Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c22.s3.15

c22.s3.15

There is also recorded contemporary evidence of the unwillingness of the low-caste people to voluntarily convert to Islam. Mahmud of Ghazni used to convert people by force, but his contemporary Alberuni (eleventh century) nowhere mentions voluntary conversions of low caste Hindus. Writing about the low class Hindus called Govis (now called Paraiyar) Marco Polo (thirteenth century) says: "nothing on earth would induce them to enter the place where Messer St. Thomas is—I mean where his body lies...Indeed, were even twenty or thirty men to lay hold of these Govis and to try to hold him in the place where the Body of the Blessed Apostle of Jesus Christ lies buried they could not do it."¹⁸ This is the testimony about the South. About North Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya (fourteenth century) at many places admits that Hindus "do not embrace Islam", and that "the heart of these people is not changed through sermons."¹⁹ In the seventeenth century Manucci wrote that the low caste people were proud of their caste and were reluctant to convert.²⁰