Personality: K.M. Ashraf

I have been poking about a recent translation of K.M. (Kunwar Muhammad) Ashraf's book, An Overview of Indian Muslim Politics (1920-1947), published originally in Urdu in 1963. I thought I would peruse through this, since I am still waiting for the library to get me two other works of his: Indian Historiography and Other Related Papers, a series of lectures delivered in the 1950s and early 1960s, and his two-volume book, Hindu-Muslim Question and Our Freedom Struggle, which was first written in 1946, as a document detailing the beginnings of the Pakistan demand of the Muslim League. (It, too, was originally published in Urdu).

K.M. Ashraf (1903-1962) was a Marxist historian, a leading member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and a member of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) from 1934-35. He served as political secretary to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru when they were presidents of the Congress Party. K.M. Ashraf was one of several left-leaning, secular Muslims who were drawn into the Congress Party during the 1930s as a result of the Muslim Mass Contact Campaign, which was, in Aijaz Ahmad's words, "the first mass-initiative undertaken by the Congress on the principle that a non-Muslim could lead the Muslims directly, without conceding this constituency to a Muslim even of the same party." (pg. 13, Lineages of the Present)

Originally from a Rajput family, and educated in Moradabad, U.P. before studying at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia, he obtained his PhD in Medieval Indian History from the London School of Oriental Studies (now, SOAS). His book, Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan is based on his PhD thesis.

In 1941, Ashraf was arrested and put in Deoli Detention camp for two years. Shortly afterwards, when the CPI became legal, Ashraf worked at its headquarters in Bombay, where he wrote two books: Hindu-Muslim Question and Our Freedom Movement (1857 - 1943) and Historical Background to Muslim Question in India (1725-1943). Well versed in Persian and Arabic, Ashraf was also a scholar of Islamic studies. In 1948, while he was ill in Karachi, Pakistan, Ashraf was arrested (presumably for his Communist affiliations); he then spent the years 1949-1954 exiled in London. Upon returning to India he taught in the University of Kashmir at Srinagar and the University of Delhi. In 1960, he went to Berlin as a Visiting Professor and stayed there until his death in 1962.

According to Jaweed Ashraf, K.M. Ashraf wrote An Overview of Indian Muslim Politics during a period when the Jamaa't-i-Islami was very aggressively promoting an ideology of the 'Government of God' (Hukumat-I-Ilahiya) as the Islamic alternative to a democratic form of governance. He drew criticism both from "Islamists" and socialist intellectuals. One of Ashraf's chief contentions was that Muslims came to have a distinct cultural identity due to the historical particularities of "Muslim rule" (ah, that good old sultan-scholar-saint triumvirate) as well as nineteenth century social and political movements in India, not due to Islam.

In 1960, he wrote:

I do not think that today the question concerns only the selfless sacrifices of the Muslims. It is obvious that the real question today, as has always been the case, involves fruitful political action of the Muslim masses. Very often Muslim sacrifices in the past had amounted to suicide. During contemporary times it is on these sacrifices that the palatial edifices of Muslim landlords and reactionaries are built upon. It is again on these 'sacrifices' that the poverty and destitution of Muslim masses is grounded. Before sacrificing further Muslim masses shall have to think if this invitation to 'sacrifice' does not again amount to their 'impermissible' (haram) death. (pg. 11)

The translated edition of Overview of Indian Muslim Politics (1920-1947), put out by Manak Publications in 2001, includes a forward by Sajjad Zaheer, preface by K.M. Ashraf, and in lieu of an introduction, written by K.M. Ashraf's son, Jaweed Ashraf. Contents include: 1. Background of Indian Muslim Politics: Rebellion of 1857 and Leadership by Feudal Elements; 2. First Stage of Modern Muslim Politics; 3. Second Stage of Indian Muslim Politics; 4. Third Stage of Muslim Politics: Period of Confusion and the Demand for Pakistan; 5. Real Reasons of our Political Backwardness; 6. The Ideology and Practices of Jamaa't-i-Islami; 7. Khilafat-i-Rashida and Democracy; 8. Islamic Monarchy, Imperialism, and Revivalist Movements in Islam; 9. Contemporary Demands and Progressive Muslim Thought.

In the introduction, Jaweed Ashraf, commenting on one strand of Ashraf's argument, claims that contemporary pan-Islamic movements (generalization noted) not only have a skewed understanding of history, but lack historical consciousness altogether because they "aggressively propagate a vision of Muslim society based on time-space, and history-independent identity of Islam, modeled on Arabian tribal norms, as if these are intrinsic of Islam itself." (pg. 18)

This vision of the past, Javeed Ashraf goes on to say, does not compute (as Marxists are wont to do) that modern Muslim society developed in stages: the march from tribal to feudal to monarchical, and on to capitalism. Revivalists who are trying to consolidate power under the "Rule of Islam", Jaweed writes, are taking a retrograde step, rather than offering a viable alternative to capitalism, because "these forces are today trying to somehow hide...the positive historic role of Islam" for it was through Islam, that "Arab society moved forward from tribal to feudal, while now Islam is being used to drag society backwards from capitalism to feudalism and from democratic system of governance to autocratic rule." (pg. 19)

In chapter 6, K.M. Ashraf argued that the ideology of the Jamaa't-i-Islami was influenced by a fascist vision of the state, and that its founder, Maulana Abul Maududi, presented "Islamic teachings as if evolution of the Muslim society is not at all a time and space bound historic reality. According to him the perceptions of Islam are altogether unconcerned with either the limitations of history or the evolutionary of society." (pg. 140). Ashraf cites Maulana Maududi from a December 1934 issue of the journal, Tarjuman-al-Quran, explicating upon the reasons for the successes of Hitler and Mussolini, using them as examples of instilling organizational discipline. (pg. 141)

At the end of the chapter, K.M. Ashraf writes of the Jamaa't:

We know that in India the Jamaa't is today praising the Swatantra Party. Before this support to the feudal elements they were instruments in the hands of the jagirdars and the capitalists during the freedom movement. In order to understand their position concerning internationl relations of India it is enough to recall that these days (in 1960, Ed.) Maulana Maududi is the talk of the two ni n America and the American circles are presenting his teachings to the world as if these ideas have descended from the very Heaven. They are doing so for the simple reason that the Maulana is a supporter of American capitalism and an enemy of workers organizations and socialism. In order to warn simple Muslims of the disruptive activites of the Jamma't-i-Islami we can only tell them what the Qur'an has said: a'sa, an tahabbu ashi wa hosh lakum (often you fall for something that is harmful for you). pg. 145

There is more yet to to come on K.M. Ashraf.