RAS question
The Farazi Movement in Bengal was founded by:
Correct answer: (B) Haji Shariatullah.
The Farazi Movement in Bengal was founded by Haji Shariatullah of Faridpur.
Explanation
The Farazi, or Faraizi, movement began under Haji Shariatullah of Faridpur, so he is the founder associated with the movement in Bengal. It was a Muslim reform and peasant movement centred on faraiz, or religious duties, and Shariatullah's dates are 1781-1840. IGNOU eGyankosh, BHIC-110 (English), places the movement in its social setting: it was driven by the grievances of rack-rented and evicted peasants against landlords and British rulers. After Shariatullah, his son Dudu Miyan led the Faraizis with an egalitarian message, protected cultivators from zamindar excesses, set up local village courts in parts of eastern Bengal, and opposed zamindars and indigo interests.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Dudu Miyan was important to the later phase, but he was the son of the founder, not the founder himself.
- (C) Titu Mir belongs to a separate Bengal movement, whereas the Farazi founder asked here was Haji Shariatullah.
- (D) Syed Ahmad Barelvi is associated with the Wahabi Movement, not with founding the Farazi Movement in Bengal.
Concept
This tests nineteenth-century socio-religious and peasant movements in Bengal, where RAS often asks candidates to separate founders from later organisers. It also checks whether reform, agrarian protest, and anti-zamindar mobilisation are understood as overlapping themes in modern Indian history.