Of futile fundamentalism
K. Ali Afzal, with his distinguished family lineage, education in England and high office held both in India and Pakistan comes through as an assiduous scholar, and intellectual with deep religious convictions. His commitment and passion to the cause is evident in his writing. The book though well written but not being edited accounts for the inexplicable gaps and repetitions and it was probably written over a period of a few years and also some chapters may have been lost. Be that as it may, Ali Afzal has woven an intricate web with countless characters. The settings of the Indo-Afghan War, the indigenous movement of Gandhi and mainstream Muslim leaders of various descriptions/organizational persuasions, the First World War, the Russian Revolution, defeat of Turkey, the rise of Kemal Ataturk and the rise of the so-called Provisional Government of India in Kabul have been randomly used to make a coherence of the author's life long intellectual quest for a revolution of a kind built around his icon Maulana Obeidulalh Sindhi.
The book appears to be a sequel to The Indian Musalmans written by W.W. Hunter in 1871 on a similar theme of a Muslim revolution inspired by the Wahabi movement, the main difference being that Sayyid Ahmed Barelvi the main character of The Indian Musalmans did inspire severe armed conflict with the British over a period of many years resulting in thousands of British and Indian casualties. In the same period it also inspired Titu Mir (a disciple of Sayyid Ahmed) and the Faraizi movement in Bengal and the Moplah movement in Kerala all doomed to failure with many casualties. Ali Afzal's book also appears to be the forerunner of a somewhat similar rebellion of a kind led by Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan followed by our own Bangla Bhai of JMB, hell-bent on establishing Taliban rule in Bangladesh. The motivational and inspirational factors behind all these Muslim revolutions is the notion of Islam in danger and establishment of an Islamic theocratic State by force. i.e. Dar-ul-Islam as opposed to Dar-ul-Harb. In retrospect we can see that the Wahabi revolution of the 1820s and the Obeidulah Sindhi's endeavours in sedition, subversion and insurgency in 1914-1919 were exercises in futility by the idealistic, simple and gullible young Muslims which led to harsh suppression by the British and the introduction of draconian laws in the form of the Regulating Act 1818 and the Rowlatt Act 1919 resulting in untold sufferings for millions of Muslims.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. What makes the book relevant in today's context is that the present pattern of Islamic extremism is very similar to the events in 1820-50 and 1914-19 and may lead to similar consequences.
The book casts some light on what is not yet a part of recorded history of the struggle of the time. The chronicle is interesting to that extent, but quite unconvincing notwithstanding the very many references and quotes, particularly since the whole endeavour failed without any benefit to the Muslims. How a small group of revolutionary Muslims was aspiring to take over the Indian subcontinent without the cooperation of the large non-Muslim majority was an absurdity and reflected their totally naïve and irrational objective.
The book comprises of countless characters listed in different chapters. Even to keep a track of them any serious reader has to constantly consult the biographical index given at the end of the book. How Ali Afzal compiled it is mind boggling.
The episode starts with Madrassa Darul Ulum at Deoband founded in the year 1866 with one of the principal characters Maulana Mahmud Hasan being the head of the institution in 1888. The two principal characters of the book are the leader Mahmud Hasan and his able and trusted lieutenant Obeidullah Sindhi who formed an undercover revolutionary organization to spread over India a pan-Islamic anti-British movement through the alumnis of Deoband and students of Punjab and Peshawar Universities. It is startling to note that Obeidullah Sindhi was a converted Sikh. Mahmud Hasan chose Obeidullah Sindhi to lead the revolutionary organization from Afghanistan while Hasan headed for Mecca in September 1915 to enlist Turkish support. Obeidullah established his headquarters in Kabul after surmounting countless difficulties and the network already established throughout India motivated hundreds of well to do Muslims and students of universities to join the insurgency in Kabul. How these few students and extremist religious personalities thought they would drive the mighty British from India is a testimony to their foolhardiness and emotionalism.
In December 1915 the Turko-German mission established a Provisional Government of India in Kabul with Raja Mahendra Pratap as President and Barkatullah as Prime Minister along with some German and Turks. This move was taking absurdity to its extreme limits. Then there was the episode of the 'Silk Letters' i.e. written neatly in Persian on lengths of yellow silk and sewn up inside the lining of a coat. These letters were addressed to Mahmud Hasan then based in Mecca and were designed to unite all the forces of Islam, the Turks, the Arabs under the Sherif of Mecca, the Afghans the frontier tribes and the Muslims of India. Silk letters was such amateurship efforts that they were intercepted by the British and led to large scale arrests in India. As a result of the protest of the Government of India Obeidullah Sindhi and his followers were imprisoned.
