Historical and Religious Debates amongst Indian Ismailis 1840-1920

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.... The banyan tree: Essays on early literature in new Indo-Aryan languages: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Early Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages, Venice, 1997 (2000)

Historical and Religious Debates amongst Indian Ismailis 1840-1920 ZA WAHIR MOIR

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During the middle and the later years of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth, a number of writers of Indian Ismaili origin researched and hotly debated the nature, history and origin of their faith, some strongly imbued with the desirability of abandoning it for Shia Ithna Ashari or Sunni Islam or even Hinduism, others equally convinced of its continuing authenticity and power. Today largely forgotten - and easily passed over for their apparencair of antiquarian sectarianism - these writings in fact reveal the extent to which the Isinailisenseof relig·~lO=U=S~~~~----C identity was rooted in, and carved out of, the complexities and ambiguities of their South Asian past, whilst also responding to the emergent political realities of early twentieth-century Indian national movements. However, before examining these writings in more depth, it is necessary to introduce and contextualize them by briefly recalling firstly, the general socioreligious position of the Ismaili communities in northern India around the middle of the nineteenth century, and secondly, the period of public dissension and turmoil that followed the arrival of the First Agha Khan Hasanali Shah in Bombay in 1845. BACKGROUND

The Indian Nizari Ismailis, whose spiritUal leader (Imam) the newlyarrived Agha Khan (d.1881) claimed to be, were a mixed and scattered group, not easily categorized as Muslims or Hindus, and not all prepared to acknowledge the Agha's authority. Besides the few hundred families then resident in Bombay in the 1840s - a growing commercial class who were to present the Agha Khan with his most serious challenges - they mostly comprised a scattering of small-scale trader, artisan and agriculturist communities extending northwards through Guj arat, Kathiawar, Kachchh and Sindh as far as Punjab and Kashmir. Following their own traditional accounts, most believed themselves to have been originally converted to the Ismaili faith, generally known as the Satpanth (true path), by a line of

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charismatic FITS or missionaries sent by the Nizari Ismaili Imams in Iran from about the twelfth century onwards. In particular many of those living outwardly as Khojas 1 in the southern region from Bombay to Sindh, claimed to have been LohaI).a Hindus brought to the faith by FIT ~adruddln in the early fifteenth century (Arnould). By contrast, many others, especially in the northern region of Punjab - the so-called Gupti Ismailis and Shamsis - practised an extreme form of taqiyya (concealment), following _ _ _ _the Satpanthin s§cre!wlJ.ilst conforming outwardly to Hindu customs and life:style; they also mostly-claimed tohavebeen-convertedrn the thirteenth century by FIT Shams, the predecessor of FIT ~adruddln (Aziz 1974).2 Besides these main divisions, there were also other groups in Gujarat who were specially devoted to FIr Satgur Niir (probably a near-contemporary of FIr Shams), or who, like the Imamshiihis, had split off from the main Ismaili fold during the sixteenth century, and come under increasing Hindu Mahamargi or Swami Narayan influences (Contractor). To the west of the main Ismaili communities in Gujarat and Sindh, i.e. in Rajasthan, there were lesser-known groups, such as Niziirpanthis and Mahapanthis, who seem to have been converted to Ismailism in medieval times but to have later become re-Hinduized, or even re-Islamized, whilst preserving tantalising traces of their original affiliation (Khan 1997).

-.._-~.__. ------.- Given the considerable variety of practice alriongsftlie IndiariIsmru.lis;-it will be at once apparent that the most striking feature of the Satpanth (and that which proved most baffling to outsiders) was its syncretism: the fact that it managed to combine the basic elements ofIsmaili Islam with a range of local Hindu concepts and customs. This defining characteristic can be partly ascribed to the flexible conversion strategies of the founder FIrs, who, for a variety of reasons - some associated with classical Ismaili philosophy, others perhaps more politically inspired - had sought to project the Satpanth as the completion of Hindu beliefs rather than as anew 1 The term Khoja is derived from the title Khwiija, meaning Lord. For recent general accounts of the Indian Nizfui Ismaili Khoj a Satpanthis, see Shackle and Moir. 2The Guptis were sometimes referred to as Shamsis. Hollister suggests that the Shamsi communities in Punjab, NWFP and Jammu practised a less extreme form of taqiyya than the Guptis, maintaining, for instance, the custom of burying rather than cremating their dead. Some sources also claim that sections of the Shamsis were originally converted not by FIr Shams of Multan but by a later sixteenthcentury FIr of the same name. It may also be noted here that the recent new converts in Punjab (converted by local missionaries after 1913) were known as Sheikhs. I am grateful to Mumtaz Sadik Ali for this information. See also his latest book Ismailis through History, Karachi, 1997.

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and alien creed. Most famously, this approach was expressed in the dual identity of the Ismaili Imam as both the direct successor of Ali and the Tenth Avatar (avatar) ofVi~lnfu - the long-awaited Nakalank. But the same approach also permeated the whole fabric of the Ismailis' religious and social life. For example, though most Khojas were no doubt vaguely aware of the significance of the Koran, they were far more devoted to the teachings of their own ginans - the hymns attributed to their leading Pirs, which they regularly recited in their Jama'tkhanas (assembly halls) in the mixed languages of northern India. Similarly, whilst they followed the Shia practice of offering prayers three times daily, professing faith in Allah, Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali, these prayers, the Sindhi du' a, were largely given over to recitations of the names of their own Pirs and Imams (including their Hindu Avatars) and were on regular occasions preceded by the distribution of holy water (Mujtaha Ali). A comparable combination of Islamic and Hindu forms also characterized their outward life. For instance, many Khojas in Bombay and Gujarat bore Hindu names, dressed like Lohal).a Hindus and followed Hindu property law, but they-alsopractisedfi.rf!If!lc;isiol1 and_mostly'--_ _ __ preferred to arrange their marriages and funerals through local Sunni mullahs. Amongst the Punjab Guptis, as already suggested, the adoption of complete taqiyya resulted in what would now be judged as startlingly schizoid life-styles. Thus apart from following the Satpanth in secret, these groups were otherwise indistinguishable from caste Hi~idus, having Hindu names, participating in Hindu festivals, cremating their dead, intennarrying with Hindus and keeping to a vegetarian diet. Hasanali Shah's decision to settle in Bombay in the 1840s, formally transferring his headquarters from Iran to India, ushered in a long period of dissension and transformation in the Indian Ismaili community. Although links had always been maintained between the previous Imams and their Indian followers (especially through the hereditary line of Khoja representatives - vakils in Kachchh responsible for the collection / transmission of tithe monies to Iran), such links had necessarily been loose and intermittent, and after the break-up of the line ofIndian Pirs at the end of the fifteenth century, there had been no centralized authority capable of imposing conformity across the wide range of locally autonomous communities. Almost at once the Agha Khan's arrival on the scene began to challenge this situation. It is unnecessary here to recount the detailed story of all the successive conflicts that characterized the relations between the Agha Khans and the minority of dissident Bombay Khojas during the next sixty or seventy years. That story is, I think, already sufficiently familiar through the work

