Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi ( ur, ; August 1888 27 August 1963), also known by the honorary title

Allama ''Allāmah'' ( ar, عَلَّامة, Urdu and , meaning "learned"), also spelled ''Allāma'' and ''Allama'' and “ Allameh “, is an Islamic honorary title for a profound scholar, a polymath, a man of vast reading and erudition, or a great ...

Mashriqi (), was a

British Indian British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian origin as well as Indians who have migrated to the UK. Today, Indians comprise about 1.4 mil ...

, and later, Pakistani mathematician, logician, political theorist, Islamic scholar and the founder of the

Khaksar movement The Khaksar movement ( ur, ) was a social movement based in Lahore, Punjab, British India, established by Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi in 1931, with the aim of freeing India from the rule of the British Empire. The Khaksars opposed the partiti ...

. Around 1930, he founded the

Khaksar Movement The Khaksar movement ( ur, ) was a social movement based in Lahore, Punjab, British India, established by Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi in 1931, with the aim of freeing India from the rule of the British Empire. The Khaksars opposed the partiti ...

. aiming to advance the condition of the masses irrespective of any

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

sect A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...

, or

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

.S. Shabbir Hussain, Al-Mashriqi: The Disowned Genius, Lahore, Jang Publishers, 1991

Early years

Background

Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi was born on 25 August 1888 to a

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

family in Amritsar.Nasim Yousaf, ''Pakistan's Freedom & Allama Mashriqi; Statements, Letters, Chronology of Khaksar Tehrik (Movement), Period: Mashriqi's Birth to 1947'', page 3. Mashriqi's father Khan Ata Muhammad Khan was an educated man of wealth who owned a bi-weekly publication, ''

Vakil ''Vakil'' was one of the highest positions in the hierarchy of Safavid Iran, denoting the viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term der ...

'', in Amritsar. His forefathers had held high government positions during the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

and

Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire was a state originating in the Indian subcontinent, formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established an empire based in the Punjab. The empire existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahor ...

s. Because of his father's position he came into contact with a range of well-known luminaries including Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī,

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan Sir Syed Ahmad Khan KCSI (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898; also Sayyid Ahmad Khan) was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India. Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, he ...

, and

Shibli Nomani Shibli Nomani ( ur, – ; 3 June 1857 – 18 November 1914) was an Islamic scholar from the Indian subcontinent during the British Raj. He was born at Bindwal in Azamgarh district of present-day Uttar Pradesh.

Education

Mashriqi was educated initially at home before attending schools in Amritsar. From an early age, he showed a passion for mathematics. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree with First Class honours at

Forman Christian College Forman Christian College is an private liberal arts university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was founded in 1864 and is administered by the Presbyterian Church. The university follows an American-style curriculum. Founded in 1864 by American ...

in Lahore, he completed his master's degree in mathematics from the

University of the Punjab The University of the Punjab (Urdu, pnb, ), also referred to as Punjab University, is a public, research, coeducational higher education institution located in Lahore, Pakistan. Punjab University is the oldest public university in Pakistan. ...

, taking a First Class for the first time in the history of the university. In 1907 he moved to England, where he matriculated at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, to read for the

mathematics tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos examined at the University. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a ...

. He was awarded a college foundation scholarship in May 1908. In June 1909 he was awarded

first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in Mathematics Part I, being placed joint 27th out of 31 on the list of wranglers. For the next two years, he read for the

oriental languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turk ...

tripos in parallel to the natural sciences tripos, gaining first class honours in the former, and third class in the latter. After three years' residence at Cambridge he had qualified for a Bachelor of Arts degree, which he took in 1910. In 1912 he completed a fourth tripos in mechanical sciences, and was placed in the second class. At the time he was believed to be the first man of any nationality to achieve honours in four different Triposes, and was lauded in national newspapers across the UK. The next year, Mashriqi was conferred with a DPhil in mathematics receiving a gold medal at his doctoral graduation ceremony. He left Cambridge and returned to India in December 1912. During his stay in Cambridge his religious and scientific conviction was inspired by the works and concepts of Professor

Sir James Jeans Sir James Hopwood Jeans (11 September 187716 September 1946) was an English physicist, astronomer and mathematician. Early life Born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, the son of William Tulloch Jeans, a parliamentary correspondent and author. Jeans was ...

