Factors and forces at the back of Qadianism

 

It is not very difficult to identify the anti-Islam forces that were providing tacit and veiled support to the movement launched by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Following the War of Independence of 1857, and the role of the Indian Muslim community in that war, the then British Government of India had become suspicious and wary about the Indian Muslims in general. Yet it continued to treat Mirza and his party with special indulgence. The petitions and reports submitted by Mirza to the Government against some Muslim leaders and single, ulama excerpts from some of which reproduced below, show clearly that he was a special lacy of the Government of the day:

“It appears expedient to me, as a well-wisher of the British Government (of India), that the names of those misguided Muslims who, in their heart of hearts, consider British India to be a dar-ul-harb (land of belligerency), should be entered in the government records------, I have therefore prepared a list of names of persons with such rebellious minds------ who harbour secret anti-government intension----- we submit respectfully to the Government, however, that such lists should be allowed to remain in our possession as a ‘political secret’ until the Government feels the need to call for them. In the latter event, we would expect our ‘judicious-minded’ Government also to keep these lists in its safe custody as a ‘state secret’. The names and addresses are given below”   (cf., Tabligh-e-Risalat op. cit, Vol. V)

Further more, seeing that the Hindus of India were engaged in a struggle for India’s liberation from British rule along side the country’s Muslims, Mirza started writing and lecturing in favour of the scriptures and holy personalities of the Hindus in order to win the latter’s sympathies for his own party addressing the Hindu public in a lecture delivered in November 1904 at Sialkot, he said:

“It has been revealed to me that Lord Krishna was an accomplished person, the like of whom is not found in any other holy Hindu personality. He was an avatar or Prophet of his time, and was visited by the Holy Spirit (i.e., Angel Gabriel).------ God has promised that in the last period of history, He would create a ‘projection’ of Krishna, and this promise has now been fulfilled in my appearance. Besides other inspiration, I had also received this inspiration: O Krishna Gopal! Thy praise has been recorded in the Bhagvad Geeta”.                 

In his book Shahadatul Quran (Testimony of the Quran), Mirza observed that the allegiance of the British Government amounted to “half of Islam”. In the same vein, he wrote in his Tiryaq-ul-Qulub as follows:

“I have written so many books on the subject of prohibition of jihad and on allegiance to the British as to fill no less than fifty book-cases. I have also had these books distributed to far-off lands such as the Arab countries, Egypt, Syria, Kabul and Rum (i.e., Turkey). I have tried to ensure that the Muslims should become truly loyal to this government and also that the baseless tales about the Blood-thirsty Mahdi and the Blood-thirsty Messiah, as well as the violence-inciting beliefs like jihad, which corrupt the minds of the foolish ones, should be obliterated”.