Preface to the second edition

[ 12?
years. His political mission was carried on-with greater extremism than Shibli was capable of-by Abul Kalam Azad, who was the moving spirit, in 1919, behind the organisation of Jamia-tul-Ulamai-Hind to carry out the political activities which Shibli wanted Nadva-tul-Ulama to undertake.
We shall deal with the career of Abul Kalam Azad in the next chapter, but it may be useful to sum up Shibli’s specific contributions to the political history of Muslim India. Shibli was the first Indian Muslim of modern times who discovered the value of making religion the basis of political appeal. He is the original author of the war-cry, which became so prominent in subsequent Indo-Muslim politics-”Islam in Danger”. Syed Ahmed Khan was deeply interested in religion, and he was also the political leader •of his people, but he kept religion and politics apart. Referring to his and similar efforts, Shibli said in an Urdu speech, delivered at .an annual gathering of the Nadva :
For the last thirty years, efforts have been made to uplift the Muslims in the name of nationhood, but the failure of these efforts is only too obvious. The followers of the Prophet do not respond to the call of nationhood. Appeal to them in the name of religion, and you will see what a splendid response you get !4
His first address to the Nadva-tul-Ulama was delivered in

1894, i.e. four years before he left Aligarh College. He exhorted the ulama to organise themselves under the aegis of Nadva, and said :

Gentlemen ! In the days of the Muslim rule the worldly as •well as the religious affairs of the Muslims were in the hands of the ulama. In addition to indicating regulations regarding prayer, fasting, etc., the ulama decided judicial cases. They punished criminals and passed orders, awarding capital punishment or ransom. In short, the reins of the affairs of the community relating both to this and the next world were in the hands of the ulama. Now that things have changed, and worldly affairs have come under the athority of [the British] Government, we have to see what relationship the ulama have with the community, viz. •what powers have been taken over by the Government, and what have been left over and are within the domain of the ulama, in which Government itself does not wish to interfere.
Owing to the present condition of the ulama, their seclusion or rather indifference, it is generally felt that the link which they

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retain with the community is merely religious, i.e. they indicate the regulations concerning prayer, fasting, etc. Other affairs are believed to be outside their purview, in which they have no right of interference. I believe this to be wrong and totally wrong.*
He explained at length that the moral life of the Muslims, their education and scholarship, their customs and conventions and their intellectual life were even now under the influence of the vlama, and after giving some details, said, ”From this it would be seen that a very large part of the national life is in ulama’s right of ownership (haqq-i-malkiyat) and they alone have or can have absolute sway (mutliq-ul-inari) over it.”6
He exhorted the religious leaders to organise themselves under the aegis of the Nadva, and painted an impressive picture of the day when all this would be achieved :
The Nadva would then be so powerful fhat the entire Muslim community will be governed by its injunctions. People will have to bow to the religious verdicts of the Nadva, and will be powerless to defy its decisions.7
The Nadva did not fulfil Shibli’s dreams of acquiring ”absolute sway” over the Muslim community. In fact, things became so difficult for him that he had to leave the institution. But this determined dreamer did not give in. He now turned to his real source of strength-the power of the pen-to gain his object. He was the leading man of letters in Muslim India, and he decided to set up an Academy of Authors (Dar-ul-Musannifin) so that at least his ideas may dominate the people. After describing his plans, he wrote in a letter of November 1913 :
In India there are Anjumans (Associations) for everything, but an Anjuman of authors is still lacking and this is the most important need. An able author can rule over the minds of thousands of people. (Translated from Urdu ; italics ours.)
Shibli did not live very long after that, but before he died he had laid the firm foundation of an Academy of Authors at his native place, Azamgarh. He endowed his family bungalow and garden to house the Academy, donated his library, and put forward an elaborate scheme for a detailed biography of the Prophet, which brought ample financial assistance from the Begum of Bhopal to enable the organisation to function. He died before the Dar-ul-Musannifin went into production, but Syed Sulemaa
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jjadvi, his devoted though conservative successor, carried out the project most efficiently. The Dar-ul-Musannifin became the leading literary centre of Muslim India, and the Ma’arif, its mouthpiece, became the most influential scholarly journal of the cornmunity. Shibli’s dieam of intellectual sway over his people was, after all, realised. This was facilitated by the fact that, although Aligarh produced great political leaders and a large number of able administrators, it totally failed to maintain Syed Ahmed’s traditions of intellectual leadership. The result was that not only owing to two divergent schools of thought attempting to lead Muslims in different directions, ground was prepared for what Ian Stephens calls ”a sort of schizophrenia” in the} mind 01 Muslim India (and now of Pakistan) but that owing to the intellectual dominance of the group led by Shibli, for a long time the noblest sons of Aligarh, like Maulanas Muhammad Ali, Shaukat AH and Zafar Ali Khan, echoed his thought and followed his policies rather than those of Syed Ahmed Khan. Even Iqbal was deeply influenced.
As Shibli wrote, ”an able author can rule over the minds of thousands of people”. The influence of Shibli and his successors over Muslims in India and Pakistan has been tremendous, but it did not prove decisive at the crucial moments. The powers of the modern propaganda are well known, but its limitations need not be ignored. Writing about the old dialecticians Hali wrote in his Musaddas, ”If they set out to prove the day to be night, they will not rest content until they have silenced all dissent”. Gifted men have great persuasive power but their success can only be temporary if their arguments do not rest on a solid basis of facts. One may argue well and effectively about the day being night, but when the dawn breaks and the sun shines, only the hypnotised ones can cling to the illusion of a starry night. Perhaps, the great era of the success of Shibli’s political ideas was the period which began with the publication of al-Hilal and ended with Mustafa Kamal’s abrogation of the Caliphate (1912-23). During this period the Ottoman Caliphate was involved in its death agonies, while the constitutional development within the country had not reached a stage where wisdom of Syed Ahmed Khan’s political policy could became manifest. The Khilafat Movement marked the climax of

