The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c12.s4.2

c12.s4.2

It is, therefore, necessary to understand the meaning of the word fundamentalism because it is loosely and unintelligibly applied to both Hindu and Muslim faiths and their followers are unwittingly called fundamentalists day in and day out. The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines fundamentalism as maintenance, in opposition to modernism, of traditional orthodox beliefs such as the inerrancy of scripture and fundamental as base or foundation, essential, primary, original. Hindus and Muslims can both be fanatics, but it is only Muslims (and Christians) who can be fundamentalists. For the Muslim sticks to the traditional orthodox belief that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet. No Muslim can question this belief. As Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi says: The Quran is believed by every Muslim to be the Word of God revealed to his Prophet Muhammad.³⁴ This Word of God cannot be amended, it cannot be changed, because Not even the Prophet could change the revelation.³⁵ There are no local variations of the Muslim Law.³⁶ It is this which is fundamentalism. There is nothing compared to it in Hinduism where every thing can be questioned and all kinds of religious innovations and digressions are accepted. This (Muslim) Law was the sovereign in Muslim lands: no one was above it, and all were ruled by it.³⁷ Under Islamic law a non-Muslim could not be accorded full citizenship of the state. Only against payment of *Jiziyah* could he receive protection of life.³⁸ *Jiziyah* also seems to have been an instrument of humiliation for the *Zimmis* (non-Muslims).³⁹ Muslim rulers not only followed the Islamic law to the best of their own ability and the knowledge of the Ulama, they kept the non-Muslims under all kinds of disabilities and thraldom.