How a boy from Barabanki changed course of Iran's history

How a boy from Barabanki changed course of Iran's history

When Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, was growing up in Iran, the country was a liberal country. In his childhood, Khomeini was exposed to spirituality and had a strong connection to the Shia faith, which he inherited from his grandfather, Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi. Khomeini's grandfather, Ahmad Hindi, was born near Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, and migrated to Iran.

The migration of Ahmad Hindi, a boy from Barabanki, and his teachings would go on to play a crucial role in shaping the course of Iran's history. Khomeini became the first Supreme Leader of Iran and turned it into a theocratic state. Â

This becomes all the more interesting as the world looks at Iran to see who succeeds Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader and successor to Khomeini, after President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Raisi was one of the two contenders in the race to succeed Khamenei. The other being Khamenei's second son, Mojtaba.

It was Khomeini, the predecessor of Khamenei, who turned Iran into a hardline Shia country and an alternative power centre in the Middle East. Iran acts as a counterweight to the axis of the US and Saudi Arabia, a Sunni country.

All these might not have taken the current shape hadn't Khomeini's grandfather, Ahmad Hindi, travelled back to Iran. It is strange but interesting how a town in Uttar Pradesh is woven into Iranian history.

KHOMEiNI'S GRANDFATHER WAS BORN IN INDIA

Syed Ahmad Musavi, a Shia cleric, was born in a small town called Kintoor, near Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki.

Musavi used 'Hindi' as a surname to show his association with India, according to BBC journalist Baqer Moin.

Hind's grandson, Ruhollah Khomeini, went on to be the man who was later called the father of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the person who established the high office of Ayatollah and forever changed the West Asian nation into a theocracy.

That is how Khomeini's roots can be traced back to the town near Barabanki.

Khomeini's grandfather, Syed Ahmad Musavi Hindi, migrated from Barabanki to Iran in 1830.

Ahmad Hindi's father, Din Ali Shah, had migrated to India from central Iran earlier in the 18th century. Ahmad Hindi was born in around 1800 near Barabanki, some 30 kilometres east of Lucknow.

It was the time when the British colonial power was gaining control over India after defeating the Mughals.Â

Ahmad Hindi was among the clerics who were drawn to the idea of an Islamic revival and the belief that Muslims needed to reclaim their rightful place in society.

AHMAD MUSAVI HIND'S JOURNEY TO IRAN

In search of a better life and a place to further propagate his faith, Ahmad Hindi travelled to Iran, via Iraq, then known as Persia, in the early 19th Century. He left India for a pilgrimage to the Tomb of Ali in Iraq's Najaf in 1830.

Four years later, the Shia cleric landed in the Iranian city of Khomeyn. He bought a house and raised a family there. He travelled all the way because of his love for his faith and his determination to mould and nurture it.

He married three women in Khomeyn and had five children. Among them was Mostafa, the father of Ruhollah Khomeini (birth 1902), according to journalist Baqer's book.

Iran was then under the rule of the Qajar dynasty and was in flux. The ruling elite were struggling to maintain power in the face of growing discontent among the masses and mounting foreign pressure.

Ahmad Hindi, who died in 1869, carried the title 'Hindi' all his life, a reminder of his life and time in India. He is buried in Karbala.

Several ghazals and poems of Ruhollah Khomeini carry the title Hind, noted Hamid Algar in a brief biography of Ruhollah Khomeini.

Mostafa was killed on the orders of the local landlord when Khomeini was just five months old. Â

Though Ahmad Hindi died before the birth of Khomeini, his teachings, passed on through his family, would go on to mould his grandson, in turn, changing the course of Iran's history. Â

RISE OF RUHOLLAH KHOMEINI IN IRAN

Ruhollah Khomeini's early life was marked by an exposure to spirituality and a strong connection to the Shia faith. It was an inheritance from his grandfather and father, both Shia clerics.

Ahmad Hindi's deep-religious influence always remained in the family.

Young Khomeini was quick to be drawn to the teachings of Shia Islam. The religious influence facilitated by the family, saw the young boy becoming an accomplished religious scholar in his own right.

As Khomeini grew in stature, he began to take an active interest in politics.Â

Life in Iran was characterised by rapid modernisation and Westernisation under the Shah of Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which was in stark contrast to the countryside. The urban elites embraced the western way of life.

Deeply troubled by the secularising policies of the Pahlavi dynasty, which had come to power in the 1920s, he saw the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as a puppet of Western powers, especially the US.

As the US and the USSR were engaged in their 'Great Game', the American attempts to modernise Iran were viewed with suspicion by many in the clergy, including Khomeini.

HOW KHOMEINI OVERTHREW THE SHAH OF IRAN IN 1979

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Iran went through a massive upheaval.

The Shah's regime, opposed by the clergy, intellectuals, students and the working class, found a strong critic in Khomeini. He was by then a respected cleric and had begun to speak out against the Shah's policies.

He called for a return to Islamic values and the establishment of a theocratic Iran. Khomeini was jailed, but that couldn't silence him. He rallied support among the Iranians abroad too, in order to overthrow the Shah.

The pressure on Shah mounted with a series of protests and demonstrations in 1978, the year before the Iranian Revolution.

The country came to a standstill, and Khomeini seized the opportunity.

The Shah was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and Khomeini became the hero. Iran was on the cusp of a new era.

Under Supreme Leader Khomeini, the Islamic Republic of Iran was established, and Islamic laws became the guiding principle for the young republic. Iran went from being a liberal to an orthodox society. The orthodoxy was further solidified in the decades to come.

HOW KHOMEINI CHANGED IRAN'S COURSE

Before Khomeini's revolution "transformed every aspect of Iranian society", Iran was "a very different world", said a piece in the International Policy Digest (IPD).

In the face of internal and external challenges, including a war with Iraq, economic decline, sanctions, and international isolation, Khomeini went on to rule the country for 10 years until his death in 1989.

Today, Iran is a vastly different country from the one Khomeini inherited in 1979, and much of it is the result of Khomeini's rule and the order he established.

Khomeini and his successor, the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ruled Iran on religious lines with an iron fist.

Opposition to the West became a common guiding principle, which even resulted in Iran's fractured economy and global isolation. The rights of women were crushed, so was dissent and opposition to the seat of power, the Ayatollah.

Punishments like flogging, amputation, stoning, became a norm.

Although the Islamic Republic became a major player in regional and global geopolitics, the economic challenges of high inflation and unemployment have also been attributed to the mis-rule of the Ayatollahs in Iran.

The celebrations of President Raisi's death by Iranians reveal the suppressed anger and revulsion for the hardline regime founded by Khomeini.Â

While Khomeini's legacy is a subject of debate, depending on which side a person is on, there is no denying the impact he and his unwavering policies had on Iranians. Also, undeniable is how a boy from Barabanki played a role in changing the course of Iran's history. Â

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