The Red Mullahs Before Political Islam

History remembers religious scholars as guardians of tradition and revolutionaries as enemies of faith. But a century ago, that line was crossed. In the shadow of British colonial rule, Deobandi scholars from India launched a secret anti-imperial movement that carried them from Delhi to Kabul, and from there to Soviet Russia. At its centre stood Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi, a turbaned revolutionary who believed Islam demanded resistance, justice, and the destruction of empire. Labelled “Red Mullahs” for their engagement with socialist ideas, these clerics challenged capitalism, feudalism, and colonial power long before such debates became mainstream. This video explains a forgotten chapter where faith met revolution, where maulvis spoke the language of class and empire, and where history quietly buried a movement too dangerous to be remembered.