Shia Islam in the Indian subcontinent


was brought to the Indian subcontinent during the final years of the Rashidun Caliphate. The Indian subcontinent also served as a refuge for some Shias escaping persecution from Umayyads, Abbasids, Ayyubids, and Ottomans. The immigration continued throughout the second millennium until the formation of modern nation-states. Shi'ism also won converts among the local population.
Shia Islam has a long history and deep roots in the subcontinent. However, the earliest major political influence was that of the Shia dynasties in Deccan. It was here that the indigenous and distinct Shia culture took shape. After the conquest of Golconda by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the 17th century and subsequent establishment of hereditary governorship in Awadh after his death, Lucknow became the nerve center of Indian Shi'ism.
In the 18th century, intellectual movements of Islamic puritanism were launched by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in Najd and Shah Waliullah and his sons, with Shah Abdul Aziz being the main flag-bearer of modern anti-Shi'ism in Delhi. These movements coincided with the beginning of the British conquest of India and the downfall of Shia dynasties in Bengal and Awadh. These factors caused the onset of continuous persecution of the Shia community and laid the foundations of organised violence against them that has become a part of Shia life in the Indian subcontinent, especially Pakistan.

Demography

Shias in the Indian subcontinent are a minority that is geographically scattered in the majority population. It is because the medieval subcontinent was tolerant and multicultural society and the Shias were not forced to live in ghettos. It is in total contrast to the Shias of the Middle East, who enjoy a local majority in their homelands because they were compelled to ghettoize in the medieval period because of persecution, and because of this demographic resource, they have become important political players in modern times.
Pakistan is said to have a Shia population of at least 25-50 million, like India. Vali Nasr claims the Shia population to be as high as 30-40 million. Pew research center estimates it to be 15% and for India it is 15% percent of the total Muslim population while for Bangladesh it was estimated to be less than 1% to 2% of the total population. Andreas Rieck in his detailed study of the Shias of Pakistan, estimates their numbers between 20 and 40 million, and around 15% of the total population of Pakistan.
CountryPercentageCountryPercentage
India15% of Muslim minority in whole CountryNepal< 1%
Pakistan15%Bangladesh<2%
Afghanistan10%Sri Lanka<1%
Bhutan< 1%Maldives< 1%

Pre-Partition census

In British India, Shias and Sunnis were counted separately in the 1881, 1911 and 1921 censuses. The results were not reflective of reality as most Shias hide their religious beliefs from the state, because Shias feared the data might leak to the anti-Shia bigots and used to target them. For example, in 1881 Census of Jhang District, only 11, 835 people among the 326, 919 Muslims identified themselves as Shias. In 1921, in the census for Bihar and Orissa, 3711 Shias were counted separately, but the outcome was clearly absurd because an estimate made at the time placed the numbers at 17,000, i.e. five times the census enumeration. In the report of the Superintendent of Census Operations in the Province we read that:
"It is certain that these figures are not nearly complete, and the reason is that many Shias refused to record themselves as such".

For Patna, the outcome was ten times less than the estimate. It was for this reason that in the 1931 and 1941, it was decided not to count Muslims as Shias and Sunnis separately.

History

Rashidun Caliphate (632–661)

The connection between the Indus Valley and Shia Islam was established by the initial Muslim missions. According to Derryl N. Maclean, a link between Sindh and Shias or proto-Shias can be traced to Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who traveled across Sind to Makran in the year 649 and presented a report on the area to the Caliph. He supported Ali, and died fighting on his behalf alongside Sindhi Jats.
During the reign of Ali, many Jats came under the influence of Shi'ism. Harith ibn Murrah Al-abdi and Sayfi ibn Fil' al-Shaybani, both officers of Ali's army, attacked bandits and chased them to Al-Qiqan in the year 658.

Umayyad period (661–750)

Under the Umayyads, partisans of Ali were persecuted. Sayfi, a commander of Ali's army which had fought against bandits in present-day Balouchistan, was one of the seven Shias who were beheaded alongside Hujr ibn Adi al-Kindi in 660AD, near Damascus. Many Shias sought asylum in the region of Sindh, perhaps to live in relative peace among the Shia Jats. Ziyad Hindi is one of those refugees. The second wife of the fourth Shia Imam, Ali ibn Hussain, Jayda al-Sindi, was from Sindh. She is the mother of Zayd ibn Ali. Sindh was conquered and added to the Umayyad dynasty by Muhammad ibn Qasim in 711 AD. Persecution of Shias in the Umayyad dynasty reached its peak in the times of Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik, especially at the hands of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. While Muhammad ibn Qasim was governor of Shiraz, a disciple of the companion of Prophet Jabir ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari and famous narrator of Hadith, a supporter of revolt of Ibn al-Ashʿath and a Shia notable of the time, Atiyah ibn Sa'd was arrested by him on the orders of Al-Hajjaj and commanded to curse Ali or be punished. Atiyah refused and was flogged by 400 lashes and his head and beard shaved for humiliation. He fled to Khurasan. Muhammad ibn Qasim had moved on to invade Sindh after this incident, and history is silent about how he treated the Shias of Sindh.

