Abstract

'Ubayd Allah Sindhi is one of the most intriguing contributors to early modern Muslim religious thought. He was a religious scholar turned nationalist conspirator, a Muslim interpreter of the Bolshevik Revolution, and perhaps the most important modern transmitter of the ideas of Shah Wali Allah. He interacted, in ways that few Muslims did, with the traumas and revolutions of the early twentieth century, yet his career and ideas have been largely neglected outside the Subcontinent.

This project is intended to contribute to an intellectual biography of 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi, with special reference to the ways that he integrated modernity, represented most dramatically by the Russian Revolution, with tradition, represented by the ideas of Shah Wali Allah . As a religious scholar thrown, willy-nilly, into the whirlwind of some of the most dramatic events of the early twentieth century, Sindhi's life provides a lens through which to focus the broader problem of tradition and change.

Project Statement

In 1915 Mahmud al-Hasan, leader among the Indian Muslim 'ulama' and principal of the Islamic seminary at Deoband, dispatched 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi, one of his most able disciples, to Kabul. His mission: to mobilize support for an international jihad against the British in India in conjunction with a Muslim uprising on the North West Frontier. The conspiracy ended in fiasco. In August, 1916, the conspirators' plans to form an "Army of God", carefully written on sheets of silk and smuggled into India, were intercepted by British agents. Mahmud Hasan was turned over the British in the Hijaz in December, 1916. In 1919, when an invasion was finally carried out, the Afghan Army managed to penetrate only a few miles across the border. An anticipated uprising in Peshawar was foiled by early British intervention.

From the British perspective the 'Silk Letter Conspiracy' and the third Afghan war were mild irritations, footnotes to the 'Great Game' of imperial intrigue in Central Asia. But for 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi the conspiracy initiated a dramatic change in course. From a conventional career as a mildly reformist 'alim, he was suddenly cast onto a much wider stage.

Sindhi's activities in Kabul established his reputation as nationalist hero and for this he has received due recognition from scholars in the Subcontinent. The real significance of his career is not to be found, however, in his ongoing preoccupation with political intrigues and programs. His political schemes were, without exception, failures. To recognize 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi's real importance we must see him as among the last in a line of 'ulama' activists of India, the representative of a great tradition, who interacted, in ways that few Muslims did, with the traumas and revolutions, of the early twentieth century. He was involved in the on-going task that all representatives of the great traditions are engaged in, whether consciously or unconsciously, of reshaping his tradition in the face of change. Two aspects of Sindhi's effort to remold Islamic tradition are especially noteworthy: His articulation of an "Islamic socialism," and his transmission and interpretation of the legacy of Shah Wali Allah of Delhi.

Sindhi was an early witness to the early years of both Soviet Russia and Kemalist Turkey. In 1922, after the Anglo-Afghan treaty forced him out of Kabul, he fled with several companions to the Soviet Union, in search of more powerful and less treacherous allies. He spent seven months in Moscow where he became a keen admirer of the new Soviet state. He then moved on to Turkey where he stayed for almost three years. His visits in Moscow and Turkey put him face to face with both Communism and Kemalist secularism. He became one of the first exponents of an "Islamic socialism" and he spent the rest of his intellectual career in a quest to integrate with his Islamic vision what he had seen and admired in Moscow and Ankara.

In his quest to meld the ideals of the Russian and Turkish Revolutions with the Islamic tradition, Sindhi rediscovered the eighteenth century theologian of Delhi, Shah Wali Allah. During his 13 year stay in Mecca, where he traveled after his stay in Turkey, Sindhi placed increasing emphasis on Shah Wali Allah's writings as the key to unlocking the true message of Islam. In doing so Sindhi participated in and contributed to a tendency to elevate the eighteenth century theologian to almost legendary proportions. Scholars have portrayed Shah Wali Allah as the anchor of the Muslim intellectual tradition in the Subcontinent, "the bridge between medieval and modern Islam in India," and "the first Muslim who felt the urge of the new spirit within him." A large part of the credit for Shah Wali Allah's reputation must go to 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi, who played a central role in the transmission and modernization of the medieval scholar's thought. Sindhi possibly did more for the reputation of Shah Wali Allah and the propagation of his ideas than any other single thinker.

Methodology

Sindhi's interest in socialism and his use of Shah Wali Allah to justify his ideas offer an avenue to explore several important themes in modern Muslim intellectual history: the evolution of the Islamic intellectual tradition in the modern period, the forces which have shaped the attitudes of modern Muslim intellectuals, and the relationship of modern Islamic thought to the past. Sindhi's career and ideas provide a window to explore these issues at a critical juncture in the intellectual history of the modern Middle East and of the Indian Muslims, a period when socialist ideas were beginning to germinate, when the dream of revolution was very much alive, and when a religious scholar like Sindhi could still hope to play a central role in shaping the political future.

