Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c21: XIV. Bengal—A Special Case Study of Growth of Muslim Population

Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c21

Language: English

XIV. Bengal—A Special Case Study of Growth of Muslim Population

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Sind and Punjab lay on the route of Muslim invaders. They bore the brunt of so many Muslim invasions for a thousand years from 712 to 1761. In these provinces as well as North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan Muslim immigration too was considerable. Therefore, the extensive growth of Muslim population in this region is understandable. But Bengal, especially eastern Bengal, calls for a special study, for Bengal did not lie on the route of the Muslim invaders. Nor did it form a base of operations for further conquests into India as were Punjab and Sind. But Bengal was another region where the rise of Muslim population was rapid, and probably in the medieval period itself eastern Bengal especially began to have a majority of Muslim population. An explanation for this phenomenon has posed a problem before scholars and demographers. However, as we shall see presently, the overall picture of Islamization in Bengal is quite clear; only in details it is a little blurred.

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The main reason for large-scale conversions in Bengal, as indeed elsewhere, lies in the proselytizing endeavour of its Muslim rulers and (and this is peculiar to Bengal) Sufi Mushaikh. Muslim invasions from northern India had started from the early years of the thirteenth century. Bakhtiyar Khalji had invaded Nadia (1203) and Balban had marched (c. 1279-80) as far as Sonargaon in eastern Bengal. The Tughlaqs continued to assert their authority over Bengal and led many expeditions into it. During such campaigns some usual conversions would have taken place. But large number of Muslims were made under the independent Muslim rulers of Benghal. We have referred earlier to the large-scale conversions effected by Sultan Jalaluddin, himself a renegade, in the early years of the fifteenth century. About these Dr. Wise writes that “the only condition he offered were the Koran or death……many Hindus fled to Kamrup and the jungles of Assam, but it is nevertheless probable that more Muhammadans were added to Islam during these seventeen years (1414-31) than in the next three hundred”.¹

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¹ *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1894, Pt. III, p. 28.

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Moreover, “the enthusiastic soldiers, who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, spread the faith of Islam among the timid race of Bengal, made forcible conversions by the sword, and, penetrating the dense forests of the Eastern frontier, planted the crescent in the villages of Sylhet. Tradition still preserves the names of Adam Shahid, Shah Jalal Mujarrad, and Karmfarma Sahib, as three of the most successful of these enthusiasts.”² The story of conversions under independent Muslim kings of Bengal (1338-1576) is not very clear as written records about them are few, but stray references clearly show that “at some times and in some places, the Hindus were subjected to persecution.”³ Tradition credits the renowned Shah Jalal of Sylhet making large-scale conversions. In Mardaran thana in Arambagh sub-division of Hoogly, where the Muhammadan population predominates over the Hindu, there is a tradition that Muhammad Ismail Shah Ghazi defeated the local Hindu Raja and forcibly converted the people to Islam.⁴

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² *Loc. cit.*

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³ *Census of India Report*, 1901, VI, Pt. I, Bengal, pp. 165-181.

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⁴ *Ibid.*

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Hand in hand with the proselytizing efforts of the rulers was the work of Sufis and Maulvis. From the time of Muhammad bin Tughlaq to that of Akbar, Bengal had attracted rebels, refugees, Sufi Mashaikh, disgruntled nobles and adventurers from northern India. The militant type of Mashaikh found in Bengal a soil fertile for conversion, and worked hard to raise Muslim numbers. Professor K.R. Qanungo has noted that the conversion of Bengal was mainly the work of Barah-Auliyas.⁵ Professor Abdul Karim has also referred to militant Sufi proselytization.⁶ But Dr. I. H. Qureshi is the most explicit in this regard. He writes: "The fourteenth century was a period of expansion of Muslim authority in Bengal and the adjoining territories. A significant part was played in this process by the warrior saints who were eager to take up the cause of any persecuted community. This often resulted (in clash) with the native authority, followed, almost invariably, by annexation...⁷ This also shows how elastic were the methods adopted by the Sufis. They acted mostly as peaceful missionaries, but if they saw that the espousal of some just cause required military action, they were not averse to fighting. The Sufis...did not adopt the Ismaili technique of gradual conversion...They established their *khanqahs* and shrines at places which had already had a reputation for sanctity before Islam. Thus some of the traditional gatherings were transformed into new festivals. As a result of these efforts, Bengal in course of time became a Muslim land"...⁸

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⁵ “Bengal was not conquered by seventeen Turkish cavaliers (of Bakhtiyar Khalji) ; but by the *barah-auliya*, or twelve legendary Muslim militant saints, the Pirs who cropped up after the seed of Islam had been broadcast in the plains of Bengal". K.R. Qanungo, *op. cit.* (X, n. 56), p. 151.

