History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s5: Mahomedanism
History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s5
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Mahomedanism
v3.c41.s5.1
We have already described the founding of the Moslem Turkish kingdom at Ghazni and the conquest of Kabul and the Panjab by Sabuktagin and Mahmud. As a consequence not only ‘White India’ (to the west of the Indus consisting of Kabul and Zabul) and the Panjab lost their independence but most of their population was forcibly converted to Mahomedanism. This happened in the beginning of this sub-period (975-1025 A. D.). Both Sabuktagin and Mahmud adopted the policy of forcibly converting the people of the conquered country to Mahomedanism, from motives of political expediency as well as from religious fanaticism. The opposition of the people to such forcible conversion was weak owing to the weakness of their Hindu religious feeling, especially to the west of the Indus. These people have since then so completely become Mahomedan that they have even lost all memory of the fact that they were Hindus only 900 years back, even in the mountainous tract of Ghor. Afghans and Pathans have now even come to believe that they are the descendants of Semitic peoples come from Assyria and Arabia. The people of the Panjab in its western portion where they have mostly been converted, however, still maintain their old clan names as Rajputs or Jats and continue to confine marriage relations to themselves and to observe certain ceremonials of the old Hindu days. Panjab became generally Mahomedan by the end of this sub-period (1200), Shihabuddin Ghori having further carried on the work of forcible conversion to Mahomedanism though not to a great extent. The hilly portion of the Panjab, however, and Kashmir which still retained its independence remained Hindu.
v3.c41.s5.2
In eastern Panjab even Mahmud, as we have seen, did not rigorously carry out the policy of forcible conversion and Shihabuddin also did the same. In the region of the Sarasvati, the Jumna and the Ganges, it was practically abandoned and the United Pr. still remain mainly Hindu. The reasons of this changed attitude appear to be; first even Mahomedan fanatical conquerors get tired of forcibly converting people. Secondly, perhaps Mahmud saw the political utility of keeping the people divided in religion in provinces remote from the centre. Thirdly, Kutubuddin and Altamash were not fanatical Moslems and were wise rulers who, like the British, saw the justice and even the wisdom of not interfering with the religion of the people. Lastly, the people of this region were far more staunch Hindus than the people of the Panjab and notably of the region beyond the Indus. This region is the birth-place of the Brahmanic faith, the home of the Āchāryas of Hindu philosophy, of Rāma and Kṛiṣhṇa adored as Avatāras of God by the Hindus. For these various reasons we think the people of this part of the country remained unmolested in their religious belief and still continue to be the staunchest orthodox section of the Hindu population in the whole of India. The present Mahomedan population in these parts is not descended from converted Hindus, but from those outsider Mahomedans who came in as officers during Afghan or Mogul rule at Delhi. It is naturally in a minority and hence in the political map appended to this volume, this tract may be taken as Hindu.
v3.c41.s5.3
Lower down in Bengal the policy of forcible conversion was, it seems, later adopted by Khilji governors and succeeding Bengal kings to some extent and hence the Mahomedan population in Eastern Bengal predominates. But this happened later than our period and hence Bengal may also be taken as Hindu in the map above referred to. But though thus from the Sutlej to the Brahmaputra and from the Himalaya to the Vindhya, the country was wholly Hindu in the beginning of this period and only sparcely Mahomedan at the end of it, the unity of religious belief even in this region was marred during this sub-period by the progress of Jainism notably in Gujarat and Rajputana and of Vaishnavism in Bengal. Curiously enough Jainism declined in the south in this sub-period. It would be interesting to note this progress of Jainism in one part and decline in another and try to explain it as far as can be done from the scanty historical evidence available on the subject. It will be necessary for this purpose to sketch briefly the rise and progress of Jainism up to the beginning of this sub-period.