31. All-India Muslim League

Aligarh Movement

The Aga Khan III (1877 – 1957)—who would arrange a meeting between Herzl and Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1897, among the first negotiations for Jewish settlement in Palestine—would become the first president of the All-India Muslim League (AIML), which although initially espousing a united India with interfaith unity, led the Pakistan Movement, calling for a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. In a letter to Hardinge, Arthur Nicholson of the Foreign Office shared a report he received from Herzl’s friend Arminius Vambery, which cautioned them that they were unaware of the extent and influence among Muslims in Asia of the Pan-Islamic movement, based on support for a Sultan Caliphate, and warned them that it would soon contribute to events that would “astonish the west.”[1] Vambery reported that this scheme originated in Istanbul and there was a move to organize associations in all Muslim countries. As the source of the Sultan’s turn against the British, Vambery identified two influences, Abu al-Huda al-Sayyadi (1849 – 1909), the Sheikh al-Islam of the Ottoman Empire, and Jamal ud-Din al Afghani. Vambery described Afghani as, “a persian and a Sunnite is an exasperated anti-English and being a most astute and clever man, his position at the court is most detrimental to British influence.” Afghani avoided several attempts to meet him, and Vambery regretted that all “his endeavors to unmask that rogue have failed hitherto.”[2] In a letter of July, 1907, to the Foreign Office, Vambery doubted “whether the Government is aware of my work done in India in furthering the British sympathies of the Muhammadans,” and “I flatter myself of having the power of influencing them.”[3]

With the Nizari Khoja community having grown in prosperity through his policies, the Aga Khan’s father, Agha Khan II, had been elected president of the Central National Muhammedan Association (CNMA), founded in 1877, whose aim was to revive the Muslim community through a modern education.[4] The political leader and historian Syed Ameer Ali (1849 – 1928), who founded the CNMA in 1877, was not unaware of the purported significance of the Assassins on the developed of secret societies:

 

From the Ismailis the Crusaders borrowed the conception which led to the formation of all the secret societies, religious and secular, of Europe. The institutions of Templars and Hospitallers; the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Loyola, composed by a body of men whose devotion to their cause can hardly be surpassed in our time; the ferocious Dominicans, the milder Franciscans—may all be traced either to Cairo or to Alamut. The Knights Templar especially, with their system of grand masters, grand priors and religious devotees, and their degrees of initiation, bear the strongest analogy to the Eastern Ismailis.[5]

 

On succeeding to the imamate in 1881, Aga Khan II maintained the friendly relations that his father had developed with the British. He was appointed to the Bombay Legislative Council when Sir James Fergusson (1832 – 1907) was the governor of Bombay. During his brief Imamate, Aga Khan II increased his contacts with the Nizari communities outside the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Central Asia, Burma and East Africa. The growing prosperity of the Nizari Khojas and his own policies earned him prestige among the Muslim population of India. He was elected president of the CNMA, a position he held until his death, and through which he promoted educational and philanthropic projects purportedly for the benefit of all Indian Muslims.[6]

Syed Ameer Ali was a Twelver Shiah Muslim, though he worked in close collaboration with the Aga Khan III on numerous efforts.[7] He went to England with a government scholarship, the first Bengali Muslim to receive a master’s degree in law in 1869, to further his legal education. During this time, he came into contact with Syed Ahmad Khan (1817 – 1898)  and his son Syed Mahmood (1850 – 1903), who were visiting England. After completing his law studies in 1873, Emir Ali was admitted to the bar in England. He then returned to India to practice law, and became a professor of law in Calcutta University in 1881. In 1883, he was nominated to the membership of the Imperial Legislative Council, after Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had just ended his term.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, educationist and Freemason, led the pro-British camp of Indian Muslim activists.[8] Although Sir Syed’s early theological writings demonstrate the influence of three school of religious thought on his outlook, the Naqshbandi tradition of Shah Ghulam Ali Dahlavi, Shah Waliullah and Syed Ahmad Barelvi and his earliest disciple Shah Ismail Dehlvi, he was opposed to the Indian Wahhabi movement.[9] In 1838, Syed Ahmad entered the service of East India Company and went on to become a judge. During the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, he remained loyal to the British Raj. Sir Sayyid was the leading influence behind the revival of Indian Islam in the late nineteenth century. Immediately after the rebellion, Ahmad Khan wrote a book, Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind (“Causes of the Indian Revolt”), in which he argued that Muslims were not to blame. The British regarded the rebellion as being Muslim-inspired and led, though Hindus were also involved. The East India Company’s expansionist polices and unwillingness to employ Muslims, argued Khan, had caused unrest and ultimately provoked the rebellion.[10]

