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Home > Reference > History of India > Modern History Of India > British Empire in India > Faraizi
Movement

Faraizi Movement
Faraizi Movement was an all-encompassing cry of the Bengali Muslims against severe communal cruelty.
 • Mushin al-Din Ahmad • Shari`at `Ullah Free E-
Dudu Miyan magazine
The Faraizi Movement, essentially a
Subscribe to
religious reform movement had
Free
emerged forth during the 19th century,
E-Magazine on
founded by Haji Shariatullah by the
History of
Bengali Muslims. The term Faraizi has
India
been deduced from `farz`, standing for
compulsory and mandatory duties
ordained by Allah. The Faraizis are,
thus, those bunch of men whose only
objective is to implement and impose
these mandatory religious duties. The
promoter and initiator of the Faraizi
Movement, Haji Shariatullah, however
had represented the term in a different
light and sense, implying to assimilate
every religious duty ordained by the
Quran as well as by the Sunnah of the
Prophet.

Prior to the uprising of the Faraizi

movement, there lies hidden a history
and backdrop which indeed had induced
the Bengali Muslims and Shariatullah in large to incite such an action against the
British oppression. Haji Shariatullah had been onto a pilgrimage to Mecca, staying
back for twenty years and being absorbed in comprehending religious doctrines
under Shaikh Tahir Sombal, a heavyweight of the Hanafi School. Returning home,
he had plunged a movement to make the Bengali Muslims espouse the true
canons of Islam. After his return to Bengal under British Indian rule, he had
remained a continuous witness to the appalling and degenerating conditions of his
brotherhood, calling them forth to give up un-Islamic practices (Bidah) and
execute their honest duties as Muslims (Faraiz). Due to various accumulating
historical reasons, the Muslims of Bengal had been merrily complying with
umpteen local customs, rituals and observances, which were almost unimaginable
and displaced from the principles of Islam. Most Bengali Muslims did not even
abide by the basic principles of Islam.

Haji Shariatullah then and there had sworn to bring the Bengali Muslims back in
the true path of Islam, which later had churned into the gargantuan Faraizi
Movement. He had assayed to lay paramount accentuation on the five
fundamentals of Islam, insisted on the complete acceptance and strict observation
of virginal monotheism and reprobated all digressions from the original doctrines
as shirk (polytheism) and bid`at (sinful conception). Umpteen rituals and
ceremonies affiliated with birth, marriage and death like Chuttee, Puttee, Chilla,
Shabgasht procession, Fatihah, Milad and Urs were heavily prohibited by
Shariutullah. Saint-worship, demonstrating unnecessary admiration to the Pir,
lifting of the Taziah during Muharram were also adjudged shirk. Haji Shariatullah
indeed had laid gross emphasis upon justice, social equality and universal
fraternity of Muslims.

Haji Shariatullah deemed British domination in Bengal as exceedingly detrimental

to the religious life of the followers of Islam. Travelling in earnest quest of the
Hanafi law, he spoke up that the complete non-existence of a lawfully-appointed
Muslim caliph or representative administrator in Bengal had stripped the Muslims
of the privilege of observing congregational prayers. To the Faraizis, Friday
congregation was inexcusable in a predominantly non-Muslim state like Bengal.
The Faraizi movement thus began to circulate with astonishing promptness in the
districts of Dhaka, Faridpur, Bakerganj, Mymensingh, Tippera (Comilla),
Chittagong and Noakhali (back then, during British Indian times, the country was
yet to be divided, hence these regions very well fell under the erstwhile undivided
Bengal), as well as to the province of Assam. Faraizi movement, however,
acquired its grooviest momentum in those provinces where the Muslim peasantry
was horribly dejected under the tyrannical domination of Hindu zamindars and the
sadistic European indigo planters.

Many Muslims, on the other hand, did not abide by the Faraizi doctrine and tried
to defend against their activities with aid from the Hindu zamindars. The landlords
of Dhaka, hence, guaranteed the eviction of Haji Shariatullah by the police in
1831, from Ramnagar or Nayabari, where he had assembled his propaganda
centre. Through unremitting engagement with the Hindu landlords and European
indigo planters, this movement swelled into a socio-economic issue, which became
an overriding feature of the Faraizi movement under Shariatullah`s son Dudu
Miyan and his descendants.

