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Islam in Uttar Pradesh

  • 20 min read
  • 6 chapters

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Through Islam, Pakistan and Bangladesh

History

Early history

The earliest traces of Islam in Uttar Pradesh can be traced back to the early 11th century (1000 CE - 1030 CE), when the religion was introduced to the region through various Ghurid and Ghaznavid attacks and incursions.

However, the first consolidated Muslim rule over much of Uttar Pradesh began after 1205 CE, when the region formed part of the various sultanates and was ruled from their capital, Delhi; as a result there arose a community in what is now Uttar Pradesh, referred to as Hindustani Musalmans. The term Hindustani Musalman or Hindi Musalman was applied to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains who either converted to Islam or who had settled for a long time in India. They did not form a unified community as they were divided by ethnic, linguistic, and economic differences. When the Mongols rose to power under Genghis Khan, there was an influx of Muslim refugees into North India, a number of whom settled in the provincial qasbas and brought administrators from Iran; painters from China; theologians from Samarqand, Nishapur and Bukhara. In Azamgarh, Mubarakpur, Mau, and Varanasi, a number of cultural norms arose over time which typified multiple Uttar Pradesh Muslim traditions. The Turkic sultans of Delhi and their Mughal successors patronised the émigré Muslim culture: Islamic jurists of the Sunni Hanafi school, Persian literati who were Shi‘a Ithnā‘ashariyyah, and Sufis of several orders, including the Chishti, Qadiri, Suhrawardi and Naqshbandi.

A number of Sufi missionaries from West Asia (Middle East) and Central Asia migrated and settled in South Asia. A number of natives converted to Islam due to the missionary Sufi saints whose dargahs populate South Asia. The Muslims from various Northern provinces such as Hyderabad Deccan, Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, Gujarat, Kashmir and other parts of South Asia also moved to capitals of the Muslim empire in Delhi and Agra. Millions of natives converted to Islam during the Muslim rule. The Lodi dynasty was dominated by the Pashtun soldiers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan who settled in northern India. After the First Battle of Panipat, Mughal emperor Babur defeated the Lodi dynasty with Chagatai Tajik (or Gurkani), Uzbek, Turkmen and Uyghur soldiers and nobility. These soldiers and nobles were awarded estates and they settled with their families in northern India. These diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groups merged with the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh over the centuries to form the Urdu-speaking Muslim community of South Asia.

The Rohilla leader Daud Khan was awarded the Katehar (later called Rohilkhand) region in the then-northern India by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir (ruled 1658–1707) to suppress the Rajput uprisings. Originally, some 20,000 soldiers from various Pashtun tribes (Yusafzai, Ghauri, Usmani, Ghilzai, Barech, Marwat, Durrani, Tareen, Kakar, Naghar, Afridi and Khattak) were hired by Mughals to provide soldiers to the Mughal armies. Their performance was appreciated by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir, and an additional force of 25,000 Pashtuns were recruited from modern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan and were given respected positions in Mughal Army. Nearly all of Pashtuns settled in the Katehar region and also brought their families from modern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan. During Nadir Shah's invasion of northern India in 1739, the new wave of Pashtuns settled increasing their population to over a million. Due to the large settlement of Rohilla Afghans, the Katehar region became known as Rohilkhand. Bareilly was made the capital of the Rohilkhand state and it became a major Pashtun city with Gali Nawaban as the main royal street. Other important cities included Moradabad, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, and Budaun.

The Kayastha and Manihar community were historically involved in land record keeping and accounting. Multiple Hindu Kayasth found favour with Muslim rulers for whom they acted as Qanungos. This close association led to the conversion of a number of members of the Kayastha community to Islam. The Muslim Kayasths primarily speak Urdu (as well as Hindi). The Kayasth sometimes use Siddiqui, Qureshi, Khan, Shaikh, Usmani and Farooqui as their surnames, and consider themselves to belong to the Shaikh community. A number of the converts belonged to the Hindu artisan castes (Vaishyas), who were drawn to the new qasbas. Over time, some of the artisan groups evolved into caste-like groupings, such as the Momin Ansari, who were weavers. A number of these new converts continued to speak their original dialects, such as Awadhi and Khari boli. Over time a fourfold division arose among the Ashraf, with the Sayyids (the actual or claimed descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), the Shaikh, communities signifies Arab descent and comes under high Baradari of society, however majority are the native Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya (in short, high-caste or Dwija) clans who used the title of Shaikh after conversion to Islam, the Mughals, descendants of Central Asian Turks and Mongols and the Pathans, descendants of Pashtun tribesmen from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Occasionally, important convert communities such as the Kayastha Muslim and Manihar of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, were also granted Ashraf status.

In Western Uttar Pradesh, there was conversion to Islam of a number of agrarian castes such as the Tyagi, Ranghar, Gurjars and Muley Jat. Some of these convert communities kept a number of their pre-Islamic customs, such as clan exogamy. According to some scholars, this also led to the creeping into Baradari system. With the collapse of the Sultanate of Delhi, the Mughals established control and Uttar Pradesh became the heartland of their vast empire; the region was known as Hindustan, which is used to this day as another synonym (as well as) name for India in several Perso-Arabic-influenced languages. Agra and Fatehpur Sikri were the capital cities of Akbar, the Mughal emperor of India. At their zenith, during the rule of Aurangzeb, the Mughal Empire covered almost all of South Asia (including present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh), which was ruled at different times from Delhi, Agra, and Allahabad.

Later history

When the Mughal Empire disintegrated, their territory remained confined to the Doab region and Delhi. Other areas of Hindustan (Uttar Pradesh) were ruled by different rulers: Oudh was ruled by the Shi'a Nawabs, Rohilkhand by the Rohillas. The state's capital city of Lucknow was established by the Muslim Nawabs of Oudh in the 18th century. It became an important centre of Muslim culture and the development of Urdu literature.

