It was the collective verdict of renowned theologians that this was the best published Quran across the world. The efforts put by Maulvi Zafar Iqbal in this regard were highly admirable. The Anjuman handed over the responsibility of publication and printing to one committee and the arrangements for its sale to another one.155

4.13 Himayat-i-Islam Press and Publicity Committee of AHIL

Benedict Anderson emphasizes the general importance of ―print capitalism‖ in the development of community consciousness.156 The rapidly increasing press and publishing activities exacerbated communalism in Punjab. A large number of newspapers and periodicals were mouthpieces of revivalist and reform movements. For instance, the Arya

155 Hayat, Tarikh-i-Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore, 31-32. 156 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 46. 311

Samaj alone published nearly 30 papers.157 Likewise, the Sikh views were propagated in more than 10 newspapers. It was due to massive print activity that major centres of publication—Lahore, Rawalpindi and Amritsar—in Punjab witnessed the rising communal violence, especially in the 1920s. By 1945, almost half of the newspapers in

Punjab were published in Lahore and Amritsar. To counter Christian missionaries, AHIL started its own magazine. Moreover, its necessities of the library could not be fulfilled by utilizing other presses and the monthly magazine, Himayat-i-Islam, was converted to be a weekly newspaper, the Anjuman started its own press in 1928 which was installed in its building.158 In 1939-40, its cost was Rs10965 and it earned Rs9990. In 1941, for publication a rotary and two litho machines were made available.159 These were used for printing weekly newspaper, magazines and some publications of other Muslim associations such as Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore.

AHIL established a Publicity Committee in 1933 which disseminated information to the public about its objectives and activities. It was responsible for arranging the annual sessions of Akhbar-i-Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam and its deputations to various areas of India for creating favourable opinion and disseminating information about the role of AHIL. However, the amount which was collected through the efforts of deputations was deposited directly to the finance department. The chairman of this committee was one of the Anjuman‘s vice presidents, elected by its Council.

157 Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 75. 158 Punjab Government, Lahore District Gazetteeer 1936, Vol. XIL, Part B (Lahore: Superintendent Government Printing, Punjab, 1937), 106-7. 159 Punjab Government, Lahore District Gazetteeer 1936, Vol. XIL, Part B (Lahore: Superintendent Government Printing, Punjab, 1937), 107. 312

4.14 Establishment of Orphanages by AHIL

One of the reasons of establishing AHIL was to present formidable response to the allegations of Christian missionaries against Islam. These missionaries had been habitual of leveling undue allegations against the beliefs and teachings of Islam. Normally they would focus on the orphan Muslim children by taking them into their upbringing and later converting them through providing education and services. For the protection of

Muslim children, the Anjuman tried to establish an orphanage in 1884 but despite striving hard it could not collect more than Rs41.160 As mentioned earlier, in 1886, in Ludhiana, poverty drove a Muslim lady having children to ask for help from Christian missionaries who eventually converted her to Christianity. Later on, some Muslim scholars reconverted her to Islam. The Christian missionaries refused to give up the custody of her children. On this the Muslims of Ludhiana vigorously reacted and registered a petition in court against the missionaries. Under the influence of these missionaries, the officials of the court dismissed the petition of the poor lady. The petition was again registered in

Chief Court but being poor she was unable to pursue the case. Knowing about the incident, the Anjuman bore the entire expenses of petition and pursued the case and succeeded in acquiring the decision in her favour. After a consistent effort, at the end of

1887, the court ordered to hand over two children (one male and one female) to her.161 It was in this way that AHIL was able to establish its first orphanage.

160 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 39. 161 For their education and training, the children along with their mother were brought to Lahore. In December 1887, the Anjuman brought two orphans from Madrassa-tul-Muslimin and allocated them a scholarship and set up an orphanage. The lady from Ludhiana used to cook food for these four children and look after them. Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 39.

313

Wherever AHIL received news of such incidents where orphans had difficulties, it sent its representatives to look into the matter. In this way, the Muslim children were saved from the trap of Christian missionaries. In 1891, it requested Punjab Government to issue orders to the Deputy Commissioners that Muslim orphans should be handed over only to the AHIL. Eventually, in 1896, the Government issued orders in this regard and children from different places came to be received by the orphanage of the Anjuman.162 It did not confine its activities to Punjab merely; it rather accepted Muslim orphans from all over India and even abroad. For example, when forty children of Mapillah community at

Malabar Coast became orphans, the Anjuman sent its officials who brought many of them to the AHIL orphanages. From 1887 to 1890, the orphans used to live in a rented house.

When the female orphans increased in number, the female orphanage got separated in 1890 and the male orphans were shifted to the boarding house of Madrassa- tul-Muslimin. When their strength was further increased in 1896, they were shifted to a portion of the house near Sheranwala Gate which was purchased for school. They resided over there till 1911. In 1935, after the mass destruction caused by the earthquake in

Quetta, the Anjuman registered many orphans.163 At the time when female orphans reached the age of adolescence, the Anjuman would arrange their marriages and provide them dowry. Moreover, a salaried authorized doctor was hired to render his services in orphanage. Alongside the dispensary there were patient rooms and the residence rooms

162 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 40. 163 Presently, the headquarters of AHIL is housed in this building and many institutions have continued to serve the community. Nearby, road square is famous as Chowk Yatim Khana. The Anjuman purchased a residence on Multan road in the locality of Nawankot in 1922, for establishing purpose built building of orphanage. This building, residence, and land were purchased by paying Rs56840. Both male and female orphanages had four thousand male and female orphans. 314 for the older boys.164 In 1914, the Anjuman inaugurated a technical school for the orphans but it could not succeed, which was soon converted into a workshop in 1915 from where the furniture was supplied to sub-organizations of the Anjuman. In 1937,

Sadiqiyyah Technical School was opened while the earlier technical school was closed.

4.15 AHIL and Muslim Identity Consciousness in Colonial Punjab

The challenges of colonial state elicited response in the form of reform movements on the part of Indian communities. These reform movements, generally, had two purposes: one was to instruct reform in their respective religious communities to make them ready to confront new encounters, and second was to present their own perspectives of the religious traditions which the colonial state and Christian missionaries branded as ‗devoid of rationality.‘ Robinson precisely observes that the

[R]eform often defined itself, in part at least, through its opposition to Western cultural and political hegemony, at the same time it made use, where appropriate, of Western knowledge and technology to drive forward its purposes and came to be fashioned in part by its interaction with it.165

The socio-religious organizations of Indian religious communities made good use of

Western scientific knowledge and technological advancements. In fact, they realized that the challenges of the West could only be responded by using the same tools through which the West ensured its pervasive intellectual and cultural hegemony and political

164 The Eastern side of the orphanage building was called Zaman Mehdi wing, on the name of Khan Bahadur Malik Zaman Mehdi (Deputy Commissioner) who presided over annual session in which campaign was launched for construction of this building. On his appeal, the people from his own District Gujranwala contributed huge resources. A big hall, dining room, offices, yards, kitchen, residence of superintendent, mosque, a well for water, a huge garden, a pump for fresh water were provided for the well-being of orphans. The Orphanage and mosque were electrified and provided electric lights. 165 Robinson, ―Islamic Reform and Modernities in South Asia,‖ 260-61. 315 control. The agenda of socio-religious reform movements manifested that these were formed to address the challenges posed by political and cultural hegemony of the

Western powers and colonialism. In reality, the ―[c]olonial rule brought profound changes in the rules of the game—such periods are always a time of uncertainty.‖166

Having lost political power and hegemony, the uncertainties of near future were strongly felt by the Indian Muslims in social, political and religious realms.

