Indian Muslims: Who Are They c8.s1.23

c8.s1.23

Besides, not all low-caste Muslims have converted from low caste Hindus. Many foreign Muslims also would have been relegated to low caste on marrying low-caste women. The sultans and Amirs usually married in the families of the Rajas and Zamindars they defeated. But the common soldiers or common Musalmans would have married either in their own religious group, that is among the newly converted, or among the low-caste Hindus.³⁵ And as class distinctions crystallized in medieval Indian Muslim society, these people would have been given only a low caste status, having obtained it through their wives.³⁶ Needless to say that such Muslims, originally of foreign extraction, would have swelled the ranks of low-caste Muhammadans.