The Ahmadiyas, alternatively called Qadianis, of Kanpur are in panic and for a good reason, apropos “Panicked Qadianis Seek Security”, Hindustan Times, Lucknow, May 15, 2003, page 3.
The Ahmadiyas are a Islamic sect who derive their ame from a nineteenth century holy man of Punjab, named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani (1835- 1908). Other Muslims object to two central tenets of the Ahmadiyas; first, the almost prophet-like status of their master Ahmad Qadiani; second, the Ahmadiya belief that all religions of the world including Hinduism are valid religion. There may be other theological differences. The Ahmadiya protestation that in no sense they doubt the primary and the holiness of Prophet Mohammad does not impress either the Sunnis or the Shias. The Ahmadiyas have been a persecuted lot in Islamic Pakistan right from the birth of that state. What is remarkable is that they face persecution in India too, although the latter is a secular state. And what is even more remarkable is that their persecution in India mirrors the trend in Pakistan to a large extent.
Ahmadiyas are a modern educated community and their me have often occupied exalted positions. Professor Abdus Salam, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979, is an Ahmadiya. Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, Pakistan’s first Foreign Minister ad hand-picked by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was a Ahmadiya. And that led to his undoing. He was hounded out of the establishment because he was an Ahmadiya. The anti-Ahmadiya riots of 1953 rocked the nascent democracy of Pakistan and paved the way for a military takeover. Yet, General Ayub Khan with his Martial Law was afraid to carry out the death sentence against Maulana Maududi for his proven role in the anti-Ahmadiya pogrom. It should be recalled that Maududi was the chief ideologue of the Deobandi Maslak of those days. The threat that the Ahmadiyas of Kanpur perceive today also comes from the Deobandis, if newspaper reports are to be believed. More about that later.
Soon after he came to power after the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto amended the Constitution of Pakistan to brand the Ahmadiyas non-Muslim. When General Zia-ul Haq seized power, the Ahmadiyas were barred from issuing the Muslim prayer call, Azan, from their mosques. I recall an episode in Kanpur of the early 1990s when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. A young Ahmadiya girl had committed suicide. Her funeral procession reached the burial ground only to find its path blocked by a violent Sunni mob. The ostensible reason offered was simple; Pakistan had declared the Ahmadiyas as un-Islamic and hence they had no right to a Muslim burial ground. That India still considered them Muslim was of no consequence. The Mulayam Singh Government of Uttar Pradesh dared not enforce the Indian law and found a alternative burial site for the Ahmadiyas post haste. In effect, a Pakistani law was enforced on Indian soil.
On May 14, 2003, on the eve of the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad, the Ahmadiya leaders of Kanpur met the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police, appraised them of an impending threat and sought security. They are shaken over a proposed and much-publicised campaign of an organisation called Jamiat Ulema of the Sunni Deobandi Muslims. To quote Hindustan Times (ibid.),
The Jamiat Ulema’s frontal organisation, espousing the campaign against the Qadianis (Ahmadiyas), Majlis Khatam-e-Nabbuwat has organised a training camp for the Muslim clerics and a public meeting over this issue. Around 300 delegates from 18 districts would attend a three-day camp beginning from May 22 here (Kanpur). The organisers would elaborate the perceptible threat the Qadianis (Ahmadiyas) pose to the religion as a whole...... The clergy would be trained in a manner to uproot the Qadianis from the domain of Deobandis....... ‘We fear attacks following the campaign’, said the district president of the Ahmadiya Jammat, Mohammad Shoeb Soleja.
The Ahmadiyas are a minority among
India’s Muslims. Their persecution by the Sunni majority as yet is not
as intense as in Pakistan. But the portends are ominous, the trends are
disturbing and reflect the events in Pakistan.