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this era, but anti-climax was also near at hand. This was provided by Mustafa Kamal’s abrogation of the Caliphate, but even before this, the focus of Muslim India’s romantic phantasies-nourished with such skill and depth of feeling by Shibli and his group-had moved, and the events nearer home were having a sobering effect. Those who have read, in Allama Mashriqi’s Tazkirah, the harrowing details of what was suffered, through hunger, cold and disease, by those who, relying on the fatwas in favour of Hijrat, blocked the road to Kabul, will not be surprised at the subsequent disillusionment with ulama’s leadership. Even otherwise, the Hindu-Muslim animosity, which was brought to light in the Punjab after a partial transfer of power under Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms, brought home to many that Syed Ahmed Khan and his successors had not been far wrong in the political policy advocated by them. These happenings dealt a shattering blow to the prestige of those political ulama who, since the last years of Shibli, had given overriding, almost exclusive, importance to the happenings in Turkey and had poohpoohed those who were struggling to safeguard and improve the Muslim position in the Indian subcontinent.
The situation did not change twenty-five years later, when, during the struggle for Pakistan, the vast majority of politicallyminded ulama, headed by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Maulana Husain Ahmed Madani, ranged themselves against the Muslim League leadership. Muslim masses instinctively realised what was at stake, and solidly lined up behind Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The political policy and programme of Shibli and his successors did not prevail at the crucial moments, but his ideas-some of which have got enshrined in Iqbal’s poetry-continue to float in the air and attract doughty champions. The most determined of these is Maulana Abul ’Ala Maududi who, through his concept of Islamic State, hopes to get all the authority and influence for the ulama for which Shibli laboured in vain.
Shibli, Abul Kalam Azad and Abul ’Ala Maududi form an unbroken chain.
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1. For example, the article entitled ’’Masail-i-Fiqhiya par Zamane ki Zaruraton ka Asar” (Maqalat-i-Shib!i, Vol. I, pp. 75-81) and ”GhairQaumon ki Mushabahat (ibid., pp. 172-8).
2. Syed Suleman Nadvi, Hayat-i-Shibli, p. 280.
3. Critical references to Aligarh leadership in private conversation and correspondence had started much earlier. Some letters of 1902 are severely critical of Mali’s sympathetic biography of Syed Ahmed Khan. The Aligarh Gazette for 21 March 1903 contained an anonymous letter from a correspondent from Hyderaoad reproducing critical remarks of a former Professor of Aligarh College regarding the institution and those in charge (Baqiyat-iShibli, pp. 180-4).
Jn a way Shibli had unfolded his concept of the high role of the ulama in his first address to the Nadva (1894), but then this role was confined to the religious and intellectual spheres and was claimed for all qualified ulama. Now they claim for the guidance of the Muslims in all spheres, and this was to be provided by those who were trained by Shibli at the Nadva-tul-Ulama.
4. Quoted in Syed Suleman’s biography of Shibli, op. cit., p. 502.
5. Khutubat-i-Shibli, p. 29.
6. Ibid., p. 30.
7. Ibid., p. 33.

