Qadianism - A Critical Study: Muslim India in the Nineteenth Century

Qadianism - A Critical Study:

Muslim India in the Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century is a period of 'unique importance in modern history. It is the century in which intellectual unrest and various kinds of conflicts and tensions found in the Muslim world reached the climax. India was one of the main centres of this unrest and tension. Here the conflicts and tensions between the Western and the Eastern cultures, between the old and the new systems of education, in fact, between the old and the new world-views, and between Islam and Christianity were mounting. The forces concerned were locked in a fierce struggle for survival.

The movement began at a time when the well-known struggle of 1857 for the country's independence had been suppressed. This had shocked the Muslims to the core; their hearts were bleeding, and their minds paralysed. They were confronted with the danger of double enslavement political as well as cultural. On the one hand, the victorious power. The British had launched upon a vigorous campaign to spread a new culture and civilization, in India. On the other hand, the Christian missionaries were scattered all over India bent upon active proselytisation. To be able to shake the confidence of Muslims in their own beliefs and to make them skeptical as to the bases of the Islamic Shari'ah, even though they might not be converted to Christianity, was deemed by them an important enough achievement. The new generations of Muslims, which had not been thoroughly grounded in Islam, were their main target. The schools and colleges which were introduced along the foreign pattern were the main fields of their activity directed at spreading intellectual confusion. The efforts were not altogether unsuccessful and even, incidents of conversion to Christianity began to take place in India. But the main danger of that period was not apostasy '(in the sense of ostensible con- version from Islam to Christianity), but skepticism and atheism. Religious debates between Muslim 'ulama and Christian missionaries took place frequently, leading in general to the victory of the ulama of Islam. This established the intellectual superiority and greater vitality of Islam as against Christianity. Nevertheless, intellectual unrest, skepticism, and weakness of faith grew apace.

This was one aspect of the situation: the situation vis-a-vis the external menace. Looked at internally, the situation was even worse. Mutual disagreements between Muslim sects had assumed frightful proportions. Each sect was busy denouncing the other. Sectarian polemics were the order of the day, leading often to violent clashes, even to bloodshed to litigation over controversial sectarian issues. The whole of India was in the grip of what might be termed a sectarian civil war. This too had given birth to mental confusion and created breaches in the Muslim society and disgust in the people and had consider- ably damaged the prestige of the Muslim 'ulama and of Islam.

On the other hand, immature sufis and ignorant pretenders of spiritual excellence had reduced the Sufi orders to a plaything. They gave wide publicity to their trance-utterances and inspired pronouncements. One found people everywhere making overly extravagant claims and going about proclaiming their ability to perform astounding miracles and to receive messages from on High. The result of all this was that the Muslim masses had developed an uncommon relish for things esoteric, for miracles' for supernatural performances, for inspired dreams and prophesies. The more a person had to offer people by way of these things, the greater was his popularity. Such people used to become the centre of popular veneration. Hypocritical darvishes and cunning traders of religion took full advantage of the situation. People had developed such a liking for esoterics that they were readily prepared to accept every new fantasy, to support every new movement and to believe in every esoteric claim however baseless and imaginary. Muslims were generally in the grip-of frustration and had fallen prey to defeatism. The failure of the struggle of 1857 and of a number of other recent religious and militant movements was fresh in their memory. Many of them had despaired, therefore, of bringing about any change and reform through normal processes and a large number of people had begun to await the advent of some charismatic personality, some divinely appointed leader. At places one heard that at the turn of the century the Promised Messiah would make his appearance. In religious gatherings people commonly referred to the numerous forms of misguidance and evil which were to appear on the eve of the Doomsday. Prophesies and esoteric statements such as those of Shah Niamat Ullah Kashmiri helped people to forget the bitterness of the current situation and strengthened their morale. Dreams, prophesies and other esoteric pronouncements had magnetic appeal and kept their spirits high.

The province of Punjab, in particular, was the centre of mental confusion and unrest, superstitions and religious ignorance. This province bad suffered for eighty years under the yoke of the Sikh Raj, an overbearing military tyranny. During this period the religious belief and devotion of Muslims had weakened considerably. True Islamic education had been almost non-existent for long. The foundations of Islamic life and Islamic society had been shaken. Their minds were seriously in the grip of confusion and perplexity. In brief, to borrow the words of Iqbal:

The Khalsa (Sikhs) took away both the Qur'an and the sword,

In their realm, Islam was just dead.

This situation had paved the ground in the Punjab for the rise of a new religious - movement based on novel interpretations and esoteric doctrines. The temperament of a good number of people of the region where this movement arose has been portrayed by Iqbal in these words:

In religion, he is fond of the latest,

He stays not for long at a place; he keeps on moving;

In learning and research he does not participate,

But to the game of Mentors and Disciples, he readily succumbs;

If the trap of explanation anyone lays,

He walks into it quickly from the branch of his nest.

It was towards the end of the nineteenth century that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad appeared on the scene with his unique message and movement. For the spread of his message and for the fulfillment of his ambitions Mirza Ghulam Ahmad found a fertile ground and a congenial period of time. He had numerous factors to his advantage-the general unrest in the minds of people, the exotic-loving temperament of the people, the general despair with regard to the efficacy of moderate and normal means of reform and revolution, the decline in the prestige of and confidence in the ulama, the popularity of religious debates which had vulgarised the religious curiosities and propensities of the people and made them, to a large extent, free- thinkers. Furthermore, the British rulers (who had had a bitter experience with Mujahidin movement and felt, therefore, considerable consternation for the spirit of jihad and the religious enthusiasm of Muslims), warmly welcomed this new religious movement which pledged loyalty to the British government and even made this loyalty an article of faith, and whose founder had had a long and close association with the government. All these factors provided the congenial atmosphere in which Qadianism came into existence, won converts and developed into an independent sect and religion.

 

 

Qadianism

 

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