The Wahabi Movement in India (An Old and Rare Book)

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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 the Central Records Office, Patna, Calcutta, Allahabad and the National Archives, Delhi. The main subject of my enquiry then was the Movement of 1857-59 in Bihar, but many of the records I came across related also to the Wahabis and their activities during those fateful years. The piecemeal information that I got about 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 of print and proscribed Wahabi pamphlets had to be 'rediscovered' 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 Syed Ahmad Barelvi as Ahl-i-Hadis or Puritans or Reformists and used the word Wahabi in brackets all along would have been cumbrous, 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.

The Wahabi Movement was one of the earliest, most consistent and protracted and the 'most remorselessly anti-British' movements which characterised the political history of India in the second half of the 18th. and the early 19th. centuries. It is, however, regrettable that this great Movement, though barely a century old, is neither treated adequately nor presented in its proper perspective in any historical work. Until recently there was no single comprehensive work on the Wahabis except the book of Sir William Hunter, published in 1871. Even recent studies on the social awakening and reforms in India in the 19th. century do not give any account of the Wahabi Movement which, apart from its political aspect, represents an important attempt at the socio-religious reformation of the Indo-Muslim society.

Some isolated information on the early history of the Movement, particularly for the period up to the death of Syed Ahmad, lies scattered in a number of manuscripts, old and scarce books and journals in Persian, Urdu and English. A survey of these existing sources of information will not be out of place here.

The earliest work on the life of Syed Ahmad is the Makhzan-i-Ahmadi by Syed Muhammad Ali, the nephew, disciple and close associate of the great leader of the Movement. It contains a general account of his life up till his return from Arabia, and has been utilised by all the subsequent biographers.