The AHIL was the largest Muslim socio-religious organization of the British

Punjab. Not only were its aims and objectives very elaborate, its activities and network of institutions was unrivalled indeed. The speed with which it progressed was unprecedented in the history of organizational developments in India. From its establishment, it did not confine its activities to a specific sphere or social aspect. Rather, it simultaneously focused on the progress and development of all of its departments and various activities were brought under its scope of work increasingly. It tried its best to ameliorate the Punjabi Muslims of all formidable socio-economic problems that they faced. Owing to expansion of its resources, it inaugurated new institutions with their larger scope of agendas and activities.

The social, religious and educational services of AHIL were instrumental in constructing Muslim identity in Punjab. The annual sessions of AHIL created political consciousness among the Muslims. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and other Muslim leaders had already made their contribution by establishing educational institutions for the Muslims but AHIL performed these services for Punjabi Muslims through establishing schools,

166 Satish Saberwal, Spirals of Contention, See preface, vv. 316 colleges, institutions of technical education and professional education. It also organized discussion evenings which were restricted meant only for Muslim elite-middle class and illiterate poor had no access to these gatherings.167

Regarding the Muslim identity construction, the most important institution of

AHIL was Islamia College, Lahore founded in 1892. Just like Muhammedan Anglo-

Oriental (MAO) College, Islamia College Lahore became the vanguard of Muslim nationalism in Punjab. Muslim nationalistic fervour always remained dominant in activities of Islamia College and it participated in every Muslim social, political and intellectual activity. Those who attended denominational Islamia College, Lahore, played an important role in freedom movement, Khilafat movement and Pakistan movement.168

Khilafat movement, through using Muslim religious symbolism, was instrumental in sharpening Muslim identity. The Ahrar movement, which grew out of the Muslim support for the Khilafat movement, caused ―enhanced sense of Muslim identity in colonial Lahore.‖169 The Muslims, during the Non-cooperation movement in 1920s, were unanimous in opposing the Government policies, especially after the end of World War I because the pledges of the British Government regarding constitutional advancement in

India were not fulfilled. Maulana Muhammad Ali, Mualana Shaukat Ali and Maulana

Abul Kalam Azad participated in the meeting of General Council of AHIL held on

October 21, 1920 and stressed that those who were enemies of the Muslims should not be cooperated with. The post-World War I circumstances and Khilafat movement politicised

167 Inquilab, December 22, 1938. 168 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 30. For detailed study of the Khilafat Movement and religious symbolism, see Gail Minault, The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994). 169 Talbot and Kamran, Lahore in the Time of the Raj, 35. 317 the Muslim identity and gave birth to reactionary tendencies. Resolutions were passed in this session that ―Islamia College should be disaffiliated from University of the Punjab‖ and ―grant from the Government to college should not be accepted.‖170 The principal of

Islamia College, Mr. Henry Martin, published his opinion against the Muslims in Civil and Military Gazette, which caused a severe reaction from them. Martin‘s comments created a controversy between the loyalists and reactionaries within the workers of AHIL.

To counter Christian missionaries and propagate the Muslim opinion, tabligh was glorified by the Muslims during the anniversary celebration in Lahore by the Anjuman.171

The Anjuman was also activated for the advancement of Tabligh and Tanzim. The Nau-

Muslim Conference and AHIL‘s 41st anniversary were held together.172 The President- elect of the Nau-Muslim Conference was Nahar Singh Iswar Singh, alias Nasrullah Khan

Thakur. He belonged to Gujrat state and was a talukdar and sardar. He had been an active member of Bombay Legislative Council. He was not a recent convert to Islam, since his forefathers had embraced Islam in the fifteenth century.173 Thus, AHIL was able to propagate its message of Muslim solidarity in the shape of promoting Tabligh and

Tanzim in the wake of ongoing activities of Shuddhi and Sangathan.

170 Shahid, Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, 40. 171 Salamat, The Punjab in 1920s, 210. 172 On 15-17 April 1927, AHIL observed 41st anniversary and Nau-Muslim (New Muslim) Conference together. This was indication of the fact that the Anjuman gave extreme importance to Nau-Muslims and Tabligh and Tanzim. According to Mubarik Ali, ―Nationalist historiography suffered in the 1920s as a result of communalism.‖ Ali stated that communalism greatly damaged the shared values of both communities i.e., the Hindus and Muslims. History was so much politicized that it became an instrument of hate that polluted the relationship of the Hindus and Muslims. For detailed analysis, see Mubarak Ali, In Search of History (Islamabad: Dost Publications, 2009), 52-55. 173 Salamat, The Punjab in 1920s, 236. 318

The AHIL started publishing a monthly magazine in 1885 which was turned into a weekly magazine in 1927. Plausibly, it is the oldest magazine of Punjab which is still continued. Likewise, it promoted Urdu language through introducing poets, literary activities and using Urdu language in all internal and external organizational correspondence.174 By the turn of the twentieth century, a new class of Muslim leaders appeared who strove to secure their rights and interests through new means of expression.

They were not pleased by the passive attitude of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan towards politics.

Sir Syed wanted Muslims to educate themselves and prepare for playing effective role in politics. However, many young Muslim leaders wanted a political association for them through which they could express their political views. Until then, AHIL had been the nucleus of political activities of the Muslims of Punjab who had maintained a subjective attitude of complete loyalty towards the British Government.175 It was due to the fact that mainstream Muslim leadership of Punjab was chiefly composed of rais and landed aristocracy, who were playing the role of collaborators of the British Raj. However, the

Anjuman tried to reconcile the loyalist and the radical opinions in the Punjab.

Mian Fazl-i-Husain played an important role for promoting AHIL. He delivered three lectures at the annual session of the AHIL in 1902, 1903 and 1904, in which he explicated his views for reorganizing the Muslim community on social, religious and political grounds.176 He was planning, in those days, to establish a political party where the Muslims of Punjab could play important role to secure their political interest. He established Unionist Party which was a non-communal party and remained a major

174 Himayat-i-Islam, April 26, 1968, 1. 175 Salamat, The Punjab in 1920s, 33. 176 Husain, Fazl-i-Husain, 64. 319 political force till the establishment of Pakistan.177 However, to the closing years of the

British Raj, the Muslim League became popular in Punjab by using Muslim separatist discourse and symbolism of Muslim identity consciousness.

The AHIL contributed in popularizing Muslim League in Punjab. Its strong and massive network of educational institutions provided support at the grassroot level through which the message of Muslim League was disseminated at all levels of society.

