Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c20.s1.4

c20.s1.4

The rulers used force and persuasion in equal measure. Their resources were great. They could give jobs, honours, and titles, and many other economic concessions and status benefits as inducements to conversion, and many people would have taken advantages of these facilities. We have referred to Mubarak Khalji's encouragement to Hindus to accept Islam by presenting the convert with a robe and a gold ornament. People used to be converted in this fashion right up to the reign of Aurangzeb and perhaps even thereafter. There were subtler methods too. The *Banshasmriti* of Satya Krishna Biswas states that in Bengal the Rajas and Zamindars who could not deposit land revenue by a certain date had to convert to Muhammadanism. The *Banshasmriti* narrates an isolated incident,⁵ but as this regulation of the thirteenth century had been revived by Murshid Quli Khan, or had continued right up to his times, many local Rajas and Zamindars would have been converted in the course of four centuries. Firoz Tughlaq (1351-88) instructed his revenue collectors to convert Hindus to Islam.⁶ He rescinded the Jiziyah to lure people to become Muhammadans, and this measure brought large additions to Muslim population.⁷