The Sacrifices of the Noble Scholars
of India: the Revolution That Wasn’t
In the year 1857, one of the most
important uprisings in world history took place. This is classified as one of
the most important because it was against the British and in their biggest and
most important colony – India. If successful, it could have emboldened
colonised people everywhere and inspired them to revolt against the then
burgeoning and colossal British Empire.
As it is, it has gone down in history
as one of the most important and spectacular FAILED uprisings.
Tired of the British colonial rule and
oppression; the people from various parts of India rose up against the
colonialists. The rebellion started when sepoys (soldiers) employed by the
British East India Company revolted after continued discrimination, including
forcing acts upon them that contradicted their religious beliefs. This was the
case for both Muslim and Hindu sepoys. However the rebellion quickly spread to
other people, including civilians and some Nawabs (British approved local
rulers) who revolted along with their subjects. The spiritual leadership of the
revolt was with the final Mughal Emperor – Shah Alam – who was deposed
following the revolt by the British, with the Mughal Empire officially
disbanded and the last emperor deported to Burma to die in obscurity a few
years later.
One of the most important elements of
society that it spread to, though, was the Muslim scholars – the ‘Ulema. These
numbered in their tens of thousands. Islamic scholarship was strong despite the
general decline in learning during the era of the Nawabs that followed the
decline of the Mughal rulers. This was because of the strength of traditional
Islamic learning in India, particularly the Hanafi Madhab. Most scholars were
united by a movement/organisation called Jamiatul ‘Ulema, which consisted of
tens if not hundreds of thousands of people (scholars and students of
knowledge). These scholars urged the people to rebel, especially the Muslims.
In Masjids, sermons were given exhorting people to rise up against the kafir
colonialists.
Interestingly, despite their issues,
Muslims and Hindus in many cases worked and fought together. In the case of
many rebelling Hindu elements they recognised the leadership of Shah Alam as
the guide of the revolt. The Mughal authority was by 1857 mainly confined to
Delhi and its surroundings, which is where Shah Alam coordinated and advised
others from.
While Hindus revolted with the Muslims
in many places – and were independent of Muslims in others – for the large part
the revolt is seen as a Muslim revolt. It was Muslims who had the greatest
motivation in revolting, to regain lost power and prestige, and possessed most
of the power until the British East India Company invaded.
The rebellion turned into mini wars
and conflicts in various parts of India between the rebels and the forces of
the British as well as the many British agents, especially the Nawabs. They
used “loyal” employees (i.e. Indian sell outs, both “Muslims” and Hindus) –
both the British themselves as well as the Nawabs – to try to quash the various
uprisings. In certain places it was confined to protests and demonstrations.
Battles ensued in various parts of
India, some going for months, before they were eventually defeated. One after
one the centres of rebellion were neutralised by the British and their agents.
What followed was what is known in
Arabic and Urdu as qatl ‘aam – general killing. It was bloodshed, massacre and
revenge by the British on a massive scale, in which the blood of the rebels and
their supporters flowed in rivers. They didn’t do all the killing themselves.
Rather, they would use their client Nawabs to do so. The Nawabs would in turn
have the relevant people and rebels executed by their subjects, thus meaning
that it was Indian forced to kill Indian (as the picture below depicts), and
often (sell-out) “Muslim” forced to kill rebel Muslim. The revenge was brutal.
People were killed en masse, with the preferred mode of killing being public
hanging, in order to teach people a lesson never to try something similar
again.
The class of people that suffered the
most were the ‘Ulema/scholars and their students and supporters. They were
rounded up and made an example of. They were butchered in their tens of
thousands, if not more. They were seen as the spiritual inspiration behind much
of the rebellion in several centers, and thus “held to account”.
A most common report and articulation
of the extent of the massacre is the following: it is said that for the 180
kilometres between Delhi and the city of Moradabad, the road was such that
there were trees on either immediate side of the road, forming a canopy and
tunnel of sorts for the vast extent of this road. It is said that there was not
one tree on this road on both sides of the road except that a corpse of a
Muslim scholar/member of Jamiatul Ulema was hanging from it. SubhanAllah – a
massacre of gargantuan proportions.
The uprising was defeated, and the
revolution that could have been was lost. Muslims were massacred as were other
people, but the ones that lost the most were the Scholarly class and through
them of course the general people.
For at least a generation or two the
Muslims lost almost any willingness to resist, and when the will returned, it
did so in other forms and never with the same gusto.
The failed 1857 mutiny is probably the
single greatest disaster in the history of the Muslims of Hind. We are still
feeling the impacts of this today.
However, it also shows the exemplary
courage of the ‘Ulema who stood for the truth and paid with their lives.
May Allah have immense Mercy on them
and raise them as martyrs on the last day. Ameen!
May Allah return the glory the Muslims
of Hind have lost and forgive them for their shortcomings and mistakes. Ameen.
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