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of various recent scholars CAs ani and Masselos). For the present purpose what needs to be brought out is the extent to which most of these disputes focused on the twin issues of the Agha Khan's claims to exercise authority over the Ismaili communities, and the socio-religious identity of those same communities. In particular, representatives of each of the major traditions that had previously quietly combined within the eclectic folds of the Satpanth, began to assert strong claims or viewpoints concerning what each group considered to be the essential character of their faith. Though - - - theintiriiate character oftlie-se InovemenfS is-sometimes hard to define-;-tIieunderlying logic was simple: if groups whom the Agha Khan claimed to lead could p:rove themselves to be Sunnis, Shia Ithna Asharis, or Hindus, then they would be freed from his interference and exactions. Of these groups, it was perhaps the Sunni Khojas who created the biggest stir in the publiclife ofBombay in the 1860s (Newspapers). Basing their claim that the Khojas were really SunniMuslims owing no obligations to the Ismaili Imam, largely on their marriage and burial customs, it was this group which in 1866 boldly challenged the Agha Khan to defend the legitimacy of his position in the Bombay High Court before Justice Arnould. The upshot, of course, was a notable victory for the Agha Khan, in the course of which a wealth of historical evidence was adduced to . -establish (a) the special position enjoyed by the Ismaili Imam within llie--broad Shia branch of Islam as the direct descendant of Ali, (b) that the Khojas themselves had originally been Hindus converted to Ismailism by Plr ~adruddin, and had always acknowledged the Imam's authority, and (c) that such Sunni customs as the Khojas had adopted had been part of their taqiyya. As a result of this decision a minority of Sunni Khojas chose to sever their links with the loyalist majority. By contrast, the later claims advanced by the Bombay Shia Khoj as from the 1870s .onwards, though potentially stronger than the earlier Sunni Khoja attacks, were in practice weakened in legal terms by the Agha Khan's convincing victory ill the earlier case. None the less several ingenious arguments were put forward by this groups to support their contention that the Khoja community were really mainstream IthnaAshari who had been led astray by the fraudulent claims of the Agha Khan. For example, they put forward evidence (a) that the Agha Khan's claim to an uninterrupted line of descent from Ali was distinctly dubious (a point left unresolved by the earlier Arnould judgement), or (b) that he and the members of his family privately followed Ithna Ashari practice. In the face of strong opposition from the Agha Khan party, many Shia Khojas left the community in 1901, and their claims were also firmly dismissed

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by Justice Russell in the Haji Bibi case of 1908 in Bombay (Judgement). Finally, as regards the public expression of Hindu-minded Ismailis, the situation is more complex since for a long time these groups remained muted. In a sense, however, their viewpoint - or rather the Hindu elements in Indian Ismailism - had been partially expressed in the earlier case brought to the Bombay High Court in 1847, when Justice Perry had ruled that Khoja property was subjectedto Hindu not Islamic law, as the AghaKhan's party had argued. Butitwas not really till much later in 191314 that a more wholehearted mass expression of Hindu Ismaili opinion was manifested, this time, appropriately enough, not from the sophisticated ____ Bombay Khojas but from the long-forgotten Gupti communities in Punjab and Gujarat. 3 Called upon then by the Third Agha Khan to come out of hiding and openly declare themselves as Muslim Ismailis, some authorities claim that as many as 40,000 eventually came out positively in response to this appeal, leaving perhaps a sirnilarnumber who felt unable to abandon their traditional Hindu life-style, including some who in a sense followed the logic of their convictions by joining the Arya Samaj (Nizami). THE ISMAILI WRITERS AND THEIR DEBATES

The dozen or more writers of Ismaili Origiil whose works reflect and illuminate this long period of religious and legal dissension in the Indian Ismaili community may be roughly divided into four main categories. The first and earliest group includes two writers (a) Khaki Khoj a, whose rather mysterious tract Guptpanth kii shajara (also calledShajara) seems to have appeared around the time the Agha Khan case was being heard in Bombay (1866), and (b) Sachedina Nanjiani whose better-known Khojii vratiint was published in Ahmedabad in 1892. Although, as we shall see, these two works vary considerably in sophistication and reliability, they may be associated in so far as they both represent first attempts by Ismaili writers to research and reconstruct the early hi~tory of the Satpanth, each providing new - and to the contemporary community - controversial accounts of the nature and origin of its Hindu elements. The remaining three groups belong to the next generation of Ismaili writers, all emerging more or less simultaneously during the first quarter

3 I am grateful to Mr. Mahboobali Khoja of Karachi and also to his friend Mr. Sherali (whose family was originally Gupti) for providing the information about the Agha Khan's appeal to the Guptis.

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of the twentieth century. Not only do many of these writers in varying degrees seek to respond to the challenging historical material presented in the Agha Khan case and by Khaki and Nanjiani, but each group also articulates - often in open debate with their rivals - one or other of those .main viewpoints concerning the essential nature ofIsmaili identity, whose more public manifestations in Bombay were briefly described in the introductory section of this paper. That is to say, for the viewpoint ofthe Shia Khojas, the most vigorous and polemical expression is to be found in _ _ _ _the writings ofEdulji Dhanji Kaba, a prolific Guj arati author, whose works-" include Khoja komnl tavarikh (Amreli, 1912) and Khoja panth darpan (Amreli, 1913-14). As for the third group - representing arange of Hindu Ismaili perspectives - we shall be looking briefly at three writers, all influenced by the Arya Samaj, namely, Pindi Das, Ram Chandar and Radha Krishan, all of Gupti origin, and particularly active from 1913-14 onwards. Finally _. and forming the fourth and the largest category - are what may be best described as the Ismaili revivalists - a group of Agha-Khani loyalists who, acting more or less in concert, sought to create a renewed sense of traditional Ismaili identity, strong enough to hearten and educate their supporters and refute their opponents. Active for several decades _~from about 1905 onwards, mainly in Bombay, these Gujarati writers included Jaffer Rahimtoola, Master HashimBogha, Alimuharnmad Chunara and Ebrahim Varteji. Together they produced a stream of publications, ranging from newspaper articles, books about Ismaili history and religion, and educational text books, to polemical replies to Shia and Arya Samaj attacks and even volumes of poetry. Amongst their most significant works are Rahimtoola's Khoja komno itihiis (Bombay, 1905), Bogha Master's Asaliyate Khojii (Bombay, 1912) and Varteji's Aftiibe haklkat (Bombay, 1916) and VedikIsliim (Bombay, 1921). Before analysing the positions adopted by these several groups in more detail, that is to say explaining their differences, I must briefly draw attention to two or three general features, which they have in common. First and foremost, of course, was their preoccupation with Ismailism itself. Thus, although their individual and group opinions vary enormously, along with their degrees of certitude, they are all ultimately asking similar questions about the Satpanth. How did it begin? Is it still valid? If not, what should replace it? And if it is still to be accepted,how should it be represented? The comparative freedom with which these questions were asked also points towards the second common ground shared by these writers,