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⁶ Abdul Karim, *op. cit.* (X, n. 20), p. 125, also pp 136-38.

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⁷ On the authority of Jadunath Sarkar, *History of Bengal*, pp. 68, 70.

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⁸ Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, *The Muslim Community of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-continent (610-1947)*, Monton & Co, 'S—Gravenhage, 1962, pp. 70-71, 74-75.

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Stories of forcible conversions in Bengal are narrated by Muhammadan medieval historians themselves with great gusto and we need not dilate upon them.⁹ From early times "each seat of Government, and each military station was more or less a centre of missionary agitation”. We find another agency from across the seas working towards the same end. Arab merchants carried on an extensive and lucrative trade at Chittagong and disseminated their religious ideas among its inhabitants. When Barbosa visited Bengal at the beginning of the sixteenth century, he found the inhabitants of the interior Gentiles, subject to the king of Bengal who was a Moor, while the sea ports were inhabited by both Moors and Gentiles. He also met with many foreigners—Arabs, Persians, Abbysinians and Indians (probably Gujaratis). Caesar Frederick and Vincent Le Blanc, who were in Bengal in 1570, also inform us that the island of Sandip was then inhabited by Moors.¹⁰ In the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries Chittagong surely was one of the centres from which unceasing propagandism was carried on. When it is realised how Muslim merchants from India played a major role in the conversion of Mallaca and then the other parts of South-East Asia to Islam,¹¹ an appreciation of their proselytizing endeavour and achievements in Gujarat, Malabar and Bengal can be easily made.

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⁹ Here is one such story cited in the Census of India Report, 1901, Vol. VI, Pt. I Bengal, pp. 165-181. "While the Muhammadan population was still scattered, it was customary for each householder to hang an earthen water-pot (badana) from his thatched roof, as a sign of his religious belief. One day a Maulvi, after some years' absence, went to visit a disciple, who lived in the centre of a Hindu village, but could not find the 'badana'. On enquiry he was told that the Musalman villager had renounced his faith and joined an outcaste tribe. On his return to the city, the circumstances being reported to the Nawab, a detachment of troops was ordered out, the village surrounded, and every person in it compelled to become Muhammadan." Also See M.L. Roy Chowdhury, "Preaching of Islam in Bengal (Turko-Afghan Period)", in *Proceedings of the Indian History Congress*, Twentythird Session, Aligarh, 1960, Pt. I, pp. 168-181, esp. p. 171, where quotations from Bijoygupta's *Padma-Puran* and Jayananda's *Chaitanaya Mangal* show some methodas of forcible conversions.

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¹⁰ *Voyages de Le Goowz*, p. 157, cited in *Census Report, 1901, op. cit.* (n 3).

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¹¹ D.G.E. Hall, *op. cit.* (III, n. 26), pp. 177-183.

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The methods of conversion employed in Bengal were the same as seen elsewhere in medieval India. But what made Bengal different from many other parts of India as nonresistant and vulnerable to conversions was its peculiar political, religious, and social condition. Politically, Bengal could not withstand Muslim attacks from the very beginning as is clear from the shocking nonresistance of Lakshman Sen to Bakhtiyar Khalji's invasion. But its governors and rulers, due to its geographical location and the unsatisfactory medieval means of communication, mostly remained independent of Delhi, provoking, nevertheless, occasional attacks from the Delhi Sultans. Such emergencies brought the rulers and the people closer to each other. Besides, “throughout the period from the 13th to the 18th century, the northern, eastern and south-eastern frontiers of the Muslim ruled area of East Bengal remained in the fluid condition and the boundaries swung to and fro with tides of fresh conquests ...”¹² In such a situation the people looked to the rulers for security; in return giving them their loyalty and some even adopting their faith.

