• Dr.Mallika Begum,

The paper is an attempt to focus the role and contribution of the Ulemas during the Indian Freedom Struggle in the first half of the Twentieth Century. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru while addressing a meeting near Jami Masjid held to felicitate Maulana Syed Ahmad Madani on his being elected general secretary of the Janij'cit-e-'Uluniu-e- Ilind bad said that the dust under the feet of these 'Ulema is like corrylium for my eyes and kissing their (eel would be a matter of great pride for me.1 Jawaharlal Nehru had such high regard for these Ulemas. The reason for such high regard for the Ulema was their great contribution to the cause of India freedom and unity and integration of the country. These Ulema made great sacrifices for liberating India from the clutches of the British rule and later for saving it from partition and vivisection. They strongly opposed the partition plan and for this were subjected to great deal of public harassment by the followers of the Muslim League. The Ulema could not be won over by the Indian Muslim League of Mr. Jinnah for supporting their cause. The rift between the modernists and the theologians began from the time of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. The Ulema never reconciled to the British rule and they opposed any party or organisation or individuals who supported it. The Faraizi Movement led by Maulvi Shariatullah and his son Muhammed Mohsin Alias Dadu Mian in Bengal was the systematic beginning of this opposition. While Maulvi Sariatullah and Dadu Mian operated in the eastern parts of Bengal, Nasir Ali alias Titu Mir struggled in western parts. These were semi-religious movements with extensive peasant support, fighting both to establish a more just social order in the countryside and to purify and revitalise Islam.2 Again in the second decade of Nineteenth Century Sayyid Ahmad of Rae Barelly started a movement which also had a two- fold object. Politically its aim was to overthrow the rule of the Sikhs in the Punjab and of the British in the rest of India, and to restore Muslim political supremacy, in the field of religion it aimed at a return to the early simplicity of Islam and at the purging of essentially unlslamic accretions which had corrupted it during the centuries of its history.3

Progress of Muslim, principle's, Religious, Education, khilafad Movement, Ulema and Composite Nationalism

"CONTRIBUTION OF ULEMAS TO THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE IN INDIA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 8, page no.d868-d875, August-2022, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2208397.pdf

"CONTRIBUTION OF ULEMAS TO THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE IN INDIA", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 8, page no. ppd868-d875, August-2022, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2208397.pdf