Islamic
Reform Movements
The Revolt of 1857 and its brutal suppression by the
British had an adverse impact on the Muslims of South Asia.
Islamic
Reform Movements
The Revolt of 1857 and its brutal suppression by the
British had an adverse impact on the Muslims of South Asia. While they were
viewed with suspicion by the British for the 1857 insurgency, the Muslims
themselves withdrew into a shell and did not use the opportunities opened up by
colonial modernity. Consequently, they lagged behind in education and attendant
employment opportunities. In this context, a few decades later some reform
movements emerged among the Muslims.
Aligarh
Movement (1875)
Aligarh Movement was started by Syed Ahmad Khan in
1875. He wanted to reconcile Western scientific education with the teachings of
the Quran. The Aligarh movement aimed at spreading (i) Modern education among
Indian Muslims without weakening their allegiance to Islam, and (ii) Social
reforms among Muslims relating to purdah, polygamy, and divorce.
Syed’s progressive social ideas were propagated
through his magazine Tahdhib-ul-Akhluq (Improvement of Manners and Morals).
Syed Ahmad Khan’s educational programme emphasized from the outset the
advantages of the use of English as the medium of instruction. In 1864 he
founded a Scientific Society of Aligarh for the introduction of Western
sciences through translations into Urdu of works on physical sciences. The same
year he founded a modern school at Ghazipur. In 1868 he promoted the formation
of education committees in several districts, to initiate modern education
among the Muslims.
During his visit to Europe in 1869–70 he developed the
plans of his life -work, a major educational institution for Indian Muslims. In
order to promote English education among the Muslims, he founded in 1875 a
modern school at Aligarh, which soon developed into the Muhammdan
Anglo–Oriental College (1877). This college was to become the Muslim University
after his death. It became the nursery of Muslim political and intellectual
leaders.
In 1886 Syed Ahmad Khan founded the Muhammedan Anglo
Oriental Educational Conference as a general forum for spreading liberal ideas
among the Indian Muslims. He rejected blind adherence to religious law and
asked for a reinterpretation of the Quran in the light of reason to suit the
new trends of the time. He attempted to liberalize Indian Islam and made it
amenable to new ideas and new interpretations. In this mission he had to face
the brunt of vehement attacks of orthodox theologians.
Ahmadiya
Movement (1889)
The Ahmadiya movement founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmed
(1835–1908) in 1889 established a different trend. While emphasizing the return
to the original principles enunciated in the Quran, Ghulam Ahmed became
controversial when he claimed to be a Messiah, which was considered heretical
by mainstream Islam. But he won many converts. His primary work was to defend
Islam against the polemics of the Arya Samaj and the Christian missionaries. In
social morals the Ahmadiya movement was conservative, adhering to polygamy,
veiling of women, and the classical rules of divorce.
The
Deoband Movement (1866)
The Deoband movement was organised by the orthodox
section among the Muslim ulemas as a revivalist movement with the twin
objective of propagating the pure teachings of the Quran and Hadis among
Muslims. The movement was established in Deoband in Saranpur district (by
Mohammad Qasim Nanotavi (1833-1877) and Rashid Ahmed Gangohi (1828–1905) to
train religious leaders for the Muslim community. In contrast to the Aligarh
Movement, which aimed at the welfare of Muslims through Western education and
support of the British Government, the aim of the Deoband Movement was
religious regeneration of the Muslim community. The instruction imparted at
Deoband adhered to classical Islamic tradition.
The seminary at Deoband was founded in 1867 by theologians of the School of Wali-Allah. Muhammad Qasim Nanotavi took a prominent part in counter-polemics against the Christian missionaries and the Arya Samajists. The principal objectives of the seminary at Deoband were to re-establish contact between the theologians and the educated Muslim middle classes, and to revive the study of Muslim religious and scholastic sciences. As a religious university Deoband soon became an honoured institution, not only in Muslim India but also in the world of Islam at large.
A school less conservative than Deoband and more
responsive to the demands of the modern age was the Nadwat al-‘ulama,’ founded
in 1894 at Lucknow by the historian Shibli Nu‘mani and other scholars. The
school aimed to offer an enlightened interpretation of religion in order to
fight the trends of agnosticism and atheism which had followed the advent of
modern Western education.
Farangi Mahal
The third famous traditional school is the much older one at Farangi Mahal in Lucknow. Farangi Mahal accepted Sufism as a valid experience and a valid field of study. Another traditionalist movement was the ahl-i-hadith or of the followers of the dicta of the Prophet.
Parsi Reform
Movements
Zoroastrians, persecuted in their Persian homeland,
migrated in large numbers to the west coast of India in the tenth century.
Zoroastrians, persecuted in their Persian homeland,
migrated in large numbers to the west coast of India in the tenth century. As a
trading community they flourished over the centuries. A close-knit community it
too was not left untouched by the reform movements of the nineteenth century.
The Rahnumai Madayasnan Sabha (Religious Reform
Association) was founded in 1851 by a group of English educated Parsis for the
“regeneration of the social conditions of the Parsis and the restoration of the
Zoroastrian religion to its pristine purity”. The movement had Naoroji
Furdonji, Dadabhai Naoroji, K. R. Cama and S.S. Bengalee as its leaders. The
message of reform was spread by the newspaper Rast-Goftar (Truth Teller).
Parsi religious rituals and practices were reformed and the Parsi creed redefined. In the social sphere, attempts were made to uplift the status of Parsi women through education, removal of the purdah, raising the age of marriage and the like. Gradually, the Parsis emerged as the most westernised section of the Indian society. They played a key role in the nationalist movement and in the industrialization of India.
Sikh
Reform Movement
The Sikh community could not remain untouched by the
rising tide of rationalist and progressive ideas of the nineteenth century.
The Sikh community could not remain untouched by the
rising tide of rationalist and progressive ideas of the nineteenth century. The
Singh Sabha Movement was formed in 1873, with a two-fold objective (i) to make
available modern western education to the Silkhs (ii) to counter the
proselytizing activities of Christian missionaries as well as Hindu revivalists.
A network of Khalsa Schools was established throughout Punjab.
The Akali movement was an offshoot of the Singh Sabha
Movement. The Akali movement aimed at liberating the Sikh Gurudwara from the
corrupt control of the Udasi Mahants (priests). The Government passed the Sikh
Gurudwara Act in 1922 (amended in 1925), which gave control to Shiromani
Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) as the main body.