Aga Khan II’s only surviving son and successor from his marriage with Shams al-Muluk, who came to be known as Lady Ali Shah, was Sultan Mohammed Shah, known as Aga Khan III, was deeply influenced by Syed Ahmad Khan.[11] Believing that the future of Muslims was threatened by the rigidity of their orthodox outlook, Syed Ahmad began promoting Western-style scientific education. In 1875, with the financial backing of the Aga Khan III, Syed Ahmad founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, the first Muslim university in Southern Asia, and later known as Aligarh Muslim University. The College started operations on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s 56th birthday, 24 May of that year.[12] In 1877, the foundation of Lytton Library was laid by the Earl of Lytton, to serve the students at the college. In 1878, Syed Ahmad Khan was nominated as an additional member of the Imperial Legislative Council, the primary legislative body of British India after 1861, essentially acting as a legislative branch of the British Raj, where it was responsible for creating laws for the entire Indian subcontinent. He testified before the education commission to promote the establishment of more colleges and schools across India. In 1886, Syed Ahmad Khan founded the Muhammadan Educational Conference, to advocate for British education and to generate funds for the Aligarh Muslim University, and to lead to an expansion of educational revival elsewhere, known as the Aligarh Movement.[13] For his loyalty to the British crown, through his membership of the Imperial Legislative Council, Syed Ahmad Khan was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) in 1869, and Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in 1888.[14]

Sir Syed Ahmad wrote: “Taqlid is not incumbent. Every person is entitled to ijtihad in those matters concerning which there is no explicitly revealed text in Qur’an and Sunna.”[15] Likewise, the Aga Khan III also followed a modernist interpretation of Islam, and despite being an Ismaili, and therefore a Shiah, he nevertheless prescribed reforms for Sunni Islam. Aga Khan III believed there to be no contradiction between religion and modernity. Although he opposed a wholesale imitation of Western society, the Aga Khan III urged Muslims to be open to Western philosophy and ideas. Typical of the Islamic modernists, the Aga Khan III was critical the traditional Ulama and advocated for a revival of  Ijtihad. According to him, Muslims should go back to the original sources, especially the Quran, in order to discover the true essence and spirit of Islam, which could lead to a revival and renaissance within Islamic thought.[16]

In 1898, Aga Khan III set out from Bombay on his first journey to Europe, which later became his primary place of residence. He visited France and Britain, where he dined with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, and met the future King Edward VII, who had once visited his father, and who was to become his friend. Aga Khan III maintained close relations with the British throughout his life. “This relationship,” explains Daftary, “brought immense benefits to his followers in India and Africa who lived under British imperial rule.”[17] On his second European journey, in 1900, the Aga Khan III made the acquaintance of Nasser ad-Din’s son and successor Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, who was in Paris at the time. By then, the old animosities between the Nizari imams and the Qajar rulers had been forgotten, and Mozaffar gave valuable gifts and one of his highest decorations to the Aga Khan. On that journey, he also met Kaiser Wilhelm II in Potsdam and Sultan Abdul Hamid II in Istanbul, which was a historic meeting between an Ismail Imam and a Sunni Ottoman ruler.[18] Aga Khan III returned once again to Europe in 1902 as the personal guest of Edward VII at his coronation, and the new King Emperor advanced him from the rank of Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (KCIE) to that of Grand Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (GCIE) in his coronation honors.[19]

 

Central National Muhammedan Association (CNMA)

Through his family’s connections with senior British officials in India, Ameer Ali took with him letters of introduction to members of London society. The then Governor-General, Lord Mayo (1822 – 1872), provided some of these introductions. Ameer Ali was able to join the prestigious Reform Club, meeting influential politicians, journalists, intellectual and members of the members of the House of Lords. Ameer Ali even met Napoleon III when he visited England in 1872. He also developed a friendship with Dame Milicent Fawcett (1847 – 1929), a suffragette, and friend of John Stuart Mill.[20] On a visit to England, Ameer Ali me his Jewish wife, Isabelle Ida Konstam, daughter of Haimann Kohnstamm, a wealthy merchant.[21] Their wedding ceremony took place in a Unitarian Church in 1884. His sister-in-law, Gertrude Kingston (1862 – 1937), became a famous actress; his brother-in-law, Edwin Max Konstam (1870 – 1956), became a county court judge. In 1887, Ameer Ali was created a Commander of the Indian Empire (CIE), then in 1890 appointed a judge of the Calcutta High Court, the second Muslim to sit on that bench.[22]

Syed Ameer Ali’s reformist ideas would be closely associated with Syed Ahmad Khan’s. They are sometimes referred to as the “two Sayyids.”[23] Ameer Ali believed the Muslims of Bengal had been lagging behind their Hindu neighbors through a lack of Western education. The prevailing political organizations, such as the India Association, the Indian National Congress (INC) were Hindu-dominated, and therefore could not serve the interests of Muslims. Ali succeeded in opening about fifty branches in Bengal, Bihar, Bombay, the United Provinces, Punjab, and even in London. Under Ali’s leadership, the CNMA submitted a statement, titled “A cry from the Indian Muhamedans,” to the Hunter Commission in 1882, highlighting that Muslims had abandoned their previous hatred and were know willing to receive English education, but that their abject poverty was a major obstacle.[24]

