The Role of Darul Uloom Deoband in Indian Politics
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The Role of Darul Uloom Deoband in Indian Politics Prepared by: Fakhruddin Waheed Qasmi IFA Publications (New Delhi) 1 All Rights Reserved with IFA Publications Name of the Book : The Role of Darul Uloom Deoband in Indian Politics Pages : 171 Year of Publication : 2015 Price : Prepared by : Fakhruddin Waheed Qasmi Publisheed by : IFA Publications F-161 (Besment), Jogabai Jamia Nager, New Delhi-110025 2 ﷲ ا ا In the Name of Allah the most Beneficent the most Merciful 3 4 CONTENTS Introduction 9 (1)Foreign powers and Islamic revivalism 15 Indian subcontinent 15 Flashback; India’s past 15 Arrival of Muslims 17 European Penetration 19 East India Company 20 Ulama and European Power 21 Shah Walliullah Delawi and British Occupation 23 Bengal at the mercy of the Company 26 Hafiz Rahmat Khan’s Effort 26 Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlawi (1746-1824) 27 Haider Ali of Mysore 28 Tipu Sultan’s coronation 30 Tipu Sultan’s Declaration of Jihad 31 Shah Abdul Azeez’s Decree 33 Sayyad Ahmad Barailwi’s campaign for Jihad 37 Faraidi Movement of Bengal 41 Sayyad’s Caliphs Endevours 43 Maulana Wilayat Ali and Inayat Ali 45 Maulana Karamat Ali Jaunpuri 47 (2)1857; THE FIRST WAR OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE AND ULAMA Political Subjugation 49 Economic Conditions of India 51 Religious interference 52 The rebellions before 1857 53 Causes of 1857 uprising 56 The outburst of 1857 56 Rohilkhand’s uprising in 1857 58 General Bakht and Qazi Sarfraz in Delhi 62 5 Fall of Delhi 63 Rohilkhand and Awadh 65 Maulana Ahmadullah Madrasi 66 Western U.P. and 1857 Uprising 68 Eastern U.P. and 1857 71 Bihar & Bengal in 1857’s uprising 72 Ulama and 1857 uprising 74 Causes of Failure in 1857 & Consequences 75 Aftereffect of 1857 76 (3)FREEDOM STRUGGLE (1857-1920) AND DARUL ULOOM DEOBAND Moulana Karamat Ali Jaunpuri 80 Moulana Qasim Nanotvi (1832-1880) 81 Shikh-ul-Hind and Freedom Movement 86 Shaikhul Hind’s plan for the national freedom 89 His Action 89 Jamiatul Ansar 90 Mujahedeen seek help 91 Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi in Kabul 92 Shaikhul Hind leaves India 94 Shaikhul Hind meets the Turk Governor 95 Ghalib Nama reahed India, Yaghistan and Kabul 97 Letters of Silken Handkerchief 99 Shaikhul Hind in Medina 102 Shaikhul Hind secured letters of Anwar Pasha 103 Edicts reached India 106 In Conclusion 108 4-MAULANA HUSAIN AHMAD MADNI AND FREEDOM STRUGGLE His Early Life 111 Education 112 In Prophet’s city 113 Malta and Maulana Husain Ahmad 114 Maulana Madni in India 116 India in the 2 nd decade of 20 th Century 117 6 Shaikhul Hind supported Khilafat Movement 118 Maulana Madni as successor of Shaikhul Hind 119 Karachi Conference and Maulana Madni 120 The Trial of Karachi 122 Maulana Madni in the prison of Sabarmati 123 Maulana Madni’s open speech 124 Maulana Madni’s Plans for the Muslims 125 Shaikhul Islam as Principal of Deoband 127 The Challenges of the 1930s 129 New Phase of Non-Cooperation 130 The Election of 1936 and Jamiat-League Pact 132 Composite Nationalism and Maulana Madni 133 Maulana Madni in the prisons of Muradabad 135 The Partition and Maulana Madni 137 The Election of 1945-46 140 The Joy of Freedom and Sorrow of the Partition 144 5-DARUL ULOOM’S POLITICAL CONTRIBUTION IN INDEPENDENT INDIA Post-partition and Maulana Husain Madni 147 Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam 150 Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind 152 Jamiat and non cooperation Movement 153 Jamiat demanded complete freedom 154 Round Table Conference and Jamiat Ulama 155 Jamiat’s role in Civil Disobedience Movement 156 Mufti Kifayatullah Dehlavi 158 Jamiat’s Role after the Independence 158 Maulana Hifzurrahman Seoharwi 159 Maulana Sayyad Asad Madni (1928-2006) 160 Maulana Badruddin Ajmal Qasmi (b. 1950) 161 Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi 163 References 164 7 8 INTRODUCTION This is a book intended to shed light on the political role played by the famous seminary Darul Uloom Deoband in India. As a matter of fact, I should clarify that the Deoband seminary never indulged directly into political affairs; rather the piety oriented seminary had been on the prescribed line of Islamic teachings coupled by the denouncement of temporal interests and refinements of the life. They even followed the path of Sufis. But it is also a fact that Maulana Qasim Nanotvi and his associates founded this Islamic seminary in quest to get their beloved country free of the British yolk as well as to safeguard Indian Muslims from the storm of European culture, religion and faiths. Today, no one can deny that Darul Uloom Deoband’s alumni had played second to none role in both areas. Not only they saved Muslims from Christian missionaries and kept Islam alive in British India but they stemmed its roots in Indian soil so deep that no storm could uproot them. They