India Under Modi's Hindutva Programme

India under BJP’s Hindutva Programme

Dr. Mozammel Haque

Since Narendra Modi won the general election in 2014, he intends to turn India a Hindu-centric state, the Hindutva programme – where the country’s huge Muslim minority – roughly 200 million people – is at a calculated disadvantage. The Hindutva programme includes Kashmir, Babri Masjid and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Modi’s government is implementing one after another of its Hindutva programme.

Amit Chaudhuri, a novelist and professor at the University of East Anglia, wrote in The Guardian on 22 December, 2019: “Absolute power became for the BJP a licence to initiate one draconian change after another, all of them in some way to do with the status of Muslims in India, and, umbilically connected to this, with the status of democracy. Among these was the implementation of a national register of citizens (NRC) in the state of Assam, ostensibly to uncover illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. The real motive seemed to be to identify Muslim migrants. The government made a promise: once this was complete, it would happen in the rest of India.”

The New York Times wrote on 16 December 2019 about the policy and programme of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has rounded up thousands of Muslims in Kashmir, revoked the area’s autonomy and enforced a citizenship test in north-eastern India that left nearly two million people potentially stateless, many of them Muslim.”

Revocation of Article 370 on Kashmir

Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in August 2019. It abolished Kashmir’s special status, which is guaranteed under Article 370. Speaking to Islam Channel on Kashmir, Lord Ahmed said, “And then on the 4^th of August there is no democracy in the Indian Occupied Kashmir; they suspended the Legislative Assembly, they arrested their own elected chief minister of their own party coalition; they dismissed and the numbers you quote actually 500; these are actually politicians; 10,000 youths have been taken from their valley and more than 10,000.”

Bollywood actress Rani Mukerji tweeted on 9 August 2019 at 9:44 AM: “My stance on Kashmir is clear. I have said it before, will repeat the same thing again. I believe both India and Pakistan should leave everything aside & work towards a referendum on what the Kashmiris want. Everyone has the right to self-determination. £Article 370.

Rani Mukerji again tweeted on 11 August 2019 at 5:51 PM: “You Do Not Need To Be Muslim To Stand Up for Kashmir, You Just Need To Be Human.”

The Observer editorially mentioned on 22 December, 2019: “As we noted at the time, the arbitrary imposition, without prior consultation, of direct rule from Delhi and the suspension of Kashmiris’ democratic freedoms, which continues, amounted to an authoritarian coup with negative global implications. Indeed, Kashmir turned out to be a test run for the internet and mobile phone shutdowns that greeted last week’s protests against the citizenship law.”

“By removing the right to self-governance, and opening Kashmir state territory to Hindu settlers, Modi ignored UN resolutions on the dispute with Pakistan over the Kashmir region and, notably, the 1972 Simla agreement, which stipulates Kashmir’s final status must be resolved by peaceful means, not unilateral diktat,” commented by the editorial.

Hannah Ellis-Petersen writing on 9 November 2019 reported, “In June, a Hindu mob tied a Muslim man to a lamp and lynched him to cries of “hail Lord Ram”. The Modi government’s actions in Kashmir in August, stripping the state of its long-held semi-autonomy, was also seen as directly targeting its majority-Muslim community.”

Writing in the Guardian Simon Tisdall under the caption ‘Why Modi’s Kashmir Coup Threatens Indian Democracy’ wrote on 10 August 2019: “Though popular with many in India, Modi’s constitutional coup undermines the federal compact and pluralist democracy. “India has many asymmetric federalist arrangements outside of Kashmir. This act potentially sets the precedent for invalidating all of them,” wrote Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a leading academic, who pointed to possible knock-on instability in Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, and Bengal.”

Babri Masjid-Hindu Temple Controversy

Hannah Ellis-Petersen writing on 9 November 2019 reported “Since Modi and BJP took power in 2014, the rebuilding of a Ram temple at Ayodhya has been at the forefront of their Hindutva agenda, which has pushed India away from its secular roots and toward a strongly Hindu identity.”

The sensitive decision over whether to rebuild a place of Muslim or Hindu worship on the site was dragged out over 27 years. A 2010 court ruling divided the land between Muslims and Hindus, but was rejected by both sides. The case was taken to the supreme court in August.

