Some Important Events in the Contemporary Muslim India

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On August 14,1947 AD, Pakistan was born as an independent Muslim country of South Asia with the partitioning of the Subcontinent by the British on the eve of their departure from India. It was the result of the long struggle for independence from colonial rule by the Muslim League under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah – born into an Ismaili Shi’ite Muslim family that later became Athna Ash’ari (Twelver). The new country was made up of West Pakistan – on the borders of Afghanistan and Iran – and East Pakistan on the borders of Myanmar. In 1971, the eastern part of Pakistan became an independent country under the name Bangladesh.
On August 15,1947 AD, India gained independence from British colonial rule after years of struggles. Although an ancient civilization, it was the advent of Islam that placed India firmly on the international map, especially during the era of the Great Moghuls in the 16th and 17th centuries. With the weakening of the Moghul Empire and its splintering into regional Muslim states in the mid 18th century, the British, who had entered the country as traders, played one ruler against the other, to consolidate power and seize large chunks of territory. Wars were imposed on the Indian people, both Muslim and Hindu, and the superior firepower of the British ensured their victory, whether it was against Tipu Sultan in the south at the turn of the 19th century or the 1857 uprising in the north, which were brutally crushed. In the closing years of the 19th century independence movements emerged in the form of the Indian National Congress Party and the All-India Muslim League. In the 20th century after World War I, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi launched his non-violent movement against the British, saying it was the epic martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), which inspired him to struggle for liberty and independence. Among the Muslims, Mohammad Ali Jinnah – an Ismaili Shi’ite who later became Athna Ash’ari (Twelver) – emerged as a dynamic leader, and the crafty British played the communal card to pit Muslims against Hindus, as part of their divide-and-rule policy. Finally, following the end of World War 2 and sapping of British energies, London decided to grant independence on the basis of the 'two-nation-theory'. Thus India – and a day earlier Pakistan – emerged as independent states in the subcontinent. In 950 India became a republic.
On August 15, 1975 AD, Bangladesh's founder, Sheikh Mujib ur-Rahman, was killed along with most members of his family during a military coup launched by his own disgruntled Awami League officers headed by Khondkar Mushtaq Ahmad. Mujib led the struggle for secession of East Pakistan from Islamabad's rule and its renaming as Bangladesh in 1971 with the support of India. The present prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, is his daughter.
On August 17, 1988 AD, Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, along with US Ambassador to Islamabad, Arnold Raphel, was killed in a plane crash, thirteen days after the martyrdom of prominent Shi'ite Muslim scholar, Seyyed Arif Hussain al-Hussaini in Peshawar, which is believed to be the dirty work of the state apparatus. Born in Jullundur, Punjab, India in 1924, he migrated to Pakistan and joined the military. In 1977, he led a military coup to seize power from the elected Prime Minister, Zulfeqar Ali Bhutto, who ironically had promoted him as chief of the general staff over senior generals. He later got himself elected as Pakistan’s 6th president and was the country’s longest serving head of state for 11 years. He has earned lasting notoriety for destabilizing the Pakistani society, in collaboration with the US and Saudi Arabia, through uncontrolled flow of arms for creating sectarian terrorism.
On August 18, 1958 AD, Brojen Das of East Pakistan (presently Bangladesh) swims across the English Channel in a competition, as the first Asian to ever do it. He became first among 39 competitors.
On August 18, 2008 AD, President Pervez Musharaf of Pakistan had to resign due to threat of impeachment, after nine years in power, following his bloodless coup against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. He was allowed to leave the country, but is currently under house arrest with several charges against him, following his return to Pakistan earlier this year and unsuccessful bid to contest the parliamentary elections.
On August 17,1866 AD, the 6th ruler of the Asef-Jahi Dynasty of Deccan in south India, Mahboob Ali Khan Nizam ol-Mulk, was born in Hyderabad. In 1889, at the age of three, on the death of father, Afzal od-Dowla, he was crowned as the ruler by the able Prime Minister, Turab Ali Khan Salaar Jung. Besides his native Urdu, he was well versed in Persian, Arabic and English. He founded schools and libraries, even though he led a lavish life, with his extensive wardrobe being the largest in the world along with his collection of Jewels. He was a poet in both Urdu and Persian, and maintained relations with the Qajarid Dynasty of Iran.
