Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c12.s9: Politics of Minorityism

The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c12.s9

Language
English

Politics of Minorityism

c12.s9.1

Whichever political party has been in power at the Centre during the last forty-three years, whosoever has been the Prime Minister - Nehru or Gandhis, Morarji Desai or V.P. Singh - the Nehruvian Congress culture has spared no effort to woo the Muslim minority. In this attempt it was even decided to manipulate and distort our countrys history. The justification for rewriting Indian history, particularly medieval Indian history, from the nationalist point of view lay in the plea that British historians have deliberately distorted Indian history with a view to highlighting Hindu-Muslim differences. We have already discussed this allegation earlier in Chapter 2. The British rulers and their historians only took advantage of the prevailing situation. For example, Monstuart Elphinstone, a Governor of Bombay, suggested in his Minute dated 14 May 1859: *Divide et Impera* was the old Roman motto, and it should be our. Given the circumstances, it would have been foolish of any imperialist power not to follow such a policy. But for achieving this aim there was no need for them to distort Indian history. British historians had just to reiterate what the Muslim chroniclers themselves had written about the glorious achievements of their kings and conquerors. Their stories needed no proof: they stood confirmed by the hundreds of vandalised medieval monuments. The mistake lay with the misjudgement of our Congress-culture Government and the so-called secularist and Stalinist historians. They chose to treat history as a handmaid of politics to please the Muslim minority. They instructed their text-book writers to eschew mention of unpalatable historical facts like destruction of temples and forced conversions by Muslims in history, language and social science. But perpetration of lies has proved counter-productive. It has encouraged Muslims to ask for proof as to when Babur or Aurangzeb broke this or that temple, knowing full well that such shrines were actually vandalised and razed.

c12.s9.2

As a consequence of all this, it is now being generally realised, though not admitted, that organisations like the National Integration Council and Minorities Commission are all there for appeasement rather than for grappling with the basic issues. It is now being felt that the best qualification for becoming a member of the National Integration Council is to be capable of denouncing Hindus and Hinduism. If minorities were suffering in India, Christians, Parsis, Jews too would have complained. But in our secular democracy not only are they feeling safe but also contributing their mite in development of the country. The biggest joke is that it is the largest minority of Muslims (75 millions according to 1981 census) that feels unsafe. To please it the Government is coerced, history is falsified and Hindus castigated, and yet Muslims cannot be brought to join the national mainstream. They insist on having a separate identity with separate laws.

c12.s9.3

In a democracy all citizens have equal rights. Words like majority and minority are out of place. The moment these words are uttered in the Indian context, they create the impression that minority is weak and helpless and majority strong and tyrannical. Institutions like the Minorities Commission and National Integration Council breed vested interests as they continue to harp upon real or imaginary minority grievances. That is probably why the late justice M.H. Beg recommended that the Minorities Commission should be done away with, but it suited the politicians not to do so. A fear psychosis is created vis-a-vis the Hindus, who although in majority, have not been known for possessing cohesion. It is well known that this fear is created by politicians who can go to any length to ensure their vote-banks. No leader has bothered to find out what effect the policy of appeasement of Muslims has on other sections of society.

c12.s9.4

The crux of the problem is the legacy of Muslim rule in India. Directly associated with it is the problem that the religion of the largest minority has certain peculiarities. It believes that there is one chosen religion and one chosen people. In an Islamic state, no consideration is given to people of other faiths. Non-Muslims cannot construct a Christian church or a Hindu temple in Saudi Arabia or Iran, or say their prayers in public. During the month of Ramzan no food is available to non-Muslims in hotels or restaurants, although fasting is compulsory only for the Muslims. After the conquest of Mecca, a perpetual law was enacted (by Muhammad himself)

