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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Maulvi Cachalia: The Contributions of a Thinker-Activist in the Political Liberation of South Africa |
Author: | Dadoo, Yousuf |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs |
Volume: | 16 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | January |
Pages: | 129-133 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | ulema national liberation movements biographies (form) Ethnic and Race Relations Religion and Witchcraft nationalism politics |
About person: | Maulvi Ismail Ahmed Cachalia (1908-2003) |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/13602009608716332 |
Abstract: | Ismail Cachalia was born in Johannesburg in 1908. He pursued theological studies at the seminary of Deoband, in India, from 1925 to 1931, earning the title of Maulvi (or Maulana). Upon his return to South Africa, Maulvi Cachalia's primary contribution to the freedom struggle lay in his bid to unite all the country's oppressed people. This either assumed the form of legal work to expose the absurdity of some of South Africa's law or fieldwork among both Africans and people of Indian descent to enlighten them about their common goals. His efforts can be principally regarded as a contextualization of Koranic political maxims for seeking liberation for disenfranchised South Africans. His thoughts on other religious problems are a sequence to his political vision. Maulvi Cachalia's reconciliation of traditional religious learning with contemporary requirements in a framework permitting maximum applicability of the former through the use of 'ijtihad' qualifies him as a traditionalist. The article is based on lengthy interviews which the author held with Maulvi Cachalia in June and July 1994. Notes, ref. |