DefinePK

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze tendencies of Islamic Socialism in British India. Marxist ideas entered South Asia much before Russian Revolution, but it was the Russian Revolution of 1917 which strongly influenced the thought and political imagination of Muslim India. Five Muslim thinkers and political activists who were greatly influenced by this revolution and who sought to develop a theory of Islamic socialism have been discussed in this paper, namely Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, Maulana Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi, Hasrat Mohani, Maulana Abdur Rahim Popalzai, and Chaudhry Afzal Haq. All these scholars maintain that theory of socialism is in harmony with the Quranic ideas of equitable distribution of wealth and social justice. This paper concludes that while rejecting the atheistic and anti-religious character of communism, these ideologues consider only the economic dimension of communist ideology.