The Commission was presided over by Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840 – 1900), a Bengal Civilian. At the instigation of Philip Lyttelton Gell (1852 – 1926), a friend of Alfred Milner—a founding member of Cecil Rhodes’ Round Table and future author of the Balfour Declaration—Hunter edited The Rulers of India, a biographical book series published by the Clarendon Press of Oxford University.[25] The Commission included Anandamohan Bose, A.W. Croft, Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Jatindramohan Tagore, Kashinath Trimbak Telang and  Syed Ahmad Khan, who later withdrew in favor of his son Syed Mahmood. Believing that the future of Muslims was threatened by the rigidity of their orthodox outlook, Sir Ahmad began promoting Western-style scientific education by founding modern schools and journals and organizing Islamic entrepreneurs.

In 1875, with the backing of Aga Khan III, Syed Mahmood had helped his father found Aligarh Muslim University.[26] In 1879, Syed Mahmood was appointed as a District and Sessions Judge in Oudh by the Viceroy of India, the Earl of Lytton.[27] In 1883, he returned to England to recruit Theodore Beck (1859 – 1899), a Quaker and educationalist, to serve as the university’s principal.[28] Beck had been a member of the Cambridge Apostles,[29] who were once described as “as a haven for overt, full-blooded—almost aggressive—homosexuality.”[30] Beck’s sister, Emma Josephine Beck, was Honorary Secretary of the National Indian Association, founded in Bristol in 1870 by Mary Carpenter—the Unitarian friend of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the Brahmo Sabha—at the request of Keshub Chandra Sen.[31]

Sir Alfred Woodley Croft (1841 – 1925) was Director of Public Instruction in Bengal, and had been raised to knighthood as a Knight Commander of the of the Order of the Indian Empire.[32] Bhudev Mukhopadhyay (1827 – 1894) was an intellectual whose works were considered leading examples of nationalism and philosophy in the period of the Bengal renaissance. Anandamohan Bose, a member of Keshub Chandra Sen’s breakaway Brahmo Samaj group and co-founder of the Indian National Association of Calcutta (INA), established the Calcutta Students Association in 1875, and with Surendranath Banerjee he co-founded the Indian National Association (INA), which included Theosophist Nurendranath Sen. Bose later became a senior leader of the Indian National Congress (INC). Jatindramohan Tagore (1831 – 1908), of the influential Tagore family, was Honorary Secretary of the British Indian Association (BIA)—which included whose first general secretary was Brahmo Samaj leader Debendranath Tagore—and served from the Imperial Legislative Council from 1880–1881.

Due to the CNMA’s persistent pressure, the Government adopted a Resolution on Muslim Education in 1885. Syed Ameer Ali regarded this resolution as the Magna Carta of the Muslims. Under the leadership of Syed Ameer Ali, the CNMA became achieved some success when the Indian Council Act, 1892, was passed, that introduced various amendments to the composition and function of legislative councils in British India. Most notably, the act expanded the number of members in the central and provincial councils.[33]

 

Simla Deputation 

AIML was a major development of the Aligarh Movement, initiated by Syed Ahmad Khan, and originating in the Aligarh Muslim University, which he founded with the support of Aga Khan III in 1875.[34] During the nineteenth century, Muslim political activism came to be centered on Aligarh Muslim University. The university and its associated Aligarh Movement began to push for Muslim social and educational reform. Its leader, the Freemason Syed Ahmad Khan, strengthened the Muslim community in northern India by drawing them to his pro-British writings and gatherings. However, his death in 1898 led to the university becoming dormant. Nevertheless, in the 1900s, the university became again heavily involved in politics, starting with the Hindi–Urdu controversy. The beginning of the twentieth century gave rise to calls for the creation of a Muslim political organization to advocate for Muslims throughout India, much as the Indian National Congress did for India.[35]

The Aga Khan III had returned to India in 1902, and was appointed by Round Tabler Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, to a seat on his Legislative Council. As the Aga Khan III had increasingly concerned himself with the affairs of the Muslim community of India, beyond the immediate interests of his own Nizari followers, he gained a growing popularity amongst the Indian Muslims and their leaders.[36] Lord Minto (1845 – 1914), who succeeded Lord Curzon to the position of Viceroy following his resignation, was more sympathetic to Indian demands for autonomy. John Morley (1838 – 1923), a Liberal MP, who was appointed Secretary of State for India, made a speech in the UK Parliament in July 1906 hinting at an increase of representation of Indian natives in legislative councils for members of the Indian National Congress and Muslims as well.[37]