.S. Shabbir Hussain (ed.), God, Man, and Universe, Akhuwat Publications, Rawalpindi, 1980

Early career

On his return to India, Mashriqi was offered the premiership of

Alwar Alwar (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu, �lʋəɾ is a city located in India's National Capital Region (India), National Capital Region and the administrative headquarters of Alwar district, Alwar District in the state of Rajasthan. ...

, a

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

, by the Maharaja. He declined owing to his interest in education. At the age of 25, and only a few months after arriving in India, he was appointed vice principal of Islamia College,

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

, by Chief Commissioner Sir George Roos-Keppel and was made principal of the same college two years later. In October 1917 he was appointed under secretary to the Government of India in the Education Department in succession to Sir George Anderson. He became headmaster of the High School, Peshawar on 21 October 1919. In 1920, the British government offered Mashriqi the ambassadorship of Afghanistan, and a year later he was offered a knighthood. However, he however refused both awards. In 1930, he was passed over for a promotion in the government service, following which he went on medical leave. In 1932 he resigned, taking his pension, and settled down in

Ichhra Ichhra ( Punjabi, ur, ) is a commercial and residential area in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It is predominantly a residential and commercial area. Being a very old locality, some very old buildings can be seen in Ichhra. It is noted for its Ic ...

, Lahore.

Nobel nomination

In 1924, at the age of 36, Mashriqi completed the first volume of his book, ''Tazkirah''. It is a commentary on the ''Qur'an'' in the light of science. It was nominated for the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

in 1925, subject to the condition it was translated into one of the

European languages Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Rom ...

. However, Mashriqi declined the suggestion of translation.

Political life

Mashriqi's philosophy

A theistic evolutionist who accepted some of Darwin's ideas while criticizing others, he declared that the science of religions was essentially the science of collective evolution of mankind; all prophets came to unite mankind, not to disrupt it; the basic law of all faiths is the law of unification and consolidation of the entire humanity. According to Markus Daeschel, the philosophical ruminations of Mashriqi offer an opportunity to re-evaluate the meaning of colonial modernity and notion of post-colonial

nation-building Nation-building is constructing or structuring a national identity using the power of the state. Nation-building aims at the unification of the people within the state so that it remains politically stable and viable in the long run. According to ...

in modern times. Mashriqi is often portrayed as a controversial figure, a religious activist, a revolutionary, and an anarchist; while at the same time he is described as a visionary, a reformer, a leader, and a scientist-philosopher who was born ahead of his time. After Mashriqi resigned from government service, he laid the foundation of the

Khaksar Tehrik The Khaksar movement ( ur, ) was a social movement based in Lahore, Punjab, British India, established by Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi in 1931, with the aim of freeing India from the rule of the British Empire. The Khaksars opposed the partitio ...

(also known as Khaksar Movement) around 1930. Al-Islah

Mashriqi and his Khaskar Tehrik opposed the partition of India. He stated that the "last remedy under the present circumstances is that one and all rise against this conspiracy as one man. Let there be a common Hindu-Muslim Revolution. ... it is time that we should sacrifice…in order to uphold Truth, Honour and Justice." Mashriqi opposed the partition of India because he felt that if Muslims and Hindus had largely lived peacefully together in India for centuries, they could also do so in a free and united India. Mashriqi saw the two-nation theory as a plot of the British to maintain control of the region more easily, if India was divided into two countries that were pitted against one another. He reasoned that a division of India along religious lines would breed fundamentalism and extremism on both sides of the border. Mashriqi thought that "Muslim majority areas were already under Muslim rule, so if any Muslims wanted to move to these areas, they were free to do so without having to divide the country." To him, separatist leaders "were power hungry and misleading Muslims in order to bolster their own power by serving the British agenda."