c12.s9.5

that no unbeliever should dare to set his foot on the territory of the holy city.⁸⁹ Where Muslims rule, they may declare the state secular or Islamic, they may treat the minorities with dignity or as *Zimmis*, follow the Islamic laws or prohibit polygamy. No non-Muslim can demand anything from them. They consider it entirely their own business to do what they like to do in their own country. But elsewhere their demands know no limits.⁹⁰

c12.s9.6

No wonder that in India Muslims want separate schools for their children and claim Urdu as their language. They want their Personal Law (which mainly means polygamy),⁹¹ and resist enactment of a uniform civil code for all. They are against family planning so that their population may grow unchecked. In short, in countries where Muslims are in a minority and the state is not Islamic, they insist on living an alienated, unintegrated and superior life by agitating for concessions specified by their Islamic *Shariat*. No amount of falsification of history can humour them into living with others on terms of equality. Therefore Congress-culture politicians and pseudo-secularists should at least inform the minority whose cause they espouse, but to whom they never dare read a lecture, that secularism and fundamentalism are mutually exclusive, and that in the Indian secular state the Muslims cannot practise their fundamentalism. Furthermore, they can also be told that history can no longer be distorted, that it cannot be made the handmaid of politics, and that therefore they need to feel sorry if not actually repentant about the past misdeeds of Muslims.

c12.s9.7

Sometime back the East German Ambassador to Poland publicly apologised to the Poles for the ill-treatment meted out to them by Germans during the last war. Two years ago, the Japanese Government officially apologised to the Chinese Government for the atrocities committed by the Japanese on the Chinese population in the 30s during China-Japan war. Recently on 23 / 24 May, 1990, during a visit to South Korea, emperor Akihito of Japan apologised to South Koreans for the same reason. Nearer home, the Caste Hindus are doing their best to make amends for their alleged or actual ill-treatment of backward classes through administrative, legislative and reservation methods. But such a gesture appears to be out of tune with Muslim culture and creed. Not that politicians of other communities are entirely selfless: no politicians are angles. Still it is felt that the Muslim minority community, misguided by its leaders, thinks and works only for its own narrow interests. The interest of the country is not its concern because it is not an Islamic country. That is why there is need to appeal to the Muslims to join the national mainstream. Indian Muslims were originally Hindus. As Hindus they were part of the countrys social and political mainstream. Conversion to Islam wrenched them away from it because Islam and Islamic theology enjoin upon Muslims to keep separated and segregated from non-Muslims. To integrate is not their obligation. To strive for national integration is the duty of the Government and the Hindus. And so it has been through the centuries. It is significant that Bhakta saints of the medieval period who preached integration were all Hindus. Even Sant Kabir. It is they who preached that Hinduism is as good as Islam and vice versa. No Muslim Ulama or Sufi can say such a thing. No Muslim gives any other religion a status of equality with Islam. Such an assumption is against the tenets of his creed.

c12.s9.8

Therefore, eversince the appearance of Muslims in India, there has been a struggle between Muslim communalism and Hindu nationalism, to use the modern phraseology. Today on the side of Muslim communalists are Marxists, pseudo-secularists, progressives etc. They have chosen the safe side because they know that it is easy to decry Hindus and Hinduism but very unsafe to criticise Muslims or Islam. But the great pundits of modernity and secularism have exhausted their volleys. The Hindu is now regaining his self-respect dwarfed over centuries. His no-nonsense stance has made the secularists and progressives panicky. They have recently propounded a new theory. They say that while the fundamentalism of the majority community harms only that community, the communalism of the majority community harms the whole nation.⁹² The Hindu does not care to seek elaboration of such shiboleths. His watchword of Indianization, considered in certain circles to have anti-Muslim implications, asserts a staunch opposition to disintegration. India is on the march. It is not going communist, nor communalist. India is steadily going Indian. It is to be watched if Indian Muslim or Muslim Indian leadership will contribute to this endeavour or only continue to cherish and preserve the legacy of Muslim rule in India.

c12.s9.9

Footnotes:

c12.s9.10

¹ Barani, pp. 199-200.

