The Impact of Debate on ‘Islam and Socialism’ in Colonial India: The Understanding of Chaudhry Afzal Haq

Abstract

Socialism is a theoretical and practical response in modern times to combat
the problems of inequalities between the rich and the poor due to the
capitalist policies of colonial powers. For the last two centuries, western
capitalistic institutions brought about economic disparity and social
disparity in the arenas under their colonized influence. In colonial India,
modern Muslim reformers sought to prove that the Holy Qur’an and
Sunnah contain all elements needed to deal with modern economic
problems. The problem stimulated many Muslim scholars to ponder over
themes in vogue in the last century including current debate of socialism.
Generally, the ‘ulemā find the capitalist system excluding interest more
compatible to Islam. A few Muslim individuals and groups were inspired by
the Russian socialist revolution led by socialist ideological thought. They
considered the economic part of that socialism better matched to the code
of Musawat (equality) in Islam. During the struggle for freedom, Indian
Muslims were enthusiastic about the socialist movement against
colonialism and its economic exploitation of India. The Majlis-i-Ahrar and
its leaders were influenced by these socialist ideas of Musawat and parity in
wealth. The Majlis’s two stalwarts Maulana Habib ur Rehman Ludhanivi
and Chaudhry Afzal Haq penned extensively on the similarities between
the idea of economic parity in socialism and the principle of musawat and
Akhuwat in Islam. In this paper we aim to examine the understanding of
Chaudhy Afzal Haq on the compatibility of both ideologies based on his
articles published in the newspaper Zamzam in 1941.