Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Mumtaz Ahmad, “Islamic Funda-

mentalism in South Asia: The Jamaat-i-Islami and 

the Tablighi Jamaat of South Asia.” In Fundamental-

K  388  

Jamaat-i Islami

---

isms Observed, edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott 

Appleby, 457–531 (Chicago: University of Chicago 

Press, 1991); Kalim Bahadur, The Jamaat-i-Islami of 

Pakistan: Political Thought and Political Action (New 

Delhi: Chetana Publications, 1977); Seyyed Vali Reza 

Nasr.  Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).

jami

  See 

mosque

.

Jamiyyat al-Ulama-i Hind

 

(Association 

of Indian Ulama, also spelled Jamiyatul 

Ulama-i Hind; acronym: JUH)

Founded in 1919 by a group of religious scholars 

(

Ulama

) under the leadership of the respected 

Deobandi scholar Mawlana Mahmud Hasan 

(1851–1920), the JUH sought to unify India’s 

Muslim population and to solidify its Muslim 

scholars. It was composed of ulama from several 

major centers of Islamic learning in India, espe-

cially the Dar-ul Ulum d

eoband

, but also Farangi 

Mahal and Nadwat ul-Ulama of Lucknow, i

ndia

.

Extremely active in the fight for India’s inde-

pendence from British rule, the JUH was formed 

in the 1920s at the height of the k

hilaFat

 m

ove

-

ment

, which sought to reestablish the Ottoman 

caliphate. This movement was also supported by 

m

ohandas

  k.  g

andhi

 (d. 1948) and the Indian 

National Congress (INC). The JUH advocated 

abstaining from engaging in political activism in 

favor of the pan-Islamic view that the religion 

could not be confined to or defined by a par-

ticular nation-state. Nonetheless, the JUH joined 

with the INC in order to press for independence 

from the British, under whom religious freedom 

was severely curtailed. The majority of the JUH 

ulama likewise looked askance at the Mus-

lim League’s secular, modernist leadership and 

opposed their efforts to establish a Muslim state. 

Under the charismatic leadership of Mawlana 

Hussain Ahmad Madani (d. 1957) in the 1930’s, 

the agenda of the JUH focused on cultural and 

religious issues such as strong advocacy of the 

Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act of 1939, 

which set up a separate legal code that provided 

for Muslim divorce to be adjudicated according 

to 

sharia

 principles. Other Indian Muslim lead-

ers, such as m

Uhammad

 i

qbal

 (d. 1938) and a

bU

al

-a

la

 m

aWdUdi

 (d. 1979), criticized Madani and 

the JUH for their collaboration with the Hindu-

dominated INC.

The JUH saw themselves as working on behalf 

of autonomy for Muslims within the greater Indian 

polity, not outside of it. As Madani put it, Islam 

was one millat (religion) within the Indian qawm

(nation). However, many Indian ulama found this 

position increasingly untenable. In 1945, there 

was a schism that led to the establishment of the 

J

amiyatUl

 

al

-U

lama

-

i

 i

slam

 in order to accommo-

date those with separatist views. Since 1947, the 

JUH has focused on religious and cultural issues 

and has remained aloof from politics.

See also  a

ll

-i

ndia

  m

Uslim

  l

eagUe

; 

colonial

-

ism

; 

secUlarism

.

Anna Bigelow