The AHIL and its Islamia College provided a potent platform to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, although the Unionists were effectively controlling the politics of Punjab through the strategy of promoting communal harmony. However, in the closing decades of the Raj,

Muslim League was able to make inroads and consequently, it succeeded in securing substantial majority in elections of 1945-46. Although many leaders of Unionist Party played important role for the Anjuman, yet their style of politics, as termed by Talbot as

―consociational politics,‖ could not prove acceptable for the workers of the AHIL and in the struggle between Unionists and Muslim League they supported the latter in the last combat between them. For instance, Jinnah held a public meeting in the grounds of

Islamia College on 2 April, 1944 in which he declared that ―the Punjab Premier and

Muslim Ministers were wholeheartedly for Pakistan.‖178 Talbot opines that Jinnah had taken this ―as a cue to remind the audience that the Punjab held the key to Pakistan and it was here that they had to cultivate power in favour of the scheme.‖179 Jinnah had

177 Ian Talbot, ―The 1946 Elections,‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 14, no. 1 (1980), 68. 178 Civil and Military Gazette, April 4, 1944. 179 Ian Talbot, Khizr Tiwana, 125-6. 320 asserted, in the same Islamia College, that ―those who raised the slogan ‗Punjab for

Punjabis‘ were men with divided loyalties.‖180

An important aspect of the role of AHIL in promoting Muslim identity consciousness was the poetry which used to be recited at the annual sessions and other gatherings under its sponsorship. In the culture of Indian subcontinent and particularly of

Punjab, poetry has been an important factor for creating awareness and highlighting significant social, economic and political problems. The Anjuman‘s magazines which contain poetry contents substantially are testimony to the fact that many poets used to recite poetry and then it was published in the magazine. For instance, Allama Muhammad

Iqbal recited many poems in the annual sessions of AHIL which were published in its proceedings and magazines. These poems were later published by him in his poetic collections.181 With the passage of time, Iqbal became champion of the Muslim nation and its identity consciousness. This role was played through the platform of AHIL. One aspect of Iqbal‘s relationship with the Anjuman is his poetry recited on the sessions of

AHIL and the other is his lectures delivered on this platform. Still other is his involvement in its administration and patronage by serving as its President and Secretary.

Print and publication, introduced and popularized by the colonial administration in Punjab, was fully capitalized on by the AHIL. Lahore emerged as the most important centre of print and publication in India, especially Punjab. Moreover, Urdu, the language that AHIL patronized and promoted, became language of print because major print

180 Civil and Military Gazette, April 4, 1944. 181 The poems include Nala-i-Yateem, Khair Maqdam, Din-o-Dunya, Zaban-i-Haal, Faryad-i-Ummat, Tasvir-i-Dard, Bilal, Khizr-i-Rah. Iqbal was introduced to the Anjuman by Sir Abdul Qadir. Iqbal started participation in 15th annual sessions of AHIL in February, 1900 and he recited his first poem Nala-i-Yatim. 321 activity was going on in Urdu language. The British officials patronized Urdu‘s development while educated Punjabis appropriated it for professional purposes and as the language of emerging public sphere. The colonial language policy created circumstances for Urdu to become dominant language of print culture in Punjab. Urdu came to be increasingly identified as language of Muslims of India. The promotion of Urdu language was, in turn, the promotion of Muslim identity in India, particularly in Punjab. The

Himayat-i-Islam Press played such a role and became instrumental in constructing

Muslim identity in Punjab. Muslim anjumans played a crucial role in meeting the challenges of British Raj when Muslim community was in a position of disadvantage.

Their success demonstrated resilience and perseverance of Muslim elite. With communal approach, AHIL played a significant role in creating communitarian identity in Punjabi

Muslims.

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Conclusion

The phenomenon of identity construction, its socio-political and economic implications and utilization, its perceived challenges and responses are quite complex to comprehend, particularly in South Asia where multiple religions, ethnicities, social groups, and the people representing diverse cultures co-exist. The historical narratives differ in their analysis as far as their mutual relationship is concerned: one highlights the differences and clash between the communities while the other sheds light on cooperation and coordination among them resulting in the emergence of composite and syncretic culture.

The Hindu and Muslim nationalist perspectives downplay the syncretic traditions and co- existence, and highlight differences and dissimilarities, disputes and conflicts, confrontation and antagonism. Yet, Indian nationalist perspective and that of Marxists‘ attempt to mitigate religious communalism, and emphasize on mutualities, similarities, commonalities and the developments which paved the way for peaceful co-existence and establishment of synthetic culture. These perspectives attempt to undermine religious/ ideological conflicts and adhere to the propagation of secular identities in South Asia.

The parochialists and subalterns emphasize on conflicting identities like foreigners and natives, rulers and the ruled, oppressors and oppressed, masters and subjects, exploiters and exploited.

There is no dearth of stories of various religious communities working together, in pre-colonial Punjab, on issues that benefitted principally one community: for instance,

Hindus helping Muslims in rebuilding a shrine or mosque, or Muslims contributing in

323 reconstructing a Hindu temple. People of all religious communities had lived an intertwined existing, and most of the times, religious practices were not exclusionary because the social life was well-fabricated to knit them together. Muslim singers used to sing Hindu devotional songs and Hindus crowded sufi shrines and worshipped many

Muslim sufis. For example, the foundation stone of Golden Temple of Amritsar was laid down by Mian Mir, a renowned sufi from Lahore.

As to the colonial view of religion in India and Indian history was concerned, three arguments were crucial; first, James Mill‘s The History of British India argued for division of Indian history into three periods, namely Hindu, Muslim and the British periods. These labels tried to identify ruling dynasties on the basis of religion. This periodization became so much obvious and prevalent that it became axiomatic of Indian history. The division of Indian society into monolithic religious communities—Hindus and Muslims—were taken as if religion superseded all other layers of authority and disunion. The census characterized Hindus as majority and all other religions as minorities. Moreover, it was argued by the Orientalists that Indian institutions had been static until the advent of colonial rule. Second, the pre-colonial political economy of

India conformed to ―Oriental Despotism‖ which implied static society, no private property in land, despotic and oppressive rulers and widespread poverty. Third, the Hindu society had always been divided into four castes or varnas. In short, India was projected by Orientalists as the ―other‖ of Europe because it lacked characteristics of European or

Western civilization.

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Broadly, there are three schools of thought regarding the creation of religious identities and communalism in colonial India. First, the primordialist perspective, defines relationship between the Hindus and Muslims in religious terms, and argues that religious differences are inherently prevalent in Indian society. They claim that the individual and group identities are constructed on the basis of religion only, and it is religion that provides rationale for political action. They argue that Hindus and Muslims form two distinct religious communities, and despite cultural similarities between them in Indian environment, they always tended to be identified on the basis of religion and its fundamental traditions. Islam being a monotheistic religion has been innately opposed to

Hinduism, understood as an idolatrous and polytheistic religion. As a result, peaceful co- existence between Hinduism and Islam was impossible. This school of thought undermines their syncretic traditions of peaceful co-existence in India for many centuries.

The second, perennialist school, interprets religious antagonism as the consequence of historical evolution of both the Hindus and Muslims as religious communities, and evolution of nature of their mutual relationship. It is reasoned that causes of antagonism and hostility lie in the historical memory about the way Islam was introduced in the Indian subcontinent. This school claims that Islam, being religion of the

Arabs and Turco-Persian aggressors, was introduced in India as a religion of sword, and conquests were celebrated by vandalizing temples and forcibly converting people to

Islam. These brutalities, they argue, became part of historical memory and are primary reason of antagonistic relations between Hindus and Muslims. In the period of Mughal decline and weakening of political authority and disintegration, the Hindu middle class fanned communal consciousness and portrayed Muslims as invaders. According to this

325 interpretation, the fault lines of communal differences were already drawn between the two communities before the advent of British colonial rule. This approach to the study of construction of religious identities ignores the fact that India was a huge territory and

Muslims entered into it through various ways ranging from invaders to peaceful migrant settlers and over a long period of time. As a result, there had been many levels, occasions and sites of conflict and cooperation. The growth of Muslim community in the Indian subcontinent took place, mainly, in the peripheries and not in the centre of power.