Hearing Morley’s speech, notable Indian politicians wrote to Mohsin-ul-Mulk (1837 – 1907), a friend and successor of Syed Ahmad Khan, proposing an effort to increase Muslim representation in local councils.[38] Mohsin-ul-Mulk converted to Sunnism despite being born a Shia and authored the book Ayat-i Bayanat in which he showed why the Sunni faith was preferable.[39] After Syed Ahmad Khan’s death in 1898, he became Secretary of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh Muslim University. Mohsin-ul-Mulk formed a committee to attempt to meet Lord Minto and asked the Principal of Aligarh Muslim University, W.A.J. Archibold (1865 – 1947), who was in Simla at the time, to transmit the committee’s request. Lord Minto agreed, and Syed Hussain Bilgrami—who had been in contact with Morley and Afghani during the mid-1880s—drafted the deputation’s address with help from Mohsin-ul-Mulk.[40] The committee, led by Aga Khan III, went to Simla to meet with Lord Minto on October 1, 1906, known as the Simla Deputation. In December, the twentieth session of the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference—originally founded by Syed Ahmad in 1886—was held, where a motion to form an All India Muslim League (AIML) was passed. Aga Khan III was appointed the first honorary president.[41] In London, in 1908, Ameer Ali founded a branch of the AIML in order to maintain direct contact with the British government, ultimately responsible for India.[42]

 

Allama Iqbal 

An early leader of the AIML was Islamic philosopher and poet Muhammed Iqbal (1877 – 1938), who inspired the Pakistan Movement, a campaign that advocated the creation of an Islamic state in parts of what was then British Raj. Iqbal’s early teacher was Syed Mir Hassan (1844 – 1929), a scholar of the Quran, Hadith, Sufism and professor of Arabic at Scotch Mission College in Sialkot, and a strong supporter of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the Aligarh movement.[43] In 1885, Iqbal enrolled at Government College University, where he came under the influence of the famous historian, Professor T.W. Arnold (1864 – 1930), who was a friend of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Arnold taught at Aligarh University, and in 1892 he married Celia Mary Hickson, a niece of the university’s principle, Theodore Beck.[44] In 1898, Arnold joined the Indian Educational Service and taught philosophy at Government College, Lahore. Arnold was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1912.

Iqbal was influenced by Arnold to pursue higher education in the West.[45] Iqbal qualified for a scholarship from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and obtained a BA in 1906. Iqbal moved to Germany to pursue his doctoral studies, going to Heidelberg to learn German, and submitted a thesis on “The Development of Metaphysics in Persia” at the University of Munich in November 1907. Iqbal dedicated the thesis to Arnold, stating, “This little book is the first fruit of that literary and philosophical training, which I have been receiving from you for the last ten years.” A street in Heidelberg, Iqbal Ufer, was named in his memory. Iqbal was profoundly influenced by Western philosophers such as Nietzsche, Bergson, and Goethe.[46] Iqbal was also deeply influenced by Afghani.[47] Iqbal believed that if anyone was entitled to be called a Mujaddid (Renewer of the faith), it was Afghani, whom he regarded as the chief architect of the renaissance then occurring in the Muslim World.[48] Iqbal also defended the Aga Khan by concluding:

 

…the theological interpretation of the Ismailis may err, they believe in the basic principles of Islam. It is true that they believe in a perpetual Imamat; but the Imam according to them is not a recipient of Divine revelation. He is only an expounder of the Law.[49]

 

Iqbal’s thesis traces the development of metaphysics in Persia from the time of Zoroaster to the advent of the Bahai Faith. Iqbal explains that the Ismailis were “a great religious movement which shook to its very foundations the structure of a vast empire, and having successfully passed through the various ordeals of moral reproach, calumny, and persecution, stood up for centuries as a champion of Science and Philosophy.”[50] Iqbal describes Ismailism as an intellectually creative development in the history of Islam, comparable to movements associated with Fichte, Schleiermacher and Jacobi, and August Comte. He draws the specific parallel with Joseph de Maistre and Friedrich Schlegel, both of whom believed in the “absolute infallible Pope.” Iqbal goes so far as to celebrate the syncretism of Abdullah bin Maymun, who died, he claims, “about the same time when Al-Ash`ari, the great opponent of Freethought, was born.” And Babism, he claims, “is essentially Isma’ilian in its character.”[51] According to Iqbal:

 

This curious man imagined a vast scheme in which he weaved together innumerable threads of various hues, resulting in a cleverly constructed equivocation, charming to the Persian mind for its mysterious character and misty Pythagorean Philosophy. Like the Association of the Brethren of Purity, he made an attempt, under the pious cloak of the doctrine of Imamat (Authority), to synthesize all the dominating ideas of the time. Greek Philosophy, Christianity, Rationalism, Sufism, Manichaeism, Persian heresies, and above all the idea of reincarnation, all came forward to contribute their respective shares to the boldly conceived Ismailian whole, the various aspects of which were to be gradually revealed to the initiated, by the “Leader” the ever Incarnating Universal Reason—according to the intellectual development of the age in which he incarnated himself.[52]

 

Explaining the philosophy of the Ismailis, Iqbal states that, “From the later Rationalists they borrowed their conception of Divinity. God, or the ultimate principle of existence, they teach, has no attribute. His nature admits of no predication… In His nature all contradictions melt away, and from Him flow all opposites.”[53] Thus, explains Iqbal, the most important contribution of the Ismailis is the way in which they reconciled and redefined the dualism of the Zoroastrians:

