In 1877 Sayyid Ahmad Khan began the Anglo-Muslim College of Aligarh and, with it, a modernist Islamic movement. His death in 1898 and the passing of the Indian sub-continent to direct British control in 1897 left a void in the leadership of this movement. The void was filled by Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan, known in Europe as Aga Khan III, whose election to the Pan-Indian Muslim League in 1908 began a new era in Islamic thought and politics. Michel Boivin examines the ebb and flow of this new tide of religious forces within the political context of the Indian sub-continent.




