Rise of Deobandi

The Deobandi movement is a revivalist school of Sunni Islam that takes its name from the town of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, India. It grew out of the seminary Darul Uloom Deoband, established by scholars such as Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi in the years after the failed rebellion of 1857, at a time when Muslims in British India feared the loss of their religious traditions. The movement follows the Hanafi school of law, emphasises the study of hadith and rejects practices such as veneration of saints' shrines. It spread to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Britain through thousands of madrasas, and it has influenced groups ranging from the Tablighi Jamaat to the Taliban.

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