The third, constructionists, interpret the creation of communal identities and relationship between the Hindus and Muslims by disagreeing with both the foregoing schools. It asserts that the antagonistic communal relationship was neither ‗natural given‘ nor ‗perennial development;‘ rather, modern Hindu and Muslim identities were constructed and sharpened in colonial period as a result of the process of modernization in India. Proponents of this school argue that the Hindu and Muslim identities and cultural traditions were used by communal organizations as instruments for pursuing communal interests which were calculatedly articulated and vigorously pursued. Leaders of both communities used religious symbolism for political reasons. The British Raj provided intellectual, legal and constitutional framework as well as documentary practices such as decennial census in which it was feasible and necessary to promote essentialized identities for pursuing interests. Moreover, to counter the British Raj, Indian leaders used the same socio-political space and organizational models by establishing association and anjumans to promote communal interest.

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The advent of British colonialism and ancillary process of modernization introduced by the Raj brought about important changes in the administration, economy and society which immensely influenced the sharpening of religious identities in colonial

North India and Punjab. The significant factors which contributed in developing community consciousness were the challenge of Christian missionaries, the Orientalists‘ construction of Indian past and periodization of Indian history, role of decennial census enumerations, introduction of representative political institutions and limited electoral franchise and the politics of municipalities, print capitalism and publication of newspapers and tracts, and languages as identity markers—Arabicized Urdu for Muslims and Sanskritized Hindi for Hindus.

The coming of Christian missionaries of various Church denominations in colonial India was perceived by the local communities as a formidable challenge to their religions, let alone their customs and traditions. The Christian missionaries offered various social services such as education and welfare activities. To provide these services, a broader network of institutions was established throughout India. However, along with it, the missionaries initiated a process of bringing the locals into their religious fold. This was a bombshell for indigenous religious communities and their leadership because the concept of organized proselytization and conversion campaigns was new for

Indians. The greatest allies of Government in spreading English education in the province were Christian missionaries. Press was used as an effective medium of communication for evangelization, and moreover, indigenous beliefs, practices and social evils like satti or widow burning were aggressively denounced in this process. Nevertheless, in the

327 popular mind the missionaries were closely allied with the rulers, and their socio-cultural programme carried a sharper edge because of this real or perceived alliance.

The coming of a modern colonial state in agrarian India was a unique development and Indian social fabric was disrupted in multiple ways. It can reasonably be argued that colonialism distorted local traditions. The colonial state was instrumental in the creation of emerging monolithic religious and political identities. The British conception was that religion played the most important role in the evolution of communities as it was in the case of European experience. However, the Indian society of regional, ethnic, religious and ethnic shades did not match with British conceptions of a religiously monolithic community. Resultantly, the British administration imposed categories of clans, tribes, castes and religion on Indians to help understand and control

India. Religious identities in India were conceived and constructed in this context.

At first, communal boundaries were defined by the Orientalist scholarship. As discussed earlier, James Mill‘s periodization created a conception of Indian history based upon relating the ruling dynasties with their religious identities. Later on, the institution of census emerged out of the colonial state‘s desire to know, count, classify and control its subjects and to develop a taxonomy based on primordial definitions. Census provided a novel conceptualization of religion as a community. Community became an aggregate of individuals united by a formal definition and given characteristics based on qualified census data. Religions became communities, defined, counted, and above all contrasted with other religious communities. The colonial census was more powerful as compared to the map and the museum because the number of members of a community was its

328 strength. The most significant aspect of census enumerator was the construction of exclusive religious identities with marked social and geographical boundaries. In India the primary objective of census was to know the land, the subjects, and to achieve an effective administrative control and to increase the revenues as opposed to many

European countries where census was used only to gather demographic data.

Indian communities, once defined and enumerated, started demanding separate political rights based on communal aspirations and vigour. The demand for separate electorates varied from region to region and class to class, depending on the particular interests of the community in a particular setting. The demand for separate electorate first emerged in Muslim minority provinces but it took multiple forms in others. The question of majority vs. minority soon took a political outlook. It became increasingly difficult for the minorities—religious, political, ethnic, linguistic—to remain isolated from the vicissitudes of representative political structure in India. The introduction of separate electorates was critical in the emergence of a separate electoral, religious, and eventually, national identity. Separate electorates, demand of marginalized minorities and accommodated by the British administration, yielded repercussions in the form of creating more cleavages among communities.

The origin and development of phenomenon of communalism received further impetus with the introduction of elective principle in local Government, which were the first to receive the impact of this development. These administrative priorities gave way to political considerations in the elective principle. As this had broader implications, the communal differences were also expanded. This case was particularly pertinent to the

329

Punjab, especially in the Western districts, where the Hindus being minority in number held majority of municipality seats due to their superiority and dominance in Western education, legal profession and trade. The Muslims had a general feeling of resentment against their counterpart communities, i.e. the Hindus and Sikhs. The politics of municipalities and local-government increasingly became communalized and embittered relations between Hindus and Muslims at all levels of public life.

The available sources reflect the high degree of communal orientation—the

Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian missionary—in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century press in Punjab, and expose the extent of communal identification in terms of newspapers which favoured particular organizations. There, for instance, were fifteen newspapers which articulated opinion for Muslims and Islam in their orientation of news and opinions. Nearly thirty papers were oriented to supporting the Hindu organizations.

There were nearly ten newspapers that expressed Sikh views or their orientation was towards supporting Sikhism. The press in colonial Punjab was an important element in the struggle among rival communities. Newspapers worked as new conduits for developing apprehensions in a society that was in transition from tradition to modernity.

The characterization of Urdu as language of the Muslims and Hindi as language of the Hindus, and communal boundary markings on the basis of these languages, was not applied till the end of the nineteenth century. Thus, the Muslim monolithic identity was constructed on the significance of Islam and Urdu as the primary markers of the community. The use of language for the creation of Hindu and Muslim identities in the nineteenth century was intimately related to politics and the phenomenon of its

330 communalization was called the Urdu-Hindi controversy. Both languages, with intensification of print, increasingly became reserve of their respective communities.

The evidence presented in chapters three to four regarding the role of Muslim communal organizations with a particular focus on AIPL and AHIL in constituting identities, based on the investigation of aims and objectives, activities, and organizational behaviour of two organizations, in the light of theoretical framework and factors which contributed in the construction of Muslim identity in Punjab, this study leads to the conclusion that the modern Muslim identity was fashioned during the colonial period.

This study argues that the construction of religious identities and antagonistic communal relationship based upon it, was neither ‗natural given‘ nor ‗perennial development;‘ rather it was a modern phenomenon rooted in the British rule in India. The instrumentalist use of religious symbols by the local leaders was made possible by the process of modernization and complex interaction between the British Raj and the local response to it. This response was presented by various castes, classes, and communities.

