Ubaidullah Sindhi

Ubaidullah Sindhi
Born	(1872-03-10)March 10, 1872
Died
Era	British Raj
Region	Islamic philosopher/scholar

Ubaidullah Sindhi (Sindhi: عبیداللہ سنڌي‎,in Punjabi]] مولانا عبداللہ ਮੌਲਾਨਾ ਉਬੈਦੁਲਾ Urdu: مولانا عبیداللہ سندھی‎), (March 10, 1872 - August 22, 1944) was a political activist of the Indian independence movement and one of its leaders.

Born in a Uppal Khatri family of Sialkot, Ubaidullah converted to Islam early in his life and later enrolled in the Darul Uloom Deoband, where he was at various times associated with other noted Islamic scholars of the time, including Maulana Rasheed Gangohi and Mahmud al Hasan. Maulana Sindhi returned to the Darul-Uloom Deoband in 1909, and gradually involved himself in the Pan-Islamic movement. During World War I, he was amongst the leaders of the Deoband School, who, led by Maulana Mahmud al Hasan, left India to seek support of the Central Powers for a Pan-Islamic revolution in India in what came to be known as the Silk Letter Conspiracy.

Ubaidullah reached Kabul during the war to rally the Afghan Amir Habibullah Khan, and after brief period, he offered his support to Raja Mahendra Pratap's plans for revolution in India with German support. He joined the Provisional Government of India formed in Kabul in December 1915, and remained in Afghanistan until the end of the war, and left for Russia. He subsequently spent two years in Turkey and, passing through many countries, eventually reached Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) where he spent about 14 years learning and pondering over the philosophy of Islam especially in the light of Shah Waliullah's works. In his early career he was a Pan-Islamic thinker. However, after his studies of Shah Waliullah's works, Ubaidullah Sindhi emerged as non-Pan-Islamic scholar. He was one of the most active and prominent members of the faction of Indian Freedom Movement led by Muslim clergy chiefly from the Islamic School of Deoband. Ubaidullah Sindhi died on August 22, 1944.

Early life

Ubaidullah was born on March 17, 1872 (12 Muharram 1289 AH) to a Uppal Sikh Khatri family at Chilanwali, in the district of Sialkot (now in Pakistan). His father Ram Singh Zargar died four months before Ubaidullah was born, and the child was raised for the first years of his life under the care of his grandfather. Following the latter's death when Ubaidullah was two years of age, he was taken by his mother to the care of her father, at his maternal grandfather's house. Ubaidullah was subsequently entrusted to the care of his uncle at Jampur when his maternal grandfather died.

Islam

When he was at school, a Hindu friend gave him the book Tufatul Hind to read. It was written by a converted scholar Maulan Ubaidullah of Malerkotla. After reading the book and others like Taqwiyatul Eeman and Ahwaal ul Aakhira, Ubaidullah's interest in Islam grew, leading eventually to his conversion to Islam. In 1887, the year of his conversion, he left for Sindh (ڀرچونڊي) where he was taken as a student by Hafiz Muhammad Siddque of Chawinda [Bharchundi. He subsequently studied at Deen Pur under Maulana Ghulam Muhammad where he delved deeper into Islamic education and training in mystical order. In 1888, Ubaidullah was admitted to Darul Uloom Deoband, where he studied various Islamic disciplines in depth under the tutelage of noted Islamic scholars of the time, including: Maulana Abu Siraj, Maulana Rasheed Gangohi and Maulana Mahmud al Hasan. He took lessons in Bukhari and Tirmidhi from Maulana Nazeer Husain Dehlvi and read logic and philosophy with Maulana Ahmad Hasan Cawnpuri.

In 1891, Ubaidullah graduated from the Deoband school. He left for Sukkur, and started teaching in Amrote Shareef under, or with, Maulana Taj Mahmood Amroti, who became his mentor after the death of Maulana Muhammad Siddique of Bharchundi. He married the daughter of Maulana Azeemullah Khan, a teacher at Islamiyah High School, at this time. In 1901, Ubaidullah established the Darul Irshaad in Goth Peer Jhanda in Sindh. He worked on propagating his school for nearly seven years. In 1909, at the request of Mahmud Al Hasan, he returned to Deoband. Here, he accomplished much for the student body, Jamiatul Ansaar. Ubaidullah was now very active in covert anti-British propaganda activities, which led to him alienating a large part of the Deoband leaders. Subsequently, Ubaidullah moved his work to Delhi at Hasan's request. At Delhi, he worked with Hakeem Ajmal Khan and Dr. Ansari. In 1912, he established a madrassah, Nazzaaratul Ma'arif, which was successful in propagating Islam.

Afghanistan

Main articles: Tehrek e Reshmi Rumal and Provisional Government of India

See also: Indo-German Conspiracy

With the onset of World War I, efforts were made by the Darul Uloom Deoband to forward the cause of Pan-Islam in India with the help of the Central Powers. Led by Mahmud al Hasan, plans were sketched out for an insurrection beginning in the tribal belt of North-west India. Mahmud al Hasan, left India to seek the help of Galib Pasha, the Turkish governor of Hijaz, while at Hasan's directions Ubaidullah proceeded to Kabul to seek the Emir Habibullah's support. Initial plans were to raise an Islamic army (Hizb Allah) headquartered at Medina, with an Indian contingent at Kabul. Maulana Hasan was to be the General-in-chief of this army. Ubaidullah himself was preceded to Kabul by some of his students. While at Kabul, Ubaid Ullah came to the conclusion that focusing on the Indian Freedom Movement would best serve the pan-Islamic cause. Ubaidullah's proposed to the Afghan Emir that he declare war against Britain. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad is known to have been involved in the movement prior to his arrest in 1916.

Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi and Mahmud al Hasan (principal of the Darul Uloom Deoband) had proceeded to Kabul in October 1915 with plans to initiate a Muslim insurrection in the tribal belt of India. For this purpose, Ubaid Allah was to propose that the Amir of Afghanistan declares war against Britain while Mahmud al Hasan sought German and Turkish help. Hasan proceeded to Hijaz. Ubaid Allah, in the meantime, was able to establish friendly relations with Amir. At Kabul, Ubaid Allah, along with some students who had preceded him to make their way to Turkey to join the Caliph's "Jihad" against Britain, decided that the pan-Islamic cause was to be best served by focusing on the Indian Freedom Movement.

In late 1915, Sindhi was met in Kabul by the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition sent by the Indian Independence Committee in Berlin and the German war ministry. Nominally led by the exiled Indian prince Raja Mahendra Pratap, it had among its members the Islamic scholar Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah, and the German officers Werner Otto von Hentig and Oskar Niedermayer, as well as a number of other notable individuals. The expedition tried to rally Emir Habibullah to the Central powers and through him begin a campaign into India, which it was hoped would initiate a rebellion in there. On December 1, 1915, the Provisional Government of India was founded at Habibullah's Bagh-e-Babur palace in the presence of the Indian, German, and Turkish members of the expedition and friends. It was declared a revolutionary government-in-exile which was to take charge of independent India when British authority had been overthrown. Ahendra Pratap was proclaimed President, Barkatullah the Prime minister, Ubaidullah Sindhi the Minister for India, another Deobandi leader Moulavi Bashir its war Minister, and Champakaran Pillai the Foreign Minister. It obtained support from Galib Pasha and proclaimed Jihad against Britain. Recognition was sought from Tsarist Russia, Republican China and Japan. The Government would later attempt to obtain support from Soviet leadership. After the February Revolution in Russia in 1917, Pratap's government corresponded with the nascent Soviet government. In 1918, Mahendra Pratap met Trotsky in Petrograd before meeting the Kaiser in Berlin, urging both to mobilise against British India.

However, these plans faltered, Habibullah remained steadfastly neutral while he awaited a concrete indication where the war was headed, even as his advisory council and family members indicated their support against Britain. The Germans withdrew in 1917, but the Indian government stayed behind at Kabul. In 1919, the government was ultimately dissolved under British diplomatic pressure on Afghanistan. Ubaidullah stayed in Kabul for nearly seven years. He encouraged young King Amanullah Khan, who took power after Habibullah's assassination, in the Third Anglo-Afghan War. The conclusion of the war, ultimately, forced him to leave as Amanullah came under pressure from Britain.

Association with the Ahmadiyya

Sindhi has been recorded in books as being a great admirer of Hakeem Noor ud Deen, the first successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, who is the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam. When the son and second successor of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, was invited to Deoband in 1912, Ubaidullah was alongside Muhammad Ahmad Nanotvi (son of Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi) and personally welcomed him to the seminary. He often used to visit Qadian, the pre-partition headquarters of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, himself. He states (Irshaadaat by Hadhrat Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, p. 400):

Maulvi Noor-ud-Deen is an unmatched scholar and has a commanding personality. He has the deepest attachment to the Holy Qur'an. He was ever thinking how best the message of the Holy Qur'an could be taken and how best the people could be familiarized with the beauties and the excellences of the Holy Qur'an. He was also thinking of how to invite people to the Holy Qur'an and how their lives could be moulded in the ideal mould of the Holy Book.

Later works

Ubaidullah proceeded to Russia, where he spent seven months at the invitation of the Soviet leadership, and was afforded official treatment as a guest of the state. During this period, he studied the ideology of socialism. He was, however, unable to meet Lenin who was severely ill at the time. It is thought that Sindhi was impressed by Communist ideals during his stay in Russia, however that is not true at all. In 1923, Ubaidullah left Russia for Turkey where he initiated the third phase of the Waliullah Movement in 1924. He issued the Charter for the Independence of India from Istanbul. Ubaidullah left for Mecca in 1927 and remained there until 1929. During this period, he brought the message of the rights of Muslims and other important Deeni issues to the masses. During his stay in Russia he was not impressed by the Communist ideas but rather, after the Soviet revolution, he presented his belief to the Soviet government that: "Communism is not a natural law system but rather is a reaction to oppression, the natural law is offered by Islam". He convinced them with facts in very systematic and logical manner, but he was left unanswered when he was asked to provide an example of a state which was being run according to the laws of Islam.

Death

In 1936, the Indian National Congress requested his return to India and the British Raj subsequently gave its permission. He remained at Delhi, where he began a programme teaching Shah Waliullah’s Hujjatullahil Baalighah to Akbarabadi, who would then write an exegesis in his own words. Ubaidullah left for Rahim Yar khan to visit his daughter in 1944. At Deen Pur (Khanpur), he was taken seriously ill and died on 22 of August 1944 at Deen Pur. (Deen pur is one KM before the Khanpur and almost 8 km from Lal Pir by pass, Near Rahim Yar Khan District, Punjab, Pakistan.) He was buried in the graveyard adjacent to the grave of his Mentors.

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