Thread by @Hiranyareta

Few Tweets on why Sayed Ahmad Shah Barelavi moved to Balakot in Pakhtoon area.

" Abdul Aziz (1746-1822), son of Shah Waliullah, converted his father’s jihãd against the Marathas into a jihãd against the British as latter were on the rise post-1761 defeat of Marathas. 1/21

A fatwa was issued that India under British rule had become a Dãr-ul-harb (zone of war or infidel land) and that it was the duty of all mu‘mins either to migrate to a Dãr-ul-Islãm (Islamic country) or to fight the firanghî for the restoration of Muslim rule. 2/21

Abdul Aziz found a devoted disciple in Syed Ahmad Barelvi. To start with, he sent Barelvi to get training in the art of warfare by joining the army of Amir Khan, the Pindari chieftain.3/21

Next, he commissioned Barelvi to go to Mecca in order to acquire the requisite religious zeal. Barelvi arrived in Mecca in 1822. He traveled extensively in Arabia and Syria and met many masters of Islamic lore.4/21

It is not certain whether he met Abdul Wahab, the founder of the Wahabi Movement in Arabia. But the similarity of his ideas with those of his Arabian contemporary earned for his movement the name Wahabi, though he himself2 had designated it as Tarîqah-i-Muhammadiyah. 5/21

In any case, he came back to India towards the end of 1822 fully convinced of his mission, which was to purify Islam in India of all non-Islamic accretions and then, with the help of this revived Islam, establish an Islamic state a la the model prescribed by the Prophet1+ 6/21

and the first four pious Caliphs.

In the process, the British were to be driven out of India by means of a jihãd.

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Barelvi was quite successful in setting up a network of centres in various cities of North India. He enlisted an impressive following, particularly among the upper-class Muslims. 8/21

He also collected a lot of money at the same time. He called upon Muslims to eliminate three kinds of excesses - firstly, those advocated by heterodox Sufis; secondly, those practised by the Shias; and thirdly, those ‘borrowed’ from the Hindus. 9/21

Barelvi’s confidence in a jihãd against the British collapsed when upper-class the extent and the magnitude of British power in India.He did the next best under the circumstances and declared a jihãd against the Sikh power in the Punjab, Kashmir and the North-West Frontier.10/21

The British on their part welcomed this change and permitted Barelvi to travel towards the border of Afghanistan at a leisurely pace, and manpower along the way. 11/21

It was during this journey that Barelvi stayed with or met several Hindu princes{modernday to travel Paswans}, leisurely pace his fulminations against the fake and that he upper-class out of India in order to establish a base for fighting against the British. 12/21

It is surmised that some Hindu princes took him at his word, and gave him financial help. To the Muslim princes, however, he told the truth, namely, that he was up against the Sikhs because they “do not allow the call to prayer from mosques and the killing of cows. 13/21

Barelvi set up his base in the North-West Frontier near Afghanistan. The active assistance he expected from the Afghan king did not materialise because that country was in a mess at that time. 14/21

But the British connived at the constant flow not only of sizable manpower but also of a lot of finance. Muslim magnates in India were helping him to the hilt. His basic strategy was to conquer Kashmir before launching his major offensive against Punjab. 15/21

But he met with very little success in that direction in spite of several attempts. Finally, he met his Waterloo in 1831 when the Sikhs under Kunwar Sher Singh stormed his citadel at Balakot. The great mujãhid fell in the very first battle he ever fought. 16/21

His corpse along with that of his second in command was burnt, and the ashes were scattered in the winds. Muslims hail him as a shahîd.
The scattered remnants of the Wahabis fought a few more skirmishes with the Sikhs. But they also met with no success. 17/21

Next, they turned their fury against the British when the latter took over from the Sikhs in 1849. There was a lot of organizing and shouting of Allah-o-Akbar in the North-West Frontier as well as in several centres inside India such as Patna, Meerut, Bareilly 18/21

and Hyderabad. But they produced very little fight. The British smashed them everywhere and it was all over by 1870. 19/21

The greatest ‘achievement’ of the Wahabis after four decades of ‘fighting’ was the murder of Justice Norman at Calcutta in 1871, and of Lord Mayo, the Viceroy, at Port Blair in 1872.
20/21

Source:
Muslim Separatism, Caused and Consequences
by Sitaram Goel

"ANTI-BRITISH JIHÃD ALWAYS ENDED AS ANTI-HINDU"
voiceofdharma.org/books/muslimse…

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