One response was the mushroom growth of communal organizations and anjumans which played an important role in sharpening religious identities. Punjab, due to its geographical location, economic prosperity and sizeable three religious‘ communities

(the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs) proved to be a fertile ground for the growth of various communal organizations. For example, Arya Samaj received unparalleled popularity in

Punjab and Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore became the largest Muslim organization with communal aims and objectives.

331

In pursuance of their politico-economic and religious interests and to fight for and protect their rights, some notable dignitaries of the Muslim community of Punjab formed socio-religious organizations. Established in 1869, by Maulvi Barkat Ali a notable Lahori

Muslim, Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore or AIPL was aimed at the rehabilitation of

Badshahi mosque, fulfilment of the proposals regarding the religious, moral, educational and social welfare of the Muslims of Punjab, and arouse in Muslims loyalty towards

British Government and approaching the Government for protecting the rights of

Muslims. The objectives continued to change with changing circumstances and protection of the auqaf of Muslims and their proper management was later added to its objectives. Being the forerunner of all Muslim anjumans, AIPL can rightly be named as mother of all Muslim anjumans. Membership of the AIPL was open to all Muslims and any Muslim could become its member by depositing three rupees as annual fee. Fifty rupees was mandatory fee to become life member of AIPL.

AIPL was a Muslim communal organization because its aims and objectives were framed for Muslims only and its membership was also restricted to Muslims. For

Muslims of Punjab, it played an important religious, social and political role. It performed various tasks such as rehabilitation of Badshahi mosque, establishment of schools and madrassas for Muslim students, and promotion of unity among various

Muslim sects. It collected funds for the affectee Muslims of Turkey in Turco-Russian

War (1877-78) and Muslims of Bulgaria in 1879. It successfully mustered the support of other Muslim stalwarts like Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. It voiced Muslim opinion regarding various Bills in Punjab Legislative Council and represented Muslims in Punjab Service

Commission. It extended support to the Provincial Muslim League and the British

332

Government against swadeshi agitation. It persuaded the Punjab Government to sanction quota for Muslim children in schools and to grant scholarships to them. It supported the

Muslims in Cawnpore mosque incident, and considering pan-Islamic interests, offered assistance to the affected Muslims in the war of Tripoli (1911-12). It submitted a memorandum in the support of Punjab Alienation of Land Act, 1901. It denounced

Russian aggression in the form of bombardment of mausoleum of Imam Ali Raza in

1912. It provided support to Khilafat Movement. It extended cooperation for the establishment of United Indian Patriotic Association in 1889 and Muhammedan

Educational Conference. It worked for the establishment of Sir Syed Memorial Fund in

1898. It staged protests against the export of wheat in 1891. It also worked for the educational advancement of Muslims of Punjab by writing a petition to the Government of Punjab in January 1887 for expressing concerns over educational backwardness of

Punjabi Muslims and procuring Jubilee scholarships for them. It attracted the attention of

Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, Sir James Lyall for quota of jobs for Muslims.

AIPL was always watchful of the grievances of Muslims of Punjab and tried to attract the attention of the Government towards them. AIPL requested the Government in

1888 to take suitable steps for the eradication of unlawful use of Muslim auqaf in Punjab.

It tried to stop the activities of Christian missionaries against Islam. The Christian missionaries were resisted by all notable Muslim organizations in the Punjab. AIPL protested vigorously in 1881 against a blasphemous writing of a Christian missionary.

Likewise, it protested in 1892 against the magazine of a priest named Williams who sought pardon later and his magazine was also stopped. It issued a memorial to the

333

Governor in 1898 against another blasphemous book dealing with the wives of the

Prophet (PBUH).

When Simon Commission visited Punjab (10-20 March, 1928), it was supported by both the organizations, AIPL and AHIL. The representatives of these Muslim organizations and Sir Muhammad Shafi group of Punjab Muslim League warmly welcomed them. Moreover, the members of the Council of State as well as Central and

Provincial Legislature welcomed the Commission. Indian Chiefs Association and local bodies also expressed their gratitude to it. Sir Zulfiqar Ali Khan hosted a largely attended reception at his residence in honour of the Simon Commission. The local bodies in the

Punjab passed resolutions in its favour. The members of the Commission attended a meeting of the Punjab Legislative Council on the invitation of its President, Chaudhary

Shihabuddin. It was due to the influence of Unionists in the Punjab politics generally, and

Muslim communal organizations such as AIPL and AHIL particularly, that Simon

Commission was well received although it was boycotted throughout India.

AHIL was established in 1884 in Lahore with aims of countering propaganda against Islam verbally or practically, imparting suitable and necessary education to

Muslim boys and girls, to maintain and take educational care of Muslim male and female orphans, to improve social and intellectual conditions of Muslim community and to bring home to Muslims the benefits of loyalty towards the British Government. Besides this, for the realization of its objectives, AHIL appointed preachers, issued a monthly magazine, and established educational institutions and orphanages to advance interests of

Muslim community. Membership of the Anjuman was open for every adult Muslim,

334 which shows that the organization was exclusively communal and for the protection of rights of the Muslims and promotion of their interests alone.

The founding fathers of AHIL included many leading and notable Muslims of the

Punjab including Khalifa Hamid-ud-Din, Maulvi Ghulam Ullah Kasuri and Munshi

Chiraghuddin. Its office bearers, most of whom were working voluntarily, devoted their time, efforts and resources for its development and welfare of Punjabi Muslims. It was the largest Muslim social service organization in the Punjab. Its financial resources included donations in the form of cash and kind from the Muslim community, various moveable and immovable properties, donations from princes of various states within

India and funds collected from rulers of various Muslim countries such as Afghanistan,

Iran and Turkey. The collection of funds by volunteers and the contribution of donors, exclusively the Muslims, was an important process of sharpening religious identity consciousness of the contributors.

AHIL established a vast network of educational institutions in Punjab, and especially in Lahore. The educational and other institutions included primary and secondary schools for boys and girls, madrassas for religious education, Islamia College

Lahore, institutions of technical education, Tibbia (medical) college, charity clinics of

Eastern medicine, libraries, a printing press and many orphanages for Muslim boys and girls. Besides establishing these institutions, it promoted literary and intellectual activities. Its annual sessions used to be huge gatherings where various kinds of literary deliberations took place. Allama Muhammad Iqbal, poet and philosopher whose poetry contributed enormously for sharpening Muslim identity, was introduced to public from

335 the platform of AHIL. Later on, Iqbal played an important role as its volunteer leader and served as its president. The Muslim organizations promoted sentiments of Muslim nationalism which can be understood through the fact that, by virtue of all of their activities and services, they prepared an environment which led to make Punjab a part of new state of Pakistan.

336

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Zamindar, Vazira Fazila-Yaqoobali. The Long Partition and the Making of the Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2008.

356

Books in Urdu

Ahmad, Azizuddin. Punjab aur Bairuni Hamla Aavar [Punjab and Foreign Invaders]. Lahore: Maktaba-i-Fikr-o-Danish, 1990.

Ali, Maulvi Syed Iqbal. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Ka Safarnama-i-Punjab [Sir Syed Ahmad Khan‘s Travelogue on Punjab]. Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University, 2009, first published in 1884.

Ali, Mubarik. Tarikh aur Mazhabi Tehreekein [History and Religious Movements]. Lahore: Fiction House, 2015.

