Indian Muslims: Who Are They c10.8

c10.8

Despite such killings, the Hindus could not be eliminated or reduced to a minority. Despite forcible conversions, India could not be Islamised. How did it happen? Alberuni has solved this riddle. They (the Hindus), says he, differ from us in religion There is very little disputing about theological topics among themselves; at the most they fight with words, but they will never stake their soul or body or their property on religious controversy. On the contrary in all manners and usages they differ from us to such a degree as to frighten their children with us and as to declare us to be devils breed and our doings as the very opposite of all that is good and proper, so that they call all foreigners as *mleccha*, i.e. impure, and forbid having any connection with them, be it by intermarriage or any other kind of relationship, or by sitting, eating, and drinking with them, because thereby they think, they would be polluted They are not allowed to receive anybody who does not belong to them, even if he wished it, or was inclined to their religion.¹⁸ In brief, the Hindus believed in peaceful discussions about religious matters. They believed in freedom of religious thought and higher spirituality. They hated those who killed in the name of religion and they shunned those who believed in conversions.