Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c9.2

c9.2

Jatindra Mohan Datta's figure of two hundred million as the population of India around A.D. 1000 may be taken to be a reasonably correct estimate. But as the eleventh century dawned, a sudden and rapid demographic decline was registered. The first thirty years of the eleventh century in India were witness to the repeated invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni. During and after his campaigns, the population of the country declined rapidly. Mahmud's invasions alone meant to the country a loss of about two million people.¹