Chapter 9
ABUL KALAM AZAD
(1888-1958)
HPPWfWP
SHIBLI had prepared his plans thoroughly and carefully but the hesitancy of a dual personality and certain weaknesses of character hampered his work. These deficiencies were supplied by Abul Kalam Azad. He brought to the execution of these schemes a rhetorical skill, a tenacity of purpose and an audacity all his own, but, in essence, the path he followed had been chalked out by his predecessor. It is true that the young man, in his supreme self-confidence, went beyond what Shibli had planned-and to that extent cut himself adrift from his peoplebut, in general, the direction and the course of his journey had been already indicated.
Abul Kalam’s early days are wrapped up in mystery. His admirers have tried so hard to turn him into a legend that possibly there has been some embellishing of the records. It is not certain, for example, what his real name is. He has been variously called as Ahmed and Mohy-ud-Din but in his earliest letter on record, he has signed himself ”Ghulam Mohy-ud-Din”.1 The same mystery surrounds his father. It has been stated that he left India after the Revolt of 1857, that the Nawab of Rampur was his spiritual disciple, that he was called to Constantinople by Sultan Abdul Hamid. Nobody has elaborated or even investigated these details, and one is at a handicap in correctly assessing the background of so important and intriguing a personality.
From the stray bits of information which have been vouchsafed to the general public, it is, however, possible to infer that the Maulana’s father, who was a theologian as well as a Pir, left Bombay towards the end of the last century and settled in Mecca, where the Maulana was born in 1888. His father returned to India
(P 134)
MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD

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ten years later, and took up residence at Calcutta, as he had a number of disciples in Bengal. Azad was brought up in a religious atmosphere, and was educated on old Islamic lines.
Azad’s father was one of the influential Pirs, who correspond in spiritual realm to the landed aristocracy in mundane matters, and if he had wanted he could have lived comfortably on the offerings and homage of his father’s disciples. The self-reliant child, however, spurned this course at an early age resolved to make a name by his pen. He was, by all accounts, a precocious child. He wanted to write a life of Ghazali when he was only twelve. Two years later, he was contributing learned articles to Makh-an, the best known literary magazine of the day. One of them was (characteristically) about the power and influence of the press and another was an instalment from his proposed history of Persian poetry. He had also started attending national gatherings and the elder leaders were amazed at seeing this prodigy. From his serious literary undertakings, they had thought that he must be a grown-up person, but now they were confronted with a boy of sixteen. Hali, it is said, when first introduced to Abul Kalam, took him to be the son of the learned writer of that name, whose articles he had seen and admired !
At one of these gatherings, Azad came across Shibli, and a meeting took place, which meant so much to both of them. Azad belonged to a religious family, but was more interested in politics, literature, journalism and similar subjects. Shibli did not belong to a family of the religious ulama, but was concentrating his energies on their organisation on modern lines. There was much in common between the two and there is no doubt that the precocious young man fascinated Shibli. The letters which he later wrote to Abul Kalam Azad were withheld at the time of the first publication of Makatib-i-Shibli, but they have now been included in the second edition, and anybody who reads them can see how fond Shibli was of Abul Kalam Azad. He took him to Lucknow, ”where Azad stayed at the Nadva for some time, edited An-Nadva, the official organ of the institution, and joined Shibli in intimate discussions on intellectual, political and religious subjects. Syed Suleman, who was at Nadva about the same time, says that it was Shibli who made a ”Maulana” of Abul Kalam Azad, brought him

