Indian Muslims: Who Are They c6.s7: Bengal

Indian Muslims: Who Are They c6.s7

Language: English

Bengal

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Sind and Punjab lay on the route of Muslim invaders. They bore the brunt of so many Muslim invasions for a thousand years from 712 to 1761.

In these provinces as well as North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan Muslim immigration too was considerable. Therefore, the extensive growth of Muslim population in this region is understandable. But Bengal, especially eastern Bengal, calls for a special study, for Bengal did not lie on the route of the Muslim invaders. Nor did it form a base of operations for further conquests into India as were Punjab and Sind. But Bengal was another region where the rise of Muslim population was rapid, and probably in the medieval period itself eastern Bengal especially began to have a majority of Muslim population. An explanation for this phenomenon has posed a problem before scholars and demographers. However, as we shall see presently, the overall picture of Islamization in Bengal is quite clear: only in details it is a little blurred.

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The main reason for large-scale conversions in Bengal, as indeed elsewhere, lies in the proselytizing endeavour of its Muslim rulers and (this is peculiar to Bengal) Sufi Mashaikh. Muslim invasions from northern India had started from the early years of the thirteenth century. Bakhtiyar Khalji had invaded Nadia (1203) and Balban had marched (c. 1279-80) as far as Sonargaon in eastern Bengal. The Tughlaqs continued to assert their authority over Bengal and led many expeditions into it. During such campaigns some usual conversions would have taken place. But large number of Muslims were made under the independent Muslim rulers of Bengal. It is evident, from the numerical superiority in Eastern Bengal of the Muslims that at some period an immense wave of proselytization must have swept over the country and it is most probable that that period was the period of Jalaluddin Muhammad (converted son of Hindu Raja Ganesh) during whose reign of seventeen years (1414-1431) hosts of Hindus are said to have been forcibly converted to Islam.⁵⁷ About these Dr. Wise writes that the only condition he offered were the Koran or death many Hindus fled to Kamrup and the jungles of Assam, but it is nevertheless probable that more Muhammadans were added to Islam during these seventeen years (1414-31) than in the next three hundred.⁵⁸

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Employment prospects also helped in the rise of Muslim population, for says Barbosa: It is obviously an advantage in the sixteenth century Bengal to be a Moor, in as much as the Hindus daily become Moors to gain the favour of their rulers.⁵⁹

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Moreover, the enthusiastic soldiers, who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, spread the faith of Islam among the timid race of Bengal, made forcible conversions by the sword, and, penetrating the dense forests of the Eastern frontier, planted the crescent in the villages of Sylhet. Tradition still preserves the names of Adam Shahid, Shah Halal Mujarrad, and Karmfarma Sahib, as three of the most successful of these enthusiasts.⁶⁰ The story of conversions under independent Muslim kings of Bengal (1338-1576) is not very clear as written records about them are few, but stray references clearly show that at some times and in some places, the Hindus were subjected to persecution.⁶¹ Tradition credits the renowned Shah Jalal of Sylhet making large-scale conversions. In Mardaran thana in Arambagh sub-division of Hoogly, where the Muhammadan population predominates over the Hindu, there is a tradition that Muhammad Ismail Shah Ghazi defeated the local Hindu Raja and forcibly converted the people to Islam.⁶²

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Hand in hand with the proselytizing efforts of the rulers was the work of Sufis and Maulvis. From the time of Muhammad bin Tughlaq to that of Akbar, Bengal had attracted rebels, refugees, Sufi Mashaikh, disgruntled nobles and adventurers from northern India. The militant type of Mashaikh found in Bengal a soil fertile for conversion, and worked hard to raise Muslim numbers. Professor K.R. Qanungo has noted that the conversion of Bengal was mainly the work of Barah-Auliyas.⁶³ Professor Abdul Karim has also referred to militant Sufi proselytization.⁶⁴ But Dr. I.H. Qureshi is the most explicit in this regard. He writes: The fourteenth century was a period of expansion of Muslim authority in Bengal and the adjoining territories. A significant part was played in this process by the warrior saints who were eager to take up the cause of any persecuted community. This often resulted (in clash) with the native authority, followed, almost invariably, by annexation⁶⁵ This also shows how elastic were the methods adopted by the Sufis. They acted mostly as peaceful missionaries, but if they saw that the espousal of some just cause required military action, they were not averse to fighting. The Sufis did not adopt the Ismaili technique of gradual conversion They established their *khanqahs* and shrines at places which had already had a reputation for sanctity before Islam. Thus some of the traditional i.e. (Hindu) gatherings were transformed into new festivals. (i.e. Muslim). As a result of these efforts, Bengal in course of time became a Muslim land⁶⁶ In brief, the Sufi Mashaikh converted people by both violent and non-violent means, occupied their places of worship and turned them into *khanqahs* and mosques to make Eastern Bengal specially a Muslim land.