Hannah Ellis-Petersen also mentioned: “The Indian supreme court has ruled that India’s most hotly contested piece of religious land rightfully belongs to Hindus, and has granted permission for a temple to be built on the site in Ayodhya. The five supreme court judges based their unanimous and historic judgment on Hindus’ claim that the site is the birthplace of the god Ram. They ruled that a mosque that had stood on the site since the 16th century, and was the basis of the Muslim claim to Ayodhya, was “not built on vacant land” and that the Hindu belief could not be disputed.”

The Observer editorially wrote on 22 December, 2019: “Then, last month, India’s supreme court injudiciously ruled that the hotly contested religious site of Ayodhya, which Hindus regard as the birthplace of Ram and where a 16th-century Mughal mosque was demolished in 1992, belonged solely to Hindus, not to both communities. The ruling was seen as a triumph for Modi’s divisive “new India” agenda. It was another step along the path to a country that, no longer the open, inclusive, pluralist and secular society envisaged by its founding fathers, is defined as a Hindu nation run by and for Hindus. Nor are Muslims its only victims. Critics say India’s other minorities, and its democratic tradition, are under attack, too.”

Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)

Now this new enactment of Indian Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 which favours every other South Asian faith than Islam has set off days of widespread protests across the country. Mumbai. Chennai. Varanasi. Guwahati. Hyderabad. Bhopal. Patna. Pondicherry. The disturbances keep spreading, and on Monday they tied up several areas of the capital, New Delhi.

The New York Times on 16 December 2019 reported: “Mr. Modi’s government has responded with troops, internet shutdowns and curfews, just as it did when it clamped down on Kashmir. In New Delhi, police officers beat unarmed students with wooden poles, dragging them away from stunned colleagues and sending scores to the hospital, many with broken bones. In Assam, they shot and killed several young men. India’s Muslims had stayed relatively quiet during the other setbacks, keenly aware of the electoral logic that has pushed them to the margins. India is about 80 percent Hindu, 14 percent Muslim, and Mr. Modi and his party, which espouses a Hindu-centric worldview, won a crushing election victory in May and handily control the Parliament.

The New York Times also reported: “The world is now weighing in, too. United Nations officials, American representatives, international advocacy groups and religious organizations have issued scathing statements saying the law is blatantly discriminatory. Some are even calling for sanctions. Critics are deeply worried that Mr. Modi is trying to wrench India away from its secular, democratic roots and turn this nation of 1.3 billion people into a religious state, a homeland for Hindus that will discriminate against others.”

“They want a theocratic state like Pakistan or Israel, where they give rights to one religion and the other religions aren’t given anything,’’ said B.N. Srikrishna, a former judge on India’s Supreme Court. “This is pushing the country to the brink, to the brink of chaos.” “This is how waves of communal violence start in the country,” he added.”

Commenting on this legislation, The Guardian editorially observed on 17 December, 2019: “The legislation is the proof that Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist project is not a containable anomaly, but an enterprise that threatens the nation’s very foundations of pluralism and secularism. Fear overshadows the hopes of that seven-decade endeavour.”

“It is inherently one of exclusion, which discriminates against Muslims fleeing persecution, and signals that Muslim citizens are not “truly” Indian. It undermines constitutional protections which apply to foreigners as well as citizens in India,” commented the editorial. .

The Guardian editorial also observed, “The legislation, warns the noted scholar Pratap Bhanu Mehta, is a giant step towards converting a constitutional democracy into a unconstitutional ethnocracy. The question is only how many more such steps India takes, and how fast.”

The Observer editorially commented: “Evidence may be found in the ongoing, repressive and violent police response to the citizenship law demonstrations, whose rapid spread and multi-faith character has shaken Modi’s government. It is found in the BJP’s smothering of India’s independent press and digital media, its neutering of the judiciary and its bullying of opponents. It is found in the outrageous official indifference to vigilante lynchings of Muslims. Modi should think again.”

Gujarat bloodbath of 2002

Mr. Modi is no stranger to communal violence. The New York Times reminded, “The worst bloodshed that India has seen in recent years exploded on his watch, in 2002, in Gujarat, when he was the top official in the state and clashes between Hindus and Muslims killed more than 1,000 people — most of them Muslims.”

“Mr. Modi was widely blamed for not doing enough to stop it. Courts have cleared him, but many people believe he was at least partly responsible for the brutality that unfolded,” reported The NY Times.

