Nationalist Historiography Has Kept Pirs, Sufis, Islamic Scholars At Its Margins When Sufi Pirs Of Sindh Were Bedrock Of Gandhi’s Movements
By
Saquib Salim, New Age Islam
7 December
2022
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Pir Was
Reported To Have Said In A Public Meeting, “My Life Is Ready (For Sacrifice). I
Am Prepared To Make War And Give My Head Willingly
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"Gandhi
has telegraphed congratulating Pir on being the first man to be arrested in consequence of a
non-cooperation movement applauding his decision not to make any defence.” The
secretary to the Government of Bombay wrote to the Secretary of the Government
of India on 6 August 1920.
Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi
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A Slice Of History
The
nationalist historiography has kept Pirs, Sufis, Islamic Scholars, Pujaris,
Hindu Scholars, and other religious leaders at its margins. While Mahatma
Gandhi remained a central figure, several people who played pivotal roles in
organizing masses into a non-violent movement had been left out of the
historical narratives, let alone the people who violently fought the British.
The Pir
mentioned was Pir Mahbub Shah of Sindh. His elder brother Pir Jhandewala
Rashidullah was one of the main plotters of the Silk Letter Conspiracy which
tried to overthrow British rule with the help of foreign armies during the First
World War. When the non-cooperation movement was launched in 1920 in the
aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, Pir Mahbub was the first important
person to be arrested. Pir was arrested on 1 August 1920, for delivering an
anti-British speech in Hyderabad (Sindh).
Pir was
reported to have said in a public meeting, “My life is ready (for sacrifice). I
am prepared to make war and give my head willingly....... we will not let our
enemies rule in peace. Don’t think that
no Hindu is united with us.
They also
are with us.”
Luwari Sindh Dargah
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While
arresting him the provincial government wrote to the Secretary in Delhi that
“the man is practically worshipped by thousands”. A government report noted
that he “exhorted villagers to subscribe money to carry on war against the
British” and was “more hostile to Government and more bigoted than Pir
Jhandewala himself”. District Magistrate of Hyderabad (Sindh) reported, “Pir
Mahbub Shah was the most dangerous and fanatic man in the district”.
Pir was sentenced
to two years of imprisonment on 5 August and he started a hunger strike against
it. A religious leader with lakhs of followers was on a hunger strike. The
government didn’t know how to handle this. One report mentions, “he knows he
has the sympathy of the people with him;
there was nearly a riot when he was arrested”.
The Viceroy
told the government to force-feed him with caution that it might not kill the
Pir. Viceroy said, “I regard the release of this man as dangerous and could not
agree to any such course”. One course given was that of sending him to exile to
Yemen. Rather, most officials believed that exiling him to Yemen is the best
possible way to deal with him.
On 15
August, after much deliberations, Pir was released. The British claimed that he
had apologized and hence pardoned him. Pir and his followers did not accept
this narrative and interestingly, these same people kept on violently fighting
the British till 1947.
It is even
more interesting that this was not the first time the Pirs of Sindh colluded
with Gandhi. Pirs of Sindh were the first leaders in India to support Gandhi.
In March 1916, Gandhi went to Sindh to meet Pir of Luwari because “he had heard
of the Pir through certain Memon murids, who were clients of his in South
Africa, and recently followers of the Pir at Porebunder had given him to
understand that the Pir invited him to his place”.
CID
reported, “in the evening the interview (of Gandhi) with the Pir took place in
an inner chamber. The only other person allowed to be present was an aged body
servant of the Pir— possibly Khalifa Haji Mehmud. The interview lasted for
about 20 minutes.” After the meeting, Pir instructed his followers “not to have
any dealings with the English, nor to buy English goods”. After this Gandhi met
Khwaja Mohammad Ashraf, another Pir, and Pir Bhawanshah, where he was asked to
start a movement like South Africa in India.
One year
later, in March 1917, the Pir of Luwari again gave a scare to the British. CID
reported to higher officials, “It is an extraordinary fact that when Mr.
Gandhi, who is a Brahmin, was in Sind about a year ago he paid a visit to one
of the big Muhammadan Pirs in the Hyderabad (Sindh) District. It is a still
more extraordinary fact that this Pir, whose ancestral tradition is never to
leave his mud fort except to go on pilgrimage to the Hedjaz, arrived in Karachi
last evening by the same train as Mr. Gandhi, accompanied by a large number of
followers.”
The British
believed that Gandhi and Pir traveling by the same train was more than a
coincidence and “it appears to be a legitimate inference to draw from the
association of Mr. Gandhi and the Pir, that an effort is being made by agitator
class to join up the Hindu and Muhammadan forces of unrest in this Province.”
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Source: Sufi
Pirs Of Sindh Were Bedrock Of Gandhi’s Movements
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/historiography-pirs-sufis-islamic-scholars-gandhi/d/128578
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