Drawing the parallels between Syed Ahmad Bareilvi and Talibans

marwati · April 20, 2013, 6:17pm

Every student of Pakistan must have heard about Syed Ahmad Bareilvi in their text books, lets analyze him from pashtun prospective. Syed Ahmad was born near Lucknow in the small town of Rai Bareli in1786. He believed that the freedom of Muslims could only come as a result of armed struggle against the foreign and non-Muslims forces. Moreover impressed from the ideas of Abdul Wahab of Najd, he believed that there was a need to end the evils that had corrupted Islamic society of India. His ultimate goal was to end British occupation. At that time Pashtuns of north west were the only muslims who were free and independent. Syed Ahmed Shaheed had already served in the army of the Yousafzai state of Tonk in India under Amir Khan , also some of his followers were rohillas of rohailkhand (U.P, India) .Moreover his syed ancestors had once settled in Yousafzai country from where they migrated to India. So decided that he would launch his movement from pashtun areas preferably from yousafzai plains. He, thus, migrated to Pashtun areas along with a group of his Indian followers. To avoid confronting Sikhs, he adopted a long route and passed through Sindh, Balochistan and then Kabul and finally arrived at Nowshera.
Local Pashtuns welcomed him. He told them about his cause and mission and convinced them to rally behind him to free Punjabi muslims from Sikhs. After having satisfied himself that he had gained sufficient power to challenge Ranjit Singh, the ruler of Punjab. He sent a message to him to either accept Islam or pay jiziya or prepare for war. Ranjit singh refused the message and decided to crush the newly emerging organized power in the west of his state across the indus. He sent a powerful army under Hari Singh and Badi Singh to defeat Syed Ahmed Shaheed’s forces. At the battle at Akora Khattak fought in 1826, Syed Ahmed Shaheed and his Mujahideen were victorious and Sikhs suffered a huge defeat. The next year i.e. 1827, the Sikhs were again defeated at Hazro on the eastern band of River Indus.
Two successive victories against Sikhs consolidated his position in the region. Few laters he thought it is time to establish an islamic state in the present day khyber Pakhtunkhwa which would act as base to launch attacks on punjab against sikhs. he declared areas under his influence as an Islamic state and titled himself as “Amir-ul-Momineen”. He arranged for his name to be mentioned in Friday’s sermons. He implemented Islamic Sharia and appointed Qazis and Aamils from amongst his Indian followers. It was decided that they would first free the Pashtun society from cultural influences and customary practices. He tried to abolish Institution of Jirga and Pashtunwali. Sayyid Ahmad also attempted to collect the Islamic tithe(usher) of ten per cent of crop yields. This alarmed the local pashtuns, they were never not used to this kind of impositions and rule, through out history they had rejected foreign rule even if they were muslims. As syed ahmed and his followers were from india, they were perceived as foreigners who wanted to impose their ideas and rule on them, want to interfere in their ways of life and finish their independence. The yousafzais of mardan and durrani nobles of Peshawer formed an alliance against against syed ahmed and his band. But allaince was defeated and Peshawar was captured by islamic reformers.
What doomed syed ahmed is another event. Most of syed Ahmed indian followers were unmarried , they express their wish to marry local women, but locals refused it. Syed ahmed deemed it an unislamic behaviour and put pressure on families to marry their daughters with his indian followers. This angered the yousafzais, they felt that syed ahmed was forcing himself on them. They were already agitated by his reformations attempts and the fact that all of his aamils and qazis were from india, they deemed it as foreign dictatorial rule. Yousafzai jirga was recalled, decision was made that all of his indian followers spread across country would be assassinated in a single day to break his strong authority over the region. The plan was carried out successfully ,several hundreds of his indian followers were taken by surprise and got butchered in a single day. Syed ahmad himself survived and fled to hazara with remnants of his followers. Disappointed with pashtuns, he decided to capture kashmir. But in 1831 surrounded by a large Sikh army and killed at Balakot.

Syed ahmed had same goals like talibans of present day, but he failed. Pashtuns were ready to fight for them against sikhs but were not ready to accept him as their amir ul momineen, his sharia and reformations…This in-fight proved disastrous for both Pashtuns and syed ahmed…It is interesting to see that pashtuns of modern times were receptive for taliban movement as unlike syed ahmed times they were radicalized enough…

Ali_Syed · April 20, 2013, 8:36pm