In her recent outburst against Darul Uloom Deoband(Indian Express, Nov 8), Tavleen Singh has criticised this highly revered institution, conveniently forgetting the history, and the sacrifices made by it.

Ms. Singh should know that after the unsuccessful attempt to drive the British out of India in 1857, it was the Maulvis who took on the fight. Maulana Shah Waliullah established one of the first Islamic madarasas with the explicit purpose of keeping the war against colonial power alive.

These Maulanas took Hindu landlords, talluqedars and the people with them and kept the flame burning. The British, in accordance with their divide-and-rule policies, blamed such Muslims for trying to establish Islamic rule in India, a theory later espoused by the RSS and one that I am sure Ms Singh endorses.

Darul Uloom at Deoband was established by Maulana Qasim Nanautvi, to bring all such freedom fighters under one umbrella. The organisation of these Maulvis, called Jamiatul Ulema Hind (Organisation of Indian Ulema) under the leadership of Mahmood Husain Madani, played a leading role during the freedom movement.

It was Jamiat which made a readymade platform available to Gandhiji for all his movements. The Jamiat was dead opposed to the two nation theory and the division of India on religious grounds, until the very last. One cannot deny the fact that it was Maulana Azad and these Maulvis who opposed Partition even when Bapu (let alone Nehru and Patel), acquiesced.

As far as Tavleen Singh’s visit to Darul Uloom and the grand Maulana’s refusal to meet her is concerned, Singh should realize that Maulana Mustafa Raza Khan of Barreilly has, in the past, also refused to meet Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on similar grounds, even though she released a commemorative stamp in honour of great scholar and his great-grandfather, Maulana Ahmad Raza Khan Sahib.

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