Oriya Muslims
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Oriya Muslims are an Islamic community in the Indian state of Orissa.
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[edit] History
Muslims first settled in the Eastern Indian state of Orissa in mid sixteenth century after the Mughal conquest of Orissa by Emperor Akbar(d:1605). It appears that the battles were fought in and around the present town of Jajpur, which was then the capital of Orissa. Most of the early settlers were soldiers and a significant proportion of the modern day Oriya Muslims are their descendants. The Oriya Muslims predominantly speak Urdu as against the local vernacular,Oriya. However a small percentage of Oriya Muslims belonging to Puri,Khurda and nearby coastal districts have Oriya as their mother tongue. These Muslims were converted to Islam during the Middle Ages by Kala Pahad, a Bengali convert to Islam. Kala Pahad had defeated the then King of Orissa, Raja Mukunda Dev(d:1568)[1] who had his capital at Cuttack. There is also a substantial community of Bengali Muslims who have emigrated from Bangladesh and have settled in the coastal districts of North Orissa. Similarly Telugu speaking Muslims from Andhra Pradesh are also found in the southern districts of Orissa mainly in Berhampur city .
[edit] Demographics
Islam has had a very slow rate of growth in Orissa even during the Muslim rule as there had never been any proselytization. The current population of Muslims in Orissa is 761,985(2001 census)[2],roughly 2.1% of the total population. The Muslims here have a literacy rate of 71.3%, higher than the national average of 64.9%.
[edit] Sects
The vast majority of Oriya Muslims are Sunni Muslims belonging to the Hanafi school. Majority of the Muslims are concentrated in the townships of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Kendrapada and Bhadrak. The Ahmadiya community, considered heretical by mainstream Muslims also has some presence, mainly in Kerang of Khurda District. The Sunnis are evenly divided between the Deobandi and Barelvi subsects. The prominent migrant Muslims to Orissa during the Mughal rule were the Mufti and Qazi families of Jajpur District. Similarly the Mullahs of Dharmashala had migrated from Afghanistan. Some Sayyid families have settled down in Cuttack district mainly at Sungra, Mohiuddinpur(Modinpur)and in Old Cuttack.
[edit] Places of interest
Prominent Islamic pilgrimage sites/Mosques in Orissa include
- Kaipadar Sharif (near Khurda)--A sixteenth century shrine of the Sufi saint, Bukhari Pir Saheb, who originally belonged to Bukhara, Uzbekistan is famous for the annual Urs celebration when thousands of devotees gather with religious fervour from all over India.
- Qadam Rasul (in Cuttack)--reputed to contain the footprints of Islamic prophet Muhammad is a Muslim cemetery dating back to the 15th century.
- Badshahi Mosque (in Jajpur town)--built by a Mughal officer, Nawab Abu Nasir in the 17th century during the reign of Aurangzeb. It was renovated in the 19th century by the Public Works Department under British supervision.
- Another Badshahi Mosque -- of the same period is located inside Barabati Fort, Cuttack. The third Badshahi Mosque also known as "Takht-e-sulaiman" was built in 1719 CE by the governor of Emperor Aurangzeb, Nawab Murshid Quli Khan of Bengal at the top of Mount Alamgir of Assia range near Buddhist monastery of Lalitgiri hills on Chandikhol-Paradeep Expreessway under the supervision of Mughal officer Shuja-ud-din as recorded in the Imperial Gazetteer of India,1901[3].All the three mosques are of the same period built as per the wishes of Emperor Aurangzeb.
- Capital Mosque, Bhubaneswar--The largest mosque in Orissa, designed by Syed Mumtaz Ali, the then Chief Engineer of Orissa State in 1962.The mosque can accommodate around five thousand persons for prayer.
- Dhamnagar Sharif (near Bhadrak)--Mausoleum of the famous Barelvi scholar, Syed Habib-ur-Rahman (alias-Qibla)(d:1975(?)).
[edit] Culture and Education
The Urdu Academy of Orissa, a wing of the Department of Culture, Govt. of Orissa is engaged in the propagation and popularization of the Urdu language in Orissa. Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Orissa is the president and patron of this Academy. Naseem Sarkar, a prominent Barelvi Sufi saint of Bhadrak has opened institutions for the educational upliftment of Muslims in Orissa. Similarly, Darul Uloom, Sungda,Salepur established in the 1940s by Maulvi Ismail of Jamiatul Ulama-e-Hind is a prominent centre of Deobandi Islamic learning in Orissa.
