73Judaism, Christianity and other religions.^5 Both as a source of legitimacy
and as state policy, Saudi Arabia has invested considerable human capital
and material resources in promoting its version of Islam (Maclntyre 2013 ).
Much of these indoctrination-oriented activities were carried out as part of
charitable and dawah activities.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia alone cannot be held responsible for the
religious radicalism among the Indian Muslims. Ahl-e-Hadeeth or Ahle
Hadees (People of Hadith) movement, which is also puritanical, gained
ground in the country in the eighteenth century around the same time as
Wahhabism was spreading in the Arabian Peninsula. Evidences suggest
that some of the scholars who influenced Muhammed bin Abdul Wahhab
in his earlier years when he was studying in Medina were of Indian origin
(DeLong-Bas 2004 , 20–21). There were also religious revivalist move-
ments such as Jamat-e-Islami (Islamic Society) and Tablighi Jamat
(Outreach Society) which emerged entirely from within India, especially
when the Arabian influences in the subcontinent were limited (Sikand
2002 ; Ahmad 2009 ). For example, Jamat-e-Islami, Tablighee Jamat,
Deobandi (those who adhere to the Deoband School) and Ahl-e-Hadeeth
movement are variations of radical Islam and emerging indigenously they
remain relevant in contemporary India. There have been similar radical
and orthodox Islamic movements in southern India such as the Kerala
Nadvathul Mujahideen (KNM), Karnataka Salafi Movement (KSM) and
Popular Front of India (PFI). In other words, religious radicalism among
Indian Muslims is not entirely of foreign or Saudi origin but has also been
local as in other parts of the world (Agwani 1986 ).
The question of Wahhabi influence in India came to the forefront pri-
marily in the early 1970s when a large number of Indian Muslims started
emigrating to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Gulf Arab countries in search
of livelihood. Many of them transformed their lifestyle in tune with the local
customs and religious milieu. As a result, they returned with greater conser-
vatism when they left the Indian shores. This has been noticeable among
the Keralite migrants (Hassan 2016 ). This is arguably due to the growing
influence of the Saudi version of Islam in India (Safi 2016 ; Jaffrelot 2017 ).
Anecdotal evidences suggest some links as a majority of Indian youths who
(^5) For a glimpse of Wahhabi thought or views on Sufi, Shi’ite or Muslims of other sects and
people of non-Islamic faiths, see the fatwas issued by Abdulaziz Bin-Baz, the former Grand
Mufti of Saudi Arabia (1993–99) and other scholars at the Dar al-Ifta of Saudi Arabia (KSA
2018 ).
ISLAMIC DIMENSION