Abstract
This essay argues that Inayatullah Khan al-Mashriqi’s anti-imperialist stance and contestation of religious
orthodoxy with a modernist vision of Islam as a “Religion of Science,”challenged the traditional authority of
religious ideologues and colonial state. This subsequently evoked a dualistic resistance against Khaksar. The anticleric stance prorogued Khaksar in Punjab’s political landscape which was enriched with the socio-political
influence of ulema and sufis. The article discusses the formation of Khaksar, a para military organization in the
twentieth century Punjab in a particular context in which religious communities Muslims, as well as Hindus and
Sikhs reformulated their respective religious ideologies to make them compatible with some measure of colonial
modernity. Majlis-e-Ahrar was one example which espoused unitary nationalism with reformist bent, however
Khaksar with an approach of anti-colonial nation-building, stood against the orthodox version of ulema and Sufi’s
Islam with a radical notion of reevaluation of Islam and developing an interlinkage with the truth of science. This
modernist vision embraced exclusion of reformist ulema and traditional sajjada nashins who were instrumental in
articulating religious symbols in the construction of anti-colonial nationalist ideas. Muslim discourse of religion
came to be linked to discourse of nation state, as nation continued to be defined in terms of religion than in secular
terms.1 Khaksar’s reformulated Islam did not contribute to the larger story of Muslim religio-nationalist discourse
and decolonization in India and Pakistan.
Sadia Sumbal. (2021) Al-Mashriqi’s Khaksar Movement: Orthodoxy and Contesting Religious Authority, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume-58, Issue-2.
-
Views
822 -
Downloads
409
Article Details
Volume
Issue
Type
Language
