New Delhi: Fourteen years after they split and seven years after talk of a reunion last surfaced, the merger of the Arshad and Mahmood Madani factions of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a leading body of Islamic scholars, is “on course” and efforts are on to complete the process “in the next few months”, according to top leaders of the organisations.
The reunion proposal was ratified by the Arshad Madani faction in June and then by the Mahmood Madani faction the next month in the light of “growing pressure” on the Muslim community. Jamiat is one of the largest Muslim socio-religious organisations in the country.
As part of the reconciliation process, some members of the Mahmood Madani faction including the president himself travelled to Deoband.
“We had a meeting on the reconciliation just a few days back but this is not something that can be resolved in one meeting. We have crores of workers in every state, in every district of the country. We are hoping that by God’s grace the process will be completed in the next two to four months hopefully. The important thing is that now both sides want a reconciliation,” said Maulana Arshad Madani, who is the president of one of the factions and also a senior teacher at Darul Uloom Deoband, the world’s second largest Islamic seminary.
Maulana Niaz Farooqui, secretary of the Mahmood Madani faction, told ThePrint: “The process is on. There will now be meetings of both the factions of the organisation. It is a mammoth exercise. We have units in every district, every state. All of those will be merged, so this is not something that can happen in a day. There are no deadlines as such but the term of the current office-bearers gets over in about two years and we are hoping to get it [the merger] wrapped up within the current term. That is why we have started the process well in advance.”
One of the issues that will need to be resolved during the merger is what happens to the office-bearers at various levels after the reunion.
“We have decided that we will not remove any worker at any level because these are committed Jamiat workers whose very values are rooted in our organisational ethos. Both sides have agreed on this. As for the office bearers, the working committees have empowered us to decide,” Madani added.
In a statement issued on July 22, the Mahmood Madani faction, after the reunion proposal was ratified by the working committee, said: “After long deliberations, it was unanimously approved that the Working Committee [WC] of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind appreciates the recent reconciliation process of the organisation and agrees to take forward the process of reconciliation. To advance this process, the WC authorised President of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind Maulana Mahmood Asa’d Madani to continue the process of reconciliation in accordance with Jamiat’s Constitution, and it also considers it necessary that the concerned parties should not only limit themselves to verbal discussions but present their suggestions and positions in written form.”
According to the plan, all WC members, special invitees, state presidents and general secretaries are required to submit their resignation to Mahmood Madani to pave the way for the formation of a new working committee comprising members of both factions.
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Peace proposal mooted earlier too
In 2008, Jamiat split into two factions soon after the death of Asad Madani, who headed the organisation for over 40 years and his son, Mahmood, did not agree with the way the organisation was run by his uncle Arshad who had taken over as president. However, this is not the first time that the two factions have spoken of reuniting. In 2015, Mahmood and Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal had met Arshad with a peace proposal to effect a reconciliation. However, nothing materialised.
“The difference is that at that time only one side wanted a merger, the other did not. Right now, both sides are keen on merger. It has been many years, and I do not remember which side wanted it and which side did not,” Maulana Arshad Madani told ThePrint.
However, Farooqui said that unforeseen circumstances had prevented the fructification of the earlier proposal. He said, “That proposal was mooted at a time when the terms of the office bearers was coming to an end, and a need was felt that it would be a good time to try to come together. But the process could not be completed in such a short time and then Covid happened. Also, we lost our president Maulana Qari Usman Mansoorpuri.”
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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