Writing on the Citizenship Amendment Act The Observer editorially wrote under the caption ‘Narendra Modi has gone too far: Hindus and Muslims deserve better from a secular nation’: “Since becoming India’s leader in 2014, Modi has tried to rehabilitate himself as a world statesman and savvy technocrat leading India to greatness. But this latest furore is a reminder, at home and abroad, of his personal roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a sometime-banned, far-right Hindu supremacist organisation. The BJP is the RSS’s political arm.”

The Editorial continued: “According to a recent report by the New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins, the Indian psychologist Ashis Nandy interviewed Modi when he was still a lowly BJP functionary. Modi exhibited “all the traits of an authoritarian personality” and claimed that India was the target of a global conspiracy in which every Muslim in the country was probably complicit, Nandy said.

The Observer editorially reminded: “Not forgotten, either, is Modi’s time as chief minister of Gujarat in 2002, when thousands of Muslims were killed in sectarian violence he failed to halt (to put it kindly). The US and Britain imposed sanctions on him at the time. Maybe he has changed since those torrid days. But Modi should be in no doubt: the world is watching him now. His reputation and India’s are in the balance. The hateful victimisation of Muslims must stop. A good start would be the immediate scrapping of the noxious citizenship bill.”

Writing about Judiciary Professor Amit Chaudhuri of the University of Anglia observed, “The act was challenged in the supreme court by several litigants for its unconstitutionality and legal arbitrariness. But the Modi government’s second term has seen an exceptional departure from predictability in the judiciary.”

Ahmer Khan contributed reporting from Assam to the Guardian said, “the Urdu writer Mujtaba Hussain declared he would return his Padma Shri award in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. “The situation in the country is becoming worse day by day and in my lifetime I have never witnessed such situations … the country is getting separated in the name of religion and hatred,” he said.”

Indian Citizenship Act 2019 is unconstitutional dangerous

Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of India 2019:

Unconstitutional, divisive, offensive and dangerous

Dr. Mozammel Haque

The contentious Indian Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by both Houses of Indian Parliament on 11 December 2019 is faced by tremendous opposition within India first started in Assam and then spread to Delhi and other provinces of India. The new law CAA, which amends the Citizenship Act of 1955, provides eligibility for minorities from neighbouring Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to access Indian citizenship. It has come under severe criticism as non-secular, sparking widespread protests in the North East of India.

BBC reported on 19 December 2019:  Civil society groups, political parties, students, activists and ordinary citizens put out a steady stream of messages on Instagram and Twitter, urging people to turn out and protest peacefully. Among those who were briefly detained were Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian and outspoken critic

of the government, in the southern city of Bangalore; and political activist Yogendra Yadav in Delhi. Speaking to the BBC's Newshour programme, Mr Guha said he had been arrested with hundreds of others from various different backgrounds, "which clearly shows that a large section of Indians is actually opposed to this discriminatory legislation".

What makes this law controversial, according to BBC, is The CAA allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities to become citizens - if they were persecuted because of their religion in the three countries. But critics say this is part of a "Hindu nationalist" agenda to marginalise India's Muslims. The act follows a government plan to publish a nationwide register that it says will identify illegal immigrants.

A National Register of Citizens (NRC) - published in the north-eastern state of Assam - saw 1.9 million people effectively made stateless. The NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Act are closely linked as the latter will protect non-Muslims who are excluded from the register and face the threat of deportation or internment, reported by BBC.

 

India’s cruel exercise in exclusion

could leave millions stateless by Priya Pillai 

Writing as early as August 1, 2019 on NRC, Priya Pillai, an international lawyer based in Manila, said, “In the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, as many as 4 million people may soon be excluded from Indian citizenship. Take a moment to think about that: A population similar in size to that of Kuwait or New Zealand may be relegated to non-citizen status on Aug. 31, thanks to an inhumane, cruel and Kafkaesque legal process. Even more worryingly, this process may eventually be enforced across the country.

“This all stems from the “National Register of Citizens" (NRC), a log that is supposed to contain the names of all Indian citizens in Assam. The list, based on the 1951 census, was created to determine who were Indian citizens and who were migrants from neighbouring East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The government is now seeking to update it, deciding that all those who can prove they were Indian residents before midnight on March 24, 1971 — just before Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan — will be considered citizens, as will their descendants. Those who cannot are to be excluded from the register, detained and, if unable to prove citizenship before a “foreigners tribunal,” subject to deportation,” wrote Priya Pillai.

