Twilight of the Sultanate c17.s10.1

c17.s10.1

Even a cursory study of the life of the people of medieval Hindustan would show that the food and clothes, customs and manners and even hopes and aspirations of the people were alike. And yet in India the "Hindu-Muslim problem" arose from the very inception of the Turkish rule, and there were a number of things which kept the two apart. The establishment of Muslim rule in northern India was through a very long process of conquest. Throughout the course of medieval history one or the other of the regions in the country was always defying the authority of the Sultanate. In this state of continual warfare atrocities and their bitter memories lingered long. As late as the fourteenth century Ziyauddīn Baranī wrote that "if they (the Hindus) do not find a mighty sovereign at their head, nor behold crowds of horse and foot with drawn swords and arrows threatening their lives and property, they fail in their allegiance, refuse payment of revenue, and excite a hundred tumults and revolts".¹⁸⁶ Obviously the Hindus were suppressed and the Muslims remained aggressive and dominating.¹⁸⁷ A generation later Ibn Battūta found the same situation.¹⁸⁸ Years later Vidyapātī also wrote about the insulting attitude of the Muslims,¹⁸⁹ and the defiance of the Hindus. Such was the position in the fourteenth century on the political and military front. On the social front also the Hindus did not show any signs of degeneration. Shaikh Nizāmuddīn Auliyā admits that the Hindus were not prepared to renounce their faith under any circumstance.¹⁹⁰ The resistance of the Hindus was a cause and an effect of Muslim atrocities, and kept the two communities away from each other.