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¹² Nafis Ahmad, “The Evaluation of the Boundaries of East Pakistan” in the *Oriental Geographer*, II, No. 2, July, 1958, p. 101.

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Thus the people of Bengal accepted their Muslim rulers as one of themselves, and the rulers on their part adopted and patronised the people's language and literature, art and culture.¹³ Translations of many important Hindu works were done at the orders of Muslim rulers,¹⁴ and "as a result of this interaction of Hinduism and Islam curious syncretic cults and practices arose, [there] grew the worship of a common God, adored by Hindus and Muslims alike, namely, Satya Pir. The Emperor Hussain Shah of Gauda is supposed to be the originator of this cult..."¹⁵ Adherents of such cults provided potential converts to Islam. Muslim rulers were keen on increasing Muslim numbers. They could provide jobs and other economic incentives to conversions and, as has been pointed out earlier, Barbosa was struck by the fact that in Bengal "everyday Gentiles turn Moors to obtain favour of the King and Governors". Others converted as the only means of escaping punishment for murder or adultery. Besides, wherever Muhammadan rule existed slavery was developed, "and during the centuries of misrule and oppression, through which Bengal passed, slavery was accepted by the Hindus as a refuge for their troubles. Delhi court obtained not only its slaves [in thousands, as for example under Firoz Tughlaq] but also eunuchs from the villages of Eastern Bengal [a wide-spread practice which the Mughal Emperor Jahangir tried to stop]. The incursions of Assamese Maghs, the famines, pestilences and civil wars...drove them in sheer desperation to sell their children as Musalman slaves".¹⁶

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¹³ D.C. Sen, *History of Bengali Language and Literature* (Calcutta University, 1911), pp. 10, 12, 13-14.

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¹⁴ Tara Chand, *op. cit.* (VIII, n. 14), p. 214.

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¹⁵ *Ibid.*, p. 217.

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¹⁶ Census of India Report, *op. cit.* (n. 3) for 1901.

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To such compulsions obviously the very poor and socially backward people would have succumbed. For the rich other methods were brought into operation. The Census of India Report of 1901 says that "the tyrannical Murshid Kuli Khan enforced a law that any Amal, or Zamindar, failing to pay the revenue that was due...should, with his wife and children, be compelled to become Muhammadans", but the practice was much older as vouched by the *Banshasmriti*. Such conversions, as that of the Raja of Samudragarh, referred to earlier, had a chain reaction. The converted Rajas and Zamindars used to compel others in their lands to become Musalmans for fear of losing their support, nay even for making them their active Muslim supporters. In this regard we have seen the achievements of Sultan Jalaluddin, himself a convert from Hinduism. Kala Pahar, the dreaded iconoclast, and Murshid Quli Khan were Brahman converts. So was Pir Ali or Muhammad Tahir, a Brahman apostate, who "like all renegades...probably proved a worse persecutor of his original faith than others who were Muhammadans by birth." The Census Report of 1901 continues to say : "The present Raja of Parsouni in Darbhanga is descended from Raja Pudil Singh, who rebelled against the Emperor and became a Muhammadan by way of expiation. The family of Asad Khan of Baranthan in Chittagong, has descended from Syam Rai Chowdhari who was fain to become a Musalman...The Diwan families of Pargana Sarail in Tippera, and of Haibatnagar and Jangalbari in Mymensingh, the Pathans of Majhauli in Darbhangha", all sprang from old Hindu houses. They, their propagation, and their progeny added to Muslim numbers.

