The Malkana are a Muslim ethnic group found in the states of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

and

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

of India.

History and origin

Agra District Agra () is one of the 75 districts in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The district headquarters is the historical city of Agra. Agra district is a part of Agra division. Geography The district lies in the cultural region of Br ...

, the Malkana claimed descent from a number of Hindu

castes A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

. Those of

Kiraoli Kiraoli is a town and a nagar panchayat in Agra district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Geography Kiraoli is located at . It has an average elevation of 168 metres (551 feet). Kiraoli is on NH11 i.e. Agra Jaipur Highway. It als ...

, where they occupy five villages, claim descent from a

Jat The Jat people (, ), also spelt Jaat and Jatt, are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, many Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in l ...

. In Bihar, the Malkana are mainly concentrated in the erstwhile

Shahabad district Shahabad district or Arrah district, headquartered at Arrah (now part of Bhojpur) was a Bhojpuri speaking district in western Bihar, India, making the western border of Bihar with Uttar Pradesh. In 1972, the district was split into two distri ...

. In 1923, there were a recorded 1300 Malkanas in Shahabad alone. They adopted Islam, responding to the missionary efforts of

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

saints.

Arya Samaj Arya Samaj () is a monotheistic Indian Hindu reform movement that promotes values and practices based on the belief in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda Saraswati founded the samaj in the 1870s. Arya Samaj was the first Hindu ...

Swami Shraddhanand Munshi Ram, better known as Swami Shraddhanand (22 February 1856 – 23 December 1926) was an Indian independence activist and Arya Samaj sannyasi who propagated the teachings of Dayananda Saraswati. This included the establishment of educatio ...

Shuddhi Shuddhi or Suddhi () may refer to: *Shuddhi (Hinduism), type of conversion to Hinduism or Sikhism *Purity in Buddhism Purity (Pali: ''Vissudhi'') is an important concept within much of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, although the implications ...

movement wanted to convert them to

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

. The word "shudhi" means purification and it implies, rather pejoratively, that Muslims are ritually impure. Many Muslim leaders attempted to counter this forced conversion. Religious tensions prevailed in Shahabad, Gaya and Munger. There were splits in the community, with many members of the community converted to Hinduism in the early part of the 20th century, during the course of the

shuddhi Shuddhi or Suddhi () may refer to: *Shuddhi (Hinduism), type of conversion to Hinduism or Sikhism *Purity in Buddhism Purity (Pali: ''Vissudhi'') is an important concept within much of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, although the implications ...

movement. The 'shuddhi' campaign among the Malkanas, was launched in early 1923 and led by the

under

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Madan Mohan Malaviya (25 December 1861 — 12 November 1946; ) was an Indian scholar, educational reformer and activist notable for his role in the Indian independence movement. He was president of the Indian National Congress three times and ...

. This re-conversion campaign reached its peak by the end of 1927, by which time some 1,63,000 Malkana Muslims are said to have been converted to the Hindu fold.''Hindu-Muslim Relations in British India: a study of Controversy, Conflict and Communal Movements in Northern India 1923 to 1928'', by Gene R. Thursby.

References

{{Indian Muslim Jat clans of Uttar Pradesh Muslim communities of Uttar Pradesh Muslim communities of Bihar