c12.s9.11

² Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha, *Madhya Kalin Bharatiya Sanskriti*, pp. 193-94.

c12.s9.12

³ Beale, T.W., *Oriental Biographical Dictionary*, p.145. Also Amir Khusraus *Ghurrat-ul-Kamal*.

c12.s9.13

⁴ *Ain*, I, p. 681.

c12.s9.14

⁵ By Sarang Deva, a contemporary of Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316).

c12.s9.15

⁶ *Islamic Culture*, 1954, pp. 411, 415.

c12.s9.16

⁷ Smith, *Akbar the Great Mogul*, p. 306.

c12.s9.17

⁸ For details and reference, see Lal, *History of the Khaljis*, pp. 334-39; *Twilight of the Sultanate*, pp. 241-44; *The Mughal Harem*, pp. 124 ff, 167 ff. Also Smith, *op. cit.*, pp. 306-07.

c12.s9.18

⁹ *Fatuhat-i-Firoz Shahi*, E and D, III, pp. 380-381.

c12.s9.19

¹⁰ Abdul Hamid Lahori, *Badshah Nama*, Bib. Ind. Text, I, p. 402; J.N. Sarkar, *History of Aurangzeb*, III, pp. 290-291.

c12.s9.20

¹¹ Afif, E and D, III, p. 318.

c12.s9.21

¹² Arun Shourie et al, *Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them*, New Delhi, 1990, pp. 30-31.

c12.s9.22

¹³ Margoliouth, D.S., *Mohammed and the Rise of Islam*, pp. 24, 377-409; Hitti, P.K., *The Arabs*, p. 28; Gibbon, Edward, *Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*, II, pp. 649-660.

c12.s9.23

¹⁴ Elliots trs. II, p. 49.

c12.s9.24

¹⁵ Elliots trs. I, p. 98.

c12.s9.25

¹⁶ Eng. trs. Elliot, VIII, p. 171.

c12.s9.26

¹⁷ Those interested in detailed references may see my book *Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India*, Research Publication, New Delhi, 1973, pp. 14, 97-146, 159-164. Also my *Indian Muslims: Who Are They*. For justification of force in spread of Islam, Shah Walliullah, *Tafsir-i-Fath-ur-Rahman*, cited in Harsh Narain, *Myths of Composite Culture*, p. 57.

c12.s9.27

¹⁸ Amir Khusrau, *Ijaz-i-Khusravi*, 5 Parts, Lucknow, 1875-76, I, p. 169.

c12.s9.28

¹⁹ As the Hindu reformers discovered, the fire of Brahmanical spirit burns in a Brahman up to six generations. See Gupta in *Journal of the Department of Letters*, Calcutta University, cited in Ashraf, *Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan*, p. 194 n.

c12.s9.29

²⁰ Ashraf, *op. cit.*, p. 191.

c12.s9.30

²¹ Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Baluchistan, p. 30.

c12.s9.31

²² Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency, Vol.III, Baroda (Bombay, 1899), p. 226. Also Vol. VII, Baroda, p. 72.

c12.s9.32

²³ Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. IX, Pt. II, pp. 64, 69.

c12.s9.33

²⁴ Central Provinces District Gazetteers, XIV, Nimar (Allahabad, 1908), p. 63.

c12.s9.34

²⁵ M. Mujeeb, *The Indian Muslims*, pp. 17-18.

c12.s9.35

²⁶ Central Provinces District Gazetteers, XIII, p. 296.

c12.s9.36

²⁷ Central Provinces District Gazetteers, XVII, Seoni (Allahabad, 1907), p. 221.

c12.s9.37

²⁸ Bengal District Gazetteers, XXXI, 24-Parganas (Calcutta, 1914), pp. 74-76.

c12.s9.38

²⁹ Mujeeb, *op.cit.*, p. 10.

c12.s9.39

³⁰ Alwar Gazetteer, pp. 37ff., 70.

