Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c16.s5: Natural Growth of Muslim Population
Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c16.s5
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Natural Growth of Muslim Population
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These contradictory scenes in Muslim demography apart, about one thing one can be sure. While the overall demographic trend of India showed, a decline, the Muslim population showed only an upward tendency. It is true that many a time statistical victories through conversions were scored off by losses in wars, yet an overall rise in Muslim population—sometimes slow, at others accelerated—is clearly discernible.
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The rise seems to be slow between 1200 and 1300, and rapid between 1300 to 1400. Historical facts vouch for this behaviour. Up to the end of the thirteenth century, governmental effort towards proselytization is hesitant and even lukewarm.⁸² Iltutmish, Balban and Alauddin Khalji were practical administrators, and but for the captives and converts obtained by them during wars, they did not act as royal missionaries. Besides, with the Hindus politically strongly entrenched right up to the end of the thirteenth century, Muslim proselytizing activity had to be cautious.⁸³ Alauddin subdued the major Hindu powers. With their submission and extension of Muslim political power to most parts of the country Hindu vulnerability to proselytization increased. Therefore, between 1300 to 1400, under Qutubuddin Mubarak, Muhammad and Firoz Tughlaq, conversions were effected at an accelerated pace, and immigrants also arrived in larger numbers.
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⁸² Barani, *op. cit.* (E.n. 41), pp. 42-44.
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⁸³ When some Ulema approached Iltutmish and suggested to him to confront the Hindus with a choice between Islam and death, Nizam-ul-Mulk Junaidi, the Wazir, replied: "But at the moment in India...the Muslims are so few that they are like salt (in a large dish). If the above orders are to be applied...the Hindus might combine...and the Muslims would be too few in number to supress (them). However, after a few years when in the Capital and in the regions and the small towns, the Muslims are well established and the troops are larger, it will be possible to give Hindus, the choice of 'death' or 'Islam'.
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In brief till about the end of the thirteenth century, Muslims in India were only like 'salt in a large dish'. The main reason for this phenomenon was that during the whole century there was little Muslim territorial expansion. To what had been acquired by 1206, nothing substantial was added till about 1300, and all the energies of the Sultanate were concentrated on preserving their acquisitions rather expanding territorially. Such a situation was discouraging both to proselytization and even immigration. Even in the capital city of Delhi and its environs the Muslims were
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Ziyauddin Barani, *Sana-i-Muhammadi*, *Medieval India Quarterly*, I, Pt. III, pp. 100-105.
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few, a fact which probably made Barani suffer from an incurable Hindu-phobia.⁸⁴ From the time of Alauddin Khalji, however, Muslim population in India began to grow a little faster due to the spreading of the Muslim rule to almost the whole of India after 1300, and it is rightly claimed that the establishment of the Vijayanagar Empire in the South was effected with a view to preserve Hindusim from the onslaughts of Islam. But contemporaneously the Bahmani kingdom of the South was also founded and it took to proselytising work usual with a Muslim regime.
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⁸⁴ Barani, *op. cit.* (II, n. 11), pp. 41-42, 44 and 216-17. Similar sentiments are expressed on pp. 72-75.
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By the close of the fourteenth century, the situation was like this. Kashmir's introduction to Islam had started since the days of Mahmud of Ghazni. In 1315, one Shah Mirza arrived from Swat, helped oust the ruling Hindu dynasty and himself ascended the throne in 1346. But in Kashmir, till the coming of Timur at the end of the fourteenth century,⁸⁵ the population of Muslims was insignificant. Sind and Punjab were being effectively Islamised by rulers and Mongol invaders. In Gujarat, Deccan and Malwa also, because of the campaigns of local Muslim rulers against Hindu chiefs, the number of Muslims had risen. By the last years of the century, Muslim population of Delhi and its adjoining regions also went up, a fact which prompted Afif to write "from the *qasba* of Indrapat (present Indraprastha Estate) to the Kaushik-i-Shikar (present Delhi University area), five *kos* apart all the land was occupied......There were eight public mosques, and one private mosque...The public mosques were each large enough to accommodate 10,000 suppliants".⁸⁶ This clearly indicates a fairly large Muslim population in the capital city.
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⁸⁵ When Father Xavier and Brother Benedict went to Kashmir with Akbar this is what they learnt: "In antiquity this land was inhabited by gentiles, but in the 1300's it was invaded by the Moors, possibly a reference to Timur, and since then the majority of the people accept Islam". Lach, *op. cit.* (V, n. 24), I, p 467. He writes on the authority of L. Guzman, *Historia de las missiones*...(Alcala, 1601), pp. 267-68.