‘Excessive force used’, UN

This action by the India’s Modi government came under severe criticism by both United Nations, Human Rights activists, Indian former judges, Academics and Pakistani Senate. On Tuesday night, the UN raised concerns about the “excessive force” used against students. Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the UN secretary general, said: “We call for restraint and urge full respect for the rights of freedom of opinion and expression and peaceful assembly.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed
Slams India's Citizenship Law 
Speaking on the sidelines of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir criticised India's new citizenship law, which is seen as discriminatory against Muslims. The law has stoked fear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to remould India as a Hindu nation and marginalise its 200 million Muslims, who form nearly 14 per cent of India's 1.3 billion population. "I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state now is taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship,@ said the 94-year-old leader. 

Arundhati Roy called India's 

new citizenship law dangerous

Acclaimed writer and activist Arundhati Roy has joined in the protest in New Delhi on Wednesday, urging Indians to protect each other and guard against any oppression by Indian police and security forces. She was interviewed by Al-Jazeera TV channel. 

In reply to question by Al-Jazeera, Roy said, "I am hopeful because this movement intellectually understands and emotionally and passionately understands the horror of this Hindutva Programme that Modi, BJP, RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu Spremacist organisation) have been selling for so many years and of course in power since 2014.

Former Judge on India’s Supreme Court, Judge

B. N. Srikrishna says it is pushing the country to the brink of chaos

B.N. Srikrishna, a former judge on India’s Supreme Court, said, “They want a theocratic state like Pakistan or Israel, where they give rights to one religion and the other religions aren’t given anything.’’ “This is pushing the country to the brink, to the brink of chaos,” said Judge Srikrishna.

“This is how waves of communal violence start in the country,” he added.

Unconstitutional, communal idea of citizenship,

 says social scientist Hiren Gohain

In Assam, the north-eastern state of India where the protests first began a week ago, and where six people have lost their lives in the clashes so far, thousands of government employees took to the streets. Among the demonstrators was eminent Assamese literary critic and social scientist Hiren Gohain, who described the new citizenship law as “ghastly and malicious”. “We want to maintain our tradition of social harmony,” said Gohain. “We are at one with the rest of the country in opposing an unconstitutional, communal idea of citizenship. If people want freedom, if they don’t want to be slaves, they will have to maintain the struggle.”

Police used Islamophobic slurs and taunts, says

Harsh Mander prominent Human Rights Activists

Harsh Mander, a prominent human rights activist, said he would be filing an official complaint of serious police atrocities over officers’ actions at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. Police violently stormed the campus, firing teargas and detaining dozens of Muslim students.

Speaking to the Guardian, Mander said multiple students and teachers recounted how the police had used Islamophobic slurs and taunts at the Muslim students as they beat them with batons, including calling them “khatana”, which means circumcised, and shouting the Hindu nationalist slogan “Jai Shri Ram”, meaning Hail Lord Ram, a Hindu God.

“When they brought him to the police station, he described the hateful Islamophobic taunts that the police were saying to him,” said Mander. “They beat him up so badly that his hand was broken, and even after they broke it, they kept beating him. He showed me the terrible marks all over his body.”

CAB is unconstitutional, says IOC UK President

The Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter organised its “Bharat Bachao Rally” (Save India) outside the Indian High Commission in London to coincide with similar protests in New Delhi and around the world. “The rally is against the Modi government’s failures, including the economic crisis, high unemployment, farmer distress and divisive politics,” said an IOC UK spokesperson. In reference to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the IOC UK spokesperson added: “CAB is unconstitutional, which has set fire in the North Eastern states.”

Historian Ramachandra Guha was dragged away

by police, says Amit Chaudhuri, a novelist and Professor

Amit Chaudhuri, a novelist and Professor wrote in The Guardian, “In the past week, Indian politics has seen the return of a federalism that the BJP is even more bitterly hostile to than Indira Gandhi was. Six states – West Bengal, Kerala, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha – have refused to participate in Delhi’s plan for a nationwide NRC. Many individuals have begun to go into the civil disobedience mode that Indians adopted under the British, saying they would either not furnish papers for the NRC or that they would declare themselves Muslim. Mass protests on 19 December happened despite restrictions under colonial-era section 144 (proscribing a gathering of more than four persons) being declared wherever the BJP has control of law and order. TV channels showed a student stopping the policeman who was kicking her friend with ferocious finger-wagging admonishment alone; on 19 December, the historian Ramachandra Guha was dragged away by police mid-se

ntence in a peaceful protest. It is a time for shame and sadness; a time of pride and joy. Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist and professor at the University of East Anglia.

