Urdu: Engraze awr Wahabi

How a label became a weapon

Words used to smear a movement rarely stay confined to their original target — and "Wahabi," a label the British colonial administration in 19th-century India applied to Muslim freedom fighters resisting occupation, is a case study in exactly that pattern. Engraze awr Wahabi (انگریز اور وہابی) — "The English and the Wahabis" traces how that label was deployed and why.

The historical context

During the mid-19th century, Indian Muslims were struggling to preserve their independence while the British sought to capture India. When the British failed to stop the resistance movement outright, they turned to dividing it — creating suspicion and hatred in the minds of ordinary Muslims against those actively fighting for their homeland, largely by attaching a foreign, alarming label to the movement's leaders.

Sourced from the colonizers' own record

The book draws its references from the writings of Western authors themselves, who documented the qualities of these freedom fighters even as they were being labeled "Wahabis" — a parallel the author draws deliberately to the modern use of terms like "Muslim terrorist" against those fighting for their homelands today. The book is written as an attempt to remove the misconceptions this shared enemy created between Muslim brethren.