 

The Ismaili doctrine is the first attempt to amalgamate contemporary Philosophy with a really Persian view of the universe, and to restate Islam, in reference to this synthesis, by allegorical interpretation of the Quran… With them the Zorastrian Ahriman (Devil) is not the malignant creator of evil things but it is a principle which violates the eternal unity, and breaks it up into visible diversity.[54]

 

Iqbal is commonly referred to by the honorific “Allama” and widely considered one of the most important and influential Muslim thinkers and Western religious philosophers of the twentieth century.[55] Iqbal synthesized influences of both Eastern and Western thought and art in his work. It has often been proposed that his concept of Ideal Man, which he called Mard-e-Momin, was highly influenced by Nietzsche’s Übermensch.[56] Iqbal’s greatest master was Rumi, whom he had regarded in his thesis of 1907 as a representative of pantheism and praised, in Hegel’s words, as “the excellent Rumi.”[57] In his analysis of Persian thought in his thesis, Iqbal begins with Zoroaster and an outline of the major theological movements in Iran. Zoroaster appears again in the Javid Nama (“Book of Eternity”), which is considered his masterpiece, where he becomes the prototype of the prophetic spirit, who, tempted by Ahriman, refuses to turn away from his preaching. As summarized in the Encyclopaedia Iranica:

 

Since in his thesis Iqbal had dealt particularly with the problem of good and evil, it is not surprising that Satan, Eblis, should play a major role in his philosophical poetry; he appears—much like Goethe’s Mephistopheles and, in a certain sense, Milton’s Lucifer—as the necessary complement of man, an anti-hero who will be overcome by the perfected faithful and will finally perform the prostration before the mard-e moʾmen which he refused to do before the inexperienced, innocent Adam at the beginning of time.[58]

 

However, Iqbal concludes his study by stating, “But all the various lines of Persian thought once more find a synthesis in that great religious movement of Modern Persia—Babism or Bahaism…”[59] Speaking of Bahaism, which he referred to as “this wonderful sect,”[60] Iqbal concludes:

 

The results, however, of the intellectual activity of the different branches of the great Aryan family are strikingly similar. The outcome of all Idealistic speculation in India is Buddha, in Persia Bahaullah, and in the west Schopenhauer whose system, in Hegelian language, is the marriage of free oriental universality with occidental determinateness.[61]

 

Although he never confessed so in his writings, many Ahmadis have asserted that Iqbal was a member of the Ahmadiyya movement.[62] Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835 – 1908) of Qadian, India, was the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, which was similar to the Bahais.[63] Like the Bahais, the Ahmadiyya community has its Middle East headquarters in Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.[64] The movement is often seen to have emerged as an Islamic response to the Christian and Arya Samaj missionary activity.[65] Aside from the belief in all prophets in the Quran and the Old Testament, the Ahmadiyya also regard as prophets Zoroaster, Krishna, Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Guru Nanak (1469 – 1539, the founder of Sikhism.[66] Ahmad claimed to have been divinely appointed as both the promised Mahdi and Messiah expected by Muslims, although he asserted that he was sent to bring spiritual and moral guidance to humanity at large. In what would remain a point of controversy with other Muslims and would eventually split his own followers, although Mohammed is regarded in Islam as the last and “Seal of the Prophets,” Ahmad proclaimed himself a prophet, but not of “complete and perfect prophethood,” but as a subordinate one, a Muhaddath, who has a direct communion with God through revelations.[67] Ahmad therefore claimed that he was given the name of all the prophets, including Krishna, whose advent the Arya Samaj were awaiting.[68] As Ahmad stated:

 

Finally, let it be clear that my advent in the present age is not for the reformation of the Muslims alone, but I have come to reform the people of all the three religions: Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Just as God has appointed me the Promised Messiah for the Muslims and Christians, so am I the Avatar for the Hindus. For the past twenty years or so, I have been proclaiming that just as I have appeared in the spirit of the Messiah son of Mary(as) for the purpose of removing sins which have filled the earth, so have I come as Raja Krishna—one of the greatest Avatars of the Hindu faith. In other words, I am the same person by virtue of spiritual reality. This is no fancy or speculation on my part. The God of heaven and earth has revealed to me, not once but a number of times, that for the Hindus I am Krishna and for the Muslims and Christians I am the Promised Messiah.[69]

 