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Stories of forcible conversions in Bengal are narrated by Muhammadan medieval historians themselves with great gusto and we need not dilate upon them.⁶⁷ From early times each seat of Government, and each military station was more or less a centre of missionary agitation. We find another agency from across the seas working towards the same end. Arab merchants carried on an extensive and lucrative trade at Chittagong and disseminated their religious ideas among its inhabitants. When Barbosa visited Bengal at the beginning of the sixteenth century, he found the inhabitants of the interior Gentiles, subject to the king of Bengal who was a Moor, while the sea ports were inhabited by both Moors and Gentiles. He also met with many foreigners - Arabs Persians, Abyssinians and Indians (probably Gujaratis). Caesar Frederick and Vincent Le Blanc, who were in Bengal in 1570, also inform us that the island of Sandip was then inhabited by Moors.⁶⁸ In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Chittagong surely was one of the centres from which unceasing propagandism was carried on. When it is realised how Muslim merchants from India played a major role in the conversion of Mallaca and then the other parts of South-East Asia to Islam,⁶⁹ an appreciation of their proselytizing endeavour and achievements in Gujarat, Malabar and Bengal can be easily made. Thus foreign Muslims were there too in large numbers in Bengal. They migrated on several occasions and for various reasons. Some came in the wake of conquest, others as traders and businessmen.⁷⁰ Ruknuddin Barbak Shah (1460-74) was probably the first ruler who maintained a large number of Abyssinians as protectors of his throne. He recruited 8,000 Habshis and gave them key positions in his government. Aside from the Abyssinian eunuchs at the court, it was common for other eunuchs to act as harem guards.⁷¹ In addition to the Abyssinians, Bengal played host to other foreigners, especially merchants from Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and other parts of India. Many stayed on in Bengal because of its fertility, riches and cheap food.⁷² Little is reported by European writers about the Hindu population of Bengal beyond remarks to the effect that their children are sometimes sold to be eunuchs, that many of them become converts to the Muslim faith, and that they constitute the majority of the population outside the port cities.⁷³ While European accounts of Gaur talk of a mixed population of Muslims, Hindus and foreigners (Moors), the *Manasa Vijaya* of Vipradasa (composed 1495) mentions large population of Muslims in Satgaon. It says, The Muslim population of Saptagrama is innumerable; they belong to the Mughals, Pathans and Mokadims, Saiyyads, Mullas and Qazis⁷⁴ Obviously Bengal cities had a good number of Muslims in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

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The methods of conversion employed in Bengal were the same as seen elsewhere in medieval India. But what made Bengal different from many other parts of India as non-resistant and vulnerable to conversions was its peculiar political, religious, and social condition. Politically, Bengal could not withstand Muslim attacks from the very beginning as is clear from the shocking non-resistance of Lakshman Sen to Bakhtiyar Khaljis invasion. Perhaps the kingdom was already thoroughly infiltrated by Muslim adventures from the west and traders from the north. Its Muslim governors and rulers, due to its geographical location and the unsatisfactory medieval means of communication, mostly remained independent of Delhi, provoking, nevertheless, occasional attacks from the Delhi Sultans. Such emergencies brought the local rulers and the people closer to each other. Besides, throughout the period from the 13th to the 18th century, the northern, eastern and south-eastern frontiers of the Muslim ruled area of East Bengal remained in fluid condition and the boundaries swung to and fro with tides of fresh conquests⁷⁵ (and conversions).

