QUESTION OF MUSLIM CULTURE IN BRITISH INDIA AND ANJUMAN-E-HIMAYAT-E-ISLAM

Abstract

The Indo-Pakistan subcontinent witnessed the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danish, the French and the British from the end of 15th Century to 18th Century. Each European nation except the Dutch made an attempt to Christianize the Indian community. However, the British were the most enthusiastic in Christianizing the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent by patronizing the Christian Missionaries. For this purpose, the Christian missionaries through the East India Company established Missionary Schools, Colleges and Hospitals in India. In a Missionary Hospital in Lahore, a widow along with here children went for medical treatment but had no money. The Christian Missionaries assured them a medical treatment free of cost but with a condition that they would have to convert themselves into Christianity. Secondly, Christian Missionary used a defamatory language against the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H). These two incidents led to the establishment of a Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam (AHI) organization. This research work discusses the role of AHI in education, culture and in the development of the Urdu language in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. This research work has utilized the primary sources such as monthly magazine of AHI providing the initial information about the works AHI and the government records about AHI in the Peshawar Public Library while secondary sources used for this research are journals, websites, research articles and books.