Source: Twitter
The tendency that we see among many Muslims in the Indian subcontinent today to identify more with Islamic traditions from the Middle East than the culture they are from has its roots in the colonial period. In the medieval period, except for elite ashrafs, the people from +lower castes/ classes who converted to Islam often retained aspects of their Hindu culture. The fashioning of Muslim political identity began in earnest from 19th century.
Haji Shariatullah (1781-1840) started the Fara’idi movement to purge Bengali Islam of practices like “the veneration of Hindu deities and the celebration of Hindu festivals” (23). The Tariqah-i-Muhammadiya movement launched by Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi (1786-1831) in 1821 ws intended to rid “Indian Islam of practices he believed compromised fundamental Islamic tenets”(24). This ideology was followed by later religious leaders esp in Bengal who attempted the same: to rid Bengali Islam of un-Islamic aspects. These leaders worked among the lower classes and their efforts bore fruit. Between 1872 and 1901, the number of Bengali Muslims who identified as Sheikhs jumped from 232,189 to a staggering 19,327,221. The trend was not restricted to Bengal. In Bihar, Muslims too began to identify themselves as Pathans, Khans, and Sheikhs. Figures and quotes from Patricia Gossman’s book “Riots and Victims.”