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Thus the People of Bengal accepted their Muslim rulers as one of themselves, and the rulers on their part adopted and patronised the peoples language and literature, art and culture.⁷⁶ Translations of many important Hindu works were done at the orders of Muslim rulers,⁷⁷ and as a result of this interaction of Hinduism and Islam curious syncretic cults and practices arose, (there) grew the worship of a common God, adored by Hindus and Muslims alike, namely, Satya Pir. The Emperor Hussain Shah of Gauda is supposed to be the originator of this cult⁷⁸ Adherents of such cults provided potential converts to Islam. Muslim rulers were keen on increasing Muslim numbers. They could provide jobs and other economic incentives to conversions and, as has been pointed out earlier, Barbosa was struck by the fact that in Bengal everyday Gentiles turn Moors to obtain favour of the King and Governors. Others converted as the only means of escaping punishment for crimes. Besides, wherever Muhammadan rule existed slavery was developed, and slavery was accepted by the Hindus as a refuge for their troubles. Delhi court obtained not only its slaves (in thousands, as for example under Firoz Tughlaq) but also eunuchs from the villages of Eastern Bengal (a wide-spread practice which the Mughal Emperor Jahangir tried to stop). The incursions of Assamese Maghs, the famines, pestilences and civil wars drove them in sheer desperation to sell their children as Musalman slaves.⁷⁹

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To such compulsions obviously the very poor and socially backward people would have succumbed. For the rich other methods were brought into operation. The Census of India Report of 1901 says that the tyrannical Murshid Kuli Khan enforced a law that any Amal, or Zamindar, failing to pay the revenue that was due should, with his wife and children, be compelled to become Muhammadans, but the practice was much older as vouched by the *Banshasmriti*.⁸⁰ Conversions, such as that of the Raja of Samudragarh, had a chain reaction. The converted Rajas and Zamindars used to compel others in their lands to become Musalmans for fear of losing their support, nay even for making them their active Muslim supporters. In this regard we have seen the achievements of Sultan Jalaluddin, himself a convert form Hinduism. Kala Pahar, the dreaded iconoclast, and Murshid Quli Khan were Brahman converts. So was Pir Ali or Muhammad Tahir, a Brahman apostate, who like all renegades probably proved a worse persecutor of his original faith than others who were Muhammadans by birth. The Census report of 1901 continues to say: The present Raja of Parsouni in Darbhanga is descended form Raja Pudil Singh, who rebelled against the Emperor and became a Muhammadan by way of expiation. The family of Asad Khan of Baranthan in Chittagong, has descended from Syam Rai Chowdhari who was fain to become a Musalman The Diwan families of Pargana Sarail in Tippera, and of Haibatnagar and Jangalbari in Mymensingh, the Pathans of Majhauli in Darbhangha, all sprang from old Hindu houses. They, their propagation, and their progeny added to Muslim numbers.

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The religious condition of Bengal too made people vulnerable to Muslim proselytization. The Pala rulers of Bengal were Buddhists and Buddhism, in spite of the damage caused to it by Bakhtiyar Khalji, remained prevalent in the land until at least the fourteenth century. The Senas were Hindus. They patronised Brahmins and Sanskrit. They were destroyed by Bakhtiyar, but not Hinduism.⁸¹ However, a sort of rivalry between Buddhism and Hinduism,⁸² and zeal of Muslim Saints combined to create a situation for peoples exposure to conversion.

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The social structure of Bengal too was not coalesced. It was an amalgamation of Hindus, non-Hindus, and foreigners. The invaders and immigrants from the side of Assam, Tibet and Burma were not Hindus. Abdul Majid Khan even goes on to say: In fact India or the land of the Hindus ended in Bengal west of the Bhagirathi.⁸³ The statement is not quite true, but in the Bengal Census Report of 1872 Beverley has explained in great detail the difficulty of settling who are and who are not Hindus.⁸⁴ The dark, short and broadnosed people of Bengal are called pre-Dravidian by anthropologists. Tibeto-Chinese or Mongoloids also came into Bengal and have become part and parcel of the people. It is not known when the Bodo section of the Tibeto-Burman branch of these people (Bodo, Mech, Koch, Kachari, Rabha, Garo, Tipra) came to Assam and East Bengal, but are found spread all over North and East Bengal.