c12.s9.40

³¹ Indore State Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1908), p. 59. For references to Gazetteers and some additional information on observance of Hindu manners and customs by neo-Muslims, see Mujeeb, *op. cit.*, pp. 9-25.

c12.s9.41

³² Manzur-ul-Haqq Siddiqi, *Massir-ul-Jadad*, published by al-Maktaba al-Saifia, Shish Mahal Road, Lahore, 1964, pp. 94-115, esp. pp. 98, 106, Muhammad Abdul Shakur, *Aslah-i-Mewat*, Sadar Bazar, Delhi, 1925, pp. 2-3, 35-40. Also see K.C. Yadav, Urdu Sahityakaron ki Haryanvi ko den, in *Harigandha*, September-October, 1989, pp. 26-28 for similar literature.

c12.s9.42

³³ For the traditional education of Muslim children in *Madrasas*, see Ram Gopal, *Indian Muslims*, op. cit., pp. 55-57. For their learning political fanaticism see 5. Maqbul Ahmad, Madrasa System of Education and Indian Muslim Society, in *Indian and Contemporary Islam*, ed. by S.T. Lokhandwala, Simla, 1971, p. 32.

c12.s9.43

For conversions in Meenakshipuram, Puliangudi and other places, see *Politics of Conversion* ed. by Devendra Swarup, Deendayal Research Institute, New Delhi, 1986, pp. 7-70.

c12.s9.44

³⁴ I.H. Qureshi, *Administration of the Sultanate of Delhi*, p. 42.

c12.s9.45

³⁵ *Loc. cit.*

c12.s9.46

³⁶ *Ibid.*, p. 43.

c12.s9.47

³⁷ *Ibid.*, p.

c12.s9.48

⁴² Also Khuda Bakhsh, *Essays Indian and Islamic*, p. 51.

c12.s9.49

³⁸ Aghnides, N.P., *Muhammadan Theories of Finance*, pp. 399,528.

c12.s9.50

³⁹ Tritton, A.S., *Caliphs and their Non-Muslim Subjects*, p.

c12.s9.51

²¹ Also Hitti, *History of the Arabs*, pp. 119, 171.

c12.s9.52

⁴⁰ Amir Khusrau, *Deval Rani Khizr Khan*, Persian Text, p. 50.

c12.s9.53

⁴¹ Barani, p. 262; Ibn Battuta, p. 124; Vidyapati, *Kirtilata*, pp. 42-44, 70-72.

c12.s9.54

⁴² Afif, p. 388; Farishtah, I, p. 182; Dorn, pp. 65-66.

c12.s9.55

⁴³ *Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri*, I, p. 171.

c12.s9.56

⁴⁴ *The Delhi; Sultanate*, Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, p. 582, quoting *Tabqat-i-Akbari*, III, p. 597; Lal, *Mughal Harem*, p. 159; Nizamuddin, *Tabqat-i-Akbari*, III, pp. 453-56; Kolf, *Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy*, p. 161.

c12.s9.57

⁴⁵ C.H.I., IV, pp. 52, 57.

c12.s9.58

⁴⁶ The object of Akbars order was evidently to prevent a woman from doing what she liked; for, according to the Muhammadans, women are looked upon as *naqis-ul-aql*, deficient in mind (Ain, I, p. 220 and n.4).

c12.s9.59

⁴⁷ *Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri*, II, p. 181.

c12.s9.60

⁴⁸ S.R. Sharma, *Conversion and Reconversion to Hinduism*, p. 12.

c12.s9.61

⁴⁹ Farishtah, I, p. 311.

c12.s9.62

⁵⁰ Khafi Khan, II, pp. 115-118; Manucci, II, P. 119.

c12.s9.63

⁵¹ Alberuni, I, pp. 19-23. Also Nicolo Conti in Sewell, *A Forgotten Empire*, p. 84.

c12.s9.64

⁵² Sharma, *Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors*, pp. 5, 143, 147 for detailed references.

c12.s9.65

⁵³ Barani, p. 219.

