The Concluding Phase of the Movement

The Ambala and the Patna trials form a landmark in the history of the Wahhabi Movement. The arrest and conviction of so many leaders and workers naturally weakened the organisation and affected its financial resources. It was not, however, the end but only the beginning of the end. In fact, the area of the Wahhabi activities seems to have spread out a little more during the period following these trials. From 1869 onwards the government of Bengal was again engaged in comprehensive enquiries against the Wahhabi centres inside the country, and another series of Wahhabi trials followed. This chapter presents an account of the concluding phase of the Movement with the Wahhabi activities inside the country and on the Frontier. It provides a discussion on the controversy about the use and abuse of the term “Wahhabi”, and its discontinuance in official papers.