Qadiani is a term, with pejorative connotations, used by Sunnis (who make up the majority of Muslims worldwide) to refer to the minority Ahmadiyya

Ahmadiyya

Ahmadiyya is an Islamic religious revivalist movement founded in India near the end of the 19th century, originating with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad , who claimed to have fulfilled the prophecies about the world reformer of the end times, who was to herald the Eschaton as...

, primarily in Pakistan. The term itself is a reference to the town of Qadian

Qadian

Qadian is a small town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur District, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India....

, the hometown of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mīrzā Ghulām Aḥmad was a religious figure from India and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community. He claimed to be the Mujaddid of the 14th Islamic century, the promised Messiah , and the Mahdi awaited by the Muslims in the end days...

, whom the Ahmadiyya held to be the promised Messiah and Mahdi

Mahdi

In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on Earth for seven, nine or nineteen years- before the Day of Judgment and, alongside Jesus, will rid the world of wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny.In Shia Islam, the belief in the Mahdi is a "central religious...

.

It is also sometimes used to distinguish between the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam (Lahore-based) and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...

 (Qadian-based) branches of the Ahmadiyya, primarily by the Lahoris and other Muslims. While the Lahori continue to be based in Lahore, the Qadiani branch headquarters moved to Lahore in 1947, to Chenab Nagar (formerly Rabwah

Rabwah

Rabwah is a private city in the Chiniot District of Punjab Province, Pakistan located on the Chenab River near the historic city of Chiniot...

) in 1951 and the United Kingdom in 1984.