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namely, the fact they represent the first generations of Indian Ismaili writers able to take advantage of the general climate of religious freedom associated with the consolidation of the British Raj during the nineteenth century. No doubt there· were limits to that freedom - marked by the successive vernacular press acts - but for Ismailis of all sorts, inured to earlier periods of orthodox persecution and accustomed to the need for taqiyya, the opportunities opened up to express their views over a range of vital issues, and even to answer their critics, were certainly novel experiences, which several of the writers themselves acknowledge. New, too, was the growing availability of printed vernacular and English trans-lations of many of the major scriptural texts belonging to the different South Asian religious traditions - Hindu, Islamic, Jain, etc. As we shall see, most of these writers, particularly the Ismaili revi valists, made ample use of this newly accessible material to challenge their opponents and identify new sources of support for their own positions. KHAKIKHOJA

Next to nothing is known about Khaki Khoja, the author of Gupt Panth ka Shajara, other than what can be deduced from the internal evidence of his undated work. That is to say, since he quotes extensively from the ginans, and his bookis written in Bombay-style Urdu rendered in the Khojki script, it seems almost certain that he was of Khoja Ismaili origin, and may have lived in Bombay. His evident aversion to tithes' payment suggests that he may have been connected with the early Bombay Khoja opposition to the First Agha Khan on that score, whilst some of his sceptical representations of the Ismaili Pirs and Imams seem to indicate that he is writing from a Shia perspective. As indicated earlier, it also appears from Nanjiani's later account that the Shajara may have come out shortly before the Agha Khan Case in 1866; certainly it makes no direct reference to the historical materials produced in that case, though it does include :f:Iasanali Shah in its lists of Ismaili Imams. As the title implies, Khaki's book is largely made up of a series of genealogies or tables detailing the lines of Islamic Prophets, Shia Ithna Ashari Imams, Ismaili Imams and Avatars, as well as their 'Indian' Pirs and assistants (Maheshvaras and vakils). It also includes brief narrative accounts of certain key episodes in the history of the Ismaili mission in India, such as the lives of Satgur Nur and his disciple Chach, the subsequent alleged foundation of the Satpanth by Pir Sadrudctin and Sohodev Joshi (see below), and the later disputes leading to the separation

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cifthe Imamshahis in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Unfortunately, unlike Nanjiani, Khaki says very little about the sources of his Shajara. However, it seems probable that he drew upon certain older manuscript sources and traditions, especially for his genealogies, and that he may also have investigated Imamshahi materials at Pirana and mainstream Khoja materials at traditional centres in Kachchh and Gujarat. From the point of view of its implications for Indian Ismaili identity, the _ _ _ _ _ m()st intriguing part of Khaki 's Shajara lies in its dramatic treatment of the secret pact between ¥"rr $adruddin and Sohodev Joshi said to havebeen---concluded in AD 1420. According to the Shajara, Sohodev Joshi was a former Brahmin prince descended from Chach, the disciple of Satgur Nilr, who is traditionally supposed to have murdered his master before creating his own following amongst the Mahamargis in Gujarat and Punjab. 4 Khaki also describes Sohodev as a leading Mahamargi, deeply versed in Vaishnavite and Islamic mysticism, who had at one time even being captured by Pathans and forcibly converted to Islam. Helped by a wealthy Lohal)a named Kapur, Sohodev made the acquaintance of Pir $adruddin in Punjab. The two men then engaged in a lengthy dialogue in the course of which they both decided to put away their religious differences and forge a new Ismaili Hindu synthesis, referred to as the Satpanth. As part ofthe new system, a series ofHindulIsmaili equivalences were worked out --- ~ (e.g. Vi~hl)u as Imam, etc.), and a flexible arrangement agreed according to which those who joined the Satpanth but preferred to continue outwardly as Hindus, could do so as Guptis, whilst those who were ready to appear opeilly as Ismailis became known as Khojas. However, though Khaki's narrative does not explicitly state this, it implies that some sort ofIsmaili Gupti-cum-Mahamargi community had existed before this agreement, apparently going back to the conversions made by Satgur Nilr and Chach. Finally, it also emerges that Khaki himself views the formation of the Satpanth as amounting to a form of conspiracy, which resulted in the creation of a profitable source of income for the Pir and his successors (through their implied misappropriation of the money intended for the Imam), while leaving their hapless followers relegated to a limbo between Islam and Hinduism. In trying to assess the historical significance of Khaki's Shajara, a distinction may usefully be drawn between its immediate effects upon 4 Among present-day Hindu Gujarati writers, PIr Sadruddln and Sohodev are included amongst the founders of the Maharuargi sect, also known as Nizarpanthis. SeeMallison and Moir in Puru~iirtha, 19, 1996, pp. 265-76.

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the Khoja community and its longer-term historical interest. As far as the community was concerned, it appears that the Shajara' s critical representation of the Satpanth's origin and abuses initially had strongly negative effects, leading several hundred Khoja families in Bombay and Gujarat to secede. Thereafter, although the work continues to be occasionally cited by later writers, notably Nanjiani and Kaba, it hardly seems to figureeven as an object of criticism - in the writings of the later Ismaili revivalists. What is more, the extraordinary, multi-layered figure of Sohodev disappears entirely from the official Ismaili historiography which those writers helped to create. In particular, at least from the time of Laljibhai ----Devraj's official edition of the ginans (1904+), the name Sohodev is applied to PIr Sadruddin l1imself, with the implication that his adoption of it was part of the PIr's syncretic approach to Hindu conversions. As regards to its historical reliability, it is clear that the Shajara needs to be treated with considerable caution, not only in view of its author's evident intention to discredit the Khojas but also because of the contrived, story-like quality it deploys. The need for caution is also generally underlined by Nanjiani who, though he givesTredirtoKhaki fofh.avi-n-g-----made a pioneering attempt to collect up Ismaili sources and traditions, considers that many of the Shajara's stories are not to be relied upon. At the same time it would also be a mistake to dismiss the work as wholly lacking in historical credibility. For example, preliminary examinations of the manuscript versions of the ginans (as opposed to the authorized printed copies) suggest that Sohodev may indeed have been an independent personality, not just an alias for Sadruddin, though what exactly his role was remains obscure. Similarly, recent research is beginning to confirm at least some of the broader historical elements hinted at in the Shajara's accounts, namely, the role of the Mahfunargis in the formation and spread of the Satpanth, the extentto which the early Ismaili PIrs relied upon Hindu religious and political support, and the significance of the Gupti communities as evidence of those early alliances and accommodations (Kassam). SACHEDINA NANJIANI

