Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 19
CHAPTER 3. A REBUTTAL OF MAUDUDIAN. PHILOSOPHY. The Hindu revivalist movements took an aggressive turn in the early 1920s after the failure of the joint Hindu - Muslim khilafat movement. . The Hindu Mahasabha, founded at Hardwar in 1914 by Pandit Madan. Mohan Malaviya (1861-1946), joined the Arya Samaj in its campaign of shuddi (reconversion and purification of Muslims, initially in the Punjab, the United Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh, the Deccan and other parts of India). By forcing Muslims to ‘wash away their pollution' with total immersion in a river or water-tank, Hindu gangs provoked communal rioting. Between 1922 and 1926 over 200 Hindu - Muslim clashes were reported. Verbal and written attacks on Islam and Islam's Prophetsa became widespread. In their religious zeal, the writers of shuddi literature made scurrilous attacks on the Holy Prophetsa. An Arya Samaj preacher, Pandit Kalicharan Sharma, wrote his own account. He emphasised the Prophet'ssa alleged immorality and the fact that he married to 'correct' the view of history. His book, Vichitra Jiwan (Strange Life), also stressed 'the spread of Islam by the sword'. All Muslims, according to Pandit Sharma, were intent on looting, arson and rape. In May 1924, a Lahore book-seller, Rajpal, published an Urdu tract by an anonymous author criticising the Holy Prophetsa. The tract, Rangila Rasul (Playboy. Prophet) suggests that all great religious leaders are associated with sets of ideas and symbols. For instance, the founder of Arya Samaj, Swami. Dayanand, had glorified celibacy and closely identified his reforms with the Vedas. Similarly, the life and faith of the Prophet of Islamsa were linked closely with relationships with women. Rajpal was later murdered by two Muslim youths, which led to Hindu - Muslim rioting. Another. Hindu wrote an article, 'A trip to hell', in Risala-i-Vartman describing the Prophetsa in hell and elaborating on his sufferings and 'sins'. . The Ahmadis of undivided India immediately got themselves to19