This movement was originally an Islamic socio-religious reform movement. It tried to purify Islam by eliminating all the un-Islamic practices which had crept into Muslim society through the ages.Saiyad Ahmad of Rae-Bareily was the founder of this movement in India. But his actual ambition was to revive Muslim power in Hindustan by overthrowing the Sikhs in Punjab and British in Bengal.Wahabism spread very rapidly in Bihar, Bengal, UP and North-Western India. After Saiyad Ahmad's death in the battle of Balakot against the Sikhs (1831), Patna became the centre of this movement. In Bengal Saiyad Nissar Hussain led this anti-British struggle which sometimes took a communal turn. Although the Wahabi uprising was mainly inspired by anti-imperialist sentiments yet it had some kind of revivalist and communal tendencies. The British took strong measures against this movement and were able to subdue it completely around 1870.