The Babi movement, the predecessor to the Bahá'í faith, had some connections with India. Two of the most important Babi histories make mention of several prominent Indian believers. The major Bahá'í historian for this period, Muhammad-i Zarandi, Nabil-i Azam, informs us that one of the Bab's original disciples (Letters of the Living) was an Indian known as Shaykh Sa'id-i-Hindi. Following instructions he took the Bab's claims throughout several provinces of Iran and into his own homeland. The fruits of this latter venture, however, were far from productive, as his only success was the conversion of a certain Sayyid in the town of Multan. After this the Shaykh's activities are not recorded.
Another Indian who was ordered by the Bab to journey to India was a dervish referred to in Mirza Husayn of Hamadan's history Tarikh-i-Jadid as "the Indian believer." He came to the prison of Chihriq where the Bab was being held and managed to meet him, receiving from him the title "Qahru'llah." After several encounters with local religious authorities, including a brief arrest in the city of Khuy, he set out for India on foot. Whether or not he completed his journey is unknown.
A third significant convert during this time was a blind Sayyid, Jinab-i-Basir. Nabil states that he was the above mentioned Sayyid converted by Shaykh Sa'id-i Hindi. In contrast the Tarikh-i-Jadid claims that Jinab-i-Basir heard of the Bab's appearance in Bombay from where he traveled to Mecca and met him in person. After the Bab's death Jinab-i-Basir, along with several other Babis, made extravagant claims, but he was eventually "faced-down" by Bahá'u'lláh who made his own claim to divinity. Jinab-i-Basir was later executed for his beliefs in Luristan.
That there were other Indian believers is made evident by Mahjur's monograph on the Babi insurrection in Mazandaran. He lists four Indians as being among the 318 Babis who fought at Fort Shaykh Tabarsi. Moreover, in the 1850s the Afnan clan, relatives of the Bab, established a trading center in Bombay. Although some knowledge of the Bab's claims had thus penetrated into South Asia and fired certain local millenialist expectations, there was lacking the needed doctrinal and ritual coherence that is required of community. Both the physical distance from the sources of inspiration, as well as the disruption and turmoil evident amongst the Babi communities in Iran, especially following the Bab's execution, made community virtually impossible. Thus it would not be until the movement came under the influence of Bahá'u'lláh and, later, of Abdu'l-Bahá, that a true community would begin to develop.
(The Bahá'í Faith in India: A Developmental Stage Approach by William Garlington, published in Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Bahá'í Studies, 2, 1997-06)
https://bahai-library.com/garlington_bahai_faith_india
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