Abstract
Islam has been an essential factor in shaping the national character of both India and Saudi Arabia. This was an asset for both the countries to develop robust relations but India did not exploit the Islamic factor and turned it into a burden. Centuries of Haj pilgrimage and people-to-people contacts could have created new avenues for Indian diplomatic manoeuvres, but they remained confined to a defensive attitude vis-à-vis Pakistan.
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- 1.
A number of schools of thought had developed in early years of the advent of Islam and as the faith spread to other parts of the world and many new adherents started to study the ‘divine scriptures,’ several new interpretations of obligations, methods of prayer, and so on became popular. Gradually, however, Muslim states started to endorse one specific school of thought as their preferred jurisprudence and eventually, these became consolidated with a few recognized madhab or school of jurisprudence. In the contemporary Islamic world four Sunni, two Shiite (Ja’afri and Zaidi), two others Ibadi and Zahiri schools are recognized. In the Indian case, the Sultanate and Mughal rulers had adopted the Hanafi School of jurisprudence and hence, the Hanafi School is predominantly followed among Indian Muslims, though other schools of thought too are followed in some parts. See (Karandikar 1968; Sharif 1997; Syed 1986; Reetz 2006.
- 2.
The Hindu, 11 December 1955 cited (Mudiam 1994, 87).
- 3.
Some of the accounts of haj pilgrimage undertaken by Nawab Sikandar Begum of Bhopal in 1864 indicate the warmth and respect shown by the Sharif family to the Begum in Mecca (Lambert-Hurley 2007).
- 4.
Accordingly, the quota for the President was set at 100 seats; Vice-President and Prime Minister 75 seats each; and External Affairs Minister 50 seats (India, Rajya Sabha 2015).
- 5.
For a glimpse of Wahhabi thought or views on Sufi, Shi’ite or Muslims of other sects and people of non-Islamic faiths, see the fatwas issued by Abdulaziz Bin-Baz, the former Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia (1993–99) and other scholars at the Dar al-Ifta of Saudi Arabia (KSA 2018).
- 6.
Indian nationals extradited or deported for involvement in terror financing or online radicalization from Saudi Arabia include Zabiuddin Ansari (June 2012); A. Rayees and Fasih Mohammad (October 2012); Asadullah Khan (December 2015); Abdul Aziz and Adil Afrooz (February 2016); Abdul Salam (December 2016); Sayed Zaker Raheem (January 2017); Amzad Khan (April 2017); and Zeeshan Ali (August 2017).
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Kumaraswamy, P.R., Quamar, M.M. (2019). Islamic Dimension. In: India's Saudi Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0794-2_4
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