Indian Wahhabi-linked reformers kept Sufi practices despite Arabian parallels

Evidence

The so-called Indian Wahhabis have provoked great interest among colonial administrators and Indian historians alike. Histories of the Wahhabi movement in India generally start with the spiritual and political movement of Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi, who died in 1831 while fighting a jihad against the Sikhs in the region around Peshawar. There were some general similarities between the beliefs of the Arabian followers of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab (1703–1792), including an emphasis on direct consultation of the Qu’ran and hadith, and religious reform movements in India dating to the late eighteenth century. Indian reformers, however, retained a strong connection to Sufi practices with deep roots in South Asian Islam. — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi, 26

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies who the ‘Wahhabis’ of colonial Indian discourse actually were and where their genealogy begins: Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi, d. 1831.
• XREF: Connects to the recurring figure of the ‘Wahhabi’ as imperial bogeyman discussed elsewhere in the chapter’s framing of 1857 and colonial governance.