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In brief in eastern Bengal, Chandals and Pods and in northern Rajbansis and Koches predominated; the proportion of orthodox Hindus was very small. Pods, Chandals and Koches all have traces of Buddhist influence. Among Koches traces of Buddhist influence still survived when Ralph Fitch visited the country in the sixteenth century.⁸⁵ Muslim religion must have crumbled the defences of Chandals, Koches, Pods and other tribes and low classes on whom there was little Hindu influence. Thus it were the peculiar political, religious, but more especially social conditions of Bengal that exposed its people much more to Muslim proselytization. Had the common, poor, unsophisticated sections of the backward classes been left to themselves, they might have remained contented with their local forms of devotion and folk culture. But Muslim rulers, soldiers and Sufi Mashaikh left the high and the low hardly any choice in the matter. The lower classes of course were more vulnerable. However, the picture of proselytization in Bengal is not very clear and the problem is still open to study.

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But there can be no doubt as to the local origin of most of the Muhammadans in Bengal, especially in North and East. Dewan Fazle Rabbi, however, has tried to prove that Bengal Muslims are mainly of foreign extraction. Nothing can be farther from the truth, but before we critically assess his ill-founded thesis, we shall sift the evidence about the local origin of Bengal Muslims which in itself would refute their extra-Indian nativity. Brian Hodgson writes about the voluntary conversion of Koch tribe of North Bengal,⁸⁶ Dr. Wise about the tribes about Dacca, and Buchanan Hamilton about other tribes, but they all agree that Bengal Muslims are descendants of local inhabitants.⁸⁷ And the appellations and professions of the low class indigenous people did not change with their conversion, as will be clearly seen in the following Table.

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Table

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Showing Muslim Functional Castes in Eastern Bengal⁸⁸

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| Name of the Group | Where reported | Traditional occupation |
| Badiya or Abdul | Bogra | Circumcisers |
| Bajadars | Jessore | Musicians |
| Chunia | Bogra | --- --- |
| Dai | Dacca, etc. | Women act as midwives |
| Dhawa | Bogra and Rajshahi | Fishermen |
| Duffadi | Malda | Hooka sellers |
| Karindi | Jessore | Originally hawkers of glass beads, now engaged in agricultural operations. |
| Kathara | Bogra | Originally workers in lead foil used to decorate |

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| | | image of Durga, now gold and silver workers. |
| Kulu | Bogra, etc. | Oilpressers |
| Kutti | Dacca | Masons, hackney-carnage drivers, etc. |
| Mahifarash | Dacca | Fishermen |
| Manjhi | Bogra | Fishermen and boatmen, now turning to agriculture. |
| Mirshikari | Bogra and Dacca | Now goldsmiths |
| Naliya | Bogra | Weavers of reed mats |
| Pirkhodali | Malda | --- --- |
| Punjhra | Malda | Fish sellers |
| Rasua | Jessore | Hawkers of glassware |
| Sanaidar | Dacca | Drummers |
| Sandar | Bogra | Hawkers of glass bangles and tinsel. |

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In other parts of the old province of Bengal also the general opinion, buttressed by census enumerations, is that the Muhammadans are recruited mainly from local converts.

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It may be generally said that almost the whole of the functional groups such as Julaha and Dhunia and the great majority of Shaikhs, probably nine-tenths in Bengal and possibly half in Bihar, are of Indian origin. The foreign elements may be looked for chiefly in the ranks of the Saiyyads, Pathans and Mughals. Even here there are many who are descended from Hindus, because high caste converts are often allowed to assume high titles. In Bihar a converted Hindu of the Brahman or Kayasth caste is usually allowed to call himself a Shekh (Shaikh) and to associate and intermarry with genuine Shekhs. A Babhan or Rajput in the same circumstances, becomes a Pathan In Mymensingh high caste converts are given title of Khan and call themselves Pathans (Even) the lower castes after the lapse of some years are gradually recognised as Shekh.⁸⁹ As Nazmul Karim rightly points out: The pseudo-Syeds have been on the increase not only in India but throughout the Muslim world, even from the beginning of Islamic history,⁹⁰ and the high titles among Bengal Muslim do not necessarily point to their foreign extraction.

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Khan Bahadur Dewan Fazle Rabbi of Murshidabad wrote a book in Urdu entitled *Haqiqat-i-Musalman-i-Bangala*⁹¹ to prove that Bengal Muslims were mainly of foreign extraction. This was done probably to controvert the statement of Beverley in the Census Report of 1872 that the existence of Muhammadans is due not so much to the introduction of the Moghal blood into the country, as to the conversion of the former inhabitants. Mr. Abu Ghaznavi of Mymensingh, who prepared an excellent account of the Muhammadans of his district, probably in connection with the 1901 census, also supported the foreign origin theory, but he admitted that local converts bulked largely in the total. In Muhammadan histories no mention is made of any large-scale Muhammadan immigration from Upper India, and in Akbars time the climate of Bengal was considered so uncongenial that an order to proceed there was considered a punishment. Muslims came to Bihar first, but there their number has remained small. Foreign Muslims would not have chosen to settle in the swampy regions of Noakhali, Bogra and Backergunje.

