Faraizi Movement

Haji Shariatullah was the founder of the ‘Faraizi Movement’ in the year 1818. ‘Faraizi’ signifies duties that one must perform mandatorily as authorized by the supreme Islamic god. The movement seeks to purify the religion by out casting all practices and preaching that are not in line with Islamic beliefs. Social disparity was a huge consideration for the movement, especially when British rule had a major impact on the lives of Muslims.

Historical origin

East Bengal saw resurgence in the nineteenth century when peasants of this region were openly called in to participate and bring reforms through a strong religious movement. This religious development was new, did not have connections with any other existing movement and contained primordial messages. The movement became so widespread that during the British rule; most of the peasants belonging to the Eastern part of Bengal subscribed to its ideas and became forthcoming to take part in its religious activities.

Haji Shariatullah sought to revive Islam and save it from the atrocities of the British rule. In the ensuing dictatorship that followed, many peasants from the eastern region of Bengal had turned to Hinduism and there was a stiff resistance from the British rule with respect to these upcoming changes.

Objectives

Some of the profound intentions of the Faraizi movement are discussed in detail below:

• The movement became a tool for propaganda of Haji Shariatullah’s new found cognizance with respect to the Islamic religion and its perceptions.
• The most important turnover to the movement came after British rule conquered Indian soil. Haji Shariatullah was of the staunch opinion that the detrimental negative consequences of British rule had degraded Muslim culture, social faith and religious sentiments of the people. Therefore the movement aimed to bring in drastic changes to the society wherein these fundamental issues could be sorted out.
• The movement became so farfetched at a phase that it went on to create a parallel governance ruling alongside British rule.
• British landlords and Indian land owners who discriminated against the poor peasants of Eastern Bengal region were at the receiving end of this movement through a small group of army men.
• Unity amongst villagers against the landlords was voiced throughout this campaign. The designation of villages and commissioners of Caliphs brought a united stand and strength to revolt against discriminations.
• A tumultuous situation was created within the landlord communities as a shallow response to the movement turning the social economic framework completely upside.

Outcomes

The initial enthusiasm and participation of Islamic supporters for the Faraizi movement lost importance after a while. The campaigns were looked down upon and the movement later got converged into a religious sect on the pages of history. The clashes between religious intentions and upliftment of poor peasants could not be clarified and sorted out for the goodwill of the movement.

Muhsinuddin Ahmad Dudu Miyan, son of Haji Shariatullah, took over the reins of the movement after his father’s death. In later days, the movement came to be strongly considered for its efforts directed towards supporting poor farmers. In short, it came to be known as an agrarian movement around the year 1838. Some of the factors that led to the downfall of this movement could be attributed to bad political practices and interventions, lack of a structured mechanism, disputes amongst enrolled campaigners etc. Insights into the working of the movement and to make it farfetched became a failure due to lack of insights and absence of good leadership. The influx of money extortion and other misleading elements carried away the movement from its central theme of operation and thus it became a mere declined movement in historical records after the passing away of Dudu Miyan in 1862.