c12.s9.66

⁵⁴ Sharma, p. 5.

c12.s9.67

⁵⁵ Qazvini, *Badshah Namah*, p. 445. Shaikh Shamsuddin Yahiya wrote a *Risala* (treatise) on the dress of the *Zimmis*. The work is no longer extant. See Nizami, Religion and Politics, p. 318.

c12.s9.68

⁵⁶ *Fatawa-i-Alamgiri*, Nawal Kishore Press (Lucknow), III, pp. 442-45.

c12.s9.69

⁵⁷ Badaoni, Persian Text, II, p. 223.

c12.s9.70

⁵⁸ Jafar Sharif, trs. Herklots, *Islam in India*, p. 304. Also Hughes, *Dictionary of Islam*, p. 40 citing *Mishkat*, XX, iv.

c12.s9.71

⁵⁹ *Shah Waliullah ke Siyasi Maktubat*, ed. by Khaliq Ahmad Nizami reproduced in English in Khalid Bin Sayeeds *Pakistan: The Formative Phase*, Pakistan Publishing House, Karachi, p. 2.

c12.s9.72

⁶⁰ Reproduced by A.H. Albiruni in *Makers of Pakistan and Modern Muslim India*, Muhammad Ashraf, Lahore, p. 109.

c12.s9.73

⁶¹ Wavell, *The Viceroys Journal* ed. by Penderel Moon, Oxford University Press, p. 206.

c12.s9.74

⁶² Maulana Muhammad Ali wrote: Some Mussulman friends have been constantly flinging at me the charge of being a Gandhi-worshipper Since I hold Islam to be the highest gift of God, therefore, I was impelled by the love I bear towards Mahatmaji to pray to God that he might illumine his soul with the true light of Islam As a follower of Islam I am bound to regard the creed of Islam as superior to that professed by the followers of any non-Islamic religion. And in this sense, the creed of even a fallen and degraded Mussulman is entitled to a higher place than that of any other non-Muslim irrespective of his high character, even though the person in question be Mahatma Gandhi himself (*Young India*, 10.4.1924).

c12.s9.75

Gandhijis reaction was: In my humble opinion the Maulana has proved the purity of his heart and his faith in his own religion by expressing his view. He merely compared two sets of religious principles and gave his opinion as to which was better (Navajivan, 13.4.1924).

c12.s9.76

⁶³ *The Great Tragedy*, a pamphlet published in September, 1971 in the wake of Bangladesh War.

c12.s9.77

⁶⁴ Barani, p. 379; Farishtah, I, pp. 124, 126; Ibn Battuta, Def. and Sang, III, P. 198.

c12.s9.78

⁶⁵ Ibn Battuta, *op. cit.*, III, pp. 197-98.

c12.s9.79

⁶⁶ C.H.I., III, p. 123.

c12.s9.80

⁶⁷ Barani, p. 408.

c12.s9.81

⁶⁸ *Tabqat-i-Akbari*, Persian Text, I, p. 187.

c12.s9.82

⁶⁹ For details and references see Lal, *History of the Khaljis*, p. 70.

c12.s9.83

⁷⁰ Ibn Battuta, p. 47; Yahiya Sarhindi, *Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi*, p. 87.

c12.s9.84

⁷¹ Barani. pp. 216-17; 290-91. Amir Khusrau, *Miftah-ul-Futuh*, E and D, III, p. 539. Also Nuh Sipehr, E and D, III, p. 559, 561. Firoz Shah, *Fatuhat-i-Firoz Shahi*, E and D, III, pp. 380-81; Rizquallah, *Waqiat-i-Mushtaqi*, fol. 40a; Dorn, *Makhzan-i-Afghana*, pp. 65-66; Farishtah, I, pp.147-48; Also Lal, *Twilight of the Sultanate*, p. 194, n.176.

c12.s9.85

⁷² C.H.I, III, p. 59.

