Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c11: VII A Riposte on Reviews

Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c11

Language
English

Contents

VII A Riposte on Reviews

c11.1

VII

c11.2

A Riposte on Reviews

c11.3

In the preliminary pages, the list of books "by the same author" shows that during the past fifty years I have written a dozen books on medieval Indian history beginning from 1950 onwards. As usual these have been reviewed in journals in India and abroad, bestowing both praise and blame as per the custom of the reviewers. However, during the last fifteen years or so, some of my books have received special attention of a *certain brand of scholars* for adverse criticism. Although this gives me publicity and raises demand for my books because such reviews arouse curiosity of readers, it also provides me with an opportunity to defend myself from my detractors determined to denigrate my work. It is not customary to answer the reviewers - they have their right of judgement - but when a systematic smear campaign is launched criticising everything that I say, without a single word of appreciation for anything, a rebuttal is called for, more so when a connection and not mere coincidence is discernible between the uncharitable review of one of my books in a British journal and some other harsh reviews by a group of Aligarh historians in Indian historical journals. In some Western universities, Aligarh is known to be the only centre of research on medieval Indian history.

7.1. The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India

c11.s1.1

Peter Jackson has reviewed my book *The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India* (Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi) 1992, in the *Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain*, Third Series, Vol. 4, Part 3, November 1994, pp. 421-23. He writes: "Those who have read Professor Lal's History of the Khaljis and Twilight of the Sultanate, both still standard works, may well approach this book with pleasurable anticipation. They will be disappointed." And then follows a list of harsh observations on selective basis. These may be taken up one after another.

c11.s1.2

1. In the words of the reviewer "what disturbs me is the way in which a markedly selective and one-sided account of India's Muslim past is pressed into service in support of his (author's) position".

c11.s1.3

2. According to the author, "Appeasement of Indian Muslims by the Congress might have been understandable prior to Partition, as a means of maximising support against the Raj; as a policy deliberately espoused by successive governments of India since 1947, it is pitifully inappropriate - and dangerous. In particular Lal deplores the government sponsored attempts to rewrite Indian history in the interests of 'minorityism' by suppressing unpalatable truths about the character of Muslim rule."

c11.s1.4

3. According to the author, "a strict watch was kept on their (the Hindus) thought and expression" and that "they could not worship their gods in public." "Some limited degree of repression may have been possible in Delhi, or in the sultan's itinerant court," writes Jackson, "it was surely impractical in provincial centres, still more so in the countryside."

c11.s1.5

4. "If Muslim rule was so iconoclastic and oppressive, how are we to account for the fierce loyalty shown to successive Delhi Sultans by their Hindu *Paik* guards... And what of the thousands of Hindu troops who are found serving in the armies of Hindu potentates from Mahmud of Ghazna... onwards?"

c11.s1.6

5. "The implication is that toleration of Hindu practices was always opposed by the 'Ulama'... It is clear that the 'ulama' are going to be damned whatever they did or did not do... A similar fate awaits the Sufi *mashaikh* (pp. 193ff)."

c11.s1.7

6. "One final example of the methods employed in this book deserves mention, namely, the failure to distinguish the conduct of Muslim rulers within India from that of their coreligionists who appeared in the subcontinent only temporarily. Of the Muslim armies in peacetime... we still await the evidence of his statement on rowdyism."

c11.s1.8

7. "Use of archaic and misleading term 'Muhammadan' is of a piece with Lal's reliance on dated secondary authorities like Sir Elliot's introduction to *The History of India as told by its own Historians*."

c11.s1.9

8. According to the author of the book, "Muslims still live, as they have always lived, in the Middle Ages. Islam is inherently a religion of violence; its followers... are not concerned about equality with the devotees of other faiths."

c11.s1.10

9. "One thinks of the works of Peter Hardy, of Yohannan Friedmann, and of the Aligarh school now headed by Irfan Habib. It might be inferred that these scholars are to be numbered among the 'Marxists, pseudo-secularists, progressives etc.' whom Lal denounces (p. 348). But their writings were irrelevant to his purpose. His is not a work of scholarship but an exercise in propaganda, and rather crude propaganda at that."

