Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c2.2

c2.2

On the other hand, while the appearance of Muslims in India gave the Hindu civilisation a big jolt, its influence on Indian society continued to remain ever strong. In any society people have to coexist, ideas are exchanged, and different sections of people influence one another's life and thought. So happened in medieval India too. Here the Muslims and Hindus clashed and coexisted; their mutual relations passed through stresses and strains; but they also influenced each other in social and cultural spheres, Side by side, all through the centuries of the Middle Ages the Muslim numbers went on rising. Increase in population is not merely a growth in numbers and, as W. E Moore points out, it changes not only "the size of social systems......but also the complexity and interrelationship, or organizational forms within systems, usually with accompanying strains".