If Khaki Khoja's ancient genealogies and graphic tales of secret pacts and conspiracies seem in some ways to place the Shajara in a late medieval setting, Sachedina N anjiani' s Khoja vratant, with its systematic conception and framework and critical use of historical sources, bears more of the hallmarks of modernity. Also, unlike Khaki Khoja, Nanjiani himself is a fairly well-documented figure. Born into what would seem to have been

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a well-to-do Ismaili family in Kachchh, he himself met the First Agha Khan more than once - first in the company of his grandfather on a visit to Hyderabad in 1842, and later with his father in Kachchh. Pursuing his career as Assistant Revenue Commissioner in Kachchh state, he began to collect material for his history from 1874 onwards. The result, Khoja vratant, was printed in Ahmedabad in 1892 and laterreprinted (in abridged form) in 1918; he himself probably died sometime before 1912. Though at some stage - perhaps after the First Agha Khan case, he decided to Shia Ithna Ashari, he does not allow his own views t6 cbloutliishistorical judgement. Khoja vratant is a personal exploration of his roots, and a sober, rational attempt to help the Khoja community to overcome its present confusion and division by coming to terms with the full complexities of its past. That it was soon recogIlized as such is shown by the extent it is laterreferred to by various government memoirs and gazetteers (Enthoven, Sadiq Ali). The variety of source material consulted by Nanjiani in his long period of research is particularly impressive, including the ginans themselves, K.ha.1d K.hoja's Shajara, Arabic and Persian sources cited in the 1866 Agha Khan Case, the Persian text of Farishta as well as various works by Western orientalists and Hindu religious texts. He himself also describes -visits "made to check the archives belonging to the Ismaili ValdIs in Bhuj,- ---as well as the traditional Ismaili Sayyid centre at Kera and the Imamshahi Dargah at Pirana. With a pioneer spirit somewhat unusual for the period, he also investigated, as we shall see, the bhajans preserved in the oral tradition of the Meghval communities in Kachchh and Gujarat. 5 Khoja vratant aims to cover almost the whole history of the Ismaili movement, including the Fatimid and Nizarii Alamut periods (909-1256), and also to summarize as much of the Hindu tradition as seems to be relevant.· But the core of the work's contribution - and that which concerns us here - is its originalinvestigation into the early history of the Satpanth in Kachchh and Gujarat, and in particular the relations between the first Ismaili missionaries and their Hindu converts. In following this line of research, it also appears that Nanjiani is consciously seeking to advance beyond the two most important previous contributions to the·

become a

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5 There seems to be no recent socio-anthropological study of the Mahfunargi communities, who retain evidence of early contacts with the Nizari Ismaili mission - contacts which were apparently subsequently broken. Contemporary Indian writers on Gujarati folk literature prefer to derive the term Nizar from nija (pure).

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subject, namely, (1) the statements made in 1866 Agha Khan Case that the Khojas were originally LohaI).a Hindus converted by PIr Sadruddrn in the fifteenth century, and (2) Khaki Khoja' s tantalizing glimpse into the Mahiimargi contribution to Indian Ismailism during and before the Sadruddrn mission (though it is interesting to note that Nanjiani makes no mention of Sohodev Joshi). It was Nanjiani's discovery of the oral tradition of bhajans preserved by the Meghval and other Mahiimargi communities in Kachchh and Gujarat that brought the most significant breakthrough in his research. To his surprise he discovered that these bhajans not only contained the --~expectedTeferences to purely Hindu sacred figures and symbols, but also to the Nakalank, the long-awaited Tenth Avatar, expressly described as due to arrive from Daylam (Alamut) in the West in Muslim garb to establish the reign of truth and justice. Above all these same bhajans spoke devoutly of the Niziirpanth and recorded stories about Satgur Nur and Chach Matang which closely paralleled the accounts given in the Ismaili ginans. Extending his fieldwork to cover the Mahamargireligiolls practices and rituals,N anjiani also enco-untered hofy-waterceremonies and :fOrrris-6f----~­ prayers bearing close resemblances to the Khoja rituals. Although Nanjiani is cautious about making deductions from his material, he appears to recognize that it pointed in two main directions, firstly suggesting that Nizari Ismaili missionaries had been active making converts in these areas probably as early as the twelfth century (or middle Alamut period); and secondly that many of the basic Khoja concepts and rituals still practised had been originally borrowed from or at least influenced by the Hindu Mahamargis. In other words, using a source independent of the ginans, N anjiani though he had found evidence of an Ismaili presence in Western India several centuries before Justice Arnould had supposed, and that the syncretic conversion methods previously credited to PIr Sadruddrn had apparently been employed in Gujarat much earlier. At the same time Nanjiani was careful not to speculate beyond the main area of his research. Forinstance, he certainly knew about the Ismaili communities in Punjab and Kashmir becoming Ithna Asharis but frankly admitted that he had no material concerning their origin. In drawing attention to the strong Hindu influences that had helped to shape the Satpanth, Nanjiani himself, though by this time adhering to Shia Ithna Asharism, never suggests that the Ismaili PIrs went too far in accepting and incorporating Hindu influences: on the contrary, he rather commends the success of their achievements. None the less it is also clear that other aspects of his research - particularly into the questionable line

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of descent of the Ismaili Imams during the Alamut period - had played a part in his decision to move towards a mainstream Shia position. Hence all these different elements in his research are reflected in the final conclusions of Khoja vratant when he tells the Khojas that the time had now come for them to abandon their Hindu practices and join the rest of theShia. But characteristically there is nothing strident about his conclusion: rather the tone is calm and matter-of-fact. The Hindus, he says, 'will not _ _ _ _--=accept us back, and we should join the Shias' apparently for the sake of the u~ity-ofIslam (p. 2(4). ---- -"-------- ... -- --

EDULJI DHANJI KABA, ETC.

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Although Nanjiani and, as far as we can tell, Khaki Khoja both opted to abandon their given identity as Ismaili Khojas in favour of Shia Ithna Asharism, and these personal moves are to some extent reflected in their respective works, it would be clearly misleading to characterize them as Shia apologist writers. N anjiani' s work in particular (as we have seen) has an objective rather than a sectarian quality, and this quality becomes even more apparent when compared with the writings of an outright Shia polemicist like Edulji Dhanji Kaba, and other minor Shia propagandists --such -as those writing under the pen-names- of Mr. Jim, Mr. Ain and - Mr. Gain. Like Nanjiani, Kaba belonged to an Ismaili Khoja family, and was probably born in Amreli (Baroda) in the late nineteenth century. In his ycipili he too joined the Ithna Ashari Khoja group but unlike Nanjiani he became increasingly outspoken and fanatical in his new-found faith, and determined to use his journalistic skills (he was for a while editor of a Gujarati newspaper) to expose his former Ismaili co-religionists as cryptoHindus and polytheists. Besides his newspaper articles, he was especially active between 1907 and 1920, producing more than half-a-dozen books and pamphlets, printed in Amreli, and mostly attacking Ismailis (e.g. Hasan bin Sabbah (1907), Khoja komnl tavarikh (1912) and Khoja panth darpan (1913-14). Moreover, as we shall see later, several of his publications were issued in response to counter-attacks by Ismaili revivalist writers in what became an increasingly heated contest. At one stage Kaba was even prepared to collaborate with the Arya Samaj Gupti writer Radha Krishan to discredit their common enemy (Varteji 1919). Although Kaba's later writings seem at times to go over the top in making wild accusations, it is none the less possible to identify certain more coherent elements in his general critique ofIsmaili Khojas. Making

