The Ashraaf Supremacism of Ashraf Ali Thanwi

By Faiyaz Ahmad Fyzie, New Age Islam

8 February 2024

Ashraf Ali Thanwi Believed That For The Hindus, Islam And Muslims Were The Real Enemies, Not The British. He Used To Term The Hindus As Black Snakes (Kaala Naag) And The British As The White Snakes (Safed Naag)

Main Points:

1.    Ashraf Ali Thanwi is considered one of the most important Deobandi Alim in the subcontinent.

2.    A closer analysis of his writings reveals that he was a supporter of two nation theory.

3.    He was anti-Hindu in his writings and considered them as jealous of Muslim wealth and faith.

4.    He was wedded to the idea of Ashraaf supremacism arguing that Pasmanda Muslims were of low intelligence and character.

5.    Many lowered caste students study him in various Deobandi madrasas. It is time that they start raising questions about the intellectual character of their most famous Alim.

6.    ------

 

Ashraf Ali Thanwi, the famous Deobandi cleric, holds a special position in the imagination of not just Indian Muslims but also within the global Muslim community. He is considered one of the finest exponents of Islamic learning, a veritable repository of Islamic knowledge. However, when we analyse his writings closely, we find that he promoted anti-Hindu bigotry and was hugely supportive of two nation theory. He remained consistent in his opposition of Gandhi, social solidarity and equality. He was steadfastly opposed to the empowerment of Pasmanda (lowered) castes and Muslim women which betrays his Ashraaf character and social location.

Anti-Hindu Bigotry

Prof. Ahmad Syed Ahmad, in his book, “Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi and Freedom Movement”, writes that for Ashraf Ali, Hindus were the prime enemy of Muslims. He calls the Hindu community “extremely ungrateful” and recalls that many of the Nawabs and Nobles who supported this community were hanged for this reason. He characterizes the Hindu community as “coward” and “untrustworthy” (page 31).

He believed that for the Hindus, Islam and Muslims were the real enemies, not the British. He used to term the Hindus as black snakes (Kaala Naag) and the British as the white snakes (Safed Naag).

According to him, the black snake was more poisonous than the white snake. According to Thanwi, the reason why Hindus hated the Muslims, was because of “their faith, wealth and sense of pride which means that they hate Muslims for everything that the latter have” (Ahmad, page 33). But as a community, the “Hindus are coward and selfish” (page 34). Despite the presence of the national movement, he argued that the “Hindus do not want to drive the British out, rather they want to benefit from their presence. Their innate desire is to capture administrative and legal power under the protection of the British” (Malfuzat 25, p. 189).

Supporter of Two Nation Theory

It is now widely known that Syed Ahmad Khan first propounded the two-nation theory. Muhammad Iqbal and Ashraf Ali Thanwi gave it an Islamic halo, which is to say that they legitimized the demand in terms of Islamic theory of state. Way back in 1928, Thanwi had argued for the division of the country. His lectures were delivered at the Muslim League conferences (Qasim, page 47-49). In 1937 election, in Jhansi, he appealed to Muslims to vote in favour of the Muslim League candidate who eventually won. So wedded he was to the idea of Islamic state that in 1938, he wrote to his son in law that he was sure that in 1947, the rule of Islam will be established in India.

Thanwi was anti-Congress and he argued that Muslims joining that party was not in accordance with the tenet of Islam. In one of the meetings, he said that “there are two kinds of Ulama in the Congress party. One who think they are educated but in reality, they would not be able to argue anything in the light of sharia. Then there are those who can truly be called learned people, but in their hatred of the British, they have gone so far that they have embraced the Congress and have negated all boundaries of Islam. Sharia commands that love and brotherhood should be amongst equals. But “Hindus and Muslims are not equals”. He also stated that some Muslims in the congress say that they are in the party because they want to bend it to their way and will. But Thanwi, castigating such as approach, argued that if indeed that was the intention, then they should devote all their energies to the Muslim League. This is because the League leaders, according to him, have time and again said that they are ready to accept the leadership of the Ulama (Malfuzaat, Vol. 25, pp 188- 89). He even called Gandhi as the Dajjal (the anti-Christ or the Evil One).