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prominently before the public by offering him editorship of An-Nadva, and influenced his political views in pan-Islamic and pro-Congress directions.
Abul Kalam Azad was, by now, well known in national circles, and wanted to start a newspaper of his own, to wield the influence which he had stated in an article he published at the age of fourteen belonged to the press in the West. For this, however, he had to wait for some time, and he used the interval to equip himself more fully for his self-imposed mission. In 1906, he took up the editorship of Vakil of Amritsar, a bi-weekly, which wielded considerable influence during those days. In 1909, his father died after having appointed Abul Kalam Azad as his successor. He now left Amritsar, and carried on, for some days, the work of his father, first in Bombay and later at Calcutta. At the same time, he continued his literary activities and preparations for the publication of his long-contemplated newspaper.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had to wait for some years for the publication of his own newspaper, but the delay, instead of being a hindrance, helped him. The publication of Al-Hilal-the first issue came out on 13 July 1912-was singularly well-timed. Muslim India was in a ferment and in a mood to be swayed by an emotional appeal. Viqar-ul-Mulk’s speeches and writingsafter the Delhi Durbar-had marked the end of the policy of political quietism and reliance on Government. His lead had been energetically followed by two young Aligarhians-Zafar Ali Khan in the Punjab and Maulana Muhammad Ali at Calcutta. The ground had been fully prepared by these three, and the growing difficulties of Turkey had perturbed the people even more than the annulment of the Partition of Bengal.
Al-Hilal -was not only fortunate in the time of its appearance, but it had all the auxiliary attractions, which enhance the appeal of a newspaper. Muhammad Ali’s Comrade, started some eighteen months earlier, had set a high standard in Muslim journalism, and Abul Kalam Azad was determined to excel that. He succeeded. His ”weekly” was printed on thin art paper, in the best Beyrut type, and was copiously illustrated. The Muslim reading public had not seen anything like this before, and was naturally thrilled.
Even more effective than the surrounding atmosphere and the
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get-up of the paper was the rhetorical skill and ability of the editor. The style of Al-Hilal has been recently criticised for its verbosity and obscurities and its appeal to the heart rather than to the head. The criticism is not unjust, and less gifted writers have shown how easy it is to imitate some of its undesirable features. These objections, however, did not damp the enthusiasm of the early readers of Al-Hilal. They were used to the humdrum, matter-of-fact prose of the other Urdu papers and Abul Kalam’s style appeared like the language of a high-souled prophet. It completely swept them off their feet.
Abul Kalam also used his powers shrewdly. Viqar-ul-Mulk had abandoned the old Aligarh policy of reliance on Government, but he still urged a separate platform for the Muslims, and was opposed to their joining the Congress. Abul Kalam differed from him but did not seriously challenge him on this point. He chose a more vulnerable spot in the armour of the opponent-indifference to the welfare of the Turks and other Muslims outside India-and concentrated on that. His own views on this subject are summed up in a letter which he wrote to a friend, shortly after he started Al-Hilal:
Aligarh movement has paralysed the Muslims. The real aim is the promotion of Pan-Islam, which is the true foundation and link for the progress and reform of Islam, and, for this, there will never be a better opportunity than we have r w. Today no local or national movement can benefit the Muslims, even if it be the tall talk of the [Aligarh] University. So long as the whole world of Islam does not come together in an international and universal alliance, how can small tracts help the forty crores of Muslims?2 The greater part of Al-Hi!al was devoted to articles and photographs about Turkey. Abul Kalam Azad concentrated on this question. He had seen, in the Punjab, how enthusiasm for Turkey had been created by the Watan, the Vakil and the Zamindar, and knew that people would disown Aligarh more easily on this point. Of course there had been a great outburst of pro-Turkish feelings, even at Aligarh. But he was not satisfied. He even used the opportunity to remind people (in the fourth issue of AI-Hi!a!) of what Syed Ahmed had said against pro-Turkish demonstrations, and bitterly scolded the Aligarh leaders on their indifference to Muslims. Later he delivered a speech at Calcutta, which was printed

