Muslim Political Thought in the 20th Century Indian Subcontinent with Special Reference to Maulana Maududi s Writings

Abstract

Islamic political thought has been the grey area throughout the history in general and from last two centuries in particular both in east and the West. The developments in the West viz a viz the downfall in the east marked the significant impact in the history of human civilization. The western developments cast their shadows into the Muslim lands by means of colonization. The Ottoman Empire, which was considered as the last hope of the Muslim Ummah, disintegrated with the colonial impact both in theory and practice. Ultimately, in 1924 Ottoman Empire collapsed, and consequently the western educated and west-oriented ideologues, came forefront in the Muslim lands, who left no stone unturned with regard to the elimination of the Muslim solidarity and the adoption of the western ideologies. This caused the great set back to the Muslim political thought in the modern world, and Indian subcontinent (which today constitutes India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) was no exception. The fact is that several efforts were undertaken by the Muslim thinkers and reformative movements of the Indian subcontinent in order to rejuvenate and reorient the Muslim political thought The noteworthy among them are: Shah Wali Allah (1703-1762), Shah Abdul Aziz (1746-1824), Sayyid Ahmad Sahahid (1786-1831) and Shah Ismail Shahid (1779- 1831), Haji Shariatullah (1781-1841), Deoband Movement (1867) and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar (1878-1931), Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi (1872-1944), and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958). Finally, the trend was followed by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi (1903-1979), who had presented his thought at a time when the Muslims of India were facing the deteriorated conditions with regard to their social, economic, religious, and political aspects of life. newline