Imprisonments and allegations

On 20 July 1943, an assassination attempt was made on

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

Rafiq Sabir Rafiq Sabir ( ku, Refîq Sabir; born in 1950) is a contemporary Kurdish people, Kurdish poet. He was born in ''Qaladzê'' in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 1974, he received Bachelor of Arts degree from Baghdad University. He moved to Sweden in 1989. He w ...

who was assumed to be a Khaksar worker. The attack was deplored by Mashriqi, who denied any involvement. Later, Justice Blagden of the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...

in his ruling on 4 November 1943 dismissed any association between the attack and the Khaksars. In Pakistan, Mashriqi was imprisoned at least four times: in 1958 for alleged complicity in the murder of republican leader

Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan Dr. Khan Sahib ( ps, ډاکټر خان صیب ) (born 1883, Utmanzai, Charsadda – 9 May 1958, Lahore), mistakenly named as Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan (), was a pioneer in the Indian Independence Movement and a Pakistani politician. He was the eld ...

(popularly known as Dr. Khan Sahib); and, in 1962 for suspicion of attempting to overthrow President Ayub's government. However, none of the charges were proven, and he was acquitted in each case. In 1957, Mashriqi allegedly led 300,000 of his followers to the borders of

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

, intending, it is said, to launch a fight for its liberation. However, the

Pakistan government The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territories ...

persuaded the group to withdraw and the organisation was later disbanded.Obituary, ''The Times'', 29 August 1963

Death

Mashriqi died at the

Mayo Hospital Mayo Hospital is one of the oldest and biggest hospitals in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. King Edward Medical University, one of the oldest and most prestigious medical institutions in South Asia, is attached to Mayo Hospital. Mayo Hospital is locat ...

in Lahore on 27 August 1963 following a short battle with cancer.The Pakistan Times, Lahore Reports, "Allama Mashriqi laid to rest", August 29 (PT 1963, Aug. 30) His funeral prayers were held at the

Badshahi Mosque The Badshahi Mosque (Urdu, Punjabi: ; literally ''The Royal Mosque'') is a Mughal-era congregational mosque in Lahore, capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab. The mosque is located west of Lahore Fort along the outskirts of the Walled C ...

and he was buried in

. He was survived by his wife and seven children.

Mashriqi's works

Mashriqi's prominent works include: *''Armughan-i-Hakeem'', a poetical work *''Dahulbab'', a poetical work *''Isha’arat'', the "Bible" of the Khaksar movement *''Khitab-e-Misr'' (The Egypt Address), based on his 1925 speech in Cairo as a delegate to the ''Motmar-e-Khilafat'' *''Maulvi Ka Ghalat Mazhab'' *''Tazkirah'' Volume I, 1924, discussions on conflicts between religions, between religion and science, and the need to resolve these conflictsProfile of Allama Mashriqi on storyofpakistan.com website
Updated 1 January 2007, Retrieved 22 January 2018 *''Tazkirah'' Volume II. Posthumously published in 1964 *''Tazkirah'' Volume III.

Fellowships

Mashriqi's fellowships included: *Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

, 1923 *Fellow of the Geographical Society (F.G.S), Paris *Fellow of Society of Arts (F.S.A), Paris *Member of the Board at

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

*President of the Mathematical Society, Islamia College,

*Member of the International Congress of Orientalists (

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

), 1930 *President of the All World's Faiths Conference, 1937

Edited works

*''God, Man, and Universe: As Conceived by a Mathematician'' (works of Inayatullah Khan el-Mashriqi), Akhuwat Publications, Rawalpindi, 1980 (edited by Syed Shabbir Hussain).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mashriqi, Allama 1888 births 1963 deaths 20th-century Indian philosophers Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Indian anti-poverty advocates Forman Christian College alumni Indian expatriates in the United Kingdom Indian humanitarians Indian independence activists from Punjab (British India) Indian logicians Indian people of World War II Indian prisoners and detainees Indian revolutionaries Islamia College University faculty 20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Muslim reformers Pakistani humanitarians Pakistani logicians Pakistani mathematicians Pakistani philosophers Pakistani politicians Pakistani Sunni Muslims Scholars from Amritsar People from Lahore Punjabi people University of the Punjab alumni World War II political leaders Theistic evolutionists