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The religious condition of Bengal too made people vulnerable to Muslim proselytization. The Pala rulers of Bengal were Buddhists and Buddhism, in spite of the damage caused to it by Bakhtiyar Khalji, remained prevalent in the land until at least the fourteenth century. The Senas were Hindus. They patronised Brahmins and Sanskrit. They were destroyed by Bakhtiyar, but not Hinduism. However, the excesses of the Brahmins were unpalatable to the people. Only one example may suffice to illustrate the situation. "To promote the cause of Brahmanism (the Senas) revived Brahmanic rituals with a vengeance, for the elaboration of which a great body of literature was produced under their patronage. Vallal Sen, father of Lakshman Sen, himself wrote the *Danasagar* (in A.D. 1170) which prescribed no less than 1375 varieties of ceremonial charity to Brahmans".¹⁷ There were other aspects of Bengal Hinduism which Dr. Ahmad Hasan Dani discusses at some length. He writes that even a casual observer like W.W. Hunter was fain to observe : "As Manu's artificial classification never passed in its integrity beyond the Middle Land to the north, west, or south, so to the east, where Lower Bengal begins, there caste as a fourfold classification ceases. In North Bihar, which adjoins the Lower Bengal, it is unknown ; and the population is divided, not into four castes of Manu, but into Aryans, non-Aryans, and mixed classes." This remark of Hunter is verifiable in the Census Report of 1901 in which the entire Hindu population was divided into seven classes for the sake of proper assessment, simply because the fourfold caste system was not operative in Bengal.¹⁸ Thus Brahmanical oppression, fluidity in caste (whose rigidity is said to have stood as a bulwark against proselytization in U.P.), and rivalry between Buddhism and Hinduism,¹⁹ more or less combined to create a situation for people's exposure to conversion.

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¹⁷ P. Saran, *Resistance of Indian Princes to Turkish Offensive*, Sita Ram Kohli Memorial Lectures, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1967, p. 34.

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¹⁸ Ahmad Hasan Dani, "Race and Culture Complex in Bengal" in *Social Research in East Pakistan*, Ed. P. Bessaignet, Asiatic Society of Pakistan (Dacca, 1960), pp. 93-110.

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¹⁹ R.C. Mitra, *op. cit.* (XI, n. 23). pp. 78-79.

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The social structure of Bengal too was not coalesced. It was a amalgamation of Hindus, non-Hindus, non-Aryan Hindus, and foreigners. The invaders and immigrants from the side of Assam, Tibet and Burma were not Hindus. Abdul Majid Khan even goes on to say : "In fact India or the land of the Hindus ended in Bengal west of the Bhagirathi."²⁰ The statement is not quite true, but in the Bengal Census Report of 1872 Beverley has explained in great detail the difficulty of settling who are and who are not Hindus, and says that the people put under 'Hindoos', "when classified by religion comprise many who are not Hindoos by race, and scarcely so in any other sense".²¹ Dr. Dani on an analysis of the Hindu population structure concludes that while about 38 per cent people are Aryans or of mixed origin, the rest 62 per cent originated from non-Aryans elements. These include Pundras in North and Pods in South Bengal. They have been admitted on all hands to be non-Aryans in origin. "Anthropologists like Thurston and J. Richards have talked of 'pre-Dravidians' also in Bengal. Peter Schmidt has even assumed that there is a common physical relationship among the Munda, the Khasi and the Mon and Khmer speakers of South-East Asia (but this is inconclusive). However, the dark, short and broadnoided people of Bengal are called pre-Dravidian by anthropologists. Tibeto-Chinese or Mongoloids also came into Bengal and have become part and parcel of its people. It is not known when the Bodo section of the Tibeto-Burman branch of these people (Bodo, Mech, Koch, Kachari, Rabha, Garo, Tipra) came to Assam and East Bengal, but are found spread all over North and East Bengal. "This overbearance of the non-Aryan elements has resulted in the great difference in the socio-religious life of Bengalis from the rest of India", in the worship of the female Shakti (power) form resulting in the development of Tantric cult and other related forms.²²

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²⁰ Abdul Majid Khan, "Research about Muslim Aristocracy in East Pakistan" in Pierre Bessaignet (Editor), *Social Research in East Pakistan, op. cit.* (n. 18), pp. 18-25.

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²¹ p. 131, also pp. 96, 129.

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²² Ahmad Hasan Dani, *op. cit.*, n. 18., pp. 93-110.

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In brief in eastern Bengal, Chandals and Pods and in northern Rajbansis and Koches predominated; the proportion of orthodox Hindus was very small. Pods, Chandals and Koches all have traces of Buddhist influence. Among the Koches, traces of Buddhist influence still survived when Ralph Fitch visited the country in the sixteenth century.²³ Muslim religion must have crumbled the defences of Chandals, Koches, Pods and other tribes and low classes who were regarded as outcaste by the Hindus or on whom there was little Hindu influence.