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use of his knowledge of the giniins, plus a wide reading in contemporary religious and historical literature (including Nanji'ani and Khoja), Kaba attempts to deconstruct the Khoja Ismaili tradition, making it possible for Ithna Asharis to reclaim what he sees as their lost ground. Thus his critique is directed at two closely-related targets: the Ismaili Khojas' own claim to a distinct and authentic religious identity, and the legitimacy claims of the Agha Khan himself. In tackling the Khojas, he adopts a partly historical approach, making particular use of a recently published account by the caretaker of the Satgur NurDargah in Gujarat (Dargahvala 1914). On this basis he argues (contrary to Nanjiani) that Satgur Nur was not an Ismaili --arall buta Twelver Shia missionary, active before the Alamut period, who obliged his converts to abandon their Hindu practices and accept full Islam. It was only later, he held, that Fir $adruddin (and apparently Fir Shams before him) allowed their Khoja followers to revert to or continue l: with their Mahamargi beliefs and customs, especially their belief in the iii Imam as the VaishnaviteAvatar, and thereby (in Kaba's view) to lose their Islamic identity. Only a return to Shia Ithna Ashari Islam would thus ensure their salvation (K::lba19T2).-----~-In seeking to delegitimize the Agha Khans, Kaba's main line of attack Ii is less original and more personal, concentrating principally on the alleged .1 breaks in the line ofIsmaili Imams, and a variety of evidence to show that, despite their pretensions, the Agha Khans' personal religion was Ithna Ashari Shia (Kaba 1913-14). This latter evidence, however, for Kaba was not enough to redeem the Agha Khans as Muslim leaders, since (and here he brings the two sides of his critique together) they continued to project themselves as the Nakalank for their benighted Khoja followers. Incidentally, in labelling the Khojas as Hindus and their Imams as fallen Shia, polluted by polytheism, Kaba's ingenious argument finally seeks to invert the two main conclusions reached in Arnould' s judgement, namely that the Khojas were converted Hindus and that their Imams were Shia [,,' leaders.

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In contrast to the substantial and long-standing movement amongst certain Khojas to convert to Shia Islam, a tendency reflected in Kaba's fierce attacks on Ismailis, those Indian Ismailis who were closest to Hindu traditions were slow to assert their own distinct identity claims. Of course, one of the ironies attached to Kaba's contention that the Ismailis were really Hindus not Muslims, was that it opened up the possibility, in theory

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at least, that such people might as well publicly declare themselves as Hindus, as join the mainstream Shia. In practice, however, the groups most likely to be attracted to the former possibility were not amongst the Agha Khan loyalist Khojas, who openly practised their Satpanth (and for whom, as N anjiani had pointed out, the option of returning to Hinduism would not be easy) but among the Gupti and Shamsi communities in Punjab, Kashmir and Gujarat, who had practised taqiyya for centuries. Since almost by ______ ~efinition these communities were bound to be reticent, it required the shock of the Third Agha Khan' s19 1:3-14 appeal to them to come-C;utasIsmaili Muslims, to induce at least some of them to declare their contrary allegiance, encouraged by tactical support from the Arya Samaj (according to one report as many as 20,000 were re-Hinduized). As already suggested, further research is needed before we can form a clear picture of the overall outcome of the Agha Khan's appeal, particularly as regards the respective numbers of those who accepted and rejected his call. Essentially, for those who opted to declare themselves Ismailis, it was mostly a matter of adopting Muslim names, changing their marriage and funeral customs, developing their organization, etc; EMohamed). But for those who chose to remain Guptis, the position was perhaps rather more difficult. 6 Ostracized or excommunicated by the Ismaili authorities, the pressures on these people to assimilate completely to Hinduism were--probably considerable, and it was here that the strong influence exerted by the Arya Samaj becomes apparent. Well established in Punjab since the 1890s as a proselytizing force, these groups took advantage of the Guptis' predicament in 1913-14 to persuade some to join their movement, at the same time encouraging them to undergo the Shuddhi (purification) ceremony to regularize their religious identity. Here again we encounter a case in which the peculiar social patterns associated with Ismaili syncretism" challenge conventional notions about the Hindu/ Muslim divide, especially as conceived by groups such as Arya Samaj. Thus given that the Guptis still closely conformed to Hindu caste and ritual practices, in what sense could they be said to have left the Hindu fold and therefore be in need of purification? So far I have found three main Gupti spokesmen with Arya Samaj affiliations, who chose to speak out and write publicly against the Agha 6 I am grateful to Alwaez Noordin H. Baksh of Karachi for showing me his collection of materials on Guptis, and on the families who did not join the Ismaili fold. I also understand that Alwaez Abu Ali of V ancouver is writing an account of some of these re-Hinduized families.

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Khan's appeal: Radha Krishan, Pindi Das, and Ram Chandar (all incidentally addressed as Pandit by their Ismaili interlocutors). Little is known about the origin of these men, except that the first two were both from Peshawar, where 400 families had openly declared for Agha Khan; whilst the other one, Ram Chandar came from Surat, where some 250 families had similarly come out. Although it is possible that they all joined the Arya Samaj around the time of the Agha's appeal, it is of course also possible . that they may have had earlier connections with the movement. Anyway, between 1914 and 1916 all three published strong appeals to their fellow Guptis to reject the Agha Khan's advice, Pindi Das's view being argued . --in an Urdu pamphlet, Ram Chandar's articulated in the Gujarati press, while Radha Krishan - the most committed Gupti-publicist actually produced a book entitledAgakhani khudiii aur uske karashme. As we shall see, Ismaili revivalist writers were quick to respond to these attacks, even extending invitations to the dissident Guptis to join them in open debate. Predictably, the resultant encounters became emotional and bitter, and had to be discontinued. Meanwhile Radha Krishan engaged in a campaign of speeches in Punjab, even joining forces with E.D. Kaba in an attempuo~_~_ _ widen public opposition to their common foe by publishing articles in Punjabi newspapers designed to inflame Sunni opinion against the socalled polytheist Ismailis. Not surprisingly, Radha Krishan's vehement attacks at one point resulted in a religious riot, leading to his own eventual imprisonment by the British authorities? It is difficult to provide a complete representation of the dissident Gupti viewpoint partly because of the limited availability of their literature and partly because they themselves were unable or unwilling to reveal the full extent of their traditions. For instance, so far I have only been able to trace Pindi Das's pamphlet, and for the other writers Ihave had to rely mostly on the lengthy quotations from their works given by Ismaili respondents (Varteji 1919). However, these several sources suggest that their approach was rather to commiserate with those who had unwarily joined the Agha Khan's followers - to find themselves compelled to pay tithe money and other exactions. Still devoutly awaiting the arrival of the Tenth Avatar, the dissident Guptis could not accept the Khojas' proclamation that the awaited one was now present in the shape of Agha Khan, whose luxurious European life-style seemed to the Guptis quite incompatible with his ineta-

7 The articles of Alwaez Aziz Fidai and Alwaez Noord.in H. Baksh provide vivid accounts of these debates. See Kamaluddin.

