ABSTRACT
The Wahhabi Movement started under a socio-religious impulse but it soon acquired a political character also. The socio-religious aspect related to the advocacy of reforms in the Indo-Muslim society while the political aspect involved the struggle against the ‘alien’ rulers. Both these factors, as also some additional ones, influenced the movement during the course of its progress. Their relative importance varied from time to time but there is a perceptible trend that the political aspect was gaining ascendancy, more clearly since 1840. Of course, stress continued to be laid on the observance of prayers (Namaz), fasting (Roza) alms-giving (Zakat) and other obligatory religious duties, but the main work of the Wahhabi missionaries came to be the collection of funds and the ‘tampering’ with the loyalty of the Indian units of the Company’s army stationed in the different parts of the country.