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²³ *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1873, Pt. I, p. 230.

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Thus it were the peculiar political, religious, but more especially social conditions of Bengal that exposed its people to Muslim proselytization. Had the common, poor, unsophisticated sections of the lower classes been left to themselves, they might have remained contented with their local forms of devotion and folk culture. But Muslim rulers, soldiers, and Sufi Mashaikh left the high and the low hardly any choice in the matter. The lower classes of course were more vulnerable.

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There can, therefore, be no doubt as to the local origin of most of the Muhammadans in Bengal, especially in North and East. Dewan Fazle Rabbi, however, has tried to prove that Bengal Muslims are mainly of foreign extraction. Nothing can be farther from the truth, but before we critically assess his ill-founded thesis, we shall sift the evidence about the local origin of Bengal Muslims which in itself would refute their extra-Indian nativity. Brian Hodgson writes about the voluntary conversion of Koch tribe of North Bengal;²⁴ Dr. Wise about the tribes about Dacca, and Buchanan Hamilton about other tribes, but they all agree that Bengal Muslims are descendants of local inhabitants.²⁵ "But the most convincing testimony is that afforded by the exact measurements carried out by Mr. Risley. The averege Cephalic index (proportion of breadth of head to length) of 185 Muhammadans of East Bengal is almost identical with that of 67 Chandals. The nasal index (proportion of breadth of nose to height) was greater than that of the Chandals but not very different from the Chandals' half-brothers, the Pods, and in any case a broad nose is characteristic of the Dravidian rather than of the Aryan or Semetic type. These measurements show clearly that the foreign element amongst the Muhammadans of East Bengal is very small.²⁶ And the appelations and professions of the low class indigenous people did not change with their conversion, as will be clearly seen in the following Table.

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²⁴ *Essays on Indian Subjects*, I, p. 108, cited in *Census of India Report*, VI, Pt I

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²⁵ *Statistical Account of Rangpur*, p. 221, cited in Census Report, *op. cit.* (n. 3).

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²⁶ Census Report, *op. cit.* (n. 3).

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Table 9

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*Showing Muslim Functional Castes in Eastern Bengal*²⁷

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²⁷ Extract from *Census of India*, 1931, Vol. V, Part I, p. 423. *These districts were divided between West Bengal and East Pakistan.

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In other parts of the old province of Bengal also the general opinion, buttressed by census enumerations, is that the Muhammdans are recruited mainly from local converts. Hence they are in a majority in many places, especially in eastern Bengal, as shown in the Table on the next page.

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Table 10

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*Indicating Percentage of Muslim, Hindu, and the remaining category of population to the total in each district of undivided Bengal and Assam going to East Pakistan according to the Census data of 1941.*²⁸

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²⁸ Collated from P.C. Mahalanobis "Distribution of Muslims in the population of India in 1941": *Sankhya: The Indian Journal of Statistics*, Calcutta Vol 7, Part 4, 1946, p. 430.

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| District | Population (in 000's) | Percentage of total Muslim | Percentage of total Hindu | Percentage of total Others |
| Bakargunj | 3549 | 72.3 | 27.0 | 0.7 |
| Bogra | 1260 | 84.0 | 14.8 | 1.2 |
| Chittagong | 2153 | 74.6 | 21.3 | 4.1 |
| Chittagong Hill Tracts | 247 | 2.8 | 2.0 | 95.2 |
| Dacca | 4222 | 67.3 | 32.2 | 0.5 |
| Dinajpur* | 1927 | 50.2 | 40.2 | 9.6 |
| Faridpur | 2889 | 64.8 | 34.8 | 0.4 |
| Jalpaiguri* | 1090 | 23.0 | 50.6 | 26.4 |
| Jessore* | 1828 | 60.2 | 39.4 | 0.4 |
| Khulna | 1943 | 49.4 | 50.3 | 0.3 |
| Malda* | 1233 | 56.8 | 37.8 | 5.4 |
| Mymensingh | 6024 | 77.4 | 21.5 | 1.1 |
| Nadia* | 1760 | 61.2 | 37.4 | 1.4 |
| Noakhali | 2217 | 81.4 | 18.6 | 0.0 |
| Pabna | 1705 | 77.1 | 22.5 | 0.4 |
| Rajshahi | 1572 | 74.6 | 21.0 | 4.4 |
| Rangpur | 2878 | 71.4 | 27.9 | 0.7 |
| Tippera | 3860 | 77.1 | 22 8 | 0.1 |
| Sylhet* (previously in Assam) | 3117 | 60.7 | 36.9 | 2.4 |