By the end of 1916 Arabia was conquered by the Arabs with British help and the Turks had been driven out. Mahmud Hasan and his companions were arrested by the Arab Sherif of Mecca and handed over to the British authorities to be interred in Malta for the next three years. Mahmud Hasan was brought from Malta and released in early 1920 in Bombay. He died a few months later and was buried at Deoband.
Upon the imprisonment of Mahmud Hasan, Obeidullah Sindhi and the companions it was apparent that the scheme of the Muslim revolutionaries for liberation of India had failed.
Obeidullah Sindhi then decided to go to Turkey. He first traveled to Russia and after a sojourn of six months he reached Ankara in May 1923 just to witness the abolition of the Caliphate on 3 March 1924. The rest of his years appears to have been spent in academic work relating to research on Islam.
The credit for being the original Islamic fundamentalist must go to Hassan i Sabbah who has given the English language the word 'assassin'. The year of his birth is not known, but he died in 1124: that, presumably is what fame is all about. For more than 100 years the cult of assassins spread terror among both the Christian crusaders and the Arab Emirs who had permitted Christians to triumph. Hassan i Sabbah promised paradise to martyrs in his cause, apparently with the judicious use of hashish, hence hashishins and then assassin. Even the legendary Saladin was not spared with two unsuccessful attempts on his life, presumably, for being chivalrous to Richard II.
After the Caliphate in 1922 and its abolition by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924, Muslim nations have not really been able to find a modern idiom for governance. The Caliphate, a remarkable institution that took nearly thirteen centuries to outlive its utility, is synonymous with the history of Islam. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, took charge of the Umma after the death of the Prophet. As the community grew at an unforeseen pace it was impossible for one caliph to remain the executive head of every Muslim. A mixture of temporal and spiritual responsibility devolved on what might be called the pre-eminent power within the Muslim world. This was based in Medina to begin with. It shifted to Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and then to Constantinople where the Ottomans provided the last line of the caliphs. For all his actual and vaunted power the caliph was never omnipotent. After the Caliphate withered, defeated in its last jihad, Muslim nations have been unable to create a sustainable representative system of government.
Nineteenth century saw a gradual break up of the Ottoman Empire. A Serbian state was established in 1830. It was the turn of Greece in 1833. Russians took over Caucasus from the Turkish fold. In 1839 Aden went to the British which created alliances with the Trucial states. Britain had fully occupied India by 1857. 1860 witnessed a civil war in Lebanon.
The nineteenth century had also been fatal to the other great Muslim empire in the world, the Mughal empire, in India. After a century of dismal degeneration, the British buried the Mughals in 1857 after a war that changed the British as much as it changed in India.
The largest Muslims population at that time was not in the Ottoman empire but in the British empire in India. Nowhere in the Muslim world was there more concern than in British India about the caliphate. Agitated by the fate of the caliphs, Indian Muslims sent a medical mission to Turkey during the Balkan wars. That mission of 1912 initiated a tidal wave in the form of futile Caliphate Movement. Ten years later in 1922 the caliphate that had stirred Muslim passion was dying and ultimate humiliation was when the last caliph Mehmet IV had to seek British protection on 17 November 1922. On 3 March 1924 the caliphate was abolished by Kemal Ataturk.
Following the collapse of the Ottoman empire the Sykes-Picot Agreement quietly divided up the Arabian part of the empire among Britain and France. Both the Balfour Declaration (2 November 1917) for creating a Jewish state in Palestine and the Sykes-Picot Agreement were in contravention of the pledges given by Britain to the Arabs. The collapse of the Ottoman empire extinguished the last light of a Muslim dominated territory. Then came a truncated Pakistan, creation of Israel in what was Muslim territory. Break up of Soviet Union gave rise to Christian super powers of United States and European Union. Muslims have simply not been able to adjust their minds to a Christian dominated world. What we see today especially after 9/11 the Muslims are at the receiving end worldwide especially Israel, Kashmir, Chechnya, Philippines, Thailand, Iraq and all the Muslims have to console themselves with their past glory.
K Z Islam is Managing Director, Nirman.