The social transformation of the ‘ūlamā’ in British India during the 19th century

Abstract

How did the Indian ‘ūlamā’ go from being an intellectual–literary elite in pre‐British India to becoming “representatives” for British Indian Muslims by the end of British occupation? This paper argues that particular British Colonial social policies, in particular those related to education and law, during the 19th century were instrumental in the social transformation of the ‘ūlamā’ in British India.

Keywords:

• social transformation
• ‘ūlamā’
• British India

Notes

¹The notion of the ‘ūlamā’ acting as “representatives” for the Muslim “qawm” or “community” is widespread in the areas formerly known as British India: present‐day Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. For discussion of the notion of “qawm” as related to Muslims in British India, see Faisal Devji, ‘A Shadow Nation: The Making of Muslim India’ in K. Grant, P. Levine and F. Trentmann (eds), Beyond Sovereignty: Britain, Empire and Transnationalism, 1860–1950 (Palgrave, London 2007) 126–145.

²S. Mahmud (1996) ‘Angāre and the Founding of the Progressive Writers’ Association’ 30(2) Modern Asian Studies 447–67.

³Section 295A of the IPC (Indian Penal Code), Act XLV 1860, “Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of His Majesty’s subjects, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations insults or attempts to insult the religion or religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”

⁴Mahmud ‘Angāre and the Founding of the Progressive Writers’ Association’ 450.

⁵Ibid. 452–3.

⁶Ibid. 448–9.

⁷Ibid. 447.

⁸Ibid.

⁹The term is used in South Asia to denote a member of the ‘ūlamā’.

¹⁰D. Reetz, Islam in the Public Sphere (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006) 8–9.

¹³Metcalfe and Metcalfe, A Concise History of Modern India 81.

¹¹B. D. Metcalfe and T. R. Metcalfe, A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006) 73.

¹²The British Crown effectively ruled India through the proxy of the British East India Company until its dissolution in 1874 when direct rule by the British Parliament was instituted.

¹⁴Ibid. 81.

¹⁵Ibid. 82.

¹⁶Quoted in M. Q. Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2002) 62.

¹⁷B. D. Metcalfe, Islamic Revival in British India (Oxford University Press, Oxford 1982) 16–86; Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam 62–74.

¹⁸Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam 64.

²⁰Ibid. 66.

¹⁹Ibid. 65. For detailed discussion of the role of language in the demarcation of ‘community’ in British India, see also P. R. Brass, Language, Religion and Politics in North India (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1974) 7.

²¹Ibid. 63.

²²Ibid.

²³Ibid. 17.

²⁴W. B. Hallaq, Sharʿīa (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009) passim.

²⁷Quoted in Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam 19.

²⁵J. E. Tucker, In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA 1998).

²⁶D. S. Powers, Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300–1500 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002).

²⁸Ibid. 19–20.

²⁹It was perfectly possible of course that a muftī could be appointed as a judge – in this way, both offices – muftī and qāḍī – were entrusted to one person.

³⁰Metcalfe and Metcalfe, A Concise History of Modern India 57.

³¹Ibid. 58.

³³Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam 21.

³²This is a crucial distinction within the Islamic legal tradition; Hallaq, Sharʿīa 159–96.

³⁴See footnote 9.

³⁵Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam 21.

³⁶Ibid.

³⁷Metcalfe and Metcalfe, A Concise History of Modern India 58.

³⁸Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam 22.

³⁹Ibid.

⁴⁰Ibid.

⁴¹Metcalfe and Metcalfe, A Concise History of Modern India 112.

⁴²Zaman, The Ulama in Contemporary Islam 22.

⁴³Metcalfe, Islamic Revival in British India 72–3.

⁴⁴Ibid. 64–5.

⁴⁵C. A. Bayly, Empire & Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999).

⁴⁶Metcalfe, Islamic Revival in British India 87–262.

⁴⁷B. D. Metcalfe, ‘Traditionalist’ Islamic Activism: Deoband, Tablighis, and Talibs (ISIM Papers, Leiden 2002).

⁴⁸Metcalfe, Islamic Revival in British India 87–262.

⁴⁹For a discussion of ‘community’ in the Indian context, see the work of Faisal Devji, particularly F. Devji, ‘Apologetic Modernity’ (2007) 4(1) Modern Intellectual History 61–76, and citation in n. 1.