The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.105

v1.c15.105

More than sixty-two millions of the Indian population hold the faith of Islām. They are scattered all over the land, usually in a minority, but frequently powerful, for Islām has given ruling chiefs to many districts which are predominantly Hindu. Only in two parts of India are the Musalmāns in a majority, namely in the east of Bengal about Dacca, and in the Indus basin to the north-west. We may think of the Indus basin—lying beyond the desert, low beneath the uplands of Afghānistān—as being an ante-chamber to India proper. In this ante-chamber, for more than nine hundred years the Musalmāns have been a majority.