Muslim Nationalism in South Asia - Ideological Foundations

Ideological Foundations

The first Muslim uprising began with the Muslim Sultan, Tipu Sultan in 1766, whose famous armed resistance of Mysore, using bamboo Rockets, was the catalyst for the demise of the British from India and earned him the title Father of the Indian Rocket. In fact, the battle against the British in Mysore, 1766 seems to be at the pinnacle of unrest in the colonised lands of all the European colonisers.

The first organized expressions began with Muslim scholars and reformers like Syed Ahmed Khan, Syed Ameer Ali and the Aga Khan who had an influential major hand in the Anti-British Resistance movements during the "Indian Revolution".

Expression of Muslim separatism and nationhood emerged from modern Islam's pre-eminent poet and philosopher, Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal and political activists like Choudhary Rahmat Ali.