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in the form of leaflets and widely circulated. In this,he referred, without naming, but on lines which made his meaning obvious, to ”those heretics and hypocrites who, during the last forty years, had co-operated with the Satans of Europe to weaken the influence of Islamic Caliphate and Pan-Islam”.
Today, after the Indian Muslims have seen the poor outcome of their pro-Turkish efforts, they are beginning to think that there was much to be said for Syed Ahmed’s policy, but in those days of emotional frenzy, nobody noticed this. Abul Kalam’s emphasis on Pan-Islam, not only embittered the Muslim opinion against the •Christian-including the British-Governments but also undermined the power and influence of the old Aligarh leaders.
Soon Abul Kalam had another occasion to cross swords with .his opponents. A couple of years before, it had been decided to raise the Aligarh College to a University, and H. H. The Aga. Khan, who took the lead in the matter, collected large sums needed for the purpose. Differences, however, arose between the promoters and the Government over the name of the University, Government power of veto and affiliation oflslamia colleges in the country to the proposed University. None of the promoters liked Government attitude on these points, but, as Shibli wrote in a letter to Abul Kalam, ”something was better than nothing,” and they began to explore lines on which a settlement could be achieved. Abul Kalam Azad, however, grasped that the promoters, by giving up their original stand, were offering an excellent target for attack, and in a series of articles, which rank as masterpieces, not of journalism but of satirical literature, he poured out refined scorn on this -change of front. Maulana Muhammad Ali was picked out for some special attention. Soon the whole country joined the young editor of Al-Hilal. Viqar-ul-Mulk said that he had been misinformed, and .Shibli also entered the lists on the side of his gifted junior, with his effective satirical poems. Maulana Muhammad Ali-and a few others-tried to arrest the drift of opinion, but failed, and the ideas of a compromise with Government had to be shelved.
But Maulana Abul Kalam Azad did not achieve triumph simply by a skilful handling of the current political issues. He had a message-and on a point dear to every Muslim heart. This was the message of religious revivalism, and extension of religion to
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-every phase of a Muslim’s life. Al-Hilal, it has been said, had -”religion” in one hand and ”politics.” in the other, and in both, it professed to follow the Quran. ”Back to the Quran” was its battle-cry. When somebody asked Abul Kalam Azad whether he followed the extremist or the moderate school of Indian politics, be ridiculed the very idea of a Muslim following others, in any matter. They were the chosen people of God and had their path •clearly pointed out to them. So far as he was concerned, he said, he followed nothing but the Quran and urged all his co-religionists to do the same (vide Al-Hilal, 8 September 1912, etc.).
Today many have begun to see the weakness of this argument. •Quotations from the Quran have been cited to support such •completely contradictory standpoints that people are beginning to think that, although the Holy Book is most definite and clear on fundamentals of spiritual and moral regeneration of man, to cite it on problems on which it never professed to give any but general ^guidance, is to provide a dangerous weapon to clever interpreters. To Al-Hilal, the message of the Quran was one of complete independence of thought and action, but when in 1919 Martial Law was •declared in some cities of the Punjab, big posters were put up at Lahore and other places, with quotations from the Quran enjoining on Muslims the observance of law and order. The way «xtracts from the Quran about dealing with the non-Muslims •were splashed during the elections held in 1946 to successfully oppose the standpoint of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad is only recent history. All this had shown to the honest and the thoughtful that the policy of appeal to the Quran in all matters is not so simple of application as Abul Kalam Azad had made it out to be. Similarly, as a critic has observed, the revivalism of Al-Hilal has done no lasting service to the cause of true religion. Azad was able to kindle religious emotion, and make Muslims believe that they were the chosen people on the earth, but such supreme selfregard is hardly conducive to any spiritual reform or self-purification. This, however, is a later judgment. Thirty-seven years ago, the effect of the religious appeal was tremendous. Apart from the support which it gave to the views of Abul Kalam Azad, it had a general healthy effect too. People realised that the Quran contained guidance not only on ”ablutions and prayers,” but on the

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basic requirements and practical life of mankind, and thus a newsignificance and importance came to be attached to the study of the Holy Book.
A by-product of this policy was that the ulama began to take more active interest in the political affairs of the community. Of course, in the past also, they had not been totally indifferent to the fortunes of their people, but formerly they intervened only at the time of a real crisis (like the denial of religious liberties to the Muslims under the Sikh rule) when such intervention became a religious duty. Now Abul Kalam had held out that ”politics” and ”religion” were twins and naturally this led to the religious leaders taking greater interest in politics. The beneficial effect of this development-both on religion and politics-was challenged even in the columns of Al-Hilal. It was urged by an influential correspondent that the devotion of religious leaders to politics would adversely affect their religious ”activities,3 and experience has shown that in politics the ulama tend to become mere camp-followers of one clever politician or another. The participation of the ulama in political matters, however, made politics a much more living thing for the general masses, and Azad received powerful support from a very influential section of the community.
Abul Kalam’s writings had a quickening effect on the religious life of the Indian Muslims. Of course, the vast majority of them had never been indifferent to religion, and years before the publication of Al-Hilal, Viqar-ul-Mulk had started at Aligarh an era of religious orthodoxy and strictness which could not but affect the attitude of the younger generation. But Abul Kalam approached the problem with a new vigour, and brought to his policy of making religion the basis of all things the aid of a powerful pen. This led to a religious revival, and in the new atmosphere of faith . and enthusiasm, the apologetic attitude of Syed Ahmed Khan towards some aspects of Islam, and his endeavours to conform Islam to modern sciences lost their appeal.
In the realm of domestic politics Abul Kalam Azad did not directly challenge the proposal of Viqar-ul-Mulk that the Muslims should continue to have a separate platform. He very raiely wrote on this subject and one would search in vain the bulky fiK s o’
Abul Kalam A:ad