All India Momin Conference

The All India Momin Conference (Urdu: آل انڈیا مومن کانفرنس), commonly abbreviated as Momin Conference and also known as Jamaat-ul-Ansar (Urdu: جماعت الانصار), was a political party that was founded in India in 1911.^[1] It was formed to articulate the interests of the Momin Ansari community.^[1] It was founded by Ali Hussain Aasim Bihari.^[2]

In particular, the All India Momin Conference "aimed to revive the traditional crafts of weavers, promote self-respect and devout religious conduct among the weavers and restore their independent status."^[1]

The Momin Conference "saw itself as articulating the interests of ordinary Muslims" as opposed to the "Muslim League, the latter being perceived a party of eite Muslims".^[1] In 1940, the All India Momin Conference passed a resolution in Patna that opposed the partition of India.^[1] It said: “the Partition scheme was not only impracticable and unpatriotic but altogether un-Islamic and unnatural, because the geographical position of the different provinces of India and the intermingled population of the Hindus and Muslims are against the proposal and because the two communities have been living together for centuries, and they have many things in common between them.”^[3]

The All India Momin Conference was a member at the All India Azad Muslim Conference, which opposed the creation of Pakistan.^[4]

In 1941, a CID report states that thousands of Muslim weavers under the banner of Momin Conference and coming from Bihar and Eastern U.P. descended in Delhi demonstrating against the proposed two-nation theory. A gathering of more than fifty thousand people from an unorganized sector was not usual at that time, so its importance should be duly recognized. The non-ashraf Muslims constituting a majority of Indian Muslims were opposed to partition but sadly they were not heard. They were firm believers of Islam yet they were opposed to Pakistan.^[5]

 

See also

• All India Azad Muslim Conference

References

1. Smita Tewari Jassal, Eyal Ben-Ari (2007). The Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts. SAGE. ISBN 9780761935476.
2. "CM Nitish Kumar released a book 'Banda-e-Momin Ka Hath' authored by Ahmad Sajjad. The book is a biography of freedom fighter and social reformer Maulana Ali Husain Aasim Bihari (1889-1953) who belonged to Biharsharif and founded All India Momin Conference. Nitish said Maulana relentlessly worked for communal harmony and education". The Times of India. 2011-02-16. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
3. Ali, Afsar (17 July 2017). "Partition of India and Patriotism of Indian Muslims". The Milli Gazette.
4. Qasmi, Ali Usman; Robb, Megan Eaton (2017). Muslims against the Muslim League: Critiques of the Idea of Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9781108621236.
5. Fazal, Tanweer (2014). Nation-state and Minority Rights in India: Comparative Perspectives on Muslim and Sikh Identities. Routledge. p. 162. ISBN 978-1-317-75179-3.