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In short, analysing the data collected by Mahalanobis in 1945 about the ethnic groups of eastern Bengal mainly, Majumdar and Rao also arrived at the conclusion that Muslims of Bengal are of indigenous origin mainly from lower classes.⁹² These accepted Islam with their local prejudices, minor beliefs, forms of devotion, folk tales and folk cultures, and of course retaining Bengali as their mother tongue. And this explains the great rise of Muslim population in Bengal which did not lie on the route of Muslim invaders and was also situated far away from the seat of Muslim imperial power.

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In conclusion it may be emphasised that even when historical forces had divided the country into a number of independent states consequent on the break-up of the Delhi Sultanate, the work of proselytization continued unabated. Indeed, it made the task of conversion easy. Small regions could be dealt with in detail and severe Muslim rulers, orthodox Ulema and zealous Sufis worked in them effectively. It was due to extraordinary situations that the Kashmir valley and Eastern Bengal became Muslimmajority regions as far back as the fifteenth century. In other parts of the country, where there was a Muslim ruler, Muslim population grew apace in the normal and usual way.

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¹ Sharafuddin Yazdi, *Zafar Nama*, Bib. Ind. Text (Calcutta, 1885, 88), 2 vols., II, p.14. Also *Mulfuzat-i-Timuri*, trs. in Find D, II, p.429.

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² So much so that Rizqullah says that under Sikandar Lodi one half of the country was assigned to the Farmulis and the other half to other Afghan tribes. *Waqiat-i-Mushtaqi*, trs. in E and D., IV, p.547.

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³ Major, India in the *Fifteenth Century*/(London,1857) Introduction.

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⁴ Barbosa, Duarte, *The Book of Duarte Barbosa*, 2 Vols., (London,1918-21), II, p.230.

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⁵ Ibid., I, 230-33.

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⁶ Mohammad Habib, *Some Aspects of the Foundation of the Delhi Sultanate*, Dr. K.M. Ashraf Memorial Lecture (Delhi, 1966) p.20.

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⁷ For the anarchical conditions in the Punjab see Lal, *Twilight*, pp.79-100.

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⁸ *Ibid.*, pp.101-109. Also C.H.I. III, p.207.

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⁹ Lal, *Twilight*, pp.77, 192.

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¹⁰ *Ibid.*, p.187.

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¹¹ *Tuhfat-ul-Kiram*, E and D., I, pp.341-42.

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¹² *Ibid.*, p.337.

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¹³ C.H.I. III,p.501; also *Tarikh-i-Masumi*, E and D, I, pp.224-26, and *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1845, pp.159-60.

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¹⁴ Afif, op. cit., p. 233.

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¹⁵ *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1841, p.20. Even in the nineteenth century Hindus in the service of the Amir were obliged to wear beards like the Muslims. Thornton, *Gazetteer*, IV, p.296.

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¹⁶ C.H.I., III, p.309.

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¹⁷ *Ibid*., pp. 501-502.

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¹⁸ Ferishtah, II, p.337.

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¹⁹ *Ibid*., II, p.341.

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²⁰ C.H.I., III, p.281, Zain-ul-Abidin (1420-1470), the Akbar of Kashmir, recalled the exiles, assuaged the fears of the Hindus, and abolished the Jiziyah, but the converts continued to remain Musalman.

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²¹ *Zafar Nama*, op. cit., II, pp.168-69. Lal, *Twilight*, p.39.

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²² Lach, Donald F., *Asia in the Making of Europe*, (Chicago, 1965), vol. I, p.467.

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²³ Macauliffe, M.A. *The Sikh Religion*, 6 vols., IV, pp.371-72.

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²⁴ Ferishtah, II, pp. 185. Also Satish C. Misra, *The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat* (Bombay, 1963), p.175.

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²⁵ R.P. Tripathi, *Some Aspects of Muslim Administration* (Allahabad,1936), p.318.