The landlords levied numerous Abwabs (plural form of the Arabic term bab,
signifying a door, a section, a chapter, a title. During Mughal India, all temporary
and conditional taxes and impositions levied by the government over and above
regular taxes were referred to as abwabs. More explicitly, abwab stood for all
irregular impositions on Raiyats above the established assessment of land in the
Pargana) over and above normal rent and such abwabs were horribly dishonest in
the eye of law. Several abwabs were of religious nature. Haji Shariatullah then
intervened to object to such a practice and commanded his disciples not to pay
these dishonest cesses to the landlords. The landlords had even inflicted a ban on
the slaughter of cow, especially on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha. The Faraizis
ordained their peasant followers not to cling and stick by to such a ban. All these
heated instances added up to tensed and stressed relationships amongst the
Faraizies and the landlords, who were nearly all Hindus. This was another major
communal cause, which in the long run, had induced these two religious factions
to stand against each other, leading to the Fairizi Movement.

Gradually gathering up incidents under the Islamic-led Faraizi movement could be

witnessed in various parts of Bengal, with overwhelming English-Bengali
agreement for perhaps the very first time. The outraged landlords built up a
propaganda campaign with the British officials, incriminating the Faraizis with
mutinous mood. In 1837, these Hindu landlords indicted Haji Shariatullah of
attempting to build up a monarchy of his own, similar in lines to Titu Mir. They
also brought several lawsuits against the Faraizis, in which they benefitted
dynamic cooperation of the European indigo planters. Shariatullah was placed
under the detention of the police in more than one instance, for purportedly
inciting agrarian turbulences in Faridpur.

After the bereavement of Haji Shariatullah in 1840, his only son Muhsinuddin
Ahmad, alias Dudu Miyan was heralded the chief of the Faraizi movement. It was
under Dudu Miyan`s leadership that the Faraizi movement took on agrarian
disposition. He had machinated and masterminded the oppressed peasantry
against the oppressive landlords. In trembling vengeance, the Hindu landlords and
indigo planters tried to hold back Dudu Miyan by constituting false cases against
him. But, he had turned so very iconic with the peasantry that in these several
issued cases, courts hardly ever establish a witness against Dudu. The initial
victories of Dudu Miyan caught the fancy of the masses and his reputed standing
rose high and higher in their respect. These incidents also lent additional impetus
to the circulation of the Faraizi movement and drew to its congregation not only
numerous Muslims, who so far stood cold, but also Hindus and native Christians
who assayed Dudu Miyan`s protection against the tyrannical landlords.

Dudu Miyan however, passed away in 1862 and before his death he had appointed
a board of guardians to watch over his minor sons, Ghiyasuddin Haydar and Abdul
Gafur, alias Naya Miyan, who succeeded his father sequentially. The board,
scouting under great troubles, kept the now-declining Faraizi movement from
shattering to pieces. It was not until Naya Miyan reached maturity that it
recovered some of its lost force and vigour. Nabinchandra Sen, the then sub-
divisional officer of Madaripur, deemed it practical to enter into a treaty of mutual
help with the Faraizi leaders, who, in their turn, demonstrated a zeal of
cooperation towards the government.

On the death of Naya Miyan in 1884, the third and youngest son of Dudu Miyan,
Syeduddin Ahmad, was hailed as the leader by the Faraizis. During Syeduddin
Ahmad`s period, the clash of the Faraizis with the Taiyunis, another reformist
group, reached its peak status and religious debates between the two schools had
become a common place episode in the then British Indian Bengal. Syeduddin was
conferred the title of Khan Bahadur by the government. In 1905, on the question
of the partition of Bengal, he lent tremendous support to Nawab Salimullah in
favour of partition, but he too expired in 1906. Faraizi Movement was now, almost
biting the dust of degenerating soil, with no potential hope for an intelligent
tomorrow.