prepared dynamic and God-fearing peoples and knit the web of Islamic seminaries in the length and breadth of the country, to insure the safety of Islam and Muslims. As far as their political contribution is concerned, they are only group that had been guiding the Indian people from 1857 to 1947; a period whose most part is marked either by British loyalty or unconsciousness from Indian side. In independent India their role has been matchless as well. Going back, the concept of India as a consolidated country could only develop in Muslims period. It is not odd to say that Muslim rulers united the far flung territories of Indian subcontinent into one great India. They beautifully designed the country and proudly uplifted its social, educational, monumental, economical and political levels in a way that converted a less known piece of land into a well known country that was proudly named ‘Golden Bird’. Before British 9 enslaved India, it was politically defined as a country of Sher Shah Soori, Babar, Akbar, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb the Great, and monumentally known as a place of Lal Qila, Qutub Minar, Jama Masjid and Taj Mahal. Socially it was named as a place of love, peace, harmony, Hindu Muslim unity and equality, and educationally as a center of great scholars like Ameer Khusroo, Shaikh Muenuddin Chishti, Mulla Mahmood Jaunpuri, Mujaddid Alf Thani, and Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. The economy jumped so high that the India’s share in 1757; when British won the battle of Plassey, was 40% in the total GDP of the World. It definitely tells that our share in World GDP was quite higher at the peak of Mughal dynasty. It was the abundance of the wealth that attracted the foreign traders to come to India owing to their greed satisfaction. A peaceful, rich and developed country, as was India before the British enslaved it, was surprised by the victory of the British forces in 1757 at Plassey, Bengal and in 1764 at Bexar, caught into slavery. Though, the Ulama apprehended this danger much before and they even fought these foreign traders cum imperial powers but they only can prevent them for a while and indeed they did it. The mighty rulers of the Mughal dynasty treated them as mere traders and they remained the same but the demise of Aurangzeb in 1707 emptied the grand throne of such mighty rulers that in turn provided the East India Company the golden opportunity to increase its interference into Indian political matters and then gradually capture the country. They soon succeeded in their colonial design. It should not be strange, if it would be said that the elders of Deoband stood like a rock in the way of imperial occupation of the country since Shah Waliullah Dehlavi was the key figure from which the concept of Deoband school of thought developed given the reason that the teachings of Shah Waliullah Dehlavi were perfectly followed by the Deoband seminary, and their ties to the Shah are more profound and powerful than any other group in India. Shah Waliullah was 10 succeeded by his capable son Shah Abdul Aziz; a real enemy of the British and he was succeeded by Sayyad Ahmad Shaheed. After the martyrdom of Sayyad Ahmad Shaheed, his survived caliphs got scattered and they continued their work independently. The notable personality Shah Muhammad Ishaq; the maternal grandson of Shah Abdul Aziz, was selected as Amir of Mujahedeen in Delhi and after his death in 1846 Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki was appointed as Amir of this movement and he was succeeded by Maulana Qasim Nanotwi; the founder of Darul Uloom Deoband. Thus, the enmity to the British, and the Jihad for Indian independence that was started by Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlawi, were inherited by the Deoband seminary. For a better understanding of this study, it was divided into five chapters; the five phases of political struggle. First the struggles were for saving the country of being slave in the hands of the British during the period of 1757-1857. Having started by Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, it was led by Shah Abdul Aziz Dehlawi and fought heroically but unsuccessfully first by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan of Mysore and then by Sayyad Ahmad Shaheed and his successors. The second stage of struggle was indeed the outburst of 1857, the uprisings before it and the struggle followed it. This phase was marked by the direct involvement of Darul Uloom Deoband’s elders. Not only they defeated the Christian missionaries but they participated in the battle of Shamley in 1857 and after 1857’s tragedy, they single handedly guided the community in religious matters as well as political. Maulana Qasim Nanotvi has defeated the missionaries and also strived to prepare people in order to restart the freedom movement afresh after it was collapsed in the face of British oppressions and cruelties of post 1857.