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²⁶ C.H.I., III, pp. 298-300

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²⁷ *Ibid*., pp.305-06.

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²⁸ *Ibid*., p.310. Ferishtah, II, p.202.

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²⁹ S.C. Misra, *op. cit.*, p.205.

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³⁰ Ferishtah, II, p.298.

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³¹ Castanheda, *Historia do descobrimento e conquista de India pelos Partugueses* (Third Ed. Coimbra, 1928), II, p.316. Mentioned in Lach, *Asia in the Making of Europe*, p. 399.

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³² Lach, I, 401.

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³³ Barbosa, *op, cit.*, p.140; Orta and Pires in Lach, I, 404.

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³⁴ Lach, I, 405.

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³⁵ U.N. Day, *Medieval Malwa* (Delhi, 1967), pp.6-7.

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³⁶ C.H.I., III p. 356.

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³⁷ *Ibid.*, p.360.

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³⁸ Day, op-cit., p.244.

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³⁹ *Tabqat-i-Akbari*, III, p. 351. Ferishtah, II, 255. Dr. U.N. Day op. cit., pp.244-46 thinks that the figure of Nizamuddin is exaggerated. Probably it is not. When it is realised that Ghayasuddin had two battalions of Habsh and Turkish women guards, each of 500, the figure of 1600 (given by Wolseley Haig) appears to be too small to be true. In fact according to Pires, who wrote between 1512 and 1515 the king of Malwa was said to have 2,000 women warriors who rode out to battle with him. (*The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires* (London, 1944), I, P.37 cited in Lach, I, p.420). A harem of 1600 inmates would have hardly aroused any comment from medieval chroniclers. But Ghayass saraglio was an unique institution. It was built with beauties collected from all over the world (Ferishtah). Girls were also abducted to supply its requirements. Besides the musicians, singers, and dancers, usually found in a royal seraglio there were goldsmiths, blacksmiths, shoemakers, weavers, potters, tailors, makers of bows, arrows, and quivers, carpenters, wrestlers, and jugglers, each of whom received fixed wages, their officers, also women, being paid at high rates. (W. Haig and Ferishtah). The wages - two seers of grain and two

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tankahs per head per day - given to harem inmates were so low as to make one feel that it was a stable for women rather than a harem. If the number was manageable the women would have been paid and looked after better. In view of all this, the figure of 16,000 may not, after all, be an exaggeration.

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⁴⁰ C.H.I., III p.375-76.

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⁴¹ Sewell, A Forgotten Empire (*Vijayanagar*), pp.57-58.

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⁴² C.H.I., III, p. 391.

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⁴³ *Ibid.*, p.397.

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⁴⁴ *Ibid.*, p.398.

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⁴⁵ *Ibid.*, III, 449. Also Sewell, p.198.

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⁴⁶ *Ibid.*, III, pp.403-404.

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⁴⁷ H.K. Sherwani, *Mahmud Gawan* (Allahabad, 1942), pp.61-7l, esp.p. 63 and n.50.

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⁴⁸ C.H.I., III, p.432.

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⁴⁹ *Ibid.*, p.406.

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⁵⁰ Sherwani, *op. cit.*, p.65.

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⁵¹ *Ibid.*, pp.65-68.

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⁵² C.H.I., III, p.404.

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⁵³ Barbosa, II, pp. 122-23.

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⁵⁴ W. Logan, *Malabar* (Madras, 1951), I, p.199. Also Lach, 368-69. On the impression of Barbosa and Barros.

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⁵⁵ Barbosa, II, p.74.

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⁵⁶ Lach, *op. cit.*, I, p. 447.

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⁵⁷ C.H.I., III, p.267.

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⁵⁸ *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1894, Pt. III, p.28.

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⁵⁹ Barbosa, *The Book of Duarte Barbosa*, II, p.148. Also Castanheda cited in Lach, I, p. 415.

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⁶⁰ *Loc. cit.*

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⁶¹ *Census of India Report*, 1901. VI, Pt. I, Bengal, pp.165-181.

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⁶² *Ibid.*

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⁶³ Bengal was not conquered by seventeen Turkish cavalieres (of Bakhtiyar Khalji); but by the *barah-auliyas*, or twelve legendary Muslim militant saints, the Pirs who cropped up after the seed of Islam had been broadcast in the plains of Bengal. K.R. Qanungo, *op. cit.*, p. 151.

