Networks, Labour and Migration among Indian Muslim Artisans by Thomas Chambers

Author:Thomas Chambers [Chambers, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781787354562
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: U C L Press, Limited
Published: 2020-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

The Tablighi Jamaat in Saharanpur: a brief introduction

In Saharanpur’s gullies, as in other Muslim neighbourhoods, the ways in which religious reform was orchestrated were changing. While negotiation of reformism has long been a circulatory process (Feener & Sevea 2009), the influence of Ashraf-dominated ulamas was being replaced by more informal forms of proselytisation. A major contributor to this development was the emergence of the Tablighi Jamaat. The movement allows individuals to involve themselves according to economic means. Therefore Jamaats regularly set out from masjids in Saharanpur to nearby villages. These groups were formed not of scholars, but of labourers, farmers and artisans who took what time they could spare to participate for three days or longer. At the other end of the scale, the city was visited by multinational Jamaats, consisting of members from all over the world, including Africa, Europe, America and the Gulf. These groups generally started their journey from the large markaz 1 at Nizimuddin in Delhi, where participants from different countries were placed together under an amir (leader) and allocated routes to travel. Reformist Islam forms a complex tapestry, filled with contestations and negotiations within and between groups (F. Osella & C. Osella 2013), but broadly speaking Islamic reformism can be seen as referring to ‘projects whose specific focus is the bringing into line of religious beliefs and practices with the core foundations of Islam’ (F. Osella & C. Osella 2013: xi).

Jamaati activities are global, but it is Saharanpur, or at least the nearby town of Deoband, that sits at the historical centre of the organisation. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas,2 the Tablighi Jamaat’s founder, gave his devotion to the Deoband madrassa before establishing the movement in the town of Mewat following his second hajj in 1926 (Ali 2006). Its foundation was laid in a period during which various Hindu groups were seeking to ‘reconvert’ Muslims who had a Hindu lineage.3 Maulana Muhammad Ilyas felt that the madrassa system was too slow in challenging this and in driving reform of the masses (M. Ahmad 1991). These concerns led the Tablighi Jamaat to take a different approach to reformist work. Rather than containing religious authority within the walls and scholarship of madrassas, the Tablighi Jamaat sought to disseminate it among the masses by involving ‘lay participants’ (Metcalf 2003). This is achieved by participation in da’wa (missionary work)4 and through the khurūj (religious tour).5 The khurūj takes place over a period lasting three days, forty days or four months. It is the forty-day period that is considered an ideal minimum for new initiates as it allows enough time to develop a religious consciousness away from material and economic concerns or familial and local traditions (M. Ahmad 1991). It is the purification of the participant, as well as preaching to other Muslims, that forms the primary purpose of the khurūj (J. Ali 2003).

At the core of the organisation’s philosophy is the idea that religious authority is borne by each Muslim, irrespective of social standing. This belief places responsibility on all Muslims to broaden their knowledge regarding Islam and to share this with others (J.

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