In the name of Allah: Understanding Islam and Indian History

Raziuddin Aquil, a young writer and a historian by education and profession, has written some critical books on Islam, especially focusing on Sufism, and Muslim culture and politics in medieval as well as modern India. Presently a Fellow in History at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, Aquil holds a PhD from JNU and has authored books like “Sufism, Culture and Politics” in 2007 and co-edited (with historian Partha Chatterjee) “History in the Vernacular” in 2008.

The present book under review, “In the name of Allah: Understanding Islam and Indian History” is the most recent publication of Aquil, published by the Penguin Books in 2009. The book is a unique attempt at rewriting the history of Indian Islam by decoupling real history from the modern ideologies of secularism, communalism and separatism, which have influenced the hitherto written accounts of history of Indian Islam.

Aquil points out how secular historians have selectively targeted some elements of history, while ignoring others. They over-emphasized Akbar’s Sulh-i-kul and din-i-ilahi as well as Aurangzeb’s imposition of jizya, thus passing value judgments on both the rulers. Also, the separatist historians have over-glorified Islamic rule and deliberately concealed the violations of norms of conduct during the Mughal period. The communal historians, on the other hand, have painted the Islamic rule as a dark period contrasting it with the glorious past of Hindu Rule. Aquil finds all these accounts of history inappropriate and tries to correct their shortcomings.

What is most striking in Aquil’s approach is that he has completely turned the tables when it comes to referring to sources of information about the medieval society. Rather than citing from the conventional accounts, he refers to texts like Sufi literature, Barani’s Tarikh-i-Firozshahi, Badauni’s Muntakhab-ul-Tawarikh, Haqq’s Adab-us-Salihin, Jafar Zatalli’s scandalous spoof Gandu-nama etc., all of which were either controversial or at least were written in defiance of the political rule of that time. He specifically shows how these texts were deliberately ignored and underrated by historians to justify their respective ideological leanings. The use of Sufi literature to take a sub-altern view of the times rather than taking the ruler’s account provides a fresh lease of life to the study of Indian Islam’s history.

This is obviously not the first book on Indian Islam or its history and hence attempts to establish its own space amongst the plethora of books written on the same topic. Being an Indian Muslim, Aquil is aware of the biases that shall be levied against him while reading his book and has been extremely cautious and balanced in his approach, moving from a pro-Islamic view to an anti-Islamic view with equal ease. Not only he criticizes Akbar for trying to portray himself more significant than the religion, he also laments the liberal Muslim scholars for being too narrow and biased in their view.

What stands out in Aquil’s work is his frank use of controversial texts, which could have, otherwise, attracted undue reactions to the book. It is either Aquil’s brilliant writing or the sheer neglect of the fanatics that the book has not invited harsh fatwas from any Muslim body. The manner in which Aquil has freely used the couplets and phrases from Zatalli’s Gandu-nama can, at times, repel the reader. But, at the same time, Aquil ensures that he does not superimpose his own judgments on readers and only conveys what actual texts of those times intended to say. More than quoting the vulgar language used by Zatalli, Aquil has tried to use the text to prove how norms of Islam were being heavily violated during the later Mughal period, contrary to what separatist and fundamentalist scholars claim.

The book also creates an interesting analogy between Sikhism and Islam and convincingly attempts to show how Islam influenced Guru Nanak as well as the Panth that followed. He points out that the struggle between Islam and Sikhism since Aurangzeb’s time was more political than religious. Here too, Aquil tries to break the existing notions in contemporary literature about Sikhism and its conflict with Islam.

The central theme which one finds running throughout the book is to show how the various elements of Islam were constantly involved in a conflict for power right from the ninth century onwards. Ulama on the one hand, Sufis on the other along with Muslim rulers and philosophers were all involved in interpreting the Islamic rules according to their own convictions. This resulted in various political conflicts within Islam in the name of being called the ‘true’ bearers of the ‘real’ Islam. Moreover, the inability of Islam to cope with the changing times, unlike Western religions like Christianity has also been pointed out by Aquil as a failure of Indian Islam.

Overall, Aquil provides very striking and unique inferences about the various elements of Indian Islam and has been successful in breaking the established notions about Medieval Indian History and providing a fresh outlook towards the same. This book comes out as a purely scholarly research  output devoid of any modern ideologies like secularism, communalism or separatism, thus giving a ‘true’ history of Indian Islam than giving a ‘construed’ history.

That would not mean that the book has no shortcomings. The author is equally guilty of the charges that he accuses on classical historians. In quoting a controversial text like Badauni’s Muntakhab-ul-Tawarikh, or Jafar Zatalli’s Gandu-nama, Aquil completely undermines the version of history that conventional texts like Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari already have revealed. In a pursuit of trying to be different, the book goes a little beyond its mandate on disregarding some of the established notions quite blatantly. While substantial references are cited to back the conclusions, the same could have been done without discrediting the existing knowledge.

Nevertheless, it might have been this radically fresh outlook towards medieval history that makes this book different from the rest and helps it to carve its own niche in the overcrowded repertoire of books on Indian Islamic history.

CMT's rating 3.5/5