Fazle Umar
The Shuddhi Movement In the province of Uttar Pradesh (UP), India there was a large section of Muslims who were known as Malkana Rajput. Hindu influence in their customs and beliefs was widespread to the extent that they worshiped idols despite the fact that they were Muslims. During 1922–23 the militant wing of the Hindu Arya Samaj devised a plan to reconvert these people to Hinduism. These Hindus believed that the only way to achieve Hindu–Muslim unity was to turn all the Muslims into Hindus.105 As a result of this “Shuddhi campaign”, as it was called, scores of Malkana Muslims converted to Hinduism. As soon as Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II [ra] came to know of this apostasy movement he immediately launched a counter campaign. Thousands of Ahmadis offered themselves to do the missionary work for a period of three months entirely at their own expense, at the expiry of which they would be replaced by fresh batches of volunteers. They travelled to Uttar Pradesh and started the missionary work with great zeal. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih alerted the non–Ahmadi Muslims against the gravity of the danger that threatened and appealed to them to make common cause with the Ahmadis against the challenge of the Arya Samaj. He made it quite clear that the Muslim effort should be directed towards strengthening the faith of the Malkanas in Islam and that no sectional advantage should be sought to be derived from the situation with which they were faced. These volunteers rigorously worked there day and night. One particular feature of the campaign was that it opened at the height of the dry summer season, and the volunteers who perforce came from urban areas and were accustomed to the amenities available in towns and cities for the purpose of mitigating the extreme discomfort resulting from the very high temperatures in the summer months, were called upon to work in rural areas at unaccustomed tasks in conditions of extreme discomfort. Their
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