On August 22, 1526 AD, Sultan Qutb od-Din Bahadur Shah, after returning from exile in Delhi, ascended the throne of Gujarat in western India by removing his youngest brother Mahmoud Shah II, who had been installed as king by the nobles on the murder of the eldest brother, Sikandar Shah, within a few months of the death of his father, Muzaffar Shah II. During his 11-year reign he had to face the menace of the Portuguese who raided the seaports of his realm and seized several islands including what would later be known as Bombay (renamed Mumbai today). He made the fatal mistake of seeking assistance from the Portuguese against the expansion of the Mughals of northern India. While on board a Portuguese ship to sign a treaty, he was treacherously killed by the Portuguese admiral and his body dumped into the sea. The Gujarat kingdom that declared itself independent of the Delhi Sultanate in 1407 by Muzaffar Shah I (son of a Rajput convert to Islam) was a Persianate state and promoted Islamic art, culture and architecture for 166 years until its annexation by the Mughal Emperor, Akbar the Great in 1573.
On August 22, 1639 AD, Madras (now Chennai), was founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers in the district of Chennaipatanam which was leased from King Abdullah Qutb Shah of the dynasty of Iranian origin of Hyderabad-Deccan. The area was added to the Qutb Shahi dominions by the Iranian statesman and adventurer, Mohammad Sa’eed Ardestani of Isfahan, titled “Mir Jumlaâ€‌, who later went over to the Mughal court in northern India, was made governor of Bengal with capital in Dhaka (Bangladesh), and died in Khizrpur, Garo Hills, in what is now the Meghalaya-Assam border while returning from an expedition to Assam. Madras is derived from the Arabic word Madrasah for schools, since there were several Islamic schools in the area. Currently it is the capital of the Tamilnadu State of India.
On August 25, 2006 AD, Noor Mohammad Hassan-Ali, the former president of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean Sea died, nine years after serving two five-year terms. A retired High Court judge, he was the first Indo-Trinidadian to hold the office of President and was the first Muslim head of state in the Americas. As a Muslim, Hassan-Ali chose not to serve alcoholic beverages at the President's House.
On August 26, 1303 AD, Sultan Ala od-Din Khilji of the Delhi Sultanate captured the strategic and heavily fortified city of Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, thereby breaking the power of the Rajputs and consolidating Muslim rule in the Subcontinent. He subsequently enlarged his empire by conquering most of the Deccan or southern India which had so far not been subjugated by the Persianized Turkic Muslims. It is interesting to note that till this day the Hindus in their local languages in south India use the word “Turkaâ€‌ for all Muslims.
On August 27, 1534 AD, Ismail Adel Shah, the 2nd king of the dynasty of Iranian origin of Bijapur in southwest India, died at the age of 36 after a reign of 24 years, while on a campaign against the neighbouring sultanate of Golkandeh, ruled by the Qutb Shahi dynasty – also of Iranian origin. In the footsteps of his father, Yusuf Adel Shah, the founder of the dynasty who was from Saveh in Iran, he was a devout follower of the school of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and patronized ulema, scholars, poets, physicians and even soldiers migrating from Iran to the Deccan. He never lost a battle, and his artillery units were considered formidable. The kingdom of Bijapur that lasted for 187 years until its annexation by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb of Hindustan (northern subcontinent) was a Persianate state. It is worth noting that Yusuf Adel Shah had declared Shi’ite Islam as the state religion a decade before Shah Ismail I founded the Safavid Dynasty in Iran and decreed Shi’ite Islam as state religion.
On 25th of the Islamic month of Shawwal in 917 AH, Muzaffar II of Gujarat in western India receives an embassy from Shah Ismail I, the Founder of the Safavid Empire of Iran. The ambassadorial delegation from Tabriz arrived with rich presents to congratulate Muzaffar Shah II on his accession and also to announce the grand victory of the Iranian forces over the Uzbek ruler Mohammad Khan Shaibani at the Battle of Merv on 30th Sha’ban 916 AH. At first, the Persian envoy was honorably received, but subsequently his entourage was attacked and his property destroyed by a mob inflamed either by anti-Shi’ite feeling, or, according to one version, by the machinations of Saheb Khan, the exiled prince of the Malwa. Muzaffar Shah II was compelled to pay heavy compensation for the losses suffered by the Iranian envoy. Iranians from different walks of life migrated and settled in Gujarat, both during the 175 years of its existence as an independent sultanate and its subsequent role as a Mughal province that served as the centre of trade with the Muslim World through the sea route.