The Darul Uloom Deoband (Hindi: दारुल उलूम देवबन्द, Urdu: دارالعلوم دیوبند) is an Islamic school propagating Sunni Islam in India and is where the Deobandi Islamic movement was started. It is located at Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It was founded in 1866 by several prominent Islamic scholars (ulema), headed by Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi. The other prominent
founding scholars were Maulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi and Haji Syed Abid Hussain. The institution is highly respected across the India, as well as in other parts of the Indian subcontinent. A large group of scholars at the Darul Uloom Deoband had opposed the establishment of a state established along sectarian lines, particularly the demands of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim League for the Partition of British India into Muslim and non-Muslim sections.[1][2] It has been suggested that the real reason for their opposition to Partition was their desire to Islamize all of India.[3] Maulana Husain Ahmad Madani was one of the scholars who opposed the idea of Pakistan. He was also Sheikh-ul-Hadeeth (Chief of Hadeeth department) of Darul Uloom Deoband and led the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, an organization of the ulema, that saw nothing Islamic in the idea of Pakistan. He said: "All should endeavour jointly for such a democratic government in which Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Parsis are included. Such a freedom is in accordance with Islam." The school advocates an orthodox version of Islam and has repeatedly distanced itself from religious extremism.