Seniors join Indian Citizenship

Law protests in Assam, Anupam Nath

Anupam Nath of AP from Gauhati, India reported on 25 December 2019: “Senior citizens in India’s north-eastern Assam state have protested against a new citizenship law passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that excludes Muslims. About 1,500 senior citizens held a protest in the state capital, Gauhati, on Monday. Protests in the state against the law have spread across the country, claiming at least 23 lives.

“Until our last drop of blood, we will not allow them to implement it,” said Gajendra Nath Pathak, 81, who joined the senior citizens’ protest. Bina Bora, 70, said she couldn’t sit at home while other people were protesting the law. “Why is the government forcefully implementing such a law, which will destroy unity,” she asked.

The new Citizenship Amendment Act allows Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally to become citizens if they can show they were persecuted because of their religion in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It does not apply to Muslims. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to India’s streets to call for the revocation of the law, which critics say is the latest effort by Narendra Modi’s government to marginalize the country’s 200 million Muslims. Hazarika said she has come to join the protest as she cannot sit inside her home while the country burns against CAA. (Anupam Nath/Associated Press)

Protest In the UK

People from different groups gathered outside the Indian High Commission in London on Saturday, the 15^th of December 2019 to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act and what they branded as Modi government's "failures", reported by PTI. A group of protesters from the British Assamese community, dressed in their traditional attire and accompanied by children, waved placards in Assamese as well as some in English that read: “Save Democracy, Stop CAB”. The peaceful demonstration involved some sloganeering against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which was signed into law earlier this week. “Assam is united and CAB is divisive. Say no to division, yes to unity,” said one of the activists.

Alongside, the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter organised its “Bharat Bachao Rally” (Save India) to coincide with similar protests in New Delhi and around the world.

“The rally is against the Modi government’s failures, including the economic crisis, high unemployment, farmer distress and divisive politics,” said an IOC UK spokesperson. In reference to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the IOC UK spokesperson added: “CAB is unconstitutional, which has set fire in the North Eastern states.”

Condemnation by Pakistan Parliament

Pakistan Today reported on 23 December 2019 from Islamabad that Senate Standing  Committee on Interior on Monday strongly condemned the recent discriminatory legislation “The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019” passed by India and the 140th-day long curfew in Indian Occupied Kashmir. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Abdur Rehman Malik at Parliament House.  While observing the 140th Day of curfew, Senator Rehman Malik said that this committee will continue to condemn Indian brutalities and urge the Government to move in International Court of Justice against PM Narendra Modi for his crimes against humanity.

He said that Indian government by one after another action is sidelining the Muslims and other minorities to convert India into a Hindu State alone. He informed the committee that he has written a letter to the editor in chief of the Guinness World Records to include the longest curfew imposed by the Indian government in Kashmir in the Guinness book.

Editorials condemned the CAA

British Newspapers carried editorials on the Indian Citizenship Act (CAA).

The Guardian Editorials:

 Modi’s citizenship law:dangerous for all

Writing editorials, The Guardian wrote editorially on 17 December 2019: Modi’s citizenship law: dangerous for all. It continues, “ Thousands nationwide have protested against India’s new citizenship law in recent days, facing a brutal police response. This is arguably the biggest display of opposition to Narendra Modi since he took power six years ago, and for good reason. Demonstrators have been urged into action not by the sense of a new direction being established, but of the confirmation of the country’s alarming trajectory.

It commented, “The legislation is the proof that Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist project is not a containable anomaly, but an enterprise that threatens the nation’s very foundations of pluralism and secularism. Fear overshadows the hopes of that seven-decade endeavour.”

Commenting on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of India, The Guardian Editorially commented, “It is inherently one of exclusion, which discriminates against Muslims fleeing persecution, and signals that Muslim citizens are not “truly” Indian. It undermines constitutional protections which apply to foreigners as well as citizens in India.”

“Look to north-eastern Assam, where almost two million people face statelessness following exclusion from the National Register of Citizens, sometimes because of simple clerical errors. Citizens have been turned into foreigners. Detention centres are already under construction. The home affairs minister, Amit Shah, has compared illegal immigrants to termites and says India will not allow a single one to stay,” observed editorially.

