Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c22.s5.16

c22.s5.16

It hardly need be asserted that wherever the Portuguese went, the Muslim proselytizing endeavour received a severe blow. Muslim numbers even were depleted. Barbosa gives a graphic account of Rander in Gujarat with its rich Muslim merchants, their high style of living, and their richly decorated mansions. Danvers narrates its destruction by the Portuguese. Muslim trade and population were so adversely affected by the arrival of the Portuguese that Barbosa laconically comments: "Now [the Muslims that] there are do not live independently."⁴⁷ What Barbosa has said about Malabar, may be said about India as a whole. Barbosa contends that the coming of Portuguese alone prevented Malabar from becoming a Moorish state.⁴⁸ It may as well be said that the coming of European nations and the establishment of British rule prevented India from becoming a Muslim land.