On Caste Endogamy and Ashraf Superiority

He was a great supporter of caste endogamy. Just like in the Hindu society, there is the concept of Anuloma (when an upper caste man takes a lower caste wife) and Pratiloma (when a lower caste man takes an upper caste wife; this union is considered improper), he upheld a similar concept but went a step further. In his Beheshti Zewar, he argues that while Syeds and Sheikhs can intermarry, but lowered castes amongst Muslims like Julahas, Telis, etc. cannot marry each other, nor should they marry upper caste Ashraaf Muslims as it contravenes the command of Kufu (equality) in Islam. What must be pointed out is that for Thanwi, the upper castes could intermarry and hence forge social capital through family networks; the same was forbidden for Muslim lowered castes.

It is ironical that for a man so wedded to the idea of caste pride, he was himself unsure of his own caste. In his Malfuzat (vol 26, page 310), he proclaims himself to be a Syed from his mother’s side but on other occasions he claims to be a Kabuli Pathan (Malfuzat, vol.19, p. 199-200). The man further states to be a Sheikh from his father’s side but the only evidence that he gives us is that he was told about this in a dream!

Dreams have been an important strategy to legitimize Ashraaf status throughout the Islamic world. However, one never comes across the statement of any Muslim Alim that he was told in the dream that he is a descendant of Bilal, the slave of the prophet. Dreams are always used to proclaim an upper caste status. This only proves that these Ulama were not only casteist in their daily practices but also that their dreams were also about caste!

For Thanwi, caste also becomes the marker of acquiring education and learning. He proclaims that only Ashraaf castes are capable of producing intellectuals like Ghazali and Razi (two prominent medieval philosophers). According to him, “since the lower castes, who are of low character, have started to acquire knowledge, Muslims have stopped producing scholars like “Razi and Ghazali”. At another place he says, that while “one cannot stop the lower castes from acquiring knowledge, it cannot be expected of them that they will really excel in it”. “But these lower castes like Julaha (weaver), Dhuniya (carder), etc. lack the courage and conviction of the Ashraaf castes” (Amsale Ibrat,

p. 2). Basically, what Thanwi is arguing is that the Pasmanda Muslims do not have sufficient intelligence to get educated. Moreover, it also becomes clear from his statement that given a chance, he would not like to teach Pasmanda students, who, according to him, are simply incapable of getting educated. What also becomes clear is that according to Thanwi, lowered caste Muslims cannot become major Alims. Also, it becomes clear that Thanwi is at pains to teach these lowered castes, as according to him, this is due to the fact that the Ashraaf have abandoned religious learning.

It was for this reason that he was deeply perturbed by lowered caste Muslim mobilization which was being done by leaders such as Asim Bihari. In his Malfuzat (Vol 6, p. 300), he argues that this fitna (deliberate strife/confusion) has the potential to destabilize the Muslim society. The reason for this destabilization is that this fitna (the lowered caste movement of assertion) ‘does not believe in the grace of noble birth’. Thanwi is quick to point out that one should not be boastful of attributes that one acquires though birth, like good looks, etc. He argues that being born in a noble Ashraaf family should be looked at as Allah’s grace, that it something which God has bestowed on some rather than others. Deeply inegalitarian in his outlook, he seems to argue that God himself is partisan in distributing grace to his believers. To bolster his claims, he even cites that the Prophet himself took pride and thanked Allah for being born in a Quraish family. Needless to say, he considered the Quraish to be noblest of the creation and even argued that the title of Caliph should only be bestowed on a Quraish. Although he was ideologically opposed to Ahmad Raza Khan, the famous Barelvi Alim, but on this issue of superiority of race and caste, they held similar views.

Ashraf Ali Thanwi is considered one of the foremost scholars of Islam, not just in India but the whole subcontinent and in the Deobandi diaspora. Muslims revere him as the Ghazali of his times. But as we have seen above, Thanwi’s writings and utterances are extremely casteist and anti Pasmanda. Today, the reigning narrative is about inclusion of caste and gender. In excluding the overwhelming majority of Indian (then undivided) Muslims, Thanwi certainly appears to be anti- democratic, sectarian and Ashraaf supremacist. It is time that Indian Muslims, especially the Pasmanda castes, burn the halo that they have instituted around the persona of Ashraf Ali from Thana Bhawan.

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Fayaz Ahmad Fyzie, a doctor by profession, is an author and a Pasmanda activist.

 

URL:    https://newageislam.com/islam-sectarianism/ashraaf-supremacism-ashraf-thanwi/d/131679

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