c11.s1.11

1. With all humility I would like to say that most history is selective. Selective study is common everywhere, in Aligarh, in Jackson's review itself. Jackson himself gives a rare instance mentioned in *Epigraphia Indica* 1957-8 of Hindus benefiting "from the Muslim governor's active assistance in the construction of their temple which had been destroyed in a (Muslim) insurrection against Muhammad bin Tughluq". How selective! Would it mean that it was common with Muslim governors to help build temples? Just the contrary was the tradition. The fact is that such exceptions only prove the rule. A markedly selective and one-sided claim is that Aurangzeb donated so many *bighas* of land to so and so temple without mentioning the case of hundreds of others he desecrated and razed. Am I more selective than the historians who indulge in such selectivity day in and day out? In all fairness the reviewer should concede to me also the freedom of "selective choices" he allows to himself and others, particularly in Aligarh.

c11.s1.12

2. The reviewer has put words in my book which are not there at all, like "maximising support against the Raj" or "a policy espoused by successive governments". What I said in the *Legacy* (p. 336) is this:

c11.s1.13

*The policy of the Indian National Congress before Partition was alright. It appeased the Muslims to somehow save the country from division. But after the country was partitioned on Hindu-Muslim basis, continuance of the old policy of appeasement showed bankruptcy of political acumen and a betrayal of the implicit trust reposed by the people in the Congress - in particular Jawaharlal Nehru. With all his*

c11.s1.14

*knowledge of history he could not understand Islam and its fundamentalism.*

c11.s1.15

This paragraph needs neither reiteration nor elaboration. "Religious harmony is a desirable thing. But it takes two to play the game. Unfortunately such a sentiment holds a low position in Islamic theology," rightly writes Ram Swarup. Muslim attitude before 1947 was that the 'Muslim nation' could not live with the Hindus; they must have a separate state. Efforts at unity and 'living together' was a one-sided endeavour of the Congress. It failed before 1947 because Muslim theology does not believe in living together with non-Muslims on equal terms. That is also why the Congress effort seems to be failing after 1947. Threat of secession is heard every day (as in Kashmir) or of further division of the country (if a uniform civil law is enacted for all Indians).

c11.s1.16

Should it be a matter of criticism if I deplore "government-sponsored attempts to rewrite Indian history in the interest of minorityism by suppressing unpalatable truths about the character of Muslim rule"? I have quoted from government circulars addressed to authors of school and college textbooks. Here some instructions/suggestions are reproduced. These appear on p. 70 of the *Legacy*. "Muslim rule should not attract any criticism... Destruction of temples by Muslim invaders and rulers should not be mentioned... Ignore and delete mention of forcible conversions to Islam" etc., etc. Curiously enough the instructions themselves admit of destruction of temples and forcible conversions. Why are there no instructions about writing the history of the ancient (Hindu) period or the British period? Does it mean that the record of Muslim rule in India alone is unmentionable? Or, does it mean that only the destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned (for the appeasement of one minority), while destruction by Portuguese invaders and rulers should be freely mentioned? Evils of Hindu society may be discussed but the evils of Muslim society should not. Warren Hastings, Wellesley and Dalhousie may be impeached relentlessly but no Muslim governor or ruler. These are double angles of approach, double standards of judgement recommended for writing Indian history. But this is actually being done by historians engaged by the establishment for writing school and college textbooks.

c11.s1.17

Koenraad Elst has written a book on this subject entitled *Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam* (New Delhi, 1992).

