Address: - Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi

 

Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind or Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind (Council of Indian Muslim Theologians) is one of the leading organizations of Islamic scholars belonging to the Deobandi school of thought in India. It was founded in 1919 by a group of Deobandi scholars. Mufti Kifayatullah Dehlavi was elected the first president of the organization, and Mohammad Sajjad as its secretary.

 

The Jamiat was an active participant in the Khilafat Movement in collaboration with the Indian National Congress. It also opposed the partition of India, taking the position of composite nationalism: that Muslims and non-Muslims form one nation. As a result, this organisation had a small break-away faction known as the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, which decided to support the Pakistan movement.

 

After the death of its former president Asad Madni, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind split in to two factions. The first faction is the "Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Arshad", named after Arshad Madani; and the other faction is "Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Mahmood", named after Mahmood Madani". Arshad Madani is president of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Arshad faction whilst Usman Mansoorpuri was the National President of the Mahmood faction from 2008 to 21 May 2021. Mahmood Madani succeeded Usmān as the president of Mahmood faction on 27 May 2021

 

 

The founders of the Jamiat in 1919 were the scholars Husain Ahmad Madani, Ahmed Saeed Dehlvi, Kifayatullah Dihlawi, Muhammad Naeem Ludhianvi, Ahmed Ali Lahori, Anwar Shah Kashmiri, Abdul Haq Akorwi, Abdul Haleem Siddiqui, Noor u Din Bihari and Abdul Bari Firangi Mahali.

 

 

During the British Raj, the Deobandi and Deoband-based organization was against the British rule in India and for a united India, opposing the formation of a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind was a member of the All India Azad Muslim Conference, which contained several Islamic organisations standing for a united India.

 

 

Hussain Ahmad Madani, the principal of the Darul Uloom Deoband (1927–1957) and the leading Deobandi scholar, held that Muslims were unquestionably part of a united India and that Hindu-Muslim unity was necessary for the country's freedom. He worked closely with the Indian National Congress until the Partition of India was carried out. A faction under Shabbir Ahmad Usmani supporting the creation of Pakistan parted ways in 1945 to support the All Indian Muslim League. This faction came to be known as the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and is currently a political party in Pakistan.

 

Scholar Ishtiaq Ahmed states that, in return for their support, the Jamiat obtained a pledge from the Indian leadership that the state would not interfere with the Muslim Personal Law in India. So far, the Indian state has kept its word.

 

 

The Jamiat has an organisational network which is spread all over India. It also has an Urdu daily Al-Jamiyat. The Jamiat has propounded a theological basis for its nationalistic philosophy. The thesis is that Muslims and non-Muslims have entered upon a mutual contract in India, since independence, to establish a secular state. The Constitution of India represents this contract. This is known in Urdu as a mu'ahadah. Accordingly, as the Muslim community's elected representatives supported and swore allegiance to this mu'ahadah, so it is the responsibility of Indian Muslims to support the Indian Constitution. This mu'ahadah is similar to a previous similar contract signed between the Muslims and the Jews in Medina. In 2009, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind said that Hindus should not be called kafirs (infidels), even though the term only means a "Non-Muslim," because its use may hurt someone.

After the death of its former President Asad Madni, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind split into two factions, one being presided by Arshad Madani and the other was led by Usman Mansoorpuri.

 

 

In November 2009 the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind passed a resolution describing Vande Mataram as an anti-Islamic song and received opposition from Muslim Rashtriya Manch national convener, Mohammed Afzal stating "Our Muslim brothers should not follow the fatwa as Vande Mataram is the national song of the country and every Indian citizen should respect and recite it.