Editorial also observed, “Lynchings by Hindu nationalists have risen sharply under Mr Modi. That the legislation is deepening communal divides is not accidental. The prime minister’s claim that those setting fires “can be identified by their clothes” was read as a clear reference to Muslims. It is the rankest hypocrisy to accuse others of spreading violence, even if it were possible to set aside Mr Modi’s.”

The Observer Editorial

Narendra Modi has gone too far: Hindus and Muslims

deserve better from a secular nation

The Observer editorially observed on Sunday 22 December 2019:  Narendra Modi has gone too far: Hindus and Muslims deserve better from a secular nation.

The editorial commented: “Narendra Modi’s new Indian citizenship law is dangerous and offensive. It is dangerous because it institutionalises and encourages discrimination against Muslims, a minority of 200 million people that is already the target of daily, petty prejudice and periodic, violent persecution. It is offensive because, whatever the government says, it clearly undermines India’s post-independence constitutional commitment to a secular state.”

“As we noted at the time, the arbitrary imposition, without prior consultation, of direct rule from Delhi and the suspension of Kashmiris’ democratic freedoms, which continues, amounted to an authoritarian coup with negative global implications. Indeed, Kashmir turned out to be a test run for the internet and mobile phone shutdowns that greeted last week’s protests against the citizenship law, it observed.

20th Death Anniversary of Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi

A Look back at the life and contributions

of Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi (1914-1999)

Dr. Mozammel Haque

2019 is the 20^th death anniversary of Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi who passed away in December 1999. Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi, popularly known as Maulana Ali Miah, was born on 3^rd Muharram 1333 (1914) in an Academic and literary (both spiritual and material) dynasty of Ulema, Mujahideen, Professors, ICS officers and Barristers and was the descendant of Syed Ahmad Shaheed who fought with Imperial forces face to face and eventually martyred in the Battlefield.

It is very important to remember and to cast some lights on His Eminence Abul Hasan Nadwi Rahimullah. He passed away in 1999. I believe it is important for new generation of Muslims, everywhere,  not only here in the UK, to remember always and to talk about their scholars, about their great figures, especially those who influenced the societies, peoples’ minds, of course in the positive way.

Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi

I am talking about Maulana Abul Hasan Nadawi Rahimullah who is one of the great scholars in India; not only in India, he started in India but he became one of the great scholars of the Islamic world. I still remember in the 1980s when he came to Rabita al-Alam al-Islami, Makkah al-Mukarramah; I used to hear and listen Abul Hasan Nadawi. He used to come Rabita al-Alam al-Islami, Makkah al-Mukarramah on different occasions in one of the conferences, seminars in Makkah on Islamic fiqh etc.

Awards and Accolates

Abul Hasan himself received many prizes. He was awarded many times. Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi received many awards and accolades. He received Faisal Award announced in his name in 1980. Kashmir University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature in 1981. In 1992 Padma Bhusan highest award of India was offered by the Indian Prime Minister, which was politely refused being against family traditions and practice.  In 1999 Sultan of Brunei Award was announced by Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies UK.

Members of many international organisations

Syed Abul Hasan was a member of many Councils and Forums; for example; he was a member of Arabic Language Council in Damascus; he was also member of Arabic Council in Amman in Jordan; he was also member of many organisations in Saudi Arabia. In 1962 Syed Abu Hasan was appointed Member of Rabitah al-Alam Al-Islami, Makkah al-Mukarramah. He was also member and Chairman of Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in 1983. He is something like an international man who played main role in many things everywhere.

Education and Upbringing

It is very important to look back at his life, education, training and upbringing as well as his contributions He was brought up by learned and pious parents. His father Maulana Hakeem Syed Abdul Hai Nadwi was a great scholar of his time and had written many books, one of which Nuzhatul Khavatir is very famous and consists of 8 Volumes. He served as Rector, Nadwatul Ulema till he breathed his last on Friday 2^nd February 1923 when Shaikh Abul Hasan was only eight or nine years of age. His mother was also a pious lady and played an important role in his up-bringing and tarbiyah and taught him to write soon after Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.