c11.s1.18

Negationism is practised in many countries, but their laws in this regard are different. As an example, let me quote from a report carried by *The Times of India*, datelined New Delhi, 7 May 1992. "HISTORIAN FINED FOR A 'HOAX'. Munich: A district court here fined a British historian 10,000 marks ($ 6,000) on Tuesday for publicly insisting that the Nazi gas chambers at Auschwitz were a hoax, AP reports. judge Thomas Stelzne ruled that David Irving, a right-wing historian was guilty of slandering and disparaging the memory of the dead, a crime in Germany. Irving, 54, has claimed that gas chambers in Auschwitz death camp were a post-war hoax to draw tourists to the area in Poland. Irving once insisted that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler knew nothing about the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of 6 million Jews." On the other hand, in India, when a 'historian' spreads the canard that the temple at Banaras was razed by Aurangzeb because a Rani was molested in its premises (of course, without producing any historical evidence), he is rewarded with cash and high offices and hailed as a great Gandhian and a champion of secularism and national integration.¹

c11.s1.19

In these circumstances, it is no wonder that the Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal, "a National Voluntary Oraganisation working in the field of Education with the active involvement of Intellectuals, Educationists, Thinkers, Policy makers and teachers at all levels, has undertaken... to request the Central and State Governments to put an end to the distortion in the textbooks of History and other subjects at all levels (and) to insist upon the teaching of complete and impartial History of Indian Freedom Struggle against foreign invaders covering the last 2500 years."

c11.s1.20

3. It is re-asserted that a strict watch was kept on Hindu thought and expression. Hindu learning in general was suppressed since Hindu and Buddhist schools were attached to temples and monasteries. These were regularly destroyed from the very beginning and with them schools of learning. Qutbuddin Aibak razed the Sanskrit College of Vishaldeva at Ajmer and in its place built a mosque called *Arhai din ka Jhonpra*. In the east Ikhtiyauddin Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked the Buddhist university centres in Bihar like Odantapuri, Nalanda and Vikramshila between 1197-1202.

c11.s1.21

There, according to the contemporary chronicler Minhaj Siraj, "the greater number of the inhabitants of the place were Brahmans, and the whole of those Brahmans had their heads shaven (probably Buddhist monks mistaken for Brahmans) and they were all slain. There were a great number of books there; and the Musalmans... summoned a number of Hindus that they might give them information respecting the import of these books; but the whole of the Hindus had been killed." All that the invader could learn was that "the whole of the fortress was a college and in the Hindi tongue, they call a college (madrasa) Bihar."² During this period there were large numbers of centres of learning spread all over India. B. P. Mazumdar has listed some of these centres in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as existing in Northern India. In Bihar they were Nalanda, Vikramshila, Odantapuri and Phullahari near Monghyr. In North and Eastern Bengal they were Jagaddala, Somapura and Devikota in North Bengal, Vikrampuri in Dacca, Pattikeraka in Comilla, and Panditavihara in Chittagong. Minor *viharas* were in existence at Gaya and Valabhi and Bundelkhand.

c11.s1.22

Hieun Tsang, in the seventh century, had noted that monasteries existed in all parts of the country. Many of these continued to flourish in the eleventh-twelfth centuries. Hiuen Tsang's list included "Nagarkot, Udyana, Jalandhar, Sthanesvara, Srughna Matipura, Brahmapura, Govisana, Ahichchatra, Samkasya, Kanauj, Navadevakula, Ayodhya, Hayamuka, Prayag, Visoka, Kapilvastu, Banaras, Ramagrama, Ghazipur, Tilosika, Gunamati, Silabhadra near Gaya, Kajangala, Pundravardhana, Kamarupa, Samatata, Orissa, Berar, Malwa, Valabhi, Anandapura, Surat, Ujjayini and Chitor." The adventurer Ikhtiyaruddin Bakhtiyar Khalji sacked Bihar during sultan Aibak's reign, and centres of learning were specially sacked. So thorough was the massacre by the Khalji warrior in Bihar and later on by others in other places that those who could read ancient inscriptions became rare if not extinct. So that when Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (fourteenth century) shifted two Ashokan pillars from Khizrabad and Meerut to Delhi and installed them there, he called some learned Brahmans to read the inscriptions engraved in Ashokan Brahmi script on the pillars; they failed to read the script. Some of them tried to please the Sultan with funny stories by saying that it was recorded in the inscriptions that no one would be able to remove the monoliths till the advent of Firoz.³

c11.s1.23

Demolition of schools and temples was continued by most Muslim rulers right up to the time of Aurangzeb, both at the centre and in the provinces. Aurangzeb was one of the enthusiastic sort in this respect, although he was no exception.

