Muslims and India’s Freedom Struggle
Recalling the Untold Bright History
Muhammadullah Khalili Qasmi
India,
from ancient times is famous for its civilization, rituals and natural
recourses. It existed even in the immemorial times. According to many
prophetic traditions, the Prophet Adam (peace be upon him), the first
man on earth, landed in India. Interestingly Adam, the first prophet of
Allah to the people, was the first man to stay at the soil of India. It
is known to all that Muslims believe in all the prophets sent down by
Allah on this earth. It is also known that all the prophets of Allah
came with one religion that is Islam. So in this way, Muslims are the
true successor of this land.
After the seventh century AD, the
atlas of the world changed. As two great world empires i.e. Persia and
Rome collapsed. India also could not guard itself from the effect of the
international revolution that was brought about by Islam. In 711 AD,
Muhammad Qasim entered India and cut off Sind. Later, it was the turn of
Sultan Mahmood Gaznavi (reign 998-1030) who conquered a good part of
western and northern India. Soon after him came Sultan Shihabuddin Gauri
in 1206 who laid the foundation stone of Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526).
Finally came Babar whose Mughal empire lasted for centuries (from 1526
to 1857).
The Mughal Empire with its all glory after the period
of Aurangzeb Aalamgir (1618-1707) started declining. The undeserving
successors of throne could not protect the inherited government from
declining. Europe those days was passing by boundless scientific and
economical progress while the Muslim empires like Ottoman Caliphate in
Turkey and Mughal Empire in India could not sense the importance of
scientific developments that were taking place in Europe. The onslaught
of Europe on India started by the Portuguese pirates and colonialists in
seventeenth century, but it was heightened when the English disguised
as traders established bases with an eye on India’ wealth and
land. Later the East India Company began taking the country into its
grip and finally it put an end to the 7-century old Muslim rule.
First,
East India Company established its base in Surat where it got
permission to operate business in the period of Jahangir in 1612. The
company got marvelous success and occupied all three important ports of
Bombay, Calcutta and Surat. Shah Waliullah Muhaddis Dehlawi (1703-1762)
was the first person who apprehended the danger and was disappointed of
the Muslim government to stand to an action. So he chalked out a plan of
complete revolution. Shah Waliullah’s various books reflect this
thought and propound a complete framework. Shah Waliullah is the
frontrunner of this field. Later, his sons and pupils forwarded his
mission.
Meanwhile, the company began to expand its area. It
resulted at a fierce fight between the company and Sirajuddaula in
Palasi (Bengal) in 1757. Sirajuddaula was defeated and the door was open
for Britain to occupy Bengal. Afterwards, Haidar Ali and his son Tipu
Sultan stood up to stop English steps in Deccan (Southern India). But
this campaign suffered a major setback due to internal treachery and
Tipu was martyred fighting in Srangapattam in 1799. The English general
Nell climbed up his dead body and shouted: “From today India is ours”.
Finally, one day in 1803 the Mughal king in Delhi was forcibly asked to
sign a paper that read, “The people for Allah, the country for King his
majesty and the order for the Company”.
Meanwhile, Shah Abdul
Aziz (1746-1823) who was realizing the situation very carefully issued a
fatwa saying that India has become a Darul Harb (non-Muslim country);
Muslims must wage war against the British.
After 1803, there was
no real threat to the English. The ground was not prepared to start any
revolutionary movement. So, Syed Ahmad Shaheed, a disciple of Shah
Abdul Aziz, with his some companions migrated to Qandahar in Afghanistan
in search of a land from where he can run a movement and prepare a team
for the revolution. There, he established an Islamic government and
confronted with Sikhs who were a big obstacle in the way of their
movement. Unfortunately, the greatest militant movement of this
subcontinent suffered sedition of Afghans and finally collapsed. The
remaining people, especially the Ulama-e-Sadiqpur, continued their
mission inside India.
