Sunday, March 24, 2002		Books

The Indian Musalmans
by W.W. Hunter, Reprint, 2002, Rupa and Co.

WILLIAM HUNTER wrote the book in 1871 to answer a question asked by Lord Mayo — ‘Are the Indian Musalmans bound by their religion to rebel against the Queen?’ The author gives a vivid description of the Wahabi Movement in Islam and explains how the movement gave expression to the miseries of the Muslims, who over a period of time had lost their power and prestige. The author argues that the Wahabi Movement originated from the belief that under the British rule, the Muslims suffered from a chronic sense of being wronged.

Hunter talks about a rebel camp on the frontier and a chronic conspiracy within the empire; the foundation of both these being the discontent faced by the Muslims. He traces the history of the Wahabi Movement on the Punjab frontier from its formation in 1831 to its last campaign in 1868. The author explains that the Movement, besides constantly keeping alive a fanatical spirit amongst the Muslims, organised tribal confederacies along the frontier. The role of Sayyid Ahmad in keeping alive the movement is also discussed. Ahmad converted thousands of Muslims to his doctrine, established a regular system of ecclesiastical taxation, civil government and apostolic succession. Even within the Empire seditious masses organised themselves and created trouble for the British. They supplied the frontier movement with men and money. Both branches of the movement, on the frontier and within the Empire, combined to wage a war on religious grounds.

This discontent arose due the backwardness of the Muslims in modern education, the civil, defence and judicial arms of the government and other jobs in comparison to the Hindus. The Muslims were deliberately kept away from all positions of power and profit because of their supposed leadership of the rebellion of 1857. This becomes evident when Hunter, while talking of degeneration in the position of Muslims, writes that "any answer for their degeneracy is one of the results of our political ignorance and neglect." Talking about their low employment in the Army, the author believes that the exclusion of the Muslims was necessary for "our own safety." While discussing the loss of monopoly of offices under the British, Hunter states that Muslims were gradually being "excluded from the official positions altogether." Such statements point to the intention of keeping Muslims away from all official positions of power.

The educated Muslim was deprived of his share of power and wages of the government which he had hitherto monopolised and became more discontent after seeing these being passed into the hands of his Hindu counterparts. The Muslims who were erstwhile conquerors and governors lost all state patronage under the British. The aristocracy lost its source of wealth, toll levies on travelling merchants, local cesses and right to pillage the peasantry.

The situation in respect of modern education was rather bleak. The Muslims in 1875 in Bengal constituted 5.4 per cent of the total college enrolment while the Hindus constituted 93.9 per cent. The situation at the secondary school level and at the university level was similar. Even the share of the Muslims in government employment — civil, engineering, judicial and administrative, was extremely low. In 1871, amongst the highest grade, there was one Muslim for every three Hindus. The proportion of the Muslims fell to less than-one twenty-third of the whole administrative body.

While the Muslims were kept away from the offices, the Hindus were encouraged by the British, which resulted in widening the gap between the two communities. Hunter compares the position of Hindus and Muslims and shows that Hindus responded favourably to the various measures adopted by the British, specially in the sphere of education. Under the British, Hindus faired better than the Muslims due to the former’s "higher level of intellect." He further states that, "The truth is that our system of public instruction, which has awakened the Hindus from the sleep of centuries and quickened their inert masses with some of the noble impulses of a nation is opposed to the tradition, unsuited to the requirements, and hateful to the religion of the Musalmans."

The author draws attention to the economic plight of the Muslims. The Muslims who monopolised all branches of service lost their power and became backward under the British. The education gap between the two communities coupled with a poor representation of Muslims in employment of the government contributed to the growth of a sense of discontent amongst the Muslims.

In spite of lucidly explaining the reasons for disaffection amongst the Muslims, the book suffers from a few limitations. One major flaw is the generalisation that the author makes about the condition of the Muslims. He often gives the impression that the condition of Muslims all over India was the same while he is only referring to the condition of the Muslims in Bengal. He often uses Bengal and India as interchangeable terms. This account is not true for the whole country as the condition of the Muslims with regard do education and employment in other parts of India, especially Madras, Gujarat and Deccan was quite different.