Syed Ahmad Brelvi Shaheed
Early Biographical Details
• Born near Lucknow in the small town of Rai Bareli in 1786
• His father died whilst he was still young
• In 1806 he moved to Delhi and enrolled in the Madrassa Rahimiya
• For two years he studied under the sons of Shah Waliullah learning the Quran and the Hadith
• But Syed Ahmad was more a man of action than a scholar
• In 1810 he joined the forces of Amir Khan, a Pathan military leader and learned how to use European weaponry
• He showed himself to be so able that he was given command of a group of soldiers
• Because of his piety he was also made responsible for leading the troops in prayer
• In 1817 Syed Ahmad returned to Delhi, where his work became important in trying to restore Islam to its original purity
Beliefs
• As a man of action, Syed Ahmad was an ideal person to act as a leader to work against British power in India
• He believed that Muslims were ruled by fellow Muslims
• He believed that the freedom of Muslims could only come as a result of armed struggle against the foreign and non-Muslim forces which were oppressing them
• He believed that there was a need to end the evils that had corrupted Islamic society
• He surrounded himself with men of great piety who were prepared to reject worldly wealth and work for improving the moral and intellectual lives of Muslims.
• The British were strong, Mughal emperors had little real power and the Sikhs were dominant in the Punjab so Syed Ahmad founded the Jihad Movement, which called for armed struggle to overthrow non-Muslim oppression, and restore Muslim power
• He believed that once this was done Islam could be rejuvenated and rescued from beliefs and customs contrary to Islamic beliefs which had crept into everyday life
Work / Jihad Movement
Reasons for launching Jihad against Sikh
• At this time the Punjab was under the control of the Sikh regime of Ranjit Singh, who had also extended his authority into the NWFP (now KP)
• The Muslims suffered under Sikh rule
• They were unable to carry out many of their religious practices. Even the call to prayer was banned in some, places
• Syed Ahmad thought that this was intolerable and decided that the Punjab was the place to launch his jihad against non-Muslim rulers.
Reason for launching the Jihad movement first against Sikhs and not British
• He launched it against the two main anti Muslim forces;
British in Bengal and
Sikhs in Punjab
• He was aware that British were hard to defeat as a superpower
• Therefore he launched the Jihad against the Sikhs first as they were a relatively weaker force and he thus was more likely to win against them
• SASB knew that Punjab was surrounded by Muslim tribes, which encouraged him to fight against the Sikhs as these could help him
Ways through which Syed Ahmed formed his army
• He travelled across India and held meetings in order to spread his beliefs about jihad.
• Syed Ahmad toured the Punjab and the NWFP to enlist men to fight the Sikhs.
• He travelled many hundreds of miles to raise a mujahedeen force
• His travels took him through Rajasthan, Sindh, Baluchistan and into Afghanistan.
• He found that the Afghan troops were suspicious of each other and not always prepared to join him in his jihad.
Reasons Sikh declared Syed Ahmed’s Army as un- Islamic
• A major problem for Syed Ahmad was that his army consisted of men from many different communities which disagreed over how the campaign was fought.
• The Sikhs tried to exploit these differences by calling his army un-Islamic
• They claimed that by following the teachings of Shah Waliullah, Syed Ahmad’s forces were not true Muslims.
Response of Muslim forces against Sikh’s allegations
• This view was not accepted by the Muslim leaders
• They agreed unanimously that Syed Ahmad should assume the authority of an Imam
• His word on religious matters was considered binding and his increased authority helped to unite the various Muslim groups forming the mujahedeen force
Betrayal by Pathans
• Syed Ahmad was preparing to attack the fort of Attack when he encountered an army of 35,000 Sikhs near Okara.
• Yar Muhammad Khan, a Pathan chief who had joined his army, had been bribed by the Sikhs.