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⁸⁶ Afif, *op. cit.* (II, n. 15), p. 135.
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There is yet another, though indirect and not unimpeachable, evidence for this rise. Alauddin had abolished the *jagir* system, lest local officials should turn contumacious. But by the time of Firoz the number of dependable Muslims (or Muslims of a few generations) had increased, and he could safely entrust jagirs to them, “and during the forty years of his reign he devoted himself to generosity and the benefit of Musalmans, by distributing villages and lands among his followers” in lieu of salary.⁸⁷
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⁸⁷ Afif, *op. cit.* (II, n. 15), p. 95.
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Estimate of Muslim population in A.D. 1400
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So, between A.D. 1200 and 1400 and especially in the fourteenth century, Muslim population had grown at an accelerated pace. The agencies which contributed to this growth are known. Historical facts giving an idea of this rise too are on record. But the quantum or percentage of rise during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is not possible to estimate with any amount of accuracy for want of specific data. However, a fair idea—only a fair idea—may be obtained by taking recourse to the same old but well-tried method of proceeding from the known to the unknown.
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The decadal census figures from 1881 to 1941 show a constant rise in Muslim numbers. This is a feature common with medieval times, and the pattern of modern Muslim demography, seen in Table 7,
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Table 7
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*Showing the rate of rise of Muslim Population during 1881-1941*
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| Year of the Census | Number of⁸⁸ Muslims in 000’s | %age to⁸⁹ total population calculated by J. M. Datta | Inter-Censal diff-erence | %age cal-⁹⁰ culation by K. Davis |
| 1881 | 49,953 | 19.74 | — | 19.97 |
| 1891 | 57,068 | 19.96 | +0.22 | 20.41 |
| 1901 | 62,119 | 21.22 | +1.26 | 21.88 |
| 1911 | 67,835 | 21.26 | +0.04 | 22.39 |
| 1921 | 71,005 | 21.74 | +0.48 | 23.23 |
| 1931 | 79,306 | 22.16 | +0.42 | 23.49 |
| 1941 | 94,447 | 23.81 | +1.65 | 24.28 |
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⁸⁸ Based on the figures of K. Davis, *op. cit.* (I, n. 9), p. 179.
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⁸⁹ J.M. Datta, “Proportion of Muhammadans in India Through Centuries”, in *Modern Review*, *op. cit.* (I, n. 10), p. 33.
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⁹⁰ K. Davis, *op. cit.*, p. 70.
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may help in estimating the rate of rise in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries also.
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Now, although the growth of Muslim numbers during these sixty years (1881-1941) is continuous, the percentage of rise is not uniform. It indeed varies from 0.04% between 1901 and 1911 to 1.65 between 1931 to 1941. But, as the Table above shows, Muslim population in India was almost doubled in sixty years time from 49.9 million to 94.5 between 1881 and 1941. If in modern times the Muslim numbers rose by a hundred per cent in a little over sixty years, could they have risen at the same rate during the two centuries under review ? If so, then the numbers between 1200 and 1400 should have become double in sixty to seventy years on an average, the restrained growth of the thirteenth being made up by the accelerated rise in the fourteenth century. It is true that the period of 1881 to 1941 was of peace in India. Famine and pestilence and such like calamities were there no doubt, but there were no wars as such in India during this period. In medieval times there were recurring famines and constant wars. But the Muslims, confined mostly to urban areas, would have been better protected by governmental effort against the ravages of famine. The wars were generally of Hindu resistance and Muslim expansion. It is clear from a study of medieval Indian history that more Hindus died in battle than Muslims. Not only the medieval chroniclers say so but also because Hindus generally lost and the Muslims in course of time became masters of almost the whole country. The rise in Muslim numbers at least was not affected by these wars because any loss in battles was more than made up by the number of captives who used to be converted and also by replenishment through Muslim immigration. Thus it may not be unreasonable to suppose that during these two centuries, in the course of sixty to seventy years, the number of Muslims used to become double.
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It has been estimated earlier that there were about four hundred thousand Muslims in India in A.D. 1200. If their numbers became double in sixty to seventy years, they would have been about 3.2 million in 1400. The total population of India in 1400 has been estimated at 170 million. The Muslims would have been about 1.8 per cent of the total population with 50 to 53 Hindus to one Muslim.