The Punjab Province, and the city of Sialkot where he was born, was the bastion of the larger Ahmadiyya movement. In fact, Muhammad Iqbal’s father, Shaykh Nur Muhammad, gave Bay’ah (pledge of allegiance) to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the movement, as did various members of Iqbal’s family.[70] A small mosque near to Iqbal’s house became the first Ahmadiyya mosque in Sialkot. It was named after Hakim Mir Hisamuddin, the first cousin of Iqbal’s former teacher, Syed Mir Hassan, who lived next door and who became a convert. Once, at the mosque, when Iqbal picked up Syed Mir Hassan’s shoes as a mark of respect, Hassan held Iqbal’s hand and told him, “If you must pick up anyone’s shoes, let those be Maulvi Ghulam Hasan’s, not mine.”[71] Maulvi Ghulam Hasan (1852 – 1943), Municipal Commissioner and Vice President of the Peshawar Municipal Committee, gave Bay’ah to Ghulam Ahmad after reading his book Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya, and was amongst the 313 companions.[72] One of his daughters, Hazrat Sarwar Sultana, was the wife of Ghulam Ahmad’s son, Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad (1893 – 1963). In one of the side streets lived Ghulam Ahmad himself.[73] Iqbal Manzil, the house preserved as Iqbal’s birthplace was not his, but that of his brother Babu Ata Mohammad, who became an Ahmadi.[74] Babu’s son, Sheikh Ijaz Ahmad, was an Ahmadi throughout his life.[75] Although he would later denounce the movement, in early in his career, Iqbal was supportive of the movement, having praised them in his 1910 speech at Aligarh.[76]

 

Home Rule League

The AIML was ultimately led by an Nazari Ismaili Khoja, Muhammed Ali Jinnah (1876 – 1948), a founding member of the INC, who worked closely with Iqbal and who was instrumental in creating public opinion in favor of Muslim nationalism and finally in achieving the establishment of the independent state of Pakistan in 1947.[77] Jinnah, known in Pakistan as the “Father of the Nation,” was a member of the Theosophical Society. Jinnah referred to Annie Besant as amma (“mother”).[78] Jinnah’s wife, Rattanbai Petit (1900 – 1929), also known as Ruttie, was born in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India, into the extremely affluent and well-connected Petit family that belonged to the Parsi community of Zoroastrians of the Indian subcontinent. The Petits were one of the wealthiest Parsi families of Bombay and at their home they regularly hosted the community’s intellectual elite to engage in stimulating debate and to socialize. In 1918, only weeks after her eighteenth birthday, Ruttie converted to Islam, taking the name Maryam, married the 42-year-old Jinnah in an Islamic wedding, and cut all ties with her family and the Parsi community.[79]

Jinnah would join the Home Rule League, which Besant founded in 1916 with Bal Gangadhar Tilak, becoming president of its Bombay chapter.[80] Between 1916 and 1918, prominent Indians like Jinnah, Joseph Baptista, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, G.S. Khaparde, Sir S. Subramania Iyer, Satyendra Nath Bose and Besant, decided to organize a national alliance of leagues across India, specifically to demand Home Rule, or self-government within the British Empire for all of India. The move created considerable excitement at the time, and attracted many members of the INC and the AIML, who had been allied since the 1916 Lucknow Pact, an agreement reached between the two organizations. Tilak represented the INC while framing the deal, and Jinnah, who joined the AIML in 1913, participated in the event. The leaders of the AIML agreed to join the INC movement demanding Indian autonomy.[81] However, the British government in Delhi decided to arrest Jinnah’s mentor Besant and her two fellow Theosophists, Bahman Pestonji Wadia (1881 – 1958) and George S. Arundale (1878 – 1945), president of the Theosophical Society Adyar. Their internment in June 1917 caused a nationalist outcry in India and sparked an enormous spread of Home Rule agitation. Confronted with this protest, in August 1917 the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu (1879 – 1924), announced prospective reforms the form of the Government of India Act 1919, or the so-called Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms. To further allay political unrest in India, the three internees were released the following month.[82]

From 1907 onwards, the Aga Khan III visited Europe every year, and eventually established his chief places of residence there. Gradually, he came to know most of the royal families of Europe and that continent’s elite. In 1908, he married Mlle Theresa Magliano (d. 1926) in Cairo, who bore him Prince Aly Khan (1911 – 1960), the first of Aga Khan III’s two surviving sons, in 1911 in Turin, Italy, her native city. He was made a Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) by George V (1912) and appointed a GCMG in 1923. He received recognition for his public services from the German Kaiser, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the Shah of Persia, and other potentates.[83]

 

 

 


[1] A. Nicholson to Hardinge, January 12, 1911, Hardinge Papers; cited in R.K. Trivedi. “British Imperial Interests and Vambery The Hungarian Turcologist.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 49 (1988), p. 569.

[2] E.E. Ramsaur Tr.. The Young Turks Prelude to the Revolution of 1908 (Beruit: Khayats, 1965), p. 12; cited in R.K. Trivedi. “British Imperial Interests and Vambery The Hungarian Turcologist.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 49 (1988), p. 565.

[3] Pro. No. 253, Sub. Enel. F.D. Secret, E, October, 1906, N.A.I. ; cited in R.K. Trivedi. “British Imperial Interests and Vambery The Hungarian Turcologist.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 49 (1988), p. 568.

[4] Daftary. The Ismailis, p. 477.

