Jam‘iyyat Ulama-i Hind in politics: A socio-historical survey (1919-1945)

Abstract

Jam‘iyyat ‘Ulama-i Hind (JUH) (est. 1919 C.E.) originated from the pan-Islamic Khilafat Movement at a time when Muslims as minority were presented with the idea of coexisting with the majority non-Muslim ‘others’ (herein the Hindus) in an unprecedented political set-up of a nation-state. Given the diverse cultural and ethnic environment of the sub-continent, Muslims had come to inherit almost the same sensibilities and vulnerabilities as their non-Muslim counterparts. However, while the nationalistic approach of the majority Indians aimed at gaining complete independence from the British colonial power, the problem in essence for the Muslim religious elites was to legitimize this independence from the framework of Islam as a religion as well as political theology which could survive secular politics in the modern world. In all its complexity, Indian Muslims were certainly divided in developing their stance around such political existence and which came to reflect in at least three different organizations with significant Muslim representation namely, the Indian National Congress (est. 1885), the All-India Muslim League (est. 1906) and JUH, the alternative and local face of the pan-Islamic Khilafat Movement (est. 1919). This paper will examine the three in their respective socio-historical place with the focus on JUH as primarily the organization of Muslim scholars, the ‘Ulama. In particular, the idea of composite nationalism as proposed by JUH shall be analysed in reference to the two-nation theory of AIML and nationalism of INC. While doing so, the paper will provide a survey of the political field of the JUH before Partition in 1947 C.E. and point out its significance in the larger canvas of the Indian Muslim politics till date.