Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c22.s2.2

c22.s2.2

But the Hindus could not have liked their co-religionists being *converted by conquerors and rulers by force.* In fact, as seen earlier, many times Hindus, who were converted to Islam, returned to their former faith on the first opportunity. Harihar and Bukka, converted to Islam by Muhammad bin Tughlaq, reverted to Hinduism and founded the kingdom of Vijayanagar to resist the expansion of Muslim power in the South. Although any return of converts to the Hindu fold was frowned upon by the Muslim rulers, and some Brahmins encouraging converts to return to Hinduism were put to death by Firoz Tughlaq and Sikandar Lodi,² yet in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there were conversions on such large scale throughout the country, that for once "the bleeding soul of the Hindus" rose in revolt.³ The Bhakti saints were the leaders of this 'protestant' movement.⁴