Bari, Abdul. Fitna-i-Irtidad aur Musalmano ka Farz [Problem of Apostasy and Obligations for Muslims]. Lucknow: Farangi Mahal, 1341 A.H.

Hassan, Sibte. Mazi kay Mazar [Graveyards of Past]. Karachi: Maktaba-i-Danyal, 2016.

Hassan, Sibte. Pakistan kay Tehzibi-o-Siyasi Masa‟il [The Political and Cultural Issues of Pakistan]. Karachi: Maktaba-i-Danyal, 2015.

Hayat, Khawaja Muhammad. Mukhtasar Tarikh Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore [A Short History of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore]. Lahore: Anjuman-i- Himayat-i-Islam Press, n.d.

Iqbal, Allama Muhammad. Kulyat-i-Iqbal [Anthology of Iqbal]. Islamabad: Alhamra Publications, 2004.

Kashmiri, Shorish. Tehrik-i-Khatam-i-Nubuwwat [The Movement for Finality of Prophethood]. Lahore: Chitaan Publications, 2017.

Khan, Abdul Qadir. Maslae Qaumiat aur Maarka-i-Din-o-Watan [Controversy over Nationalism and Battle for Religion and Country]. Fateh Publishers, 2016.

Malik, Baidar (ed.). Iqbal Shanasi aur Crescent [Recognizing Iqbal and Crescent]. Lahore: Bazm-i-Iqbal, 1988.

Lal, Kanhaiya. Tarikh-i-Punjab [History of Punjab]. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, n.d.

Lal, Kanhaiya. Tarikh-i-Lahore [History of Lahore]. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1990.

Nairang, Ghulam Bheek. Ghubar-i-Ufaq [Dust of Sky]. Delhi: Almas Press, 1925.

Sabri, Maulana Imdad. Farangion Ka Jaal [Trap of the Foreigners]. New Delhi: Farid Book Depot, 2008.

357

Saeed, Ahmad. Anjuman-i-Islamia Amritsar: Taleemi-o-Syasi Khidmaat [Anjuman-i- Islamia Amritsar: Educational and Political Services]. Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab Lahore, 1986.

Saeed, Ahmad. Islamia College Lahore ki Sad Sala Tarikh, 1892-1992 [Hundred Years‘ History of Islamia College Lahore, 1892-1992]. Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab, 1992.

Saeed, Ahmad. Musalmanan-i-Punjab ki Samaji aur Falahi Anjumanein: Aik Tajziati Mutalia [The Social and Welfare Organizations of the Muslims of Punjab: An Analytical Study]. Lahore: Research Society of Pakistan, University of the Punjab, 2004.

Saeed, Ahmad. Quaid-i-Azam Muslim Press ki Nazar Mein [Quaid-i-Azam in the View of Muslim Press]. Karachi: Quaid-i-Azam Academy, 1981.

Saeed, Ahmad. Roznama Zamindar aur Tehrik-i-Azadi [Diary of Zamindar and Freedom Movement] Islamabad: Muqtadara Qaumi Zaban, 1988.

Shahid, Muhammad Hanif. Iqbal aur Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam [Iqbal and Anjuman-i- Himayat-i-Islam]. Lahore: Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Press, 1976.

Waqar, Azra. Tehrik-i-Pakistan aur Nawa-i-Waqt. Islamabad: National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 2004.

Zubairi, Bilal. Tarikh-i-Jhang [History of Jhang]. Jhang: Jhang Adabi Academy, 2002.

Journal Articles

Agha, Haider Ali. ―Political Economy of Identity Formation, 1890-1910: Class and Community in Colonial Punjab.‖ Pakistan Vision (Pakistan Study Centre, University of the Punjab, Lahore) vol. 17, no. 2 (2017): 105-145.

Ahmad, Imtiaz. ―The Ashraf-Ajlaf Dichotomy in Muslim Social Structure in India.‖ Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. III (1966): 268-78.

Ahmad, Ishtiaq and Mahmud-ul-Hassan Butt. ―From Pan-Islamism to Muslim Nationalism: Khilafat Movement and the Struggle for Pakistan.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXIII, no, 2 (2012): 1-22.

Alvi, Hamza. ―India: Transition from Feudalism to Colonial Capitalism.‖ Journal of Contemporary Asia, (1980): 371-72.

358

Amin, Nurul and Altaf Ullah. ―Islamia College Lahore ki Kiaam mein Afghanistan Ka Kirdaar.‖ Mujalla Tarikh-o-Saqafat-i-Pakistan vol. 28 no. 2 (July-December 2017): 59-72.

Anjum, Tanvir. ―‗Be Hell for Those Who Call me Saiyyid‘: Social Stratification among the South Asian Muslims and the Sufi Worldview.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXII, no. 2 (2011): 43-64.

Bandyopadhyay, Kausik. ―In Search of an Identity: The Muslims and Football in Colonial India.‖ Soccer & Society, vol. 10, no. 6 (November, 2009): 843-865.

Baqai, Farah Gul. ―British Rule in Punjab: 1849-1947.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXI, no. 2, (2010): 110-131.

Barrier, N. Gerald. ―The Punjab Government and Communal Politics 1870-1908.‖ The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 27, no. 3 (May, 1968): 523-539.

Bayly, C. A. ―The Pre-history of communalism? Religious Conflict in India, 1700-1860.‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 19, no. 2 (1985): 177-203.

Bhagat, R. B. ―Caste Census: Looking Back, Looking Forward.‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 42, no. 21 (2007): 1902-1905.

Bhagat, Ram B. ―Census and Caste Enumerations: British Legacy and Contemporary Practices in India.‖ Genus, vol. 62, no. 2 (April-June 2006): 119-134.

Bodla, Akhtar Rasool. ―Genesis of Blasphemy Law in Colonial India.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVIII, no. 2 (July-December, 2017): 139-153.

Cerulo, Karen A. ―Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions.‖ Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 23 (1997): 385-409.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. ―Modernity and Ethnicity in India: A History for the Present.‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 30, no. 52 (1995): 3373-3380.

Din, Mian Shah. ―Muslim Societies in the Punjab,‖ The Indian Magazine, no. 205 (January, 1888): 186-92.

Dubois, Thomas David. ―Hegemony, Imperialism, and the Construction of Religion in East and Southeast Asia.‖ History and Theory, vol. 44 (2005):

Eisenstadt, Shmuel N. and Wolfgang Schluchter, ―Paths to Early Modernities: A Comparative View.‖ Daedalus, vol. 127, no. 3 (1998): 1-18.

359

Freitag, Sandria B. ―Sacred Symbol as Mobilizing Ideology: The North Indian Search for a ―Hindu‖ Community.‖ Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 22, no. 4 (October, 1980): 597-625.

Gill, Mehar Singh. ―Politics of Population Census Data in India.‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 42, no. 3 (2007): 241-249.

Gilmartin, David. ―A Magnificent Gift: Muslim Nationalism and the Election Processes in Colonial Punjab.‖ Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 40, no. 3 (1998): 415-436.

Guha, Sumit. ―The Politics of Identity and Enumeration in India c. 1600-1990.‖ Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 45, no. 1 (Jan., 2003): 148-167.

Hassan, Syed Hammad. ―Ghulam Jilani Burq‘s Views on the Relationship of Science and Rationality with the Islam: An Appraisal.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVI, no. 1 (January- June, 2015): 67-92.

