Islamic Modernism in Colonial Punjab: The Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam, 1884-1923

Abstract

This dissertation examines key developments in Muslim intellectual and social life in the north Indian Punjab region between the 1880s and 1920s with a focus on the history of Islamic modernism. At its core is a case study of the Anjuman-i Himayat-i Islam (Society for the Defense of Islam, AHI), founded in 1884 in Lahore, one of the most important Muslim reformist organizations in the wider region. The AHI was a voluntary association that was mainly carried by lay Muslims belonging to the colonial middle classes, including civil servants, educationists, traders, artisans, and journalists. It established vernacular schools, orphanages, a printing press, and in 1892 Islamia College Lahore, one of north India's foremost institutions of higher education. Its printed output focused on educational as well as apologetic materials with the aim to defend Islam against criticism from both Christian missionaries active in the region, as well as colonial officials influenced by “Orientalist” scholarship. The AHI also organized annual meetings which developed into some of the largest public gatherings for Muslims in colonial north India. This dissertation reconstructs the AHI's history between 1884 and 1923 from the association's documents, such as its proceedings, meeting minutes, and published reports, as well as external sources, including biographical dictionaries, colonial-era newspapers, administrative records, biographies, and scholarly publications, both in the vernacular and in English. It demonstrates that the AHI became a meeting point for north Indian Muslims from a variety of sectarian and social backgrounds, a vital platform for the spread of modernist Muslim thought, and an important force in the formation of Muslim elites in the context of colonial Punjab. The close study of the AHI's history presented in this dissertation also reveals that Islamic modernism in the Punjab region was closely connected with the Ahmadiyyah movement, had complex ways of dealing with the Islamic scholarly tradition, and was politically loyal to colonial rule, although this stance remained contested throughout its history.