The sparks of hate and anger against
the English burst again in 1857. This time it was not a mutiny of a
group but mass revolt against the English throughout the country. In
Shamli people revolted in the leadership of Haji Imdadullah while they
were fighting in Lucknow and Faizabad under the command of Begum Nawab
and Maulana Ahmadullah. Meerut and Delhi were the centers where Indian
army men were with Sultan Bahadur Shah Zafar. The revolt continued for
months, but the Indians were defeated in the long run.
It is
noteworthy that the caravan of freedom was led purely by Muslims till
1857. Since the power was snatched from Muslims so they were naturally
the first enemies of the alien government. According to historians,
27,000 Muslims were only hanged to death. Not to speak of the 7-day-long
massacre. Even the children were not spared. The atrocities that were
perpetrated on women are beyond imagination. Shah Zafar was exiled to
Rangoon and his descendents were finished off.
After the failure
of 1857 revolution, the Muslim leaders changed their strategy. They
started setting up educational institutions across the country to combat
the government’s disastrous policies. On the foremost of them was
Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and his colleagues who established
Darul Uloom Deoband to produce a team of Ulama who can fight eyeball to
eyeball with British government. The first student of Darul Uloom
Deoband, Maulana Mahmood Hasan known as Shaikhul Hind, with his people
drew a plan known as “Reshmi Rumal Movement” (Silken Letters Movements).
Hazrat Shaikhul Hind had a secret agreement with Ottoman Caliphate of
Turkey to attack on British bases in India and prepare ground for
revolt. But this plan also was sabotaged by some Muslims. Consequently,
he with his colleagues was arrested and sent to Malta Island where they
spent 3 years and later released when no guilt was proved.
As
the 1st World War erupted the Indian subcontinent was resounding with
the slogans of Khilafat Movement. Until this point of time, no prominent
Hindu leader was in the field. Due to the World War, the global
scenario changed and India Hindus got up from their long slumber.
Shaikhul Hind in his way back to India from Malta was supposed to get
down in Bombay. Gandhi Ji was amongst those who came to receive him.
After that in a meeting Shaikhul Hind, Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar,
Mukhtar Ansari and other Muslim leaders elected Gandhi Ji as the leader.
Since Hindus were in majority, so it was necessary to win the local and
international support by putting Hindu leaders forward.
Around
1919 Jamiatul Ulama came into being to provide Muslims a platform to
fight against the English. It is worth mentioning that it was Jamiat,
which taught the Congress to follow the path to freedom. Otherwise, it
was not founded with sole purpose of independence. The Jamiat leaders
worked closely with the Congress and inspired it to adopt
non-cooperation, complete freedom and other programme.
Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad, the genius scholar and prolific water of the Indian
subcontinent, was the hero of India’s independence. Through his writings
and particularly historic newspapers al-Hilal and al-Balagh he heated
up the continent with warm slogans of freedom that made the colonialists
restless. He headed the Congress especially in the most crucial times
of independence history during the II World War and afterwards. It was
the continuous pressure and wise policy of the Congress under his
leadership that materialized the dream of freedom in shorter period.
These
are some brief extracts from the history of freedom. Otherwise, the
sacrifices that Muslims have offered to free India from the clutches of
the English cannot be described in a short article. If we take only the
names of the Muslim fighters it will take hours to finish. The most
important thing is that Muslims were pioneer in freedom fighting and
only they carried it on till 1900. The Hindu leaders appeared long after
them and Muslims went parallel with them till the country was free.
Muslims had always held high the torch of patriotism and freedom
fighting.
Today, it is tragic enough that Muslims are blamed that
they are traitors. Muslim fighters instead of being paid homage their
names are removed from textbooks and history. While, many in Hindu
community think that Muslims have got their share in the form of
Pakistan, but they forget that still India has more Muslims than
Pakistan or any other country in the world except Indonesia.
The
purpose to mention these sacrifices is to remind today’s Muslims of our
brave past. Since, it is said that a nation which fails to treasure its
history is lost in the darkness of ages. It has nothing that inspires
it to face any threat with courage and determination.