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The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was formed in 1906, with the primary aim to improve the educational and socioeconomic status of Muslims. Allama Shibli Nu'mani (1857-1914) put forward an argument in support of Muslims recovering from the political stupor into which they had fallen after the British suppression of the 1857 uprising. He encouraged Muslims to participate in democratic politics in India, departing from the educational focus of his mentor, Sir Saiyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898). Shibli advanced a strong critique of the Muslim League's limited ambitions in comparison with the Indian National Congress (INC). His critique, notably in ironic and emotive poetry, signiicantly contributed to the national discussion pertaining to the Muslim League's reform and restructure. Based on Shibli's original writings, this paper analyses his critique of the Muslim League and his efforts to overhaul its structure and policies. It examines the response of the Muslim League to these critiques and studies the extent to which its structure and policies changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History tells us much about how a war was fought and won. However, it does not offer us the complete picture inasmuch as it is largely silent about the loser in a conflict and those sympathetic to the cause. This phenomenon in historiography can be noticed in the events of 1857 in the history of India. It was a war of independence but it was seen by most historians merely as a “Sepoy mutiny”. It was a war fought by the common people, men and women, soldiers and chieftains alike under the banner of the last Mughal Emperor of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar (reigned 1837–1857). The British branded this widespread uprising as a rebellion against the legal authority and set in motion a reign of terror after they regained power. Women of the Mughal royal family were particularly targeted by the British soldiers and they experienced untold humiliation. Nevertheless, most account of this struggle for freedom have failed to stress or even record the sufferings of the womenfolk including those of the royal family. Similarly, British historians of the events have been reluctant to take note of eyewitness accounts of the harshness of the returning troops. The present study is an attempt to fill this gap in scholarship about an important revolution. Based on contemporary Urdu, Persian, and English sources (noteworthy publications, personal letters, eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports, and biographical references), the study focuses on the sufferings of the women, which were the worst part of this human tragedy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 1855, the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya has been the source of sporadic clashes between Hindus and Muslims. After a thorough scrutiny of the available historical literature on the Mosque, this article argues that to regard it as the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama is untenable and the notion was actually put into circulation by British colonial officials to serve British interests in the Indian subcontinent. Successive colonial administrations tried to strengthen their grip on South Asia by playing off one group against another in the name of caste, race, and, most importantly, religion. The ongoing Hindu-Muslim conflict in India is largely the outcome of British policies. With their agenda of 'divide and role' that aimed at consolidating their hold over the subcontinent the British tried to create a huge chasm between Hindus and Muslims. They labelled Muslims as the oppressors and Hindus as the oppressed, working to gain the support of the Hindu masses by provoking their hatred of the Muslims; and they strongly backed their religious and other claims in a vast amount of biased literature. It was with this colonial agenda that they endorsed the Hindu claim to the site of the Babri Mosque. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]