c11.s1.24

The *Maasir-i-Alamgiri* records that in April 1669, "It reached the ears of his Majesty, the protector of the faith, that in the province of Thatta, Multan, and Banaras, but especially in the latter, *foolish Brahmans were in the habit of expounding frivolous books in their schools*, and that students and learners, Muslims as well as Hindus went there, even from long distances, led by the desire to become acquainted with the *wicked sciences they taught*. The Director of the Faith, consequently issued orders *to all governors of provinces to destroy with a willing band the schools and temples* of the infidels. In obedience of this order the temple of Bishnath at Banaras was destroyed."⁴ With such evidences on hand, Jackson is forced to concede that "some limited degree of repression may have been feasible in Delhi or in the vicinity of the sultan's itinerant court; it was surely impractical in the provincial centres, still more so in the countryside". I have resided in Delhi, Bhopal and Hyderabad (Deccan) for many years. In all these places I could hardly locate any temples left of the medieval period. Hindu learning was dependent on schools and Brahman teachers, and both were attached to temples mostly in urban areas. And all the three - schools, teachers and temples - were systematically destroyed. Muslim rulers in general and Firoz Tuglaq and Sikandar Lodi in particular considered the Brahmans as 'the very keys of chambers of idolatry" and treated them with great severity.⁵ The level of education in the countryside is not known. But the credit for whatever could be- saved of Hindu education goes to the freedom fighters of medieval India and not to the indulgence of the Muslim government.

c11.s1.25

4. Fierce loyalty of "Hindu *Paik* guards" may not be a correct description. Paik is a Hindi word, but all paiks were not Hindu. They can be called urban infantry comprising of both Hindus and Muslims. Once captured or enrolled in the sultan's service, most Hindu troops were converted to Islam. That is why the paiks who saved Alauddin Khalji on his expedition to Ranthambhor have been called retainers because Barani calls them "foot-soldiers", "foot-slaves".⁶ One of them was Manik. The name is Hindu and probably he was a Hindu. During mass conversions sometimes old names were not given up and Manik may as well have been Musalman with Hindu name. The paiks who killed Malik Kafur, to save Alauddin's son Qutbuddin Mubarak Khalji, were all Muslims - Mubshir, Bashir, Saleh and Munir as noted by Isami and Farishtah.⁷ Of the thousands of Hindu troops serving under Muslim rulers from Mahmud Ghazni onwards, some were enrolled troops, others were loyal soldiers under loyal Rajas.

c11.s1.26

Once a man gave up the plough and adopted the profession of arms, he became a professional soldier available for service with any employer, Hindu or Muslim. it is not only defeated Hindu Rajas or professional Hindu soldiers who served under Muslim rulers, vice versa was also the case. Mahmud Ghaznavi and Hindu Shahiya kings both had Afghan troops under them. Vijayanagar employed thousands of Muslims in both civil and military establishments. An entire contingent of Rana Sanga was Muslim. In Shivaji's army a substantial section was adherent of Islam. Churaman jat enrolled Meos and Afghans against Mughal government. Ibrahim Khan Gardi with 9,000 sepoys fought under Marathas against Ahmad Shah Abdali in the Third Battle of Panipat.

c11.s1.27

Loyalty to salt was a special feature of the medieval period. It did not, as it could not, hinder the Muslim rule from being iconoclastic and oppressive to non-Muslims as its character was determined by the dictates of the Shariat.

c11.s1.28

⁵ I have said nothing objectionable about the life of the ulema and *mashaikh* in medieval India and their role in the contemporary politics (pp. 189-207). This is what I have said about the ulema, "Their presence was indispensable to a ruler who was generally uneducated (in the Law). They kept the rulers and the ruling class on the path of Islam and virtue by informing them correctly about their duty towards the non-Muslims. Some modem secularist historians blame the Ulama for making Muslim rulers intolerant through their orthodox advice... I have not come across any instance where the Ulama deliberately gave a distorted version of their scriptures in this context... They were as much interested in seeing the Muslim state being run according to the Shariat as the Sultan." No sober scholar would say that I have damned the ulema and also insinuate that

c11.s1.29

"The 'Ulama' are going to be damned (by me) whatever they did or did not do".

