The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c5.s9.1

c5.s9.1

There were certain characteristics of the medieval age which have survived to this day among the Muslims. These give an impression that Muslims are still living in medieval times. Therefore, the legacy of the medieval age is medievalism, especially among the Muslims. The days of autocracy, feudalism and religious wars are over, but not so in many Islamic countries. While Christians in the West are becoming modem and secular, the same cannot be said about Muhammadans. In the field of education, the Printing Press in Europe became a potential medium of developing and spreading knowledge. Medieval Indian Muslims were not interested in this development, but even now the teaching in *maktabs* and *madrasas* is no different from what it used to be in the medieval period. In religious matters freedom of expression and critical analysis is still suppressed as was done in the medieval age. As for example, the translator of the Japanese edition of Salman Rushdies controversial novel, *The Satanic Verses*, Professor Hitoshi Igarashi, was found murdered in his University Campus on 12 July 1991. Mr. Gianni Palma, the Italian publisher of its translation, was attacked by an angry Muslim during a news conference in February 1990. And Salman Rushdie himself lives in hiding in perpetual scare of assassination because of the *Fatwa*. The Islamic Government of Pakistan has decided to make death by hanging mandatory for anyone who defames Prophet Muhammad. Previously, a person convicted of blasphemy had a choice of hanging or life imprisonment.¹¹⁹ No wonder a Muslim like Rafiq Zakaria could write about Muhammad in the only way he did though many chapters of this book fail to carry conviction because they are too defensive and apologetic.¹²⁰ On the other hand many innocuous books concerning medieval studies or Islam have been banned in India in deference to the wishes of Muslim fundamentalists. Even now Muslim festivals and auspicious days are declared so, as was done in medieval times, after actually sighting the new moon, despite the strides made in the field of Astronomy which tell years in advance when the new moon would appear. In the social sphere, Muslim women are still made to live in *parda*, and polygamy is practised as a matter of personal law if not as a matter of religious duty. In the political field, Muslim rule in medieval India was based on the doctrines of Islam in which discrimination against non-Muslims was central to the faith. Even today Hindu shrines are broken not only in Pakistan and Bangladesh but even in Kashmir as a routine matter.