Khan Bahadur Syeduddin was succeeded by his eldest son Rashiduddin Ahmad,
also acknowledged as Badshah Miyan. During the early years of his leadership,
Badshah Miyan strictly had defended the policy of co-operation towards the
colonial government. But the dissolution and succeeding invalidation of the
partition of Bengal made him terribly anti-British and he this began taking active
part in the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements. Soon after the
establishment of Pakistan, Badshah Miyan called for a conference of the Faraizis at
Narayanganj and declared Pakistan as Dar-ul-Islam and afforded permission to his
followers to hold the congregational prayers of Jum`ah and Eid. In such a gradual
manner, the Faraizi movement lost its erstwhile zing and forcefulness, as the
country witnessed its Independence, coupled with the Partition into two distinctive
nations, comprising Hindus and Muslims.

Doctrines of Faraizi Movement

The Faraizis had strongly clung to the Hanafi School with particular oddities in
their religious beliefs as well as practices. These oddities can be loosely classed
together into five Faraizi doctrines, comprising: (i) tawbah i.e. to remain
repentant for past sins as a step towards the purification of soul; (ii) to rigorously
observe the mandatory duties of Faraiz; (iii) tawhid or Unitarianism as was
enounced by the Quran; (iv) India being Dar-ul-Harb, Jum`ah and Eid
congregations were not deemed mandatory and, (v) disapproving all popular rites
and ceremonies, which possessed no acknowledgment to the Quran and Prophetic
traditions, as sinful designs. The chief of the Faraizis were referred to as Ustad or
teacher and his disciples Shagird or students, instead of employing terms like pir
and murid. A person so inducted into the Faraizi congregation were referred to as
Tawbar Muslim or Mumin.

Organisation of Faraizi Movement

In organising the Faraizi society and additional movement, Dudu Miyan primarily
had two objectives in perspective, comprising: (i) safeguarding the Faraizi
peasantry from the tyranny of the zamindars and European indigo planters and,
(ii) guaranteeing social justice for the bulks. In order to guarantee the first
objective, Dudu Miyan had parented up a volunteer corps of clubmen (lathial) and
ordained for their regular training in the art of combating with clubs. For
guaranteeing the second objective, he had resurrected the traditional system of
local government (Panchayat) under Faraizi headship. The former came to be
acknowledged as the Siyasti or political branch and the latter Dini or religious
branch, which were consolidated later on into a hierarchical Khilafat system.

The Faraizi Khilafat system was contrived to bring together all the Faraizis under
the direct control of the authorised representatives of Dudu Miyan who stood at
the zenith of the hierarchy of khalifahs. He had thus appointed three grades of
khalifahs, consisting of: (i) the Uparastha Khalifah, (ii) the Superintendent
Khalifah and, (iii) the Gaon Khalifah.

Dudu Miyan then had separated the Faraizi settlement into small units comprising
300 to 500 families and decreed a Gaon or ward Khalifah over each unit. Ten or
more such units were classed together into a circle or Gird, which was placed
under a Superintendent Khalifah. The Superintendent Khalifah was furnished with
a peon and a piyadah or guard, who was despatched to and fro keeping contact
with the Gaon Khalifaha on one hand and with the Ustad on the other. The
Uparastha Khalifahs were consultants and experts to the Ustad and stayed back in
Dudu Miyan`s company at Bahadurpur, the headquarters of the Faraizi
movement.
 The Gaon Khalifah represented himself as a community leader, whose duty was to
circularise religious teaching, implement religious duties, preserve a prayer-hall,
take care of the morals and parcel out justice by consulting with elders. He was
also required to preserve a Maktab for preaching the Quran and elementary
lessons to the children. The Superintendent Khalifah`s chief functions were to
oversee the activities of the Gaon Khalifahs, take care of the well-being of the
Faraizis of his Gird or jurisdiction, sermonise the fundamentals of religion and in
particular, to sit as a Court of Appeal against the decisions of the Gaon Khalifahs,
if any. In such cases, the Superintendent Khalifah heard the appeal sitting in a
council of the Khalifahs of his Gird. In all affairs, religious as well as political, the
decision of Dudu Miyan was final and as the Ustad he also acted as the ultimate
Court of Appeal.

(Last Updated on : 18/03/2009)

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