The 1939 Tabarra agitation was an event when some 18,000 Shias were jailed during months of March, April, and May 1939 in Lucknow, India.

[1][2] A civil disobedience movement was at once started by Shias following the Congress Government communique of 31 March 1939 (which allowed reciting of previously banned Madhe-Sahaba at public meetings).

Some 1800 Shias courted arrest, including prominent Shia figures such as Syed Ali Zaheer (newly elected MLA from Allahabad-Jaunpur), the Princes of the former royal family of Awadh, Sayed Muhammad Naseer Naseer-ul-Millat the son of Maulana Nasir a respected Shia mujtahid (the eldest son, student and designated successor of Maulana Sayed Nasir Hussain of Abaqati family), Maulana Sayed Kalb-e-Husain and his son Maulana Kalb-e-Abid (both of Nasirabadi/Ijtihadi family) ) and the brothers of Raja of Salempur and the Raja of Pirpur, important ML leaders.

[3] Maulana Azad, appointed an arbitrator by the parties, called a conference of Shias and Sunnis, but it failed to produce a settlement.

Azad conveyed to Sir Haig, the Governor, his view that the communique was 'based on inadequate appreciation of the situation and, therefore, an error of judgement'.