Wahabi Movement, Titu Mir and the Faraizi Movement

At a Glance

• Wahabi/Walliullah Revivalist; Shah Walliullah, Syed Ahmed Barelvi; faded in the 1870s
• Titu Mir Disciple of Syed Ahmed; Bengal peasants; killed in 1831
• Faraizi Haji Shariatullah (1818); Dudu Mian; East Bengal
• Common theme Return to pure Islam and opposition to foreign rule
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: Reform Movements and Their Leaders

Where Does It Fit?

This is the thirteenth topic of the category on reform movements and their leaders. The previous topic covered temple entry among Hindus. This topic begins the Muslim and other community movements. The Wahabis, Titu Mir and the Faraizis are also told as resistance movements in earlier topics. The next topic covers the Ahmadiyya Movement. Previous topic: Temple Entry Movement and the Indian Social Conference.

What Was the Wahabi or Walliullah Movement?

The teachings of Abdul Wahab of Arabia and the preachings of Shah Walliullah (1702-63) inspired this essentially revivalist response to Western influences and to the degeneration that had set in among Indian Muslims. It called for a return to the true spirit of Islam. Walliullah was the first Indian Muslim leader of the eighteenth century to organise Muslims around two ideals: (i) harmony among the four schools of Muslim jurisprudence that had divided Indian Muslims, for which he sought to integrate the best elements of the four, and (ii) recognition of the role of individual conscience in religion where conflicting interpretations were drawn from the Quran and the Hadis.

Walliullah’s teachings were further popularised by Shah Abdul Aziz and Syed Ahmed Barelvi, who also gave them a political perspective. Un-Islamic practices that had crept into Muslim society were to be eliminated. Syed Ahmed called for a return to pure Islam and to the kind of society that had existed in the Arabia of the Prophet. India was considered dar-ul-Harb (land of the kafirs) which needed to be converted into dar-ul-Islam (land of Islam). Initially the movement was directed at the Sikhs of Punjab, but after the British annexation of Punjab in 1849 it was directed against the British. During the Revolt of 1857 the Wahabis played an important role in spreading anti-British feelings. The movement fizzled out in the face of British military might in the 1870s. Its resistance side is also told in Important Civil Uprisings (II): South, West and North India.

What Was Titu Mir’s Movement?

Mir Nithar Ali, popularly known as Titu Mir, was a disciple of Syed Ahmed Barelvi, the founder of the Wahabi Movement. He adopted Wahabism and advocated the Sharia. He organised the Muslim peasants of Bengal against landlords, who were mostly Hindu, and against British indigo planters. The chapter notes that the movement was not as militant as British records made it out to be: only in the last year of Titu’s life was there a confrontation between him and the British police. He was killed in action in 1831. His uprising as a peasant movement is in Peasant Movements With Religious Overtones.

What Was the Faraizi Movement?

The Faraizi (Fara’idi) Movement was named for its emphasis on the Islamic pillars of faith. It was founded by Haji Shariatullah in 1818, and its scene of action was East Bengal. It aimed to eradicate social innovations and un-Islamic practices current among the Muslims of the region and to draw their attention to their duties as Muslims.

Under Haji’s son Dudu Mian, the movement became revolutionary from 1840. He gave it an organisational system from village to provincial level, with a khalifa or authorised deputy at every level. The Faraizis organised a paramilitary force armed with clubs to fight the zamindars, mostly Hindu though some Muslim, and the indigo planters. Dudu Mian asked his followers not to pay rent, and the organisation even established its own law courts. He was arrested several times, and his arrest in 1847 finally weakened the movement. After his death in 1862 it survived merely as a religious movement without political overtones.

As an analytical point, all three movements were revivalist in the same sense as the Arya Samaj: each sought a lost purity of religion and wanted to remove later additions. They differ from the Aligarh Movement, in Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the Aligarh Movement, because they looked to the past, not to Western education. The classification is in Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Aligarh Movement Revivalist…">Two Streams of Reform: Reformist and Revivalist.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Direct facts Walliullah, Syed Ahmed, Titu Mir and Dudu Mian are standard Prelims names
• Revivalism These are the Muslim revivalist examples
• Link to 1857 The Wahabis helped spread anti-British feeling

What Came Next?

The next topic covers the Ahmadiyya Movement. Next topic: Ahmadiyya Movement.

Key People and Terms

• Dar-ul-Harb Land of the kafirs, in the Wahabi view
• Dar-ul-Islam Land of Islam, the goal of the Wahabi movement
• Faraizi A follower of the movement stressing Islamic duties
• Khalifa An authorised deputy at village or provincial level in the Faraizi organisation
• Sharia Islamic law, advocated by Titu Mir
• Hadis The traditions of the Prophet

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask for the nature of Muslim revivalist movements. These points add depth.

• Revivalist form A call to the pure Islam of the Prophet
• Anti-British turn The movement turned from Sikhs to the British after 1849
• Agrarian side Titu Mir and Dudu Mian mobilised peasants