Awwal Allama

For some he was a revolutionary, for others he was a visionary. However, what he certainly was, was a man of conviction, and a progressive polymath who stood by his morals every single time.

The man who lived way ahead of his time; Image Source: Flickr

In 1925, a book, Tazkirah, a commentary on Quran, written by Allama Mashriqi urf Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi was nominated for the Nobel Prize, however, subject to the condition that it was translated into one of the European languages since Urdu was not a recognized language at that time. The Nobel Prize, still considered to be a major honour, was however refused by Mashriqui as he did not want his work to be translated.

In 1920, he was offered the ambassadorship of Afghanistan and a knighthood by the British Government in India, but he refused both, taking a tough moral ground.

An uncontrolled influx of people towards Afghanistan in support of the Khilafat Movement in 1920 compelled the British Government to ask for Mashriqi’s aid. Because of his popularity, the Government tried to use him to prevent the migration in return for an ambassadorship and knighthood.

Born to a Muslim-Rajput family in Amritsar, India, Mashriqi grew amongst well known luminaries of the Colonial period including Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Al-Afghani, and Shibli Nomani.

From an early age, he showed an inclination towards academics, especially mathematics. He completed his graduation with top ranks and secured a First Class in his master’s degree in Mathematics, which created history in the University of Punjab. His appetite for numbers was however not yet satisfied.

Mashriqi moved to England in 1907 where he applied for a Mathematics tripos at Cambridge University. He was awarded a college foundation scholarship and completed his Part I Course with first class honours and made his name amongst the wranglers.

It was here that Mashriqi started developing an interest in religious and scientific conversations. He decided to branch out from his academic background and ventured into the field of linguistics and science. Mr Awwal completed the oriental languages tripos with first-class honours in parallel to a degree in natural sciences.

He took his fourth tripos in mechanical sciences in 1910, where he was placed in the second class, but ended up creating a record for the highest number of tripos achieved by anyone across the globe at that time. His achievements were lauded in several national newspapers of the UK.

Fun Trivia: Keeping in tradition with its upscale la-di-da image, Cambridge University has a vocabulary of its own; where saying ‘degree’ is lowbrow so they have replaced it with ‘tripos’ and students who secure first-class honors in the Mathematics "tripos" in the final year with the word ‘wrangler’.

On his return to India, Mashriqi was offered a premiership of the Alwar state, which he refused due to his fervent interest in education. At only the age of 25, he was appointed as the Vice-Principal of Islamia College in Peshawar and became the Principal of the same college at 27. He continued his service in the education department as undersecretary to the Government of India (Education) and as a Headmaster of a high school in Peshawar.

Even though his first love was always education and academics, Mashriqi felt himself being drawn towards the national movement for the benefit of the people.

He resigned from the Government employment in 1932 and settled down in Ichhra, Lahore.

After his resignation, Mashriqi set up the Khaksar Tehrik. The aim of the Khaksar movement was to free India from British colonial rule and set up a unified Hindu-Muslim Government. He was strictly against the idea of partition and believed it to be yet another British policy of divide and rule. Mashriqi proposed that while Hindus and Muslims could live separately in their majority enclaves, an explicit division of the country would only deepen religious fundamentalism and extremism.

The symbol of his movement was a spade, which also made it popular as the Spade Movement or the Army of Spades. His choice of the symbol was well-thought-out too. The spade was representative of the construction of the country’s future, held by Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs alike, whose combined efforts would truly uplift the nation.

His rigid stance against the proponents of the two-nation theory and partition made him a controversial figure and was often portrayed as a religious activist, revolutionary, as well as, an anarchist. Mashriqi and many members of his organization were subject to several bans and unexplained arrests by the Government in the 1930s, owing to their “disruptive” character. Conflicts with the Government did but one thing, increased the popularity of the Tehrik amongst millions, and branches were set up not only in India but also in foreign countries.

His conception of religion was simple. He saw religion within scientific terms and declared ‘that the science of all religions was essentially the science of collective evolution of mankind’. According to his philosophy, every prophet’s purpose was to unite mankind, which is also the fundamental principle of all faiths.

Mashriqi disbanded his organization on 4 July 1947, when it was clear that his desire for a united India had no future and many Muslims were happy with the decision of a new country carved out for them.

Syed Shabbir Hussain, a renowned biographer in Pakistan notes about Mashriqi in the book The Disowned genius, that “he was a world revolutionary who was bogged down in his own country.”