By
Saquib Salim, New Age Islam
13-06-2022
“I was a
Muslim in India; here (in Turkey, Europe, and other Muslim countries) I am an
Indian first and then a Muslim.” This was the observation made by revolutionary
leader Iqbal Shedai in a letter written to freedom fighters in India in 1923.
Muhammad Iqbal Shedai of Sialkot, in undivided
Punjab, started his political career by joining Khilafat Movement under the
guidance of Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali. He preached pan-Islamism but soon
started drifting towards the Ghadar Party as well. In 1920 he migrated to
Afghanistan and came in contact with Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, Barkatullah,
Raja Mahendra Pratap and several other Ghadar revolutionaries. He left
Afghanistan in 1922 and toured different countries including the USSR and
played an instrumental role in the formation of associations of Indian
revolutionaries in several countries.
Iqbal Sedhai in Rome, 1942
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During the
Second World War, Shedai along with Sardar Ajit Singh (famous revolutionary and
uncle of Bhagat Singh) formed the Azad Hindustan Government in Italy. They
recruited Indian soldiers of the British Army and started Radio Himalaya for
propaganda, a model which was also used by the more famous Subhash Chandra Bose
in Germany and Japan. Bose visited their camps in Italy.
Mohd Iqbal Shedai in Rome in 1942, Azad Hindustan Batallion
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In 1923,
Shedai wrote several letters criticizing the Indian Muslim leadership for fooling
Muslims into the existence of a Global Pan-Islamic identity. In a letter
written from Turkey to Abdur Rahman Siddiqi, he wrote, “They (Muslim leaders)
address big gatherings and make one or two speeches, and after wasting a lot of
money, they not only mislead themselves but millions of other people……. I am
entirely disgusted. I have been going about in Islamic countries for the last
three years, and I have studied the matter very carefully. Everybody looks down
upon us Indians (Muslims) with utter hatred. I was a Muslim in India; here I am
an Indian first and then a Muslim. ……. Please pray that Muslims be saved. There
are many who can make fools of Indians (Muslims) but there are few sincere
Muslims. ….. I have written this letter in rather a harsh tone, I would not
mind if you would care to forward it to Abul Kalam Azad or Dr. Ansari or
Maulana Abdul Qadir, or by the wife of Mohammad Ali.”
Shedai blamed Afghan leadership for forsaking
Indian leadership in the anti-British movement. He believed that Saifuddin
Kitchlew and other leaders were arrested because of Afghans. In other letters,
he urged the Muslim leadership to stop looking for allies in Muslim countries
and asked them to rather invest energies in indigenous nationalist movement in
collaboration with Indians.
Sardar Ajit Singh in Rome
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Shedai
wrote, “If you ask me the truth then I would say Islam does not exist, neither
in Turkey nor in Afghanistan nor Bokhara nor Azerbaijan. I do not know why
Indian agitators by the circulation of false and groundless information are
misleading the illiterate Indian Musalmans……. If India can never be free it is
only because of our (Indian Muslims) great men.”
Source:
Awaz, the Voice
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/iqbal-shedai-pan-islamism/d/127235
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