c11.s1.30

Similar is the case about the sufi saints. In nine pages (193201) I have written about the various orders and their contribution to Muslim rule. In three pages (204-206) I have given a brief resume of their life and political activities. So I have been attacked for what is not there in the book. The insinuation and comments of Jackson on my statements on the ulema and the *mashaikh* suggest that he is determined to condemn my book without proper reading.

c11.s1.31

6. There is criticism of "the methods employed ... namely, the (author's) failure to distinguish the conduct of Muslim rulers within India from that of their co-religionists who appeared in the subcontinent only temporarily".

c11.s1.32

There is no failure on my part to distinguish between the conduct of the two; there is hardly any difference, because both followed the same ideology, the same Quranic laws and rules in dealing with the Hindus. Let us compare the achievements and activities of Sultan Firoz Tuglaq, a ruler within India, with those of a foreign invader Timur. Firoz Shah used to shed tears when he was forced to fight against Muslims; for "Muslim men would be killed and their women widowed". But he felt satisfied when called upon to fight non-Muslims. After his sack of Orissa, Firoz Shah attacked an island on the sea-coast where "nearly 100,000 men of Jajnagar had taken refuge with their women, children, kinsmen and relations". His soldiers turned "the island into a basin of blood by the massacre of the unbelievers". When the pious Sultan attacked Nagarkot (Kangra) and sacked the shrine of Jwalamukhi, Farihstah records that "the Sultan broke idols of the temple, mixed their fragments with the flesh of cows and hung them in nosebags round the necks of Brahmans. He sent the principal idol as trophy to Medina." Firoz Tuglaq was resident Sultan of Hindustan and was known for his piety among contemporary Muslims. Ten years after his death appeared the foreign invader Timur in the subcontinent, temporarily. But the ideas and actions of the two were similar. Timur starts by quoting from the Quran in his *Tuzuk-i-Timuri*: "O Prophet, make war upon the infidels and unbelievers, and treat them severely." He continues: "My great object in invading Hindustan has been to wage a religious war against the infidel Hindus." Similar was the object of Firoz Tughlaq and other sultans "within India". Timur laid siege of Bhatnir and even after the garrison had surrendered, "in a short space of time all the people in the fort were put to the sword, and in the course of one hour the heads of 10,000 infidels were cut off. The sword of Islam was washed in the blood of the infidels and all the goods and effects... became the spoil of my soldiers." At Sarsuti "all the infidel Hindus were slain, their wives and children were made prisoners and their property and goods became the spoil of victors". In Haryana, Timur directed his soldiers to "plunder and destroy and kill every one whom they met". Killing of men and capturing of women and children went on wherever he went.

c11.s1.33

Firoz Tughlaq was one of the distinguished rulers within India. He had reigned for more than thirty-five years after Muslim rule had been established for 150 years. His dynasty itself ruled for seventy-five years. Timur was his coreligionist who appeared in India only temporarily. But there is nothing to distinguish between the actions and ideas of the Muslim sultan within India and a temporary foreign Muslim invader. Both are praised by contemporary chroniclers for their pious acts against the infidels. Is it enough to settle down in India in order to become an Indian even if the settler continues to despise everything Indian and admire everything Arabic and Persian and Turkish, even if the settler continues to massacre in cold blood thousands of Indians and convert many more by force, sell women and children as slaves in Muslim lands, destroy great creations of art and science and literature? From Mahmud of Ghazni, the invader, to Aurangzeb, 'the Great Mughal' within India, the story is the same. In truth, Aurangzeb spent his long life towards one end - in fulfilling the task initiated by Mahmud. If those who appeared temporarily were hated, the sultans within India too are no heroes of Indians.