Abbasid period (750–1258)

After the brief Umayyad rule in Sind had come to an end, history counts ten among the seventy notable Muslims of the eighth and ninth centuries bearing a Sindhi family name to be Shi'ites. In the initial excavation of the urban complex of Brahmanabad-Mansurah-Mahfuzah, A. P. Bellasis uncovered a seal bearing the Arabic inscription "Imam al-Baqir" which appear to belong to the fifth Shi'ite Imam Muhammad al-Baqir. Some students of Imam Jafar Al Sadiq had Indian family names, e.g., Aban Sindi, Khalid Sindi and Faraj Sindi.

Abdullah Shah Ghazi

The first major Shi'ite missionary wave that touched the shores of Sindh was the movement led by Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyah ibn Abdullah ibn Hasan ibn Hasan ibn Ali, his son Abdullah al-Ashtar and his brother Ibrahim. Around the year 761, they came by sea from Aden to Sind to visit a partisan, Umar ibn Hafs Hazarmard. The next year, Ibrahim went to Kufah and Nafs al-Zakiyah to Medina and started planning the revolt. Abdullah al-Ashtar, also known as Abdullah Shah Ghazi, stayed in Sindh, married a local Muslim woman and had children by her. Ibn Khaldun and Ibn al-Athir say that the governor had Shi'ite inclinations. Abdullah al-Ashtar had around 400 troops of the Shi'ite Zaydiyah branch, who at the time were active supporters of Ahlulbayt, ready for armed struggle. However, the governor received word from his wife in Basrah that Nafs Al-Zakiyah had been killed in Medina. Confused and undecided, he told Abdullah Ashtar that:
"I know an influential Hindu king in a district of Sindh who has a strong army. Despite his polytheism, he greatly honors the Prophet. He is a trustworthy person. I will write to him and try to arrange an agreement between you and him. You will know that this is the best place for you and your followers. "

The Hindu king agreed to offer asylum. Abdullah al-Ashtar spent some years there, probably from 763 to 770. Eventually, the news of his safe escape reached the caliph al-Mansur who deposed Umar ibn Hafs and appointed Hisham ibn Amr al-Taghlibi on the understanding that he will arrest Abdullah al-Ashtar, kill or disperse the Zaydiyah troops, and annexe the Hindu dynasty. When Hisham also hesitated to carry out the massacre, his brother Sufayh did it in his place, killing Abdullah along with many of his companions.

The Buyids and the Fatimids

In the Abbasid Caliphate, various Shiite groups organised secret opposition to their rule. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Twelver Shias of the Buyid Dynasty managed to establish their rule over much of Iran and Iraq without removing the Abbasid Caliph from his throne. Parallel to it was the Ismaili Shia Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt and North Africa. This was the golden age of Islam as scientists like Ibn Sina, ibn al -Haytham, Al-Biruni and hundreds of others enjoyed the intellectual freedom and contributed to philosophy, medicine, physics and other disciplines of science.
When the historian and geographer al-Masudi arrived in Sindh in 915, he met a number of Shias there. They were descendants of Umar ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-Hanafiyah. The poet Abu Dulaf Misar ibn Muhalhil al-Yanbui, who came to India around 942, noted that the 'ruler of Multan was a descendant of Umar ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib. Perhaps the Shi'ites were quasi-independent in a sector of the province of Multan.
During the mid-11th century, the Buyids gradually fell to the Ghaznavid and Seljuq invasions, and with it started the decline of the Islamic Golden Age. In 1091, the famous Sunni theologian, Imam Al-Ghazali, declared that Philosophers like Ibn Sina were heretics. His book Tahāfut al-Falāsifa proved to be the final blow to science education in the Islamic world.
Around 958, a Fatimid missionary converted a local Hindu ruler, and an Ismaili state was established in Sind, with its capital in Multan. They converted locals to Ismailism en masse, while the khutba was read in the name of the Fatimid Caliph. It was during this period that the earliest public mourning of Muharram and the Shia call to prayer was introduced to the Indus valley.