'File 53/1915 Pt 2 German War: Turkey; the Caliphate and Pan-Arab movement' [‎50r] (104/444)

(Confidential.)
MEMORANDUM ON INDIAN MOSLEMS.
SECTION I. rphg total number of Indian Moslems is G6‘6 millions or more than one-fifth of the total
butiorf of Mos" P°P u l a tion of India. Their distribution is far from uniform. In the North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan.
lems. Province 98 per cent., in Baluchistan 91 per cent, in the Punjab 55 and in Bengal 53 per cent.
of the inhabitants profess this religion. The proportion falls to 28 per cent, in Assam, 20 per
cent, in Bombay and 14< per cent, in the United Provinces. Bihar and Orissa is the only other
major pro\inee where it exceeds 10 per cent., while in the Madras Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. it is 6L in the
Central Provinces and Berar it is only 4, and in Burma 3‘5 per cent. In the Native States
taken as a whole, the proportion of Muhammadans is much smaller than in British territory,
but they are very numerous in the Baluchistan States and Kashmir and fairly so in the States
of the Punjab, Bengal and United Provinces.
(u) The Muhammadans of India belong to seven distinctive groups—
SECTION II.
Analysis of
above on racial
lines.
V
{a)
(*)
SECTION III.
Analysis on
religious diverg
encies.
\
Turko-Iranian in Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. Province (2,723,145).
Indo-Aryan in Ajmer-Merwara, Rajputana, the Punjab and Kashmir (15,334,727).
Dravidian in Madras, Mj^sore, Hyderabad, Travancore, Cochin, Ckota Nagpur,
Central Provinces and* Berar (4,986,473).
(d) Aryo-Dravidian in the United Provinces and Bihar (10,294,446).
(e) Mongolo-Dravidian in Bengal and Orissa (21,419,408).
(f) Mongoloid in Assam, Sikkim, Cooch Behar and Hill Tippera (1,794,897)?
(g) Scytho-Dravidian in Bombay, Baroda and Coorg (4,770,544).
(Hi) The main sects of Islam are the Sunnis and the Shiahs, the latter number about 15
millions. The schism arose within the first century after the death of the Prophet, the Sunnis,
or Traditionalists, accepting the Sunnat, or collected body of usage, as possessing authority
concurrent with or supplementary to the Koran, a view which the Shiahs reject. Shiahs
maintain that the Imamate, or temporal and spiritual headship of the faithful, was by divine
right vested in Ali and his descendants through Hasan and Husain, the illfated grandsons
of the Prophet. They necessarily reject as usurpers the first 3 Imams, Abu Bakr, Umar and
Usman—whom the Sunnis respect. The former observe the annual feast of the Muharram
in memory of the martyrdom of Ali and his two sons, while the Sunnis celebrate only the
The Wahabis.
V
The Shiah movement, in fact, is strongest where there is least Arab intermixture in the
population. Hence some have defined it as an Aryan protest against Semite domination.
Minor sects of In Islam the sectarian movement usually follows one of two lines : it is either puritanical
Islam. or pietistie.
A type of the first class of sect is that of the Wahabis, founded in Nejd in Arabia,
early in the eighteenth century. It was an attempt to restore the primitive practices of Islam,
which, in the°view of the founder, had become corrupted during its world wide career of
conquest. The new doctrine was introduced into India by Saiyid Ahmad Shah, who pro
claimed a holy war against the Sikhs in 1826, and founded the colony of fanatics on the
North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. . Wahabis accept the six books of traditions collected by the Sunnis
but reject the glosses of the Church theologians and claim liberty of conscience and the right
of private interpretation. They insist on the unity of God which, they say, has been endangered
by the reverence paid to the person of the Prophet, to the Imams and Saints. Hence they
condemn pilgrimages to shrines. They discountenance the use of rosaries, and regard tobacco
as unlawful? From a political point of view the most dangerous doctrine of the sect was to
assert that India is “ the land of warfare”, against the rulers of which to wage war is a
religious duty. Much controversy has arisen regarding this doctrine which is undoubtedly
accepted by some members of the sect. It would seem, however, that the fanatical element
in the movement has for the present died out in many parts.
The second sectarian movement in Islam tends in the direction of Sufiism a strange
combination of the pantheism of the Aryan race, and of the severe monotheism of their
Semitic conquerors. Sufiism aims at leading men to the contemplation of spiritual things by
appealing to their emotions. The keynote of the system is that the human soul is an emanation
from God, and that it is always seeking and yearning to rejoin the source from which it
sprung. Ecstasy is the means by which a nearer intercourse is obtained and absorption in the
divinity is the ultimate object to be attained. Thise doctrines, with more or less variance of
practice, are accepted by the leading Sunni orders, such as the Chistiyas and Kadiriyas.
Outside these are the Be-shara, or non-orthodox orders, who, while calling themselves
Musalmans, do not accommodate their lives to the principles of any definite creed. These
furnish the most desperate Musalman fanatics.
Suflism.