The movement developed as a reaction to
British colonialism in India, which was believed by a group of prominent Indian scholars — consisting of
Rashid Ahmad Gangohi,
Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi, Shah Rafi al-Din, Sayyid Muhammad Abid, Zulfiqar Ali, Fadhl al-Rahman Usmani and
Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi — to be corrupting the Islamic religion. They therefore founded an Islamic seminary known as
Darul Uloom Deoband.
[5] From here the Islamic revivalist and anti-imperialist ideology of the Deobandis began to develop.
[6] Gradually Darul Uloom Deoband became the second largest focal point of Islamic teachings and research after the
Al-Azhar University,
Cairo, Egypt. Through organisations such as
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and
Tablighi Jamaat its ideology began to spread and the graduates of Darul Uloom Deoband from countries like Saudi Arabia, China and Malaysia opened up thousands of madrasas throughout South Asia, specifically in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
[7]
The Muslims who began the revivalist movement gained inspiration from the strict Arab schools of thought.
