The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c10.s3.17

c10.s3.17

So, from the very beginning of Muslim rule, from the thirteenth century onwards, from Namdeva in Maharashtra to Ramanand, Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya and Tulsidas in North India, right upto the seventeenth century and thereafter, a galaxy of middle class socio-religious reformers tried to help Indian society through sermon and song. They showed the futility of religious conflicts. They helped check excessive proselytization by attacking the caste system and reaching out to their audience in the languages of the common people throughout the country. Early Bhakta saints adhered to peaceful methods, but not all their disciples in later years. Kabirs followers spread out throughout North India and the Deccan. Jiwan Das was the founder of the Satnami sect which took up arms against the Mughals. The Sikh disciples of Nanaks successor Gurus, for varied reasons, fought against the Mughals and many times converted people by force. So did the Marathas.¹¹⁷ According to Abdul Majid Khan it is because of Chaitanyas influence that large-scale conversions to Hinduism took place at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century.¹¹⁸ Hindu saint reformers continued to appear in a chain in the succeeding centuries of medieval India, infusing courage and confidence among the people. The present day strife for Ramjanmabhumi shrine is another legacy of *Hindu* *Bhakti* resistance to Muslim political and religious vandalism in the medieval age.