This document outlines the history of Muslim rule and British colonial rule in India. It discusses how under Muslim rule, Indians were governed by Islamic sharia law with qadi courts. As the Mughal Empire weakened in the 1600s, the British East India Company gained control. Initially the British followed a non-interference policy regarding local laws and customs. However, they gradually consolidated power and considered Muslims their main rivals after the 1857 rebellion. The biggest loss for Muslims under British rule was the erosion of sharia law and its replacement with hybrid "Muhammadan Law" administered by English judges lacking Islamic legal knowledge, which anglicized and distorted sharia.

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2. Outline
 Muslim Rule In India
 Sharia Law
 Company Rule
 British Raj
 Islamization of Shariah
 Ill effects of Islamization of Shariah
 Conclusion
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4. Muslim Rule
 Indian Muslims were governed by the Shariah
 The administration of justice according to the shari‛ah
 Qadi Courts
 Muftis
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5. End of Mughal Rule
 1600s, the English East India Company (EEIC) established
trading posts at Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai), and
Calcutta.
 At first, India’s ruling Mughal Empire kept European traders
under control, but already weakened by civil war and misrule
few, Indians wished to defend it.
 By 1707, however, the Mughal Empire was collapsing. Dozens of
small states, each headed by a ruler or maharajah, broke away
from Mughal control.
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6. British Rule took place piecemeal
Direct British Rule
Company Rule
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7. British Rule
 Initially, British followed “Non-Interference Policy”
 Did not desire an abrupt break with the past
 to have security in social conditions
 No desire to interfere with the religious susceptibilities
of their subject
 The British slowly abandoned the policy with gradual
consolidation of power in India
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8. British Rule and Muslims
Developments in British Rule adversely
affected Muslim interests
 Due to many reasons British considered Muslims as
their main rivals
 Rivalry became worst after the Great Revolt of 1857
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9. British Rule and Muslims
 Faced discrimination in every walk of life
 Education
 Government jobs
 Administration
 Language
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11. British Rule and Muslims
 Biggest loss for Muslims was loss of Shariah
 For Muslims Shariah is divine guidance and code of
conduct
 British Colonialists considered it necessary to deprive
Muslims of their source of sustenance and symbol of
identity
 by substituting a good part of the Shariah with English
law and
 systematically mutilated the rest of it into a hybrid legal
system called “Muhammadan Law”
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12. British Rule and Muslims
 Erosion of Shariah
started with the Bengal
Regulations VII of 1832
 Third Law Commission
was constituted in 1861
to frame a body of
substantive law
 Six enactments owe
their origin to the
Commission which
superseded the
principle of the Shariah
 The Indian Succession Act
 The Indian Contract Act
 The Negotiable
Instruments Act
 The Indian Evidence Act
 The Transfer of Property
Act
 The Criminal Procedure
Act
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13. British Rule and Muslims
 Abolished the office of Qadi the main functionary
position in the administration of justice under Shariah
 Kazi Act in 1864
 Muslims were not allowed to elect Qadi by the British
Courts
 The Administration of Shariah was placed in the
hands of the English Judges who had very scanty
knowledge of the subject
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14. Ill effects of the conversion of
Shariah into “Muhammadan Law”
 Adoption of the theory of Stare decisis unknown to the
Shariah made it a prisoner of taqlid and robbed it of its
dynamism
 British courts placed absolute reliance upon some Islamic
legal texts used in the past
 Rejected any deductions made be contemporary jurists of new
rules of law from the ancient texts
 Judges were inclined to equate taqlid with stare decisis
 In Baker Ali Khan v. Anjuman are (1903)30 I.A. 94 refused to
agree with certain sound inferences drawn by Mahmood J. in
Agha Ali Khan’s case
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15. Ill effects of the conversion of
Shariah into “Muhammadan Law”
 Applications of the principles of English law to the
Shariah anglicized it to the extent of being a hybrid
legal system
 Codification of law replaced various aspects of shariah
with English law
 English law will be first consulted wherever the context
so demands (Privy Council-Waghela V. Sheikh 1887)
 A choice most consistent with Justice, equity and goods
conscience could be made between the conflicting
opinions in Islamic law (Asia Bano V. Muhammad
Ibrahim 1925)
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16. Ill effects of the conversion of
Shariah into “Muhammadan Law
 Non-Muslim judges started deciding the Shariah cases
against clear Islamic legal injunctions
 The soul of a culture – law is largely the formalized and
enforceable expression of a community’s cultural norms
cannot be fully understood by alien minds
 Under islamic law only a Muslim possessing specific
qualifications could be a Qadi or Judge
 Qadis were replaced with English judges who started
deciding Shariah cases
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17. ill effects of the conversion of
Shariah into “Muhammadan Law”
 Judicial misinterpretation of the Shariah started and
gradually assumed disturbing dimensions
 K.P. Saksena has given a list of judgments in which
Islamic law had been misinterpreted
 Islamic legal education suffered immensely and has
become completely out of tune of the Shariah
 English became official/court/business language
 English laws and judicial system was taught
 Indigenous legal system was not taught
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