• First, one of his servants tried to poison Syed Ahmad then Yar Muhammad Khan deserted the battlefield along with his men thus creating confusion and chaos in the ranks which ultimately led to the defeat of Syed Ahmad’s forces
• Yar Muhammad was later killed in battle against the mujahedeen; his brother Sultan Muhammad Khan also waged war against Syed Ahmad
Reasons for the movement’s failure
Syed Ahmed was not well trained in military tactics
• Most of the fighters were teachers, or spiritual leaders
• This made it difficult for the Mujahedeen forces to fight against the Sikhs and come up with clever strategies to defeat them
• On the other hand, the Sikhs were tough and well trained under Ranjit, who was a strong military ruler
The Muslim army was disunited
• The Muslims were of many different backgrounds
• Soldiers often mistrusted each other and were reluctant to agree with one another
• As a result, due to internal conflicts there wasn’t always full support from everybody and this weakened the Muslim forces
Conflict with Pathans
• The Pathans did not tolerate being in an army that they weren’t running themselves
• They weren’t ready to compromise which strained their relations with other Muslims
• This weakened the Muslim forces as there was less support from Pathan tribes.
Imposition of Tax on locals to bear military cost
• Syed Ahmed imposed taxes on locals to bear military costs but local people were distressed since they had never paid such a tax and were thus resented Syed Ahmed
• As a result, SASB lost support of the local people which further weakened his forces
• He thus lost money from taxes and his funds became limited and thus not all the military costs could be afforded
• They could not improve upon/buy more needed military equipment.
Insincere army
• Syed Ahmed’s army was not as sincere to him
• There were attempts by Yar Muhamad Khan to assassinate him
• He thus had to tackle with internal threats as well as external ones
• His attention was diverted from his main goal, which was to defeat the Sikhs
• Yar Muhammad’s army betrayed him in battle in Akora, weakened his fighting and causing his defeat
Role of traitors
• When Syed Ahmed was moving to Balakot, traitors informed Sikhs of the Muslim’s route
• Thus, the Sikhs prepared themselves and strengthened their forces which made it easier for them to defeat the Muslims.
• So, when they launched their surprise attack at Balakot, the Muslims were unprepared for this unexpected attack, and were defeated.
Sikhs outnumbered the Muslims in this battle
• The weaker Mujahedeen lost and Syed Ahmed was killed effectively ending the movement
Killing of Syed Ahmed and betrayal of local leaders
• This constant campaigning against fellow Muslims was not what Syed Ahmad wanted, so he moved his forces to Balakot, hoping to liberate Kashmir and Hazara
• Balakot was thought to be safe as it was protected on three sides by mountains
• But once again Syed Ahmad was betrayed when local leaders told the Sikhs a way through the mountains
• They made surprise attack on the forces of Syed Ahmad
• The Battle of Balakot was a very fierce one
• Though the mujahedeen had been taken by surprise by a much larger Sikh army they fought bravely but were heavily outnumbered and unable to resist the Sikhs
• Six hundred mujahedeen soldiers were killed including Syed Ahmad and his commander, Shah Ismail
• The defeat of the mujahedeen in the Battle of Balakot, was a serious setback for the Jihad Movement and it struggled to survive in the following years
• The movement continued on in the hills of the NWFP when the British sent a large army to deal with the mujahedeen threat
• Even then the movement survived through the determination of its followers
Influence
The work of Syed Ahmad had been very influential becauseFirst movement to achieve religious freedom
• It was the first example in Indian history of a movement formed to free the Muslims from the tyranny of non-Muslim or foreign rulers.
• It was a movement to achieve religious and spiritual freedom.
• Syed Ahmad’s efforts were an inspiration to all Muslims in defending their religion, their culture and their freedom
United Muslims for their just cause
• The Jihad Movement was a uniting force for Muslims. Many of Syed Ahmad’s soldiers had been spiritual leaders or teachers. The fact that they were prepared to die for their cause was an inspiration to all Muslims.
Jihad Movement as a fore-runner of Pakistan Movement
• The Jihad Movement is regarded by many historians as the fore-runner of the Pakistan Movement in India• Those Muslims who later campaigned for their own homeland saw Syed Ahmad as an example of a Muslim fighting for the Muslim cause in much the same way, since he too wanted to see a state which was based on the principles of Islam
0 comments:
Post a Comment