Historian K.K. Aziz on views of Abdullah Yusuf
Ali and other Muslim scholars and leaders, on support of British
rule of India
K.K. Aziz, the well known historian and academic who has written
several books about Muslims of the Indian subcontinent and the creation
of Pakistan, has also written a life-story of Abdullah Yusuf Ali,
the translator of the Holy Quran into English, entitled A Biography
of Abdullah Yusuf Ali, A Life Forlorn, published in 2010, by
Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore, Pakistan.
In the chapter Character and Achievements, there is a
section headed A Loyalist (p. 291–303), in which the
author deals with the highly favourable and loyally supportive attitude
of Abdullah Yusuf Ali towards British rule of India, and in order
to explain it he refers in detail to similar views of other Muslim
leaders of those times. We have scanned this entire section, and
made it available at
this link.
As a flavour and brief summary of this section, we give below some
quotations from it. (The bolding of names is ours.)
Abdullah Yusuf Ali was an unabashed admirer
of British imperialism, the British Indian Empire and British
culture and political acumen. (p. 291)
There was hardly any important political or political-cum-religious
party or any organized group of Muslim intellectuals and men of
religion which, at one time or another, hesitated to express its
loyalty to the government, on some occasion in language quite
nauseating. (p. 291)
Sir Syed Ahmad Khan entertained for the British
a deep loyalty which he constantly offered as a virtue and preached
as a necessity. (p. 291)
Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, the fearless editor
of Zamindar of Lahore, who prided himself on his love of Islam
and his hatred of Christian rule over India, wrote to King George
V in an open letter on 22 November 1934, “Sire, I fully know
the deep feelings of the eight crore [eighty million] Musalmans
of India who accept Your Majesty as their emperor.” (p. 292–293)
(Website Editor’s note: See also
this related link for an
English article by Maulana Zafar Ali Khan.)
Iqbal’s writings provide us with several
proofs of his deepseated and unconcealed allegiance, even obsequiousness,
to the British. On Queen Victoria’s death on 22 January 1901
(which day was also the id-ul-fitr), he composed an elegy
of 110 couplets, praising the deceased Empress, paying servile
tributes to her, grieving for the loss, and calling her death
a muharram for the Muslims of India. The poem was published
at government expense. (p. 293)
On 22 June 1911 the coronation of King George V was celebrated
by the Muslims of Lahore at a gathering in the Royal Mosque of
the city, and among the speakers was Iqbal who
emphasized the Muslims’ bounden duty to bear allegiance to
the ruler of the day. (p. 294)
Iqbal’s teacher Shams-ul-Ulema Mawlawi Mir Hasan,
issued a fatwa (religious edict) in favour of loyalty
to the British, calling their rule kind, just and a gift from
God, and concluding with the remark that it was a matter of pride
to be born under such a government. (p. 294–295)
Maulana Shibli Naumani, one of the most highly
respected ulema and men of letters, while welcoming the
Governor of Agra and Oudh to his Nadwah in 1902, assured the guest
that “we look upon our loyalty and goodwill to the Government
as our religious duty.” (p. 295)
Khwaja Altaf Hussain Hali, the well-known poet
and literary critic, wrote a eulogy of British rule in which he
offered a prayer that God may always keep the family of the ruler
in His safekeeping and the ruler may always keep India under his
shadow. (p. 295)
The foundation stone of the college (dar-ul-Ulum) of
the Nadwah was laid by the Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces
of Agra and Oudh on 28 November 1908. … The address written
in Arabic presented to the Lieutenant Governor declared that “religious
tolerance is a characteristic feature of the British Government”,
and submitted that “we maintain it as our belief that loyalty
to the Government is our proven stance. Through the ulama
produced by this school Muslims will advance in their obedience
and submission to the Government.” About the speech made
by the Lieutenant Governor in reply to the address of welcome
the ulema of Nadwah said, “Each and every word of
it is Water of Life [ab-i-hayat] for the Nadwah.”
(p. 295, 296)
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