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messianic claims (Pindi Das). As regards their own origins and traditions, they were in general predictably reticent, though it is intriguing to find Pindi Das invoking at one point the name of Sohodev Joshi, whose giniins, he asserts, had been appropriated by FIr Sadruddin (without however mentioning Khaki Khoja' s tract). It also seems clear from the unpublished account of a later Ismaili of Gupti origin that the Guptis claimed to have been originally converted by the elusive Plr Shams, the predecessor of Plr Sadruddin, who was placed in the thirteenth century (Aziz 1990). ISMAILI REVN ALISTS

The formation in the first few years of the twentieth century of a small but very active group of Ismaili writers and editors, able to answer their Shia Ithna Ashari and Arya Samaj critics and to articulate a unified vision of the Satpanth, roughly coincides with the ending of the long period of dissension and confusion that had beset the community since the arrival of the First Agha Khan in 1845. As we have seen, it was during these years (1901-8) that the mainbody of Shia Khoja dissidents finally left the parent body, and their legal challenge was removed by the Russell ruling in the Haji Bibi case (JUdgement). Also it was around this time that the Third Agha Khan, Sultan Muhammad Shah (d. 1957) began to project himself strongly as a - leading figure on the Indian political stage, holding the position of President of the Muslim League from 1905 to 1913. While the revealing conflicts and the defections associated with his call to the Guptis were yet to come (1913-14), it is apparent that those defections were seen by the Agha Khan as a minor disappointment, not seriously detracting from the triumphant accession of fresh support from the majority Gupti groups. It was during this period too that the Agha introduced an important series of reforms and new initiatives transforming the internal structure and ethos of the Ismaili community. A set of community councils was created with their constitutions carefully defined (1906); a network of religious schools was established, with committees formed to provide the necessary textbooks and training, etc. (1901); a project for printing the ~ entire corpus of giniins in Khojki was inaugurated (1904); fresh conversion programmes were undertaken (1913); and in 1903 the Ismaili Literary Society (IsmruJi sahitia utejakmandal) was founded in Bombay to publish books in Gujarati and also to produce monthly and bi-monthly newspapers to report the activities of the Imam and the community (Hooda 1927) . .The kind of writers who now emerged to play a leading role in the I Literary Societ~ and other community projects did not come from the old

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Sayyid families of Kachchh and Sindh in whom the responsibility for religious instruction and the ginanic composition had traditionally been vested. Instead they represented the new social elements in the community that had come to the fore, especially in Bombay, during the previous half century or so. For example, some of these men were successful in Bombay business, such as Lalji Devraj (d. 1930), who masterminded the printing of the ginans and other publishing projects, and also Alimuhammad Chunara (d. 1966), a Bombay factory owner, who edited Khojanewspapers from 1911 onwards, and, having taught himself Urdu, Arabic and Sanskrit, embarked on writing a series of books about Ismaili history and religion. Another prominent contributor, Jaffer Rahimtoola, the author of a History of the Khojas (Bombay, 1905), was a Bombay lawyer who had qualified as a barrister in London, acquiring a taste for research and an ability to present arguments with legal precision. Two other writers brought a more individual talent and background of study to their community work. Master Hashim Bogha (d. 1913) came from a humble Gujarati background and was largely self-educated. Eventually qualifying asa school-master in BOInb(iY, lle became a~ki,-·n___d::--_~~. of teacher for the whole community, producing a series of textbooks and other religious and historical studies. Similarly, Ebrahim Varteji (d. 1953) had been a brilliant Gujarati student and also a poet, with a knowledge of Sanskrit, Marathi, Arabic, Urdu, Persian and English. Joining the Shia IthnaAshariKhojas in his b9yhood, hespent nearly twenty yearsexpl()ring a variety of Indian religious traditions before returning to the Ismaili fold in 1913. His subsequent literary work for the community runs to more than a dozen books, including poetry, expositions of the Satpanth and replies to Shia and Gupti / Arya Samaj critics. At its best his work has a vibrant and zestful quality unusual in this type of literature. In attempting to revitalize the Satpanth and project it as a coherent system, not just a mishmash of conflicting beliefs and practices, the Ismaili revivalist writers were fully aware that they had to address the different concerns of three main groups: their Gupti / Arya Samaj and Twelver Shia opponents as well as their fellow Khojas. As we shall see, each group required not exactly a different message, but a different kind of emphasis. In the case of the Ithna Ashari Khojas, the Ismaili writers generally sought to combine reassurance and persuasion by stressing as far as possible their shared Islamic values. For example, the Shias were reminded that they and the Ismailis both accorded fundamental importance to the living Imam. It was true that they differed as to whether the Imam was hidden or manifest, but, so the Ismailis contended, their conception of the .

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Imam-e Mubzn (the living and manifest Imam) had the benefit of Koranic authority (36: 12), as well as providing a source of authority through which the Koran itself could be interpreted in changing circumstances. Hence, as true Muslims, Ismailis claimed they had always followed the Imam's Farmans and injunctions, whereas they believed the Shia Ithna Asharis had in asense succumbed to a form of static idolatry (bhi1tparastl) in privileging the occulted Imam (Varteji 1917, Hooda 1920). With considerable ingenuity, the Ismaili writers also sought to invoke ,-"------' the true spirit ofIslam to persuade the Ithna Asharis of the validity of their--doctrinal and ritual accommodations with Hinduism - especially the identification of the Imam with the Nakalank Avatar which writers like Kaba had so much deplored. They therefore stressed that the essential purpose behind such moves was to represent Islam as the completion of Hinduism, just as early Islam had projected itself as the completion of Christianity and Judaism. Instead of criticizing Khojas and seeking to convert them, the Ismaili writers urged the Ithna Asharis to have a go themselves at converting the recalcitrant Hindus. They would then perhaps better appreciate the wisdom of the Ismaili methods (Bogha 1912, Varteji 1921). Whereas in their debates with the Ithna Asharis the Ismaili writers had -- implied that their representation ofIsmailism as the completion of Hinduism- ' - was to be seen as a method for facilitating the conversion of Hindus to Islam, their attempts to win back the dissident Guptis understandably represented the same notion in terms of its intrinsic truth, i.e. the Satpanth was indeed the completion of Hinduism. This after all had been the original basic belief of the Guptis, and from the Ismaili point of view, it was essential to try to reassure them of its continuing validity. Hence, using a variety of quotations from different Sanskrit texts, including the Upanishads, the Gita, etc., the Ismaili writers tried to hammer home their traditional messages, namely, (1) that the Imam was the Tenth Avatar for the Kaliyuga, also referred to in the ginans as the N akalank Avatar; (2) thatthe Avatar or Guru Nakalank was always available, and without him there could be no salvation (mukti); and (3) that the ginans - standing in for the Koran - were the Atharvaveda for the Kaliyuga. To reinforce these eschatological equations, the Ismailis also liked to point to particular key lines in the ginans which also occurred in Sanskrit texts, such as 'bhagat karat). hari avia' (The Lord has arrived for the devotees), which appears both in the ginan oflmam Shah and in the Bhagavadgzta (Varteji 1919). On a more worldly level they also warned those Guptis attracted to Arya Samaj (such as Radha Krishan) and those who sought to represent the