Having lost his father young, Ali (as his mother used to call him), was growing up under the shadow of his pious mother, under the guardianship of his beloved brother Hakim Doctor Abdul Ali Nadwi ( who having qualified from both Darul Uloom Deoband and Nadwatul Ulema was pursuing a course of study at Medical College and was in 4^th year of his MBBS) and according to family traditions under the tutorship of Syed Muhammad Ismail and Master Muhammad Zaman Khan who taught him Persian, Urdu and Arithmetic respectively.

Young Ali was approaching the age of ten when his brother decided to change the direction of his education to Arabic and handed him over to the tutorship of the learned scholar Shaikh Khalil ibn Muhammad ibn Hussain Yamani Bhopali, a lecturer in Lucknow University, who put him to a book originally prepared by Egyptian Ministry of Education for children. Shaikh Khalil (Arab Saheb as used to be called) used to teach him along with his younger brother on return from University. He thus gained maximum attention of his teacher in a small class of two and very soon started speaking in Arabic which his teacher made obligatory. While the emphasis during this period was on Arabic he was also learning English.

He was 12 years of age that his brother, in consultation with his tutor decided to admit him to Lucknow University for a course of Fazil-e-Adab which for admission he had to compete with other candidates well qualified of Madaris-e-Arabia and matured, where as he was a boy of 12.

Before going to University he had already gained reasonable command of Persian, Urdu and Arabic and used to read Newspapers and Magazines subscribed by his brother from Damascus and Palestine.

He completed his course in Fazil-e-Adab from Lucknow University when he was only 15 and was awarded a First Class First with Gold Medal and a scholarship for further studies which he utilised in gaining another degree in Fazil-e-Hadeeth. In the December 1929 convocation he was awarded his certificate by Sir Malcolm Healy, Governor of U.P., which he would have preferred to receive from a pious Muslim scholar. While in University he continued reading works of famous scholars and academics in Urdu, Persian and Arabic and improved his proficiency in these languages and enhanced his knowledge of Islam and contemporary subjects.

Mother’s advice and Dua

During this period encouraged by his Tutor (Arab sahib) he also started learning English with full zeal and was preparing for the Intermediate Examination when his pious mother, having known his enthusiasm for English, wrote to him: “Ali! Don’t be mislead by others, if you wish to gain Allah’s pleasure and my affection then follow those who spent their lives in achieving Allah’s Deen like Shah Waliullah, Shah Abdul Aziz and Shah Abdul Qadir and like others whose lives and death was enviable. Ali, if I had 100 sons, I would have put all of them on such education, now you are alone and I pray to Allah that you achieve qualities of 100 such pious and learned scholars.

Pious mother’s letter backed by her prayers (dua) worked and his own heart became disgruntled of English but he had achieved so much knowledge that helped him later in life that he could read English books and literature during his visits to England and America.

Travel to Lahore

After successfully completing courses in University he travelled to Lahore on the invitation of his uncle who introduced him to various scholars of the time including Allama Iqbal and Shaikh al-Tafseer-e-Qur’an Maulana Ahmad Ali Lahori. He also met three famous wrestlers Rustam-e-Zaman and Professor Muhammad Shafi M.A. (Cantab) who having taste, advised him to make Arabic his subject and attain perfection in it to the utmost height.

In July 1929 on return from Lahore he was admitted in Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema where he spent 5 years to qualify its prescribed course in Hadeeth, Tafseer, Fiqah and other subjects. While in Nadwa he was taught by Allama Taqiuddin Hilali Marakashi, Shaikh Muhammad ibn Hussain Yamani, Muhammad Tayyab Makki Rampuri and other learned and various scholars.

During this period he once again visited Lahore and having spent some time in the Tafseer class of Mufassir-e-Qur’an Maulana Ahmad Ali Lahori, received his credential. He then moved to Deoband, another seat of learning, and joined Bukhari class of Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madni and received credential from him. He had now had the opportunity of attending upon all the renowned scholar of the age.

First article published in “Al-Minar”

Young Ali had now grown up, a teenager, a hockey player and a translator from Urdu to Arabic and preparing to write his own articles. His first article on Saiyid Ahmad Shaheed was published in a well Known Egyptian Magazine “Al-Minar” and was later published as a booklet in 1950 by the same Magazine, which not only encouraged him but put him on right track of writing.

Lecturer at Nadwatul Ulema

Reaching the age of 20 and having qualified from Nadwatul Ulema he was appointed as a lecturer where he was a student so far. He started teaching Tafseer, Adab and other subjects from 1^st August 1934 and was allocated an upper class taken so far by a senior scholar of good experience. His students were mostly of his own age and some even older. He thus had to prepare hard and sometimes even travel miles to consult senior scholar to teach to his student to their as well as his own satisfaction.

