Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c22.s3.27

c22.s3.27

From the modern census figures it appears that not many high caste people voluntarily converted to Islam in medieval times. Bohras, Khojas, Ismailis and Mopilahs were, by and large, converted by peaceful methods from to high caste Hindus, except perhaps the Mopilahs. But their statistics in modern times show how small their numbers would have been in medieval. According to the census of 1921 there were about 5 million shias, a little over one million Mopilahs; 382,000 Labbes; 153,363 Bohras; and 146,000 Khojas in India (now India and Pakistan).²⁷ Keeping in view the patronage Persian officers had in Muslim courts in India, it is certain that a good number would have come here from outside in the medieval period. But even with local converts and with centuries of growth in numbers their small figures in modern times point only to a few voluntary conversions in medieval times. The 1931 Census Report of U.P. presents the following picture of Muslim and Hindu high castes.²⁸