Of all the Muslim states and dependencies of the Mughal Empire, Awadh had the newest royal family. They were descended from a Persian adventurer called Sa'adat Ali Khan I, who was originally from Khorasan in Persia, one of a number of Khurasanis in the service of the Mughals, mostly soldiers, who hoped for rich rewards if successful. These Khorasanis were Shi'a, and Lucknow became a centre of Shi'a culture in Uttar Pradesh.

By the early 19th century, the British had established their control over what is now Uttar Pradesh. This led to an end of almost six centuries of Muslim rule over Uttar Pradesh.

The British began to hire indigenous cavalry in their conquered provinces. The end of Muslim rule saw a large number of unemployed Muslim horsemen, who were employed in the British army. In early British India, the cavalry was almost entirely composed of Muslims, as Hindus were "not so much disposed as the Mahomedans to the duties of a trooper". These cavalry regiments were primarily recruited among Hindustani Musalman biradaris, such as the Ranghar (Muslim Rajputs), Sheikhs, Sayyids, Mughals, and localized Pathans, who made up three-fourths of the cavalry branch of the British army. Irregular cavalry regiments such as Skinner's Horse, Gardner, Hearsay's Horse and Tait's Horse preserved the traditions of cavalry under the former Mughal empire, which had a political purpose because it absorbed pockets of cavalrymen who might otherwise become disaffected plunderers.

The British rulers created a class of feudal landowners who were generally referred to as zamindars, and in Awadh as taluqdars. Some of these landowners provided patronage to the arts and funded a number of the early Muslim educational institutions. A major educational institution was the Aligarh Muslim University, which gave its name to the Aligarh movement. Under the guidance of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the Urdu-speaking Muslim elite sought to retain their position of political and administrative importance by reconciling their Mughal and Islamic culture with English education. A somewhat different educational movement was led by the Ulema of Deoband, who founded a religious school (Dar-ul-Uloom) designed to revitalise Islamic learning. The aim of the Deobandis, as the movement became known as was to purge the Muslims of all strata of traditions and customs that were claimed to be Hindu. Most of the early proselytisation was concentrated in the Doab region where Deoband is located, which was home to a number of peasant castes, such as the Ranghar, Gurjar, Tyagi and Jat, who had maintained a number of pre-Islamic customs. A reaction to the growth of the Deobandi movement was the rise of the Barelvi sub-sect, which was much more tolerant of the customs and traditions of the local population. However, the Barelvis under Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi opposed Hindu–Muslim unity, declaring that the Qur'an forbade friendship with infidels (kafirs), warning that this could result in Muslims losing their identity. He opposed the Deobandi leaders for their political cooperation with Hindu figures, such as Gandhi. According to Ashraf Ali Thanwi the Shari'a norms mandate "distinguishing the Muslim community [qawm], the maintenance of difference in our clothing, our manners, our way of speaking, and our behavior." He forbade the wearing of the English coat and pants, tying a Dhoti [worn by Hindu men], Gurgabi shoes and Lehenga, which were "things that are purely characteristics of other communities [aqwam]".

The role of Urdu played an important role in the development of Muslim self-consciousness in the early twentieth century. Uttar Pradesh Muslims set up Anjumans (associations) for the protection and promotion of Urdu. These early Muslim associations formed the core of the All-India Muslim League in Dhaka in 1905. Some of the leaders belonged to the Ashraf category. Uttar Pradesh Muslims created the movement for a separate Muslim state, later known as Pakistan. The eventual effect of this movement led to the partition of India, and creation of Pakistan. This led to an exodus of multiple Muslim professionals to Pakistan, and the division of the Uttar Pradesh Muslims, with the formation of the Muhajir ethnic group of Pakistan. The role of the Aligarh Muslim University was extremely important in the creation of Pakistan.

Modern history

The net result of partition and independence in 1947 was the division of the Urdu-speaking Uttar Pradesh Muslims. It led to major social, political, and cultural changes; for example, Urdu lost its status. The abolishment of the zamindari system also had a profound impact on culture as these large landowners provided patronage to local artisans; this was especially true in the Awadh region. Muslim artisan communities persevered with the growth of specialized industries such as lock manufacturing in Aligarh. The Muslim peasantry in western Uttar Pradesh benefited from the Green Revolution, while those in eastern Uttar Pradesh did poorly. The Muslim League eventually declined, with most Muslims initially supporting the Indian National Congress. The post-partition period saw a reduction in communal violence between Hindus and Muslims. This was also a period where Muslims were led by Ashraf leaders such as Abdul Majeed Khwaja in Aligarh and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai in Barabanki. However, from the late 1960s onwards, there was an increase in the number of communal riots, culminating in the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December 1992. This period has also seen the decline of Muslim support for the Congress Party.

From the 1990s there have been two issues confronting the Muslim community: the Mandir and Mandal. Mandir refers to the construction of the Ram Mandir supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the town of Ayodhya in eastern Uttar Pradesh, on the site of Babri Masjid. The project was poorly received and resulted in communal violence. The other issue is commonly referred to as Mandal, a reference to the Mandal Commission, which was set up to consider the question of seat reservations and quotas for people to address caste discrimination. Among the groups identified for reservation were a number of Ajlaf communities, which led to greater assertion of Ajlaf political power and a decline in the Ashraf leadership. A major controversy is a demand for the Muslim community to receive reservation as a whole, which is being opposed by multiple Ajlaf communities. There are also demands to extend the scheduled caste status, which the Indian Constitution restricts to Hindu castes and Muslim Ajlaf groups like the Halalkhor and Lal Begi.

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