Ramdev at the meeting of the moulvis

Lucknow, Nov. 3: A largely Muslim crowd of 5 lakh cheered Baba Ramdev today as he recalled the community’s role in the freedom movement in the first speech by a non-Muslim religious leader at India’s leading Islamic seminary.

Many of the 10,000 moulvis in the audience at the Darul Uloom of Deoband, Uttar Pradesh, said they appreciated the yoga guru’s call for a united India and his demand that the Centre speed up minority welfare schemes.

Ramdev is likely to return soon because his scheduled yoga demonstration was put off for another day.

“Although he did not speak on yoga today, many maulanas are interested in doing the exercises. He may be called another time to train our maulanas in yoga,” Deoband spokesman Mumtaz Alam told The Telegraph.

“We cannot forget the contribution of the Muslims to the independence movement,” Ramdev told the annual convention of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, one of India’s largest Muslim organisations and the parent body of the seminary.

“Although political parties try to divide people on religious lines, we must remain united. The Almighty is one, whichever name we call Him by,” he added.

Ramdev referred to the way Awadh queen Begum Hazrat Mahal had fought the British during the 1857 revolt and how Bahadur Shah Zafar, India’s last Mughal emperor, had become a rallying point for the various rebel groups.

“He won us over by talking of the need for Indian unity in the wake of the new Indian identity that is taking shape,” Deoband spokesman Alam said.

The Jamiat had invited Shri Shri Ravi Shankar too but he was unable to come and sent an emissary with a message.

It was yoga that had first bonded Ramdev and Deoband, and opened up for the Baba the possibility of a huge clientele from among Indian Muslims.

After Malaysian maulanas had banned Muslims from practising yoga last year, Ramdev had endeared himself to the community by saying they could do the exercises without pronouncing “Om”, and could even chant “Allah” instead.

Days before Ramdev’s visit, the Darul Uloom had declared there was nothing wrong in Muslims doing yoga. Jamiat chief Maulana Mehmood Madni said he himself practised yoga without uttering “Om”.

“Why keep Muslims off something that helps build their bodies?” said Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, Darul deputy vice-president.

“The idea is not foreign to Muslims. Exercises similar to yoga are found in Sufi schools,” Jamiat spokesman Maulana Abdul Hameed Nomani said.

Ramdev’s Hardwar-based Patanjali Yogapeeth has asked its Christian and Muslim followers to begin their drill with a prolonged utterance of “Allah” or “God”.