New Delhi. A Webinar on “Role of Sufis and Khanqahs in Indian Freedom movement” was organised by Indo Islamic Heritage Center (IIHC).
Director of IIHC and Gaddi Nasheen of Dargah Khwaja Saheb Ajmer Shareef Prof (R) Syed Liaqat Husain Moini said that the Majnu Shah also known as Sufi Fakir Majnu Shah Burhan belonged to ‘Deewanagan’ branch of Shah Madar’s followers played a key role in Indian Freedom Movement. Long before the 1857 first war of Independence, Shah started the ‘Fakir-Sanyasi’ movement against the East India Company and landlords after the battle of Plassey in 1757.
It was in February 1771 when he first encountered the East India Company army led by Lieutenant Feltham in Dinajpur.
Prof Moini Said that a notable Sufi Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah was one of the main leaders and planners of the First War of National Independence in 1857. He was considered to be a great general of warriors and led Indians to several victories before getting killed by an Indian Raja treacherously for a huge reward from the English.
A famous Sufi thinker, Allama Fazl e Haq Khairabadi, whose Fatwa-i-Jihad brought masses into the revolt against the British. He was the man who drafted the constitution for Bahadur Shah Zafar-led Indian Empire where cow slaughter was banned and other communal issues were dealt with.
Moini said that the first man to give a call for complete non-cooperation with the British and to kick them out of India was another Sufi scholar Shah Abdul Aziz. Pir Jhandewala Rashidullah was one of the most important plotters of the Silk Letter Movement during the First World War, was also a Sufi.
Host of the webinar Modassir Ashtrafi said that its time to recall and remember the contribution of Sufis and Dargah in Freedom movement. He said that that Bahadur Shah Zafar was a Sufi with full devotion to Chishti silsila and Tipu Sultan had a Sufi spiritual mentor.