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Ismailis as polytheists to incite Sunni or Shia criticism, that they would soon discover that such Muslim groups considered all Hindus to be infidels (kiifir) , unlike the true Satpanthis who consciously stood in spiritual relation to the Hindu tradition. In a final ingenious twist of the argument aimed at the Arya Samajs the Guptis were also reminded that the real Satpanthi Ismailis were like Hindus who did not consider Muslims as barbarians (mleccha). Whilst in their responses to Shias and dissident Guptis, the Ismaili writers gave a somewhat tactical expression to the notion of the Satpanth as the completion of Islam and Hinduism, they felt able to project this concept in a more wholehearted and emotional way in their writings aimed at the community itself. Ismailis, they say, are hakzkz mom in (believers in the ultimate truth), who recognize the unique position of the Imam! N akalank as revealed in the KoranN edas, and accept his Farmans as authentic interpretation of both traditions. They also represent the Satpanth as a religion of inner transformation and spiritual progress. Whilst other Muslims are said to follow sharia, contenting themselves with worldly happiness and good deeds, Ismaili Satpanthis seek to transcend their desires not through asceticism but by seekingtheultima.te truth-of n!ligi·-o-n---as revealed by the Imam, and defined variously in terms of mokshal faniifilliih (liberation or losing oneself in Allah's essence) (Bogha 1910). History in general is also viewed by the Ismaili writers as the medium through which the nur (Light) of the Imam/Avatar - conceived of as a single spiritual personality - is made accessible to human kind. Also on more human scale, the Ismailis tried to illustrate how down the ages the individual Imam!Avatar had struggled to reveal the true path of spiritual progress in the face of all sorts of opposition, comparing, for example, Ali's struggles with those of Krishna Avatar (Bogha 1909). Imbued with the sense ofIsmailism as containing the essence of both Islam and Hinduism, the Ismaili revivalists have no problem about continuing to accept the Hindu-related religious practices that so much outraged their more orthodox Muslim opponents. Thedu'ii (prayer) and the giniins themselves are all seen as integral parts of the Satpanth, having symbolic or inner meanings which the writers are happy to expound (Varteji 1917). As already suggested, the Ismaili revivalists' treatment of their history reflects the basic conception ofthe guiding role performed by the Imam! Nakalank through the ages and by the Pirs who transmitted his message. Full hagiographical accounts of the lives and achievements of these figures were therefore presented for the community's edification. These accounts

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also incorporated and interpreted the considerable body of new information about the earlier phases of Ismaili history during the Fatimid and Alamut periods, mainly brought to light from Sunni and Western sources through the evidence presented in the 1866 case, and subsequently added to by writers such as Nanjiani. It is not, however, till the 1920s that a more creative boost to Ismaili history was given following W. Ivanow's pioneering research into newly-discovered Arabic and Persian manuscript materials for the Fatimid and Alamut periods (Chunara). Meanwhile, in -.__ ._-- -the Ismaili revivalist writings, it is also interesting to note that despite their - - positive acknowledgement of their spiritual links with Hindus, those elements from their Hindu past which Khaki and Nanjiani had excavated were not now dwelt upon. Thus the Mahamargi and Gupti contributions were largely forgotten, and the mysterious, ambiguous figure of Sohodev Joshi only survived in the purified form ofPlr Sadruddin. In conclusion we may say that, although the Ismaili revivalists of this period preferred not to investigate the early formation ofIndian Ismailism, none the less, on a broad religious level, they did succeed in asserting or reasserting the original syncretic vision of the Satpanth despite strong opposition from Ismaili dissidents. In recognition of this concept many Ismaili publications for this period depict a logo in which the mantra OM - read in Sanskrit can also be read backwards as ALI in Arabic. At the same time it has to be said that for most non-Ismailis in contemporary South Asia this syncretic concept remained mysterious and alien. For instance, when the poet Ebrahim Varteji tried to explain to Gandhi in 1918 that the Ismailis were both Hindus and Muslims, and that the Agha Khan was not just a Muslim but a universal Indian leader, the bemused Mahatma is reported to have remained silent for two whole minutes before sweetly confessing: 'I cannot say anything about these matters' (Varteji 1919). Somewhat similarly, Jawaharlal Nehru could not help wondering out loud in 1935 how far the Agha Khan and his community could be regarded as leading participants in the movement for Islamic solidarity, as understood by Muhammad Iqbal. The fact was that for all his immense personal prestige, the third Agha Khan remained a somewhat ambiguous figure: too Muslim to be accepted as a leader by Indian Hindus, too Hindu and heterodox to be considered a satisfactory leader for orthodox Islam. s This, of course, is a larger subject that cannot 8 It appears that the third Agha Khan was denounced as a heretic in a Jatwa issued by orthodox Muslims. This judgement was, however, condemned by writers such as Nizami. Unfortunately I have so far been unable to trace thisJatwa.

