(iPoster) The Political Thought of Maulana Azad: Pluralism and Non-Violence in Islam

• In Event: Poster Session: Foundations of Political Theory I

Abstract

Discourses about Islam gained much attention in the Western world after the American hostage crisis during the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 and the infamous 9/11 attacks. Given the widespread influence of radical ideas that shaped modern Islamism in the latter half of the twentieth century and the impact that it created around the globe, it has become a part of the conventional wisdom that Islam as a political ideology is essentially incapable of embracing pluralist democracy. As various influential radical thinkers espouse a violent response to the modern nation-state system, I ask: Can Islamic ideals be integrated into a framework of pluralist democracy, harmony, and coexistence in the twenty-first century? While modern Islamism is marked in large part by the rhetoric of otherization and violence against non-Muslims, non-believers, and the West, I argue that there are tolerant traditions within Islamic thought that highlight pluralist democracy, mutual tolerance, and co-existence.

In this paper, I contend that justifying the rhetoric of violence and categorizing the West as an enemy is not “the worldview” of Islamic political thought. In doing so, I examine the political thought of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a Mecca-born Islamic scholar and activist of India, whose anti-colonial politics did not deter him from pursuing non-violent activism and pluralist democracy. Azad was one of the senior leaders of the Indian National Congress (INC), India's oldest political party, which worked towards India's independence. Later, he became the first Education Minister of independent India. While his politics centered around fighting against British imperialist policies, he actively advocated for Hindu-Muslim unity in the colonized India. In this paper, I analyze his writings, interviews, and statements that emphasized the need for a pluralist multifaith democracy to resist the oppressive forces of colonialism.

Author

• Mohammad Rezwanul Haque Masud, University of Colorado, Boulder