[5] Arkon Daraul. A History of Secret Societies (New York: The Citadel Press, 1961), p. 38.

[6] Daftary. The Ismailis, p. 477.

[7] “Ismailis through History: From Persecuted Minority to Pluralist Community.” Ismaili Gnosis (May 21, 2015). Retrieved from https://ismailignosis.com/2015/05/21/ismailis-through-history-from-persecuted-minority-to-pluralist-community/

[8] Ibid., p. 204–205; “Some Very Well Known Indian Freemasons.” Grand Freemasonry Lodge of India. Retrieved from https://www.masonindia.in/index.php/some-very-well-known-indian-freemasons/

[9] Christian W. Troll. Syed Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology (Vikas Publishing House, 1978), p. 57

[10] C. Bennett. “Amir ‘Ali.” In: Z.R.Kassam, Y.K.Greenberg & J. Bagli. (eds) Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions (Springer, Dordrecht, 2018), p. 62.

[11] Soumen Mukherjee. Ismailism and Islam in Modern South Asia: Community and Identity in the Age of Religious Internationals (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017). p. 131.

[12] Hardy. The Muslims of British India (CUP Archive, 1972), p. 103.

[13] Abdul Rashid Khan. “All India Muhammadan Educational Conference and the Foundation of the All India Muslim League.” Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society, 55: 1/2 (January–June 2007), p. 65–83.

[14] S. Ikram. “Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sayyid-Ahmad-Khan

[15] Christian W. Troll. Syed Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology (New Delhi, 1978), p. 275; cited in Umar Ibrahim Vadillo. The Esoteric Deviation in Islam (Cape Town: Madinah Press, 2003), p. 479.

[16] Aga Khan III. Aga Khan III: selected speeches and writings of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah. Aziz, Khursheed Kamal (London: Kegan Paul International, 1998), pp. 1067, 1183, 1345–1346.

[17] Daftary. The Ismailis, p. 481.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

[20] C. Bennett. “Amir ‘Ali,” p. 61.

[21] Ibid., p. 65; Jim Falk. “History of the Cohen Name: From Ha-Kohen (1650-1723) to Abraham Cohen (1812-1874).” Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20080917203721/http://genealogy.metastudies.net/ZDocs/Kohn/Kohn01.html

[22] Bennett. “Amir ‘Ali,” p. 63.

[23] Ibid., p. 62.

[24] “Central National Muhamedan Association.” Banglapedia. Retrieved from https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Central_National_Muhamedan_Association

[25] Rimi B. Chatterjee. “‘Every Line for India’: The Oxford University Press and the Rise and Fall of the Rulers of India Series.” In: Swapan Chakravorty & Abhijit Gupta (eds.) Book History in India (Orient Blackswan, 2004), pp. 65–102.

[26] Mukherjee. Ismailism and Islam in Modern South Asia, p. 131.

[27] Alan M. Guenther. “Syed Mahmood and the Transformation of Muslim Law in British India.” Ph.D. Dissertation (McGill University, 2004), pp. 73-80.

[28] Ibid., p. 101-103.

[29] C. E. Buckland. Dictionary of Indian biography (1906).

[30] Taneesha Datta. “‘A hotbed of vice’: the Cambridge Apostles.” Varsity Online (March 31, 2023). Retrieved from https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/25279

[31] “Thomas W. Arnold.” Making India. Retrieved from https://www5.open.ac.uk/research-projects/making-britain/content/thomas-w-arnold

[32] “Jubilee Honours For India.” The Times (February 16, 1887), p. 12.

[33] “Central National Muhamedan Association.” Banglapedia.

[34] Abdul Rashid Khan. “All India Muhammadan Educational Conference and the Foundation of the All India Muslim League.” Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society, 55: 1/2 (January–June 2007), p. 65–83.

[35] Nadeem Shafik Malik. “Formation of the All India Muslim League and Its Response to Some Foreign Issues - 1906-1911.” Journal of Political Studies 19: 2 (2012), p. 171.

[36] Daftary. The Ismailis, p. 481.

[37] Malik. “Formation of the All India Muslim League and Its Response to Some Foreign Issues - 1906-1911,” p. 172.

[38] Ibid.

[39] B. Sheikh Ali. A Leader Reassessed: Life and Work of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (Sultan Shaheed Education Trust Publication, 1999).

[40] Malik. “Formation of the All India Muslim League and Its Response to Some Foreign Issues - 1906-1911,” p. 172.

[41] “Central National Muhamedan Association.” Banglapedia.

[42] C. Bennett. “Amir ‘Ali,” p. 64.

[43] Khalid Hasan. “Sialkot’s Vanished Days.” Khalid Hasan Online (February 20, 2004). Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20110718130632/http://www.khalidhasan.net/2004/02/20/sialkots-vanished-days/

[44] C. E. Buckland. Dictionary of Indian biography (1906).

[45] Ibid.

