‘We can leave neither’: Mohamed Ali, Islam and Nationalism in colonial India

Abstract

This essay explores how the ideals of nationalism and Islam intersect by looking at the life and career of Mohamed Ali, a leading Muslim political figure, scholar, journalist and poet of the early twentieth-century India. Mohamed Ali, one of the leaders of the Khilafat movement, has often been seen as someone given to passionate politics and religious rhetoric. He was undoubtedly different from many of his contemporaries since he refused to act in a unilinear, ‘politically correct’ fashion in the pursuit of the idea of a nation. Yet, a close study of Mohamed Ali's career reveals that contexts and circumstances defined most of his politics, ranging from his association with Gandhi during the Khilafat movement to his political uproar over the issue of separate electorates. Through his public career, he constantly juggled his claims to best represent Muslim interests while simultaneously also proclaiming his love for the nation, although mostly in the form of anti-colonialism. These associations were often presented in a variety of subtle combinations rather than in the form of clear either–or choices. This essay examines Mohamed Ali's attempts at reconciling Islam with nationalism and how he ultimately defined his political preferences, refusing to align himself with either pole in favour of a more conciliatory path.

Keywords:

• Islam
• Muslim
• India
• nationalism
• identity
• Mohamed Ali

Notes

1. Iqbal, Select Writings and Speeches of Maulana Mohamed Ali, 465.

2. Throughout this essay, I have chosen to spell Mohamed Ali the way he signed off his name in English, putting aside the question of how variously his Arabic name can be transliterated.

3. Hall, ‘Introduction’; Hasan, Islam, 9.

4. The Comrade (November 21 and 28, 1924).

5. Hasan, My Life, 57–60.

6. Ibid., 16.

7. Nanda, Gandhi, 132.

8. Mr S.H. Freemantle had met the two brothers at Allahabad on November 21, 1915. Home Department Political Files, 6 (December 1915).

9. Hasan, My Life, 47.

10. This ‘old red-bearded pedagogue’ goes unnamed in Mohamed Ali's autobiography. Hasan, My Life, 50.

11. Hasan, My Life, 50.

12. Ibid., 63.

13. Ibid., 64.

14. Ibid., 67.

15. Ibid., 65.

16. Ibid., 71.

17. Ibid., 112–16.

18. The Comrade, 1:1 (January 14, 1911). This appeared as the masthead of the journal in this inaugural issue and was featured in all subsequent issues.

19. The Comrade, 1:1 (January 14, 1911).

20. Ibid.

21. Sydenham to Harding, March 18, 1913. Hasan, My Life, 13.

22. The Comrade, 2:8 (August 19, 1911).

23. The Comrade, 1:3 (January 28, 1911).

24. See, for details, his article entitled ‘The Indian Mussulman: a Study’ in The Comrade, 1:2 (January 21, 1911).

25. See The Comrade, 3:1, 2 and 3 (January 1912).

26. Rahman, Mohamed Ali, 4.

27. Brown, Gandhi's Rise to Power, 139–40.

28. Minault, Khilafat Movement, 10.

29. The term refers to a group of Muslim leaders, led by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who wanted to wipe out the post-1857 rebellious image of the Muslims in the eyes of the British and aimed to win the British confidence in order to advance Muslim social, educational and economic interests. See, Lelyveld, Aligarh's First Generation.

30. The Comrade (September 26, 1914); also, Jafri, Selections from Moulana Mohamed Ali's Comrade, 498–524.

31. Jafri, Selections from Moulana Mohamed Ali's Comrade, 521.

32. Gandhi, Understanding the Muslim Mind, 91.

33. Home Department Political Files, 7 (July 1913).

34. Home Department Political Files, A (October 1913).

35. Mohamed Ali to the Viceroy, April 24, 1919, Mohamed Ali Papers.

36. Gandhi, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. XV, 256.

37. Nanda, Gandhi, 200.

38. Ibid., 223.

39. Iqbal, Select Writings and Speeches of Maulana Mohamed Ali, 186.

40. Minault, Khilafat Movement.

41. Rahman, ‘Mahatma and the Maulana’.

42. Iqbal, Life and Times of Mohamed Ali, 252.

43. Home Department Political Files, 20 (June 1921).

44. Gandhi, Understanding the Muslim Mind, 100.

45. Iqbal, Life and Times of Mohamed Ali, 255.

46. Ibid., 267.

47. For instance, Minault, Khilafat Movement; Shakir, Khilafat to Partition; Nanda, Gandhi; Hasan, National and Communal Politics in India 1916–1928, besides most of the works that deal with Mohamed Ali's role in the Indian freedom struggle.

48. He said it in a speech delivered at Azamgarh on March 2, 1921. Home Department Political Files, 20 (June 1921).

49. Iqbal, Select Writings and Speeches of Maulana Mohamed Ali, 189.

50. Ibid., 186.

51. A transcript of the entire interview of the Prime Minister of England with the Khilafat delegation headed by Mohamed Ali can be found in Rahman, Mohamed Ali, 86–108; for the above quotation, see 105.

52. Gandhi, Understanding the Muslim Mind, 103.

53. Home Department Political Files, 20 (June 1921).

54. Iqbal, Select Writings and Speeches of Maulana Mohamed Ali, 207–44.

55. Ibid., 209.

56. Ibid., 219.

57. Ibid., 244.

58. Gandhi, Understanding the Muslim Mind, 88.

59. Home Department Political Files, 20 (June 1921).

60. Gandhi, Understanding the Muslim Mind, 94.

61. The governments at Madras, Baluchistan, Rajputana, Central Provinces and Delhi reported that though the people did have knowledge of the abolition of Khilafat, there was no outward reaction to it. Reports from Calcutta added that the ‘abolition of Khilafat has shocked Moslem opinion. Muhammadans are unable to understand motive and are bewildered. Tendency is to await full information and conference of Khilafat party’. A challenge to the abolition of Khilafat was reported from the United Provinces. As a part of the mixed response reported by the government of Bihar and Orissa, it was said that certain leaders such as the Ali brothers, Abul Kalam Azad, Hasrat Mohani, etc., were keen to have a strong Caliph to keep the Pan-Islamic Movement on. Overall, for whatever reasons, the public response was not as same as before. Home Department Political Files, 110 (1924).

62. Iqbal, Select Writings and Speeches of Maulana Mohamed Ali, 343 [Written in 1925].

63. Ibid., 312.

64. Iqbal, Life and Times, 330–1.

65. The Comrade, 1:6 (February 18, 1911).

66. Hamdard (January 4, 1927).

67. Ibid. (January 10, 1927).

68. Iqbal, Select Writings and Speeches of Maulana Mohamed Ali, 331.

69. For instance, Hasan, Mohamed Ali, 82–3.

70. The Nehru Report (1928), a memorandum that outlined the features for the dominion status of Indians under the British Commonwealth, was drafted by a committee of the All Parties Conference headed by Motilal Nehru and his son Jawaharlal Nehru serving as its secretary.

71. Hasan, Mohamed Ali, 91.

72. Ibid., 95–6.

73. Gandhi, Understanding the Muslim Mind, 117.

74. Ibid., 118.

75. Rahman, Mohamed Ali, 20.

76. Iqbal, Select Writings and Speeches of Mohamed Ali, 477–8.