Suhas Majumdar

Suhas Majumdar (1937 - 1996), also known as S. Majumadāra or S. Majumdar, was an Indian author. His book Jihād: The Islamic doctrine of permanent war has been cited as a notable contribution to the literature about Jihad as offensive warfare. It has been translated in Indian languages including Marathi.

Quotes

• The large-scale arson of December 1992 occurring in Islamic Bangladesh in the wake of the demolition of the Babri structure at Ayodhya was characterised by gangrapes of thousands of Hindu girls, assaults on Hindu temples, and widespread loot and violence. It had all the marks of a full-fledged jihad.
  • Majumadāra, S. (2001). Jihād: The Islamic doctrine of permanent war. ch. 10

• Almost all Hindus have in recent years been evicted from the Kashmir Valley as a result of jihãd. This particular jihãd has been authorised and financed by Pakistan and other Islamic countries. Clinton’s America is the latest addition to the names of countries actively promoting this jihãd. Of course, America has not called it a jihãd but declared its support of the mujãhids in the name of Human Rights, which means the same.
  • Majumadar, S. (2001). Jihad: The Islamic doctrine of permanent war. ch. 10 [1]

• The holocaust in Noakhali in the same year (1946) was likewise intended as a full-fledged jihãd. The call in this case was pronounced by Gholam Sarwar, a Muslim M.L.A. from those parts. Gholam Sarwar’s call was not documented, but the report submitted by Judge Simpson clearly refers to “large-scale conversion of Hindus to Islam by application of force in village after village. In many instances, upon the refusal of the menfolk to embrace Islam, their women were kept confined and converted under duress.” (Translated from the Bengali original cited in R.C. Majumdar, Bãñglãdesher Itihãsa, Volume IV.) All these of course were characteristic of a true jihãd. This was not all. As in Calcutta, the Noakhali riots were characterised by the dishonouring of thousands of Hindu women. There were clear indications that these unfortunate women were looked upon as the mujãhids’ lawful plunder (ghanîmah). Baboo Rajendralal Roy, the President of Noakhali Bar Association, attempted to put up on his own some resistance to this jihãd. The outcome of this resistance has been described by a contemporary writer: “Rajenbaboo’s head was presented to Gholam Sarwar on a platter, and two of his lieutenants received as guerdon both of his young daughters (in their harem).” Benoy Bhushan Ghosh, Dvijãtitattva O Bãñgãli, p. 68.
  • Majumadāra, S. (2001). Jihād: The Islamic doctrine of permanent war. ch. 10

• The first considerable religious riot in India under British rule was the so-called Mopla rebellion of 1921 which occurred in Malabar as an offshoot of the Khilafat Movement. The Moplas burst into unprecedented violence against the British, following upon the Khilafat Committee’s call for the same addressed to the believing population of Malabar. As it turned out, most of the casualties in this jihãd were Hindus rather than the British. Hundreds of Hindu women jumped into wells to save their honour, others being ravished and slaughtered with absolute indifference by blood-thirsty mujãhids. Hundreds of corpses of Hindu women as well as children were recovered from the wells after the end of the riots. The call for this jihãd had been pronounced by the Ali Brothers, Hasrat Mohani, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Mahatma Gandhi himself acknowledged these atrocities as part of Islam’s holy war. He referred to the mujãhids as “God-fearing Moplas” and said: “They were fighting for what they consider as religion and in a manner which they consider as religious.” Needless to say, such manner of fighting for such a cause is the essence of an Islamic jihãd. It should be mentioned that leaders like Azad gave the call for jihãd against the British rather than the Hindus, but it is not known how they intended to confine the war against a single class of infidels.
  • Majumadāra, S. (2001). Jihād: The Islamic doctrine of permanent war. ch. 10

• The Great Calcutta Killing of 1946 was again the consequence of a call for jihad, which in this case was pronounced by Mohammed Usman, the Mayor of Calcutta at that time. He put the call in black and white and addressed the mujãhids as follows: “It was in this month of Ramzan that open war between Mussalmans and Kafirs started in full swing. It was in this month that we entered victorious into Mecca and wiped out the idolaters. By Allah’s will, the All India Muslim League has selected the selfsame month of Ramzan to start its jihãd for realising Pakistan.”
  • Translated from the Bengali original cited in R.C. Majumdar, Bangladesher Itihasa, Volume IV. Quoted in Majumadāra, S. (2001). Jihad: The Islamic doctrine of permanent war. ch. 10

• Akbar’s court historians have also suppressed the fact that Akbar had viewed as jihãd his expedition to Chittor in 1567-68 in which he had ordered the massacre of 30,000 Hindus, including non-combatants. The text of his Fathnãma, issued from Muinuddin Chishti’s dargah at Ajmer in March 1568, was included in Munshãt-i-Namakîn compiled in 1598 by Saiyid Abdul Qasim Khan, a prominent noble who served under Akbar as well as Jahangir. The Fathnãma cites the jihadic verses from the Koran, and refers to Hindus as accursed infidels.

Quotes about Majumdar

• Such Islamic responses, whether apologist or revivalist, have in turn engendered further polemics ranging from John Laffin's alarmist Holy War: Islam Fights to the Hindu revivalist Suhas Majumdar's Jihad: The Islamic Doctrine of Permanent War.
  • Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam, by Reuven Firestone, p 4

• In the present study, Professor Suhas Majumdar has seen through this “scholarship”, and demolished it brick by brick. He has rescued the doctrine of jihãd from under the mass of pretentious verbiage, and made it stand in its pristine purity. Let no one say any more that jihãd does not mean what it has meant all along in the blood-soaked history of Islam, and what we are witnessing today in Kashmir.
  • S.R. Goel, in Foreword, to : Jihad: The Islamic Doctrine of Permanent War by S. Majumdar

• Suhas Majumdar (1937-96) ... started taking an interest in Islamic doctrine after reflecting on how he had narrowly escaped the Noakhali slaughter of 1946.
  • Elst, K. Decolonizing the Hindu Mind (2001), Chapter Historical Survey.