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be fully gone into here. Enough to say that as the strong forces of communal nationalism drove South Asia forward through Partition into future conflict, thefragile sound of 0 MIALI could not easily be heard, even within the Ismaili community itself. REFERENCES I am grateful to the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London for allowing me access to some of the GUjarati books referred to in this paper. In a few cases the title covers of these books are missing, hence publication dates are not available (dna). -Aga_Khan,_Sultan Muhammad Shah, The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World enough and Time, London, 1954. Arnould, Joseph, Judgement by the Hon 'ble Sir Joseph Arnould in the Khoja case, otherwise known as the Aga Khan Case, Bombay: Bombay Steam Press, 1867. Asani, Ali, 'The Khojas of Indo-Pakistan: the quest for an Islamic Identity', Journal of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, vol. 8, 1983, pp. 31-4l. Aziz, Abualy, 'Autobiography of a Da'i', pt. 1, unpublished, Vancouver, 1990. - - - , A Brief History of Ismailism, Dar~es-Salaam:-author,1974.Bogha, Hashim, Asaliyat-e Khoja, V.P. Parpiya, Bombay, 1912 (2nd edn.). - - - , Ismail! darpan, Bombay: author, 1906. - - - , Ismail! prakash, pts. 1 and 2, Bombay: author, 1906-8. - - - , Jauhar-e haklkat, Bombay: author, 1910. - - - , Nur~e vahadiiniyat, pts. 1 and 2, Bombay: author, 1909. Boivin, Michel, 'The reform of Islam in Ismaili Shi'ism 1885 to 1957', in Confluence ofCultures, edited by Fran~oise N. Delvoye, New Delhi: Manohar, 1994, pp. 197-216. Bombay Government, Gazetteer ofthe Bombay Presidency, vol. IX, pt. II, Gujarat population: Musalrnans and Parsees, BOrribay: Bombay Government Press, 1899. Contractor, Ramjibhai, Pirana satpanthni pol, Ahmedabad: author, 1926. Chunara, Alimuhammad, Adamthl ali, Bombay: Ismaili sahitia utejak mandaI, dna. - - - , Alamotano yodho, Bombay: Ismaili Sahitia utejak mandaI, dna. - - - , Arebiya ane imamat, Bombay: Ismaili Sahitia utejak mandaI, dna. - - - , Fataml khilafat, Bombay: Ismaili Sahitia utejak mandaI, dna. - - - , Khuli cithinun bhoparufl, Bombay: Ismaili Sahitia utejak mandaI, dna. -_--, Noorum Mubin, Bombay: Khoja Printing Press, 1936. Dargahvala, .';)adruddln, Tavarikh-e plr, pts. 1 and 2, Nausari: author, 1914 and 1935. Devraj, Laljibhai, Tapasil buk, Bombay: author, 1915 (2nd edn.). Enthoven, R.F., Tribes and Castes of Bombay, vol. II, Bombay: Government Central Press, 1922.

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Fyzee, Asghar Ali, Cases in the Muhammadan Law ofIndia and Pakistan, London: Oxford Clarendon Press, 1965. Hollister, Normana, The Shfa of India, London: Luzac and Co., 1953. Hooda, Vallimuharnmad, Asatya arop yane khoja glJ-atinun gorav, Kathiavar: N. Budhavani, 1927. - - - , Imam-e maujud, pts. 1 and 2, Bombay: Ismfuli sahitia utejak mandaI, 1920. Howard, E.I., The Shia School ofIslam and its branches, especially thatofImameeIsmailies, Bombay: Oriental Press, 1866. - - - - - - - -Jones, Kenneth, The New Cambridge History of India, vol. III, pt. I, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908. Judgement of Judge Russell, The Bombay Law Reporter, vol. XI, Bombay, September 1908. Kaba, Edulji Dhanji, Hasan bin Sabbah, Amreli: author, 1907. - - - , Khoja komni tavarikh, Amreli: author, 1912. - - - , Khojapanth darpan, Amreli: author, 1913-14. Kamaluddin et al. (eds.), Waezin digest, nos. 60 and 64, Karachi: Shia Imami Ismaili Tariqa and Religious Education Board for Pakistan, dna. Kassam, Tazim, Songs of Wisdom and Circles of Dance, An Anthology ofHymns by the Satpanth Isma'ili Muslim Saint Plr Shams, New York: Sunny Press, 1996. Khaki, Khoja, Cupt Panth kii Shajara, Bombay: author, dna. Khan, Dominique-Sila, Conversions and Shifting Identities: Ramdev Plr and the Ismailis of Rajasthan, New Delhi: Manohar, 1997. - - - , 'The coming of Niklank Avatar: 'A messianic theme in some sectarian Traditions of North-Westem India' ,lou mal ofIndian Philosophy, Netherlands: Kluiwer Academic Publisher, 1997, pp. 401-26. Masselos, I.e., 'The Khojas of Bombay: the defining of formal membership critieria during the nineteenth century', in Caste and Social Stratification among Muslims in India, edited by Imtiaz Ahmad, New Delhi: Manohar, 1978, pp. 97-116. . Mohamed, Sultanali, Heroes ofSurat, Kenya: Shia Imami Ismailia Association for Kisumu, 1968. Mujtaba, Ali, The Origins of the Khojas and their religious life today, Bonn: Ludwig Rohrscheid, 1936. Nanjiani, Sachedina, Khoja vratant, Ahmedabad: Samasher Press, 1892. Nehru, Jawaharlal, 'His Highness the Aga Khan', Modern Review, Calcutta, Nov. 1935, pp. 505-6. Newspaper, Times of India, Bombay, 1862-8. Nizami, Hasan, Fatiml da'wat-e islam, Delhi: author, 1925 (2nd edn.). Oddie, Geoffrey, Religion in South Asia: Religious Conversion and Revival Movements in South Asia in Medieval and Modern Times, New Delhi: Manohar,1977.

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Perry, Erskine, Cases illustrative of Oriental Life and the Application of English Law to India, London, 1853. Pindi Das, Aghakhani izam ke hathkande, Rawalpindi: Lala Dhanpat Rae, 1926 (2nd edn.). Rahimtoola, Jaffer, Khoja komno itihas, Bombay: author, 1905. Rattansi, Diamond, 'Islamization and the Khojah Ismaili Community of Pakistan , , Montreal: McGill University Ph.D. dissertation (unpublished), 1987. Roohkash, Noormuhammad, Momin komno itihas, Bombay: author, 1936. Sadiq Ali, A short sketch of Musulman Races found in Sind, Baluchistan and Afghanistan, Karachi: Commissioner's Press, 1901. Shackle, C. and Z. Moir, Ismaili Hymns from South Asia - An Introduction to the _c;inans, London: SOAS University of London, 1992. Schimmel, Annemarie, Islam in the Indian subcontinent, Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1980. Vafa, Ghulam Ali, ai-Shams yani nur-i imamat, Multan: Sultan Bakhash, 1924. Varsi; Salim, Izhar-e haklkat, Bombay: Khoja sindh! chapakhiina, 1921. Varteji, Ebrahim, Afatab-e haklkat, Bombay: Ismaili sahitia utejak mandai, dna. - - - , Araya prakashnl urjhatai, Bombay: Ismaili sahitia utejak mandai, dna. - - - , Araya samaji panrjitonun pokar, Bombay: Ismaili sahitia utejak mandai, dna. - - - , Duana. dushamanne za!ako;-B-omb-aynsmaili sahitia utejak mandal,-dna.---- - - , Hajar imamani hidayat, Bombay: Ismaili sahitia utejak mandai, 1917. - - - , Ismalll cabuk, Bombay: Ismaili sahitia utejak mandai, 1913. - - - , Kaballun [~ekallell avelun bhejun, Bombay: Ismaili sahitia utejak mandai, dna. - - - , Khudai kiraballi samanta, Bombay: Ismaili sahitia utejak mandai, 1919. - - - , Vedik islam, Bombay: Khoja Sindhi Press, 1921. A voice from India: Being an appeal to the British Legislature by a Khojah, 1864, London.