Huddy, Leonie. ―From Social to Political Identity: A Critical Examination of Social Identity Theory.‖ Political Psychology, vol. 22. no. 1 (Mar., 2001), 127-156.

Judge, Pramajit S. ―Politics of Sikh Identity and Its Fundamentalist Assertion.‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 39, no. 35 (2004): 3947-54.

Kamran, Tahir. ―The Pre-History of Religious Exclusionism in Contemporary Pakistan: Khatam-e-Nubuwwat 1889-1953.‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 49, no. 6 (2015): 1840-1874.

Khan, Rashiduddin. ―Muslim Leadership and Electoral Politics in Hyderabad: A Pattern of Minority Articulation.‖ Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 6, no. 15 (1971): 783-794.

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Malik, Iftikhar H. ―Identity Formation and Muslim Party Politics in the Punjab, 1897- 1936: A Retrospective Analysis.‖ Modern South Asian Studies, vol. 29, no. 2 (May, 1995): 293-323.

Mehmood, Tahir. ―Colonialism and Locality: Economic Life in the Market Towns of Jhelum Canal Colony.‖ Historicus, vol. LXIII, no. 3 (July-September, 2015): 7- 31. Minault, Gail. ―Urdu Political Poetry during Khilafat Movement.‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 8, no. 4 (1974): 459-71.

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Mukhopadhyay, Kausiki and Pallab Paul. ―Organizational Differences in Hinduism and Islam and their Impact on the Women‘s Movement on the Indian Subcontinent.‖ Asian Studies Review, vol. 27, no. 4 (December, 2003): 420-442.

Parakash, Gyan. ―Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World: Perspectives from Indian Historiography.‖ Comparative Studies in Society and History,” vol. 32 (1990).

Qalb-i-Abid, S. ―The Muslim Demand for Separate Electorates.‖ Journal of Pakistan Historical Society, vol. XXXVII (October, 1989):

Rag, Pankaj. ―Indian Nationalism, 1885-1905: An Overview.‖ Social Scientist, vol. 23 no. 4/6 (April-June, 1995): 69-97.

Rahman, Tariq. ―From Group Labels to Family Names: The Onomastic Aspects of Modernization in Pakistan.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVI, no. 1 (January- June, 2015): 1-28.

Rahman, Tariq. ―Personal Names of Pakistani Muslims: An Essay on Onomastics.‖ Pakistan Perspectives, vol. 18, no. 1 (January-June, 2013): 33-57.

Rahman, Tariq. ―Urdu as the Language of Education in British India.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. vol. XXXII, no. 2 (2011): 1-22. Robinson, Francis. ―Islamic Reform and Modernities in South Asia.‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 42, no. 2/3 (2008): 259-281. Robinson, Francis. ―Strategies of Authority in Muslim South Asia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.‖ Modern South Asian Studies, vol. 47, no. 1 (2013): 1-21.

Robinson, Francis. ―Technology and Religious Change: Islam and the Impact of Print.‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 27, no, 1 (1993): 229-251.

Robinson, Francis. ―The British Empire and Muslim Identity in South Asia.‖ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series, vol. 8 (1998): 271-289.

Robinson, Francis. ―Islam and Muslim Separatism.‖ In Nationality and Nationalism, edited by Athena S. Leoussi and Steven Grosby. New York: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2004.

Robinson, Francis. ―Islam and the Impact of Print in South Asia.‖ In Islam and Muslim History in South Asia, edited by Francis Robinson. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Sen, Amya. ―Hindu Revivalism in Action—The Age of Consent Bill Agitation in Bengal.‖ Indian Historical Review, vol. 7, no. 1-2, (July, 1980-Jan, 1981): 160- 184.

361

Shaikh, Farzana. ―Muslims and Political Representation in Colonial India: The Making of Pakistan.‖ Modern Asian Studies, vol. 20, no. 3 (1986): 539-557.

Sundar, Nandini. ―Caste as Census: Implications for Sociology.‖ Current Sociology, vol. 48 (2000): 111-13.

Talbot, Ian. ―The 1946 Punjab Elections.‖ Modern Asia Studies, vol. 14, no. 1 (1980): 65- 91.

Talbot, Ian. ―The Growth of the Muslim League in the Punjab, 1937-1946.‖ The Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. 20, no. 1 (1982): 5-24.

Tariq, Muhammad. ―Mulla Marwat: Life and Career in the Politics of British N. W. F. P.‖ Historicus vol. LXV, no. 4 (October- December, 2017): 73-92.

Tariq, Rahman. ―The First Book of Old Urdu in the Pashto-Speaking Areas.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXIX, no. 2 (2008): 154-165.

Thapar, Romila. ―Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for Hindu Identity.‖ Modern South Asian Studies, vol. 23, no. 2 (1989), 209-231.

Thapar, Romila. ―The Tyranny of Labels.‖ Social Scientist, vol. 24, no. 9/10 (Sep.-Oct., 1996): 3-23.

Tomilson, B. R. ―India and the British Empire 1880-1935.‖ Indian Economic and Social History Review (1975).

Wasti, Syed Razi. ―The Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore: A Brief History.‖ Journal of Research Society of Pakistan (January-April, 1966).

Zahid, Masood Akhtar. ―Islamia Anjumans and Educational Development: Perspectives on the 19th Century British Punjab.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXIV, no. 2 (2013): 1-23.

Zahid, Masood Akhtar. ―Local Self-government and Education in India: Explorations into the Late 19th Century Punjab.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVII, no. 1 (January-June, 2016): 1-19.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar. ―Historiography of the War of Independence 1857.‖ In Dimensions of the War of Independence 1857, edited by Shahid Ahmad Rajput. Sargodha: University of Sargodha, 2008.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar. ―Migration, Settlement and Identity: A Cultural Theme of Muslim Diaspora after Partition of India-1947.‖ In Diasporas: Critical and Inter-

362

Disciplinary Perspectives, edited by Janes Fernandez. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2009.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar. ―The Emergence of Individual Rights in Europe: A Historical Recapture.‖ Journal of European Studies, vol. 35, no. 1 (January 2019): 54-66.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar and Muhammad Sajid Khan et al. ―The Xenophobia, Racial Identity and the Crisis of Federalism in Pakistan.‖ Journal of History Culture and Art Research, vol. 7, no. 1 (March 2018): 287-300.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar. ―Difference of Opinion between the Lawrence Brothers regarding the Policy towards Landlords in Colonial Punjab.‖ Pakistan Vision, vol. 19, no. 2 (2018): 1-14.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar and Zafar Mohyuddin. ―Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore Ki Adbi Aur Taleemi Khidmaat (1884-1934): Aik Tajziati Mutalia.‖ Mujalla-i- Tarikh-o-Saqafat-i-Pakistan, vol. 28, no. 2 (July-December, 2017): 31-40.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar. ―Ahd-i-Bartania ke Punjab Mein Muslim Shanakht Ki Taamir Kelie Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Ki Shaeri Ka Kirdaar.‖ Mujalla-i- Tarikh-o-Saqafat-i-Pakistan. vol. 26, no. 1 (April-September, 2015): 21-38.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar. ―Nau-Abadiati Shumali Hindustan Mein Muslim Shanakht Ki Taaamir Kelie Anjuman Khuddam-i-Kaaba Ka Kirdaar.‖ Mujalla-i-Tarikh-o- Saqafat-i-Pakistan vol. 28 no. 1 (October 2016-March, 2017): 63-74.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar. ―The Collective Self and the Collective Other: Construction of Communal Identities in Colonial Punjab.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXVI, no. 2, (July-December, 2015): 25-44.