At Nadwatul Ulema

After completing his education he joined Nadwatul Ulema as Lecturer in 1934. In 1945 he resigned from Nadwatul Ulema as Lecturer and in 1947 he joined Executive Committee of the Nadwatul Ulema as a member. In 1954 he was appointed Director of Education of Nadwatul Elema. After the death of his beloved brother, he was appointed Rector of Nadwatul Ulema in 1961.

Member of Rabitah al-Alam-Al-Islami

In 1962 Syed Abu Hasan was appointed Member of Rabitah al-Alam Al-Islami, Makkah al-Mukarramah.

Writing and overhauling syllabus.

As early as in 1937 Syed Abul Hasan prepared New Syllabus for Aligarh University and revised syllabus of Nadwatul Ulema in 1940 and in 1968 visited Riyadh University and overhauled its syllabus.

Established institutions

As early as in 1943 for the education of children Syed Abul Hasan established Idara Talimah and then in 1959 he established Academy for Research and Islamic Publications which has up to now publish hundreds of books. Then after one year in 1960 he established Deeni Taleemi for the Education of Muslim children in India. Then in 1983 he established Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, UK.

Syed Abul Hasan also formed in 1964 Majlis-e-Mushawarat to look after Muslim interest in India.

Visiting Lecturer and delivered

Lectures At Universities

In 1942 Syed Abul Hasan delivered a lecture at Jamia-e-Millia Delhi on “Religion & Civilisation”. In 1956 he accepted appointment as visiting lecturer at the Damascus University and also visited Turkey and Lebanon and delivered many lectures. Then in 1963 he accepted appointment as Visiting Lecturer at Jamia Islamia Madinah Munawwarah and addressed Hujjaj from Shafaie Musallah in Haram-e-Makkah and then had the opportunity of entering in Ka’aba Mukarramah.

Writings and publication

Syed Abul Hasan’s first article in Arabic published in 1931. Then he published “Seerat Ahmad Shaheed” in Urdu in 1939. After that he started writing Maza Khasar alam which was published in Egypt in 1950 and then in English as “Islam and the West.” In 1955, the first Volume of Tarikh Dawat wa Azimat was published and the next year in 1956 the Second Volume of “Tarikh Dawat wa Azeemat” was published. Then in 1958, he published “Al-Qadiany wal Qadianah in Arabic and later on translated into Urdu and English. In 1967 he published Arkan-e-Arba in Urdu and later on as Four Pillars of Islam in English. Syed Abul Hasan published “Al-Murtaza” the Life of the Fourth Caliph Ali Murtaza in 1988 and later translated into English.

Visited Arab countries and

met Heads of States

In 1951 Syed Abul Hasan first visited Egypt with very busy schedule of meetings with renowned scholars, Radio Broadcast, meetings with ‘Ikhwan’ leadership, then to Sudan, Damascus, Bait al-Maqdas, Palestine, Iraq and Jordan where he met with King Abdullah. In 1973 he led Muslim World League’s deputation to Gulf States and met with King Hussain of Jordan and Shaikh Sultan Qasimi of Sharjah. In 1974, he visited Morocco and met with King Hasan II and discussed issues of the Ummah. In 1978 visited Pakistan arranged by Rabitah al-alam al-Islami. He again visited Pakistan in 1984 met President Zia ul Haq, presented a model of Dome of Rock. Syed Abul Hasan also visited Malaysia in 1987 at the invitation of Student Union. In 1990 he met Indian Prime Minister regarding Muslim Personal Law.

Visit to the West

In 1963 Syed Abul Hasan first visited to Europe at the invitation of Islamic Centre Geneva and then to United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain, then again in 1964 and 1969. Syed Abul Hasan travelled to the United States of America in 1977 at the invitation of MSA and addressed many meetings and seminars throughout the country. He again visited in 1993. 

Performed Hajj First in 1947 with 6 months stay in Saudi Arabia.

Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi passed away on 22^nd Ramadan 1420 A.H. just before Salat al-Jumah, 31^st December 1999.

May Allah Subhanahu wa Taala accept his efforts for the cause and revival of Islam, Muslims, whole Islamic World, shower His mercy and blessings upon him. Ameen.