[46] Annemarie Schimmel. Gabriel’s Wing: a study of the religious ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Brill Archive, 1962), pp. 34–45.

[47] Ahmad. “Sayyid Aḥmad Khān, Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī and Muslim India,” p. 77.

[48] Shiekh Attaullah (ed.), Iqbal Nama, Lahore. 1951. Vol. II, p. 231; cited in  Shereen Aslam. “Pan-Islamism and Iqbal.” Iqbal Academy Pakistan. Retrieved from https://www.allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/oct94/2.htm

[49] Teena Purohit. “Muhammad Iqbal on Muslim Orthodoxy and Transgression: A Response to Nehru.” ReOrient 1: 1 (2015), p. 81.

[50] Muhammad Iqbal. The Development of Metaphysics in Persia: A Contribution to the History of Muslim Philosophy (East Lansing: H. Bahai, 2001), p. 49.

[51] Ibid., p. 50.

[52] Ibid., pp. 47-48.

[53] Ibid., p. 50.

[54] Ibid, p. 51.

[55] Edward Craig. Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Routledge, 2000), p. 404.

[56] Sher Zada & Shuja Ahmad. “Nietzsche and Iqbal on Human Perfection: A Comparative Study.” The Dialogue, 17: 4 (October-December 2022).

[57] Schimmel. “Iqbal, Muhammad.”

[58] Ibid.

[59] Iqbal. The Development of Metaphysics in Persia, p. 143.

[60] Ibid., p. 143.

[61] Ibid., p. x1.

[62] Teena Purohit. “Muhammad Iqbal on Muslim Orthodoxy and Transgression: A Response to Nehru.” ReOrient 1: 1 (2015), p. 81.

[63] Bashr Ahnad. Ahmadiyya Movement: British-Jewish Connections (Rawalpindi: Islamic Study Forum, 1994).

[64] “Kababir and Central Carmel – Multiculturalism on the Carmel.” Haifa Trail. Retrieved from https://www.haifatrail.com/haifa-trail-segment14-eng.htm

[65] Simon Ross Valentine. Islam and the Ahmadiyya Jama'at: History, Belief, Practice (Hurst & Company, 2008), p. 44.

[66] Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad. “Najaat” (“Salvation”). Tashhiz al-azham, v: 4 (April 1910), pp. 151–152; cited in Maulana Hafiz Sher Mohammad. The Ahmadiyya Case (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ish’at Islam Lahore, 1987), p. 333; “Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.” Al Islam. Retrieved from https://www.alislam.org/ahmadiyya-muslim-community/

[67] Izala-e-Auham, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 3 (Islam International Publications Ltd., 2008), p. 478. Cited in “The claims of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as).” Al Hakam (September 12, 2024). Retrieved from https://www.alhakam.org/the-claims-of-hazrat-mirza-ghulam-ahmad-as/

[68] Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Haqiqatul-Wahi (“The Philosophy of Divine Revelation”). (Islam International Publications, Ltd, 2018), p. 655.

[69] Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Lecture Sialkot (Islam International Publications Ltd, 2007), pp. 38-39.

[70] Ibid.

[71] Khalid Hasan. “Sialkot’s Vanished Days.” Khalid Hasan Online (February 20, 2004). Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20110718130632/http://www.khalidhasan.net/2004/02/20/sialkots-vanished-days/

[72] “Maulvi Ghulam Hassan Khan of Peshawar.” Ahmadipedia. Retrieved from https://www.ahmadipedia.org/content/personality/395

[73] Hasan. “Sialkot’s Vanished Days.”

[74] Ibid.

[75] “Who is Sheikh Ijaz Ahmad (nephew of Allama Iqbal)?” Ahmadiyya Fact-Check Blog (December 19, 2024). Retrieved from https://ahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com/2024/12/19/who-is-sheikh-ijaz-ahmad-nephew-of-allama-iqbal/

[76] Purohit. “Muhammad Iqbal on Muslim Orthodoxy and Transgression,” p. 81.

[77] “Central National Muhamedan Association.” Banglapedia.

[78] Ali Bhutto. “Dr Annie Besant: A theosophical beacon who transformed Karachi.” The Express Tribune (October 08, 2019). Retrieved from https://tribune.com.pk/story/2074461/dr-annie-besant-theosophical-beacon-transformed-karachi

[79] “First lady: The Flower of Bombay.” Dawn (March 3, 2012). Retrieved from https://www.dawn.com/news/699973

[80] Bhutto. “Dr Annie Besant.”

[81] Steven Ian Wilkinson. “India, Consociational Theory, and Ethnic Violence.” Asian Survey, 40: 5 (September–October 2000), pp. 767–791.

[82] Maria Framke. “Besant, Annie.” International Enclopedia of the First World War. Retrieved from https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/besant-annie/

[83] Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownagree. “Aga Khan I. s.v. Aga Khan III.” In Hugh Chisholm (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. 1, 11th ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1911), p. 363; retrived from https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Aga_Khan_I.

Divide & Conquer