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It may be generally said that almost the whole of the functional groups such as Julaha and Dhunia and the great majority of Shaikhs, probably nine-tenths in Bengal and possibly half in Bihar, are of Indian origin. The foreign elements may be looked for chiefly in the ranks of the Saiyyads, Pathans and Mughals. Even here there are many who are descended from Hindus, because high caste converts are often allowed to assume high titles. "In Bihar a converted Hindu of the Brahman or Kayasth caste is usually allowed to call himself a Shekh (Shaikh) and to associate and intermarry with genuine Shekhs. A Babhan or Rajput in the same circumstances, becomes a Pathan....In Mymensingh high caste converts are given title of Khan and call themselves Pathans.. (Even) the lower castes...after the lapse of some years...are gradually recognised as Shekh." As Nazmul Karim rightly points out : "The pseudo-Syeds have been on the increase not only in India but throughout the Muslim world, even from the beginning of Islamic history", and the high titles among Bengal Muslims do not necessarily point to their foreign extraction.

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Khan Bahadur Dewan Fazle Rabbi of Murshidabad wrote a book in Urdu entitled *Haqiqat-i-Musalman-i-Bangala*³¹ to prove that Bengal Muslims were mainly of foreign extraction. This was done probably to controvert the statement of Beverley in the Census Report of 1872 that "the existence of Muhammadans is due not so much to the introduction of the Moghal blood into the country, as to the conversion of the former inhabitants." Mr. Abu Ghaznavi of Mymensingh, who prepared an excellent account of the Muhammadans of his district, probably in connection with the 1901 census, also supported the foreign origin theory, but he admitted that local converts bulked largely in the total. In Muhammadan histories no mention is made of any large scale Muhammadan immigration from Upper India, and in Akbar's time the climate of Bengal was considered so un-congenial that an order to proceed there was considered a sentence of banishment. Muslims came to Bihar first, but there their number has remained small. Foreign Muslims would not have chosen to settle in the swampy regions of Noakhali, Bogra and Backergunje.

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²⁹ *Census of India Report, 1901*, VI, Part I, Bengal, pp 165-181.

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³⁰ A.K. Nazmul Karim, "Muslim Social Classes of East Pakistan" in *Changing Society in India and Pakistan*, University of Dacca (Oxford University Press, Pakistan, 1956), pp. 120-30, 138-143. Karim also quotes the well-known saying '*Peshe azin qassab budem, bad-z-an gashtem Sheikh; ghalla chun arzan shawad, imsal Syed m-shawem*'. (The first year we were butchers, the next Sheikhs, this year, if prices rise, we shall become Syeds).

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³¹ Its English translation is also available, entitled *The Origin of the Muhammadans of Bengal*, Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta, 1895.

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In short, analysing the data collected by Mahalanobis in 1945 about the ethnic groups of eastern Bengal mainly, Majumdar and Rao also arrived at the conclusion that Muslims of Bengal are of indigenous origin mainly from lower classes.³² These accepted Islam with their local prejudices, minor beliefs, forms of devotion, folk tales and folk cultures, and of course retaining Bengal as their mother tongue. That there was a preponderance of these ordinary people in the Muslim converts of Bengal in medieval times, will be clear if one correctly assesses the modern Census Reports. And this explains the great rise of Muslim population in Bengali which did not lie on the route of Muslim invaders and was also situated far away from the seat of Muslim imperial power.

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³² D.N. Majumdar and C.R. Rao, *Race Elements in Bengal*, Asia Publishing House (Bombay, 1960), pp. 74-77.

Cites (2)

Mānava Dharmaśāstra — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit
Dānasāgara — Ballālasena, Sanskrit