The research I propose here is intended to contribute to an intellectual biography of 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi, with special reference to questions about his method of reconciling the new ideas he encountered with the tradition that he inherited. My method will be historical, my organization chronological. I will trace the evolution of Sindhi's ideas for clues to the way that "modernity" and "tradition" were related to each other in his career. As a religious scholar thrown, willy-nilly, into the whirlwind of some of the most dramatic events of the early twentieth century, Sindhi's life provides a lens through which to focus the broader problem of tradition and change.

Sindhi's career offers the opportunity to explore in new ways problems which engaged me in my previous research. In my thesis, Rethinking Tradition: Modern Discussions of Sunna in Egypt and Pakistan, I have examined questions of tradition and change by tracing modern approaches to prophetic tradition, a specific problem of concern to almost all modern Muslim thinkers. That project portrayed, in broad strokes, the evolution of contemporary Muslim thought on a single, crucial issue. The methodological choices I made did not allow me, however, to focus sufficiently on the smaller brush strokes, the individual thinkers who have contributed to this evolution in thought, the environment in which these thinkers operated, and the unity of their thought. The research I am proposing aims to address these lacunae.

Sources and Literature

'Ubayd Allah Sindhi's career attracted the attention of scholars almost immediately after his death. The first biography of Sindhi was published by his disciple, Muhammad Sarwar, in 1945. Apart from 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi's own writings, Sarwar's biography has been the major source for later biographical treatments. Sindhi himself left extensive writings. These include, besides political and religious works, autobiographical accounts of his early life and a detailed memoir of his activities in Kabul. We possess no critical biography of Sindhi, however, and few critical treatments of Sindhi's ideas or his use of Shah Wali Allah. Consequently there are no extant studies which offer the sort of critical assessment that is envisioned here of 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi's contribution to modern Muslim intellectual history.

On the broader environment addressed by this project-- Muslim intellectual history during the inter-war period -- the literature is more extensive, but nevertheless plagued with gaps. We have excellent contributions to 19th century Muslim intellectual history in India, including Troll's masterful biography of Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Metcalf's study on Deoband. As we move past the First World War, however, the concerns of scholars shift, along with the concerns of Indian Muslims themselves, to issues of mass politics. With few exceptions, the best works on Islam in the Subcontinent in the first half of the twentieth century are focussed on questions of communal politics and the emergence of the demand for Pakistan. Even Iqbal, the giant of Indo-Muslim intellectual life during this period, awaits a critical biographer. Yet this was a period not only of decisive political change, but also of Muslim intellectual ferment. The intellectual currents and controversies of this period spilled over into post-independence Pakistan and have had a decisive impact on the Pakistani religious and political environment.

Not surpisingly, 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi, who was absent from the Subcontinent during most of the inter-war period, is also absent from most of the literature, concerned as it is with political ideas and outcomes to which he was marginal. Indeed, one might question whether 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi has any real relevance for this period in Indian Muslim thought. Yet intellectual history cannot be confined within borders as easily as political or social history, and it is clear that 'Ubayd Allah Sindhi, while absent in body, was still a product of and a presence in the Indo-Muslim intellectual tradition. The rousing welcome he received on his return from exile suggests that his ideas exercised influence in India during his absence. Moreover, the currents of thought represented in Sindhi's writings, informed by his experience in Turkey and the Soviet Union, were moving far ahead of the majority of other Muslim thinkers in the Subcontinent. In his formulation of ideas about Islamic revolution and Islamic socialism he anticipated themes which became central in subsequent discussions of the nature of an Islamic state in Pakistan.

On the broader theoretical concerns raised by Sindhi's career, i.e., the question of tradition and change in Modern Islamic thought, the leading early contributor was W. C. Smith, whose Modern Islam in India and later Islam in the Modern World both reflect an enlightenment attitude toward the relationship of modernity and tradition. Tradition and modernity become forces diametrically opposed to one another; the only way a tradition can survive in the modern world is to bend before the inexorable force of modernity. Subsequent to Smith's work, the enlightenment understanding of tradition, modernity and their relationship has come under increasing scrutiny, especially among social scientists. In my own work I have suggested a reversal of the enlightenment metaphor; rather than viewing modernity as the source of light dispelling the darkness of tradition, we should instead imagine tradition as a beam of light, refracted by the prism of modernity. The project I am proposing offers the opportunity to further test and apply this revised understanding of the relationship of tradition and modernity to a specific and concrete case.