ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century, Bihar emerged as a strong nerve-centre of the anti-colonial movement known as the ‘Wahabi’ Movement. It began as a socio-religious reform movement with revivalist elements, but soon gathered strong anti-British political overtones. Its infl uence continued, particularly in Bihar, till the 1880s.1 From 1830s to 1860s, the ‘Wahabi’ movement offered the most serious and well-planned challenge to British supremacy in India. According to the British, the movement was supposed to have been infl uenced by the teaching of Abdul Wahab (1703-92) of Arabia. The leader of this movement in India, Syed Ahmad (1786-1831) of Rae Bareilly, was infl uenced by preaching of the Delhi saint Shah Waliullah (1703-62). Ahmed condemned all additions to and innovations in Islam and encouraged a return to the pure Islam and society of Arabia of the Prophet’s times. The Wahabis played an important role in spreading anti-British sentiments during the revolt of 1857, for which they suffered colonial reprisal. Taqi Raheem traces the roots of such deep seated and lingering anti-colonial sentiments of the Muslims of Bihar, in the ‘Wahabi’ movement. He says: ‘In fact the leaders of the “Wahabi” movement like Wilayat Ali and Enayat Ali had injected strong hatred against British colonialism into the Muslims of Bihar so effectively that this tendency could never peter out and kept manifesting in the 1940s also’.2