Zahoor, Muhammad Abrar and Fakhar Bilal. ―Marxist Historiography: An Analytical Exposition of Major Themes and Premises.‖ Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. XXXIV, no. 2 (July-December, 2013): 25-40.

Unpublished Theses

Afzal, Muhammad Mujeeb. ―BJP‘s Politics and the Muslims of India.‖ Ph.D Diss., Department of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 2012.

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Ali, Arshad. ―Relationship of Leaders of Tehreek-i-Mujahideen with the British.‖ M. Phil Diss., Department of History and Pakistan Studies, Government College University, Faisalabad, 2016.

Anjum, Tanvir. ―Chishtia Silsilah and the Delhi Sultanate: A Study of their Relationship during 13th and 14th Centuries.‖ Ph.D diss., Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 2005.

Arif, Muhammad Akeel. ―Political Struggle of Khaksar Movement, 1939-1947.‖ M. Phil Diss., Department of History and Pakistan Studies, Government College University, Faisalabad, 2016.

Brush, Stanley Elwood. ―Protestants in the Punjab: Religion and Social Change in an Indian Province in the Nineteenth Century.‖ Ph.D. diss., Berkeley: University of California, 1971.

Nazir, Farhana A. ―A Study of the Evolution of Legislation on Offences Relating to Religion in British India and their Implications in Contemporary Pakistan.‖ Ph. D. Diss. Divinity School, University of Edinburgh, 2013.

Riaz, Masood Ahmad. ―Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan: A Religio-Political Study.‖ M.Phil Diss., Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 2015.

Uprety, Prem Raman. ―Religion and Politics in the Punjab in the 1920s.‖ Ph.D. Diss. University of Missouri, 1975.

Waqas, Muhammad. ―The Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore (1947-77).‖ M. Phil Diss. Department of History and Pakistan Studies, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, 2012.

Zafar-ul-Islam. ―Growth of Muslim Political Consciousness in Indo-Pakistan Sub- continent, 1898-1940.‖ PhD. Diss. Department of History, University of the Punjab.

364

Newspapers and Magazines

Akali (Lahore)

Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore Ka Mahvari Risala [Monthly Magazine of Anjuman- i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore]

Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore ka Shashmahi Risala [Biannual Magazine of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore]

Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore ka Sehmahi Risala [Quarterly Magazine of Anjuman- i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore]

Chaudhvin Sadi (Rawalpindi)

Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore)

Inqilab (Lahore)

Paisa Akhbar (Lahore)

Rafiq-i-Hind (Lahore)

Tribune (Lahore)

Wakil (Lahore)

Watan (Amritsar)

Zamindar (Lahore)

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Appendix I (Objectives of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore)

1. To think over and bring into action the proposals regarding the religious, moral, educational and social welfare of the Muslims of Punjab. 2. To provide scholarships to Muslim students to promote their education. 3. To protect Muslim auqaf and take proper care of those which are under custody of the Anjuman. 4. To inculcate in Muslims loyalty towards the British government. 5. To approach the government to present proposals regarding protection of the rights of the Muslims.

Source: Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore Ka Sehmahi Risla [Quarterly Magazine of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore], Oct-Dec 1926, 2-3.

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Appendix II (Membership Rules of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab, Lahore)

1. Any Muslim from any country, by acquiring favour of one member of the General Committee or Administrative Committee or by acquiring the favour of majority of members of the Anjuman, can become a member. 2. The person, who would be recognized as a member would be sent a formal written acceptance. His name would be included in the list of members after receiving his consent as well as biannual fee in advance. 3. Every member has the right to give his opinion on the issue to be discussed in General Committee meeting. He can express his opinion or advice which should not be contrary to the objectives and interests of the Anjuman. 4. Every member must deposit at least Rs4 monthly or Rs3 annual fund. 5. The person who would deposit it in advance would be granted membership for life and he would be exempted to pay monthly fee. 6. If any person would pay more than Rs3 annual membership fee or donate any amount would be accepted with gratitude. 7. The person who would not pay membership fee for one year will not have rights of a member and if he is unable to deposit fee for two years or unable to furnish written explanation would cease to be member of the Anjuman. 8. The ulema who are expected to serve the Muslim community can be honourary member of General Committee and will be exempted from depositing membership fee. 9. Anjuman has the right to declare any Muslim veteran or ruler who extends his sympathy and generosity to Anjuman as its Honourary Life President or Patron. These persons would enjoy this stature for life. 10. If any member wants to leave his membership, the Anjuman would exclude his name from the list of members after receiving the opinion of three-fourth members of the General Committee.

Source: Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore ka Shashmahi Risala [Bi-annual Magazine of Anjuman-i-Islamia Punjab Lahore], July-December, 1931, 2-3.

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Appendix III (Objectives of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore)

1. To rationally and intelligently answer, verbally or in writing, any accusation advanced against Islam, and to promote the preaching of Islam. 2. To impart suitable and necessary education to the Muslim boys and girls, and save them from abjuring their own true faith. 3. To take upon to itself the maintenance and education, to the best of its ability, of Muhammadan orphans, and to render all possible educational aid to poor Muslim boys and girls, so as to save them from falling into the hands of the followers of other religions. 4. To improve the social and intellectual conditions of Muslim community and initiate measures conducive to the creation and preservation of friendly feelings and concord between the different sects of Islam. 5. To bring home to the Muhammadans the advantages of loyalty to the British Government. 6. For the realization of its objectives, the Anjuman shall appoint preachers, issue a monthly magazine, establish educational institutions and orphanages, and make use of other essential means deemed necessary.

Source: Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore Ka Mahvari Risala [Monthly Magazine of Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore], March-April, 1893 (Lahore: Anjuman-i-Himayat-i- Islam, 1893), 1.

368

Appendix IV (Oaths Administered by Anjuman-i-Khuddam-i-Kaaba)

―I, son of ______being in the presence of God, after repentance for my past sins, with Kalima on my lips and facing the Kaaba (pointing towards Kaaba with his finger), solemnly affirm that I shall try with my whole heart to maintain the respect of the Kaaba and shall sacrifice my life and property against non-Muslim aggressors. I shall fully carry out the orders of the Anjuman Khuddam-i-Kaaba given to me.‖

―I, son of ______with my face turned towards the Kaaba, being thereby in the presence of God, hereby solemnly affirm that I have given up my life for the service of God. I now must serve the Kaaba only and maintain the respect of the Kaaba. The orders of the Anjuman Khuddam-i-Kaaba will be my most responsible duty which I shall be always ready to carry out with my heart and soul, and without any objection or delay. I will, without objection or delay, start for any destination to which I may be ordered to go; no difficulty will keep me back. With this solemn promise I enter into the society of Shaidaian-i-Kaaba (Votaries of the Kaaba) swearing for a second time by my God and my Prophet, the Quran, my religion, and my honour to remain faithful to the above promise.‖

Source: Oriental and India Office Collection, File. L/P&S/20/242, Appendix A.

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All Pictures Courtesy Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam Lahore

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