Punjab

by Rajmohan Gandhi

Born in Qadian in the Bari doab, eleven miles northeast of Batala, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder, in 1889, of the Ahmadiyya sect, was a talented proselytizer on Islam’s behalf. A forebear of his had settled in Qadian in the sixteenth century. In 1834, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s father apparently submitted to Ranjit Singh, who confirmed the family’s title to Qadian and five adjoining villages. Aimed at proving Islam’s superiority over Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s writings and utterances won him fame across Punjab during the 1870s and 1880s. He also attracted a wide following in the province, aided no doubt by the fact that he was an authentic Bari doab Punjabi. However, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad invited hostility when he claimed in 1890 that that he was the messiah of whom the Prophet had spoken. An admired champion of Islam was transformed into the leader of a heterodox if not heretical sect.