c12.s9.86

⁷³ Pelsaert, p. 75.

c12.s9.87

⁷⁴ Herklots, *Islam in India*, pp. 166-67.

c12.s9.88

⁷⁵ Rizvi, *History of Sufism*, II, p. 369.

c12.s9.89

⁷⁶ Faruki, *Aurangzeb*, pp. 127-28 citing from *Ganj-i-Arshadi*, reproduced in Sharma, *op. cit.*, p. 144 n.12.

c12.s9.90

The Vishvanath temple site was never relinquished by the Hindus even after its desecration by Aurangzeb. The present one was built by the Maratha Rani Ahilya Bai in 1785. The Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh (d. 1839) got its *shikharas* covered with gold plates.

c12.s9.91

⁷⁷ Sharma, *Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors*, p. 134, also pp. 133-38, writing on the basis of News Letter of 27 March, 1670 and *Mirat-i-Ahmadi*, I, p. 261.

c12.s9.92

⁷⁸ C.H.I., IV, pp. 245, 322.

c12.s9.93

⁷⁹ Sarkar, *A Short History of Aurangzeb*, p. 452.

c12.s9.94

⁸⁰ Sharma, *op. cit.*, p. 139,142.

c12.s9.95

⁸¹ Harsh Narain, *Myths of Composite Culture and Equality of Religions*, p. 24.

c12.s9.96

⁸² Henry Sender, *The Kashmiri Pandits: A Study of Cultural Choice*, Oxford University Press, 1988. Also review of this book by Ratan Watal in Express Magazine, 15 January, 1989.

c12.s9.97

⁸³ *Indias Minorities*, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (New Delhi, 1948), pp. 1 ff.

c12.s9.98

⁸⁴ Gopal Krishna, *Nation Building In Third World*, a series of four articles, *Times of India*, 26 to 29 December, 1988.

c12.s9.99

⁸⁵ Speech by the Pakistan Army Chief at the Staff College at Quetta on 26.10.1988.

c12.s9.100

⁸⁶ *Fatawa-i-Deoband*, Vol. II, p. 269 cited in Harsh Narain, *op. cit.*, p. 44.

c12.s9.101

⁸⁷ Ram Gopal, *Indian Muslims: A Political History* (1858-1947), pp. 264-65.

c12.s9.102

⁸⁸ C.N.S. Raghavan, *Secularism or Minorityism*, in Statesman, 19.11.89.

c12.s9.103

⁸⁹ Gibbon, *op. cit.*, II, p. 685.

c12.s9.104

⁹⁰ A news item in the *The Statesman* of Sunday, 6 August 1989, entitled Muslims in Britain displaying militancy and datelined London, August 5, underscores the problem. It says that Muslims in Britain are displaying

c12.s9.105

increasing militancy. The Muslim community is demanding that its way of life be respected in Britain and instead of integration, many want separation They are concentrating on the right to have Muslim schools and official recognition for Islamic family laws which permit polygamy These demands they placed before the Home Secretary Mr. Douglas Hurd while protesting against Salman Rushdies controversial novel *Satanic Verses*. That turned out to be an excuse or occasion to put claims quite unrelated to the book. Later reports indicate that they are striving to establish a non-territorial Muslim Kingdom in Britain.

c12.s9.106

⁹¹ The reason why the Muslims do not insist upon chopping off the hands of thieves and stoning adulterers to death is that the courts imparting justice are not Shariat courts. The Shariat law prescribes certain qualifications for the judges which the present judicial set-up does not fulfil (A correspondent from Aligarh in a letter to the Editor, *Times of India*, 17.8.91). Of course for contracting four marriages no permission is required from non-Shariat Indian law-courts.

c12.s9.107

⁹² Professor Shaharyar in a Seminar at Aligarh as reported in Qaumi Awaz dated 23 November, 1989. And V.M. Tarkundes article *Hindu Communalism* in *The Times of India* of 30 May, 1990.

Cites (7)