The Wahhabi Movement in India

369 Pages·2020·23.081 MB·English

by  Qeyamuddin Ahmad

THE WAHHABI MOVEMENT IN INDIA
Founded by Sayyid Ahmad (1786-1831) of Rae Bareli, the Wahhabi
Movement in India was a vigorous movement for socio-religious reforms in
Indo-Islamic society in the nineteenth century with strong political
undercurrents. It stood for a strong affirmation of Tauhid (unity of God),
the efficacy of ijtihad (the right of further interpretation of the Quran and
the Sunnah, or of forming a new opinion by applying analogy) and the
rejection of bid'at (innovation). It remained active for half a century.
Sayyid Ahmad's writings show an awareness of the increasing British
presence in the country and he regarded British India as a daru'l harb (abode
of war). In 1826 he migrated and established an operational base in the
independent tribal belt of the North Western Frontier area. After his death
in the battle of Balakote, the Movement slackened for some time but his
adherents particularly Wilayet Ali and Enayat Ali of Patna revived the work
and broad-based its activities.
The climax of the Movement was reached in the Ambeyla War (1863)
during which the English army suffered serious losses at the hands of the
Wahhabis. This led the Government to take stern measures to suppress the
Movement. Investigations were launched, the leaders were arrested and
sentenced to long-term imprisonments and their properties confiscated. That
broke the back of the Movement but it continued to be a potential source
of trouble to the government.
The Movement does not fit in neatly in any one of the groups and
categories into which the history of the early resistance to British rule has
been divided by some of the writers on the subject. It cut across some of
them time-wise and theme-wise. The existing studies on the subject do not
offer a comprehensive profile of the Movement and fail to analyse its nature
and the reasons for its failure politically.
This well researched study drawing on a vast array of contemporary
records, many of them for the first time, seeks to fill this gap and presents
an integrated account of the rise and growth of the Movement, its operation
over the entire area and period of its existence, its impact and reasons for
its failure.
Qeyamuddin Ahmad, joined the Bihar Educational Service in 1952 and
was later transfered to Patna University where he taught History from 1964.
Among his publications are Corpus of Arabic and Persian Inscriptions of Bihar
(1973) and an abridged edition of Edward Sachau’s English translation of
Alberuni’s India with a new introduction (1983). He was Associate Editor
of Comprehensive History of Bihar Vol. II Part I (1983) and Part II (1986)
published by the K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna. He passed away in
1998.

The Wahhabi Movement

in India

SECOND REVISED EDITION
QEYAMUDDIN AHMAD
MANOHAR
Second edition published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Qeyamuddin Ahmad and Manohar Publishers and Distributors Pvt. Ltd.
The right of Qeyamuddin Ahmad to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
First edition published by Manohar Publishers 1966
Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh,
Pakistan or Bhutan)
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-51483-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-05404-7 (ebk)
Dedicated
to my mother
to whose love and c are I owe my education

Contents
Preface to the First Edition 1X

Preface to the Second Edition xii

Abbreviations xiv

Transliteration XVl

1. Genesis of the Wahhabi Movement

in India 1

2. Sayyid Ahmad and the Early Phase

of the Movement 40

3. The Post-Balakote Phase, 1831-43 77

4. Revival and Consolidation of the

Movement 100

5. The Organisational Base of the

Movement 131

6. The Wahhabis and the Movement of

1857-59 162

7. The British Campaigns Against the

Wahhabis on the North-Western

Frontier 176

8. State Trials ofWahhabi Leaders, 1863-65 200

9. The Concluding Phase of the Movement 235

10. Wahhabi Missionary Literature and

Polemical Anti-Wahhabi Writings 280

11. An Appraisal of the Wahhabi Movement 296
viii Contents
Appendices
1. English translation of the text of the Sanad o f
Khilafat g iven by Sayyid Ahmad to Shah
Muhammad Husain at the time of his visit to Patna 316
II. English translation of the text ofSayyid Ahmad's
letter addressed to Raja Hindu Rao 319
III. List ofsome terms m~ed in the Wahhabis'
correspondence and the aliases by which
the chief 'conspirators' were known 321
IV. English translation of a joint letter
addressed by Abdullah and Sayyid
Imran to a Frontier Tribal Chief on
the eve of the Ambeyla Campaign 323
V. Extracts from "A Regulation (Regulation
III of 1818) for the Confinement ofState
Prisoners Passed by the Vice-President in the
Council on the 7th April, 1818" 325
VI. A Case-Record of some of the high-handed
and arbitrary methods ofJ.H. Reily and
N.Ghose, D.I.G. and S.I.,Police, Special
Department, Lower Provinces 327
VII. Texts of some letters ofSayyid Ahmad and
his chief disciple, Shah Isma'il and the
interpolations made in them 329
VIII. Ab'ul Kalam Azad's 'Review' of
Tadhkira-i-8adqa (1901) 331
Bibliography 337
Index 349
Preface t o t he F irst Edition
Soon after my appointment as Research Fellow, K.P. Jayaswal
Research Institute, Patna, in 1952, I was deputed by the
Government of Bihar to assist Dr. K.K. Datta, then joint Honorary
Director of the Institute, in the preparation of the Biography of
Kunwar Singh and Amar Singh. During the course of that work I
delved into the relevant records of practically all the District and
Divisional Record Rooms in Bihar as well as those of Central
Records Office, Patna, Calcutta, Allahabad and National Archives,
Delhi. The main subject of my enquiry then was the Movment of
1857-59 in Bihar, but many records I came across related also to
the Wahabis and their activities during those fateful years. The
piecemeal information that I got apout the Wahabis aroused my
interest in the subject.
The work of reconstructing the full history of the Wahabi
Movement was arduous and painstaking. Scattered but important
pieces of information had to be collected from different
Government archives and neglected collections of private papers,
old books and manuscripts had to be searched and studied.
Besides, some rare, out ofprint and proscribed Wahabi pamphlets
had to be 're-discovered' before the full picture of the Movement
emerged.
Although the word Wahabi is a misnomer, its adoption in the
title became unavoidable on account of its wide prevalence. To
have described the followers of Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi as Ahl-i­
Hadis or Puritans or Reformists and used the word Wahabi in
brackets all along would have been ~umbrous, to say the least. The
insistence of the English as also some Indian writers on the use of
this appellation seems to be deliberate and actuated by ulterior
motives. Some of the early and rather over-zealous acts of the
Arabian Wahabis to do away with what they regarded as 'un­
Islamic' practices had given them a bad name among the general
body of the Muslims in India and elsewhere. In the eyes of the
British Government the word Wahabi was synonymous with
'traitor' and 'rebel'. Thus, by describing the followers of Sayyid
Ahmad as Wahabis, the contemporary Government officers