Abstract
This book is a study of the religious and cultural life of north Indian Muslims during the eighteenth century. Based on a large number of contemporaneous and modern writings, it delineates the major developments in the realm of religion and philosophy, literary culture as well as the artistic pursuits of Muslim society. Amid the scenes of political chaos and decline for which the eighteenth century is known, one can observe great creative activities in the arena of religion and culture, and the expansion and proliferation of Mughal court culture in the regions. These traits are more visible in the qasbas of north India. The local upper-caste ashrāfs of these qasbas provided ground for the flourishing of high Persianate culture, with its characteristic ‘refinement’ and ‘sophistication’, in their area. According to the author, Indian Islam’s first encounter with modernity during the eighteenth century led to the twin processes of community formation and identity consciousness amongst the Muslims.
The first chapter, ‘The Muslim Community: Attempts at Consolidation’, critically examines Shah Waliullah’s role and his impact in the consolidation of the Muslim community. He was a leading theologian and social reformer of Delhi who emphasized the undertaking of reforms in the existing political and economic order of the country for the betterment of the ummat. He was a profound thinker who stressed upon the need to reinterpret Islamic values without breaking with the past. The idea of uniting the Muslim powers was propagated by him.
The second chapter, ‘Muslim Community: Divisions and Conflict’, deals with the rise of Shi‘ism and the ensuing Shi‘a–Sunnī polemics in north India. Shi‘a nobles had become prominent at the Mughal court from the time of Emperor Muhammad Shāh, and after Nādir Shāh’s invasion, the Irani faction gained further prominence, which led to the strengthening of Shi‘ism in Delhi and the regions around it. Amongst the successor states that emerged at the expense of the waning Mughal power, Bengal and Awadh patronized Shi‘ism to the extent that Shi‘ism became a dominant force during the eighteenth century. This situation alarmed the Sunnī theologians, who launched a movement of acrimonious refutation of the Shi‘a faith. Amongst these, Shah Abdul Aziz stands foremost. He was specific in his delineation of the Sunnī identity. His work Tuhfa-i Isnā‘ ’Ashariyya, which he wrote with the aim of curbing the growing influence of Shi‘ism and also to enable the Sunnīs to remain firm in their faith, initiated the full-blown polemic warfare between the Shi‘a and Sunnī sects. This work made a tremendous impact on the contemporary intellectual world. It was well received by the Sunnī intelligentsia and became popular as a definitive discourse that sought to legitimize the Sunnī faith. The Shi‘a scholars, however, condemned it thoroughly. A large number of polemical treatises were authored in Arabic and Persian by the Shi‘a mujtahids of Awadh as a result of the intensification of Shi‘a–Sunnī confrontations on ideological issues, and most of these were focused on rebutting the Tuhfa-i Isnā‘ ’Ashariyya. The polemical Shi‘a–Sunnī war continued to dominate Muslim religious life throughout the century. A number of works were written in vindication and refutation of the theories of Khilāphat and Imāmat. According to the author, Shi‘as and Sunnīs became conscious of their identity, and what ensued was the urge to rigidly protect the interests of their respective community. There were, however, some prominent Naqshbandī and Chishtī Shaikhs, such as, Mīr Dard, Mirza Jān-i Jānān and Shaikh Fakhruddīn, who exhibited a liberal attitude and considered the existing Shi‘a–Sunnī differences as baseless and futile.
Chapter three, ‘The Centres of Muslim Learning’, describes the activities in the realm of Muslim learning. The eighteenth century was a time when the value of education was understood and preached. The leading ‘ulamā of the period were highly instrumental in establishing a host of madrasas all over north India. At Delhi madrasas, the emphasis was on the study of Hadith, tafsir and fiqh, while in Awadh, there was a strengthening of the intellectual tradition that combined the rationalist scholarship of Iran with the emphasis on wahdat al-wajūd (oneness of being). It was consolidated in its scholarly form by the development of the Dars-i Nizāmiyya curriculum at the hands of the Farangī Mahall family; and in a spiritual form, by the Qadiri Sufi order. In the late eighteenth century, Lucknow emerged as the major centre of Shi‘ite scholastic studies. According to the author, ‘the new centres of Islamic learning in fact came up with an exaggerated emphasis on religious and sectarian identity’.
The fourth chapter, ‘The Reform or Islah-i Zaban: Persianization of Hindwi’, explores how Urdu, a dialect that emerged orally as an amalgam of various languages and known as Hindwi and Rekhta, was wrought and developed during the eighteenth century. Within the span of a century, Urdu became the language of the ruling elite and the teeming masses. In view of the preference of the new social groups, who rose to prominence in the changed social and political conditions, poets like Sirāj al-Dīn Khān Ārzū, Hātim, Mīr Taqī Mīr, Khwāja Mīr Dard, Mirzā Rafī Sauda and many others had shifted from Persian to Rekhta. They introduced Persian forms and Persian imagery, ideals, expressions and themes in their poetry and consciously avoided sprinkling of other Indian languages. The literary sessions (mushā‘aras) arranged regularly by these poets awarded Urdu a literary finesse, maturity and expressional proximity to Persian so much so that it became the dominant medium of poetry and overshadowed Persian. Urdu ghazal, qasīda and masnawī assumed a distinct character at the hands of the luminaries mentioned above. Marsiya attained tremendous popularity in Delhi and Awadh, and developed as a distinct literary genre. Many leading ghazal writers of Lucknow adopted the marsiya as the sole medium of poetry. Urdu also became the urban vernacular of the newly emerging middle class residing in the qasbas and gunjs and, as the author remarks, it became ‘a fundamental part of the program of identity assertion, especially in the new states’. The development of Urdu prose is also contemporaneous to this period, which developed on the lines of Persian qissas. Towards the close of eighteenth century, Urdu began to gain ground as the language of religion and philosophy.
Chapter five, ‘The Mughal Court Culture: Beyond the Portals of Court’, looks at the interaction between elite norms and exuberant popular culture, and the distinct cultural change emerging out of this encounter. The culture of the Mughal court was diffused after the disintegration of the Mughal Empire. The exclusive court traditions became accessible to a wider group and the appreciation of art and culture no longer remained the domain of the elite. It is in this scenario that the qasbas and adab have to be evaluated for their defining contributions to the north Indian Muslim consciousness. The period under review saw full fruition of a host of creative activities in artistic and intellectual spheres, especially in Awadh, which emerged as an upholder of the Mughal court culture at a time when the splendour of Delhi was fading. Under Nawāb Asaf-ud-Daulah, it came to assert its own distinct cultural and political identity.
Religious Tradition and Culture in Eighteenth Century North India emphasizes the dynamics of the historical phase that followed in the wake of the Mughal decline, and inspires scholars to further explore this field.