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⁶⁴ Abdul Karim, Social History of Muslims in Bengal, pp.136-38, 143-146.

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⁶⁵ On the authority of Jadunath Sarkar, *History of Bengal*, pp.68, 70.

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⁶⁶ Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, *The Muslim Community of the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent* (610-1947), Monton & Co., S-Gravenhage, 1962, pp.70-71, 74-75.

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⁶⁷ Here is one such story cited in the Census of India Report, 1901, Vol. VI, Pt, I, Bengal, pp.165-181.

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While the Muhammadan population was still scattered, it was customary for each householder to hang an earthen water-pot (*badana*) from his thatched roof, as a sign of his religious belief. One day a Maulvi, after some years absence, went to visit a disciple, who lived in the centre of a Hindu village, but could not find the badana. On enquiry he was told that the Musalman villager had renounced his faith and joined an outcaste tribe. On his return to the city, the circumstances being reported to the Nawab, a detachment of troops was ordered out, the village surrounded, and every person in it compelled to become Muhammadan.

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Also see M.L. Roy Chowdhury, Preaching of Islam in Bengal (Turko-Afghan Period), in *Proceedings of the Indian History Congress*, Twentythird Session, Aligarh, 1960, Pt. I, pp.168-181, esp. p.171, where quotations from Bijoyguptas *Padma-Purana* and Jayanandas Chaitanaya Mangal show some methods of forcible conversions.

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⁶⁸ *Voyages de Le Goowz*, p.157, cited in Census Report, 1901,op.cit.

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⁶⁹ D.C.E. Hall, *A History of South East Asia*, pp.177-183.

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⁷⁰ Abdul Karim, p.140-41.

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⁷¹ Barbosa, II, 147.

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⁷² Lach, I, 416

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⁷³ *Ibid.*, I, pp. 417-18.

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⁷⁴ Sukumar Sen, *Bangla Sahityer Itihasa* (Calcutta, 1940), p.114, cited in Abdul Karim, *op. cit.*, p.153.

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⁷⁵ Nafis Ahmad, The Evaluation of the Boundaries of East Pakistan in the *Oriental Geographer*, II, No. 2, July, 1958, p.101.

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⁷⁶ D.C. Sen, *History of Bengali Language and Literature* (Calcutta University, 1911), pp.10, 12, 13-14.

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⁷⁷ Tara Chand, *op. cit.*, p.214.

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⁷⁸ *Ibid.*, p.217.

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⁷⁹ Census of India Report, op. cit., for 1901.

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⁸⁰ It gives a historical sketch and genealogy of the family of Raja of Samudragarh, a place situated between Katwa and Bandel Railway Stations. Since the writer Satya Krishna Biswas was descended from Gopi Mohan Biswas, the last Diwan of the ruling house (*op. cit.*, p.10), the narrative appears to be quite reliable. It says that after Bakhtiyar Khalji overran Bengal, it became a rule that if revenue was not deposited within the prescribed time, the defaulting landlord (*bhuswami*) had either to lose his land or become Muslim. This is also referred to in the *Banglar Itihasa* of Babu Raj Krishna (p.7). *Banshasmriti* says that once Raja Ranjit Bhatt of Samudragarh went to deposit his land revenue, but at the Treasury he found that the Raja of Krishnanagar had not reached in time. He reflected that if the Raja of Krishnanagar became Muslim, much harm would be done because he was a bigger landlord. Therefore, in the larger interest of Hinduism, Ranjit Bhatt deposited his money as revenue on behalf of the Raja of Krishnanagar and himself became a Muslim. But the most interesting part of the narrative is that on his return to his land the newly converted Raja started compelling others also to embrace Islam (because perhaps therein alone lay his security and defence).

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According to the author of the *Banshasmriti* the family still lives in Samudragarh, now only a small village. All the members are given two names - one Hindu and the other Muslim at the namakaran ceremony. The present Rajas (1926?) Muslim name is Ichamat Khan and Hindu name is Makhan Lal Thakur.

Cites (4)

Padmapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Tārīkh-i Firishta — Muḥammad Qāsim Hindū Shāh Firishta 1606, Persian
Manasāvijaya — Vipradās Piplāi, Bengali
Caitanya Maṅgal (Locan Dās) — Locan Dās, Bengali