Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c21.2

c21.2

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.