Bengal Government Records on Wahhabi Trials (1863-1870)

Abstract

Dr. Muin-ud-Din Ahmad Khan deserves our grateful thanks for editing the documents and papers under the title “ Selections fro m 1 the Bengal Government Records on Wahhabi Trials” , which for the first time reveal in true colours the magnitude of the so-called Wahhabi Movement. This corpus of documents is a separate work from his thesis on the Fara’idi movement. Incidentally he is the second research scholar of the Department of History, University of Dacca, who earned a doctorate of philosophy after the birth of Pakistan. These documents now in print formed part of the material utilised in his doctorate dissertation. Their publicity will enable scholars to throw new light on the movement which might have escaped Dr. Khan’s attention or could not be accommodated in the short narrative of his thesis. The Wahhabi or Muhammadi Movement starting from a reformist cult was directed towards liberating the Panjab from the Sikhs whose relations with the Muslims in the past had been anything but pleasant. Apart from cowing down the Punjabi and North West Frontier Muslims by brute force, they had proscribed the open practice of their religion prohibited the azan, (the call to prayer) in most of the cities under their rule and had converted the mosques into barracks for soldiers or stables for the horses. The Wahhabis failed in their first objective after the defeat at Balakot in 1831. After the incorporation of the Panjab into the British dominions the Wahhabis carried their movement against the British rule and the papers presented here give us an idea as to the wide nature o f its ramification, the way organizations were set up for collecting funds, and the laborious methods adopted for transmitting funds and news, the secretive way of its working and also of the fact that the Bengali Muslims were in the forofront of this liberation movement and that they made more sacrifices than the people of other parts of India. I have strong hopes that these papers will serve a very useful purpose and enable the present generation of our people to form a fair idea of the sacrifices made by their forefathers. That though thay failed in their objective in their own generation and suffered instead death disgrace and deportation and detention they allowed the fruits o f their sacrifices to be enjoyed by their grandchildren and great grandchildren. The Wahhabis were pioneers of the movement which gave the Muslims a separate living space in the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent. The facts revealed will belie the assertion often made in ignorance that the Bengalis are a race of cowards.