c11.s1.34

Rowdyism of Muslim armies is well-known. There are dozens of examples available of loot and extortion by Muslim soldiers in peacetime. The reforms of Sher Shah and his strict orders about troops not to damage peasants' fields while on move bear testimony to it. Both Shams Siraj Afif and Ziyauddin Barani refer to such behaviour.⁸ But a paragraph from Emperor Jahangir's own pen depicts the scenario clearly. "After carrying out these matters I left the city for the purpose of hunting... As the Rabi Fasl (Spring season) had arrived, for fear any damage should happen to the cultivation of the ryots from the passage of the army, and not withstanding that I had appointed *qurisawul* (provost marshal) with the band of ahadis for the purpose of guarding the fields, I ordered certain men to see what damage had been done to the crops from stage to stage and pay compensation to the ryots."⁹ A little later he again writes that "In order that the grain and cultivation should not be trodden down by men I ordered that all should remain in the city but the men who were actually wanted and my personal servants" only should accompany him on his hunting expedition.¹⁰ In the countryside only grain or crops could be looted or destroyed. In the villages, there was hardly any gold or silver with the peasants on which the soldiers could lay hands on. There are references of such loot in the cities. Rowdyism, extortion and abduction by soldiers in peace time was not uncommon.

c11.s1.35

7. No, it is neither old fashioned nor archaic to use the term Muhammadanism. Islam is understood more correctly when it is called Muhammadanism. Muhammad is the central figure in Islam. He controls the hearts and minds of all Muslims everywhere. Had their been no Muhammad there would have been no Islam. The word Muhammadanism is therefore not misleading. Its use is very apt and correct.

c11.s1.36

Elliot's *History of India as told by its own Historians* is no secondary authority. It contains English translation of passages of contemporary Persian chronicles. Sir Henry Elliot's introduction just as Professor Mohammad Habib's 102-page Introduction to the second volume of Elliot's work published from Aligarh, contains the views of the two. As per Jackson, should both be termed as "dated secondary authorities?"

c11.s1.37

8. According to the author of the book (a) "Muslims still live, as they have always lived, in the Middle Ages; (b) Islam is inherently a religion of violence; and (c) its followers are not concerned about equality with the devotees of other faiths."

c11.s1.38

(a) It is true that most Muslims still live in the Middle Ages. The few who dare to be 'modern', face unsurmountable difficulties. The reason is that as a religion and social system, Islam is changeless. it is based on the Quran and the Sunnah which are changeless. This has not been said by me but by most Muslims including the historian Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi whose assertion has been quoted by me on pp. 116 and 320 of my book under review. I.H. Qureshi says: "The Quran is believed by every Muslim to be the word of God revealed to his Prophet Muhammad." This word of God cannot be amended, cannot be changed because "not even the Prophet could change the revelation". Equally important is the Sunnah. Muslim Law is built on the Quran and the Hadis. "There are no local variations of the Muslim Law." Muhammad himself did not want any change in the religion he had initiated. In the closing year of his life, 632 CE, he performed what is known as the Valedictory Pilgrimage. At Mina he preached and urged the pilgrims "not to depart from the exact observances of the religion which he had appointed".¹¹

c11.s1.39

Muslim Shariat law was enacted in the Middle Ages. Muslim pattern of life was set in the Middle Ages. Any pleas for change are dubbed as "innovations" and are denounced with fatwas. Muslims in India can only indulge in unlimited praise of Islam, or, discreetly keep quiet. There is no third choice. Those who raise even a faint voice of criticism have ultimately to seek refuge in foreign lands (Taslima Nasreen, Anwar Shaikh). Polygamy is still practised and amputation of limbs and flogging, especially of women, practised (Bangladesh). The medieval Muhtasib is still at work. What Shaikh Ghaznavi recommended to Iltutmish about jihad and treatment of Kafirs in the thirteenth century or Qazi Mughisuddin told Alauddin Khalji in the fourteenth or Shah Waliullah in the eighteenth is still the norm of thought. Two years ago a meeting of the Personal Law Board was held at Jaipur. It recommended censorship on any progressive views. Such views are considered "innovations" in Islam. Besides other resolutions, there was one on setting up media-watch committees throughout the country to monitor media reports about "attack on Islam" (that is, anything analytical or critical regarding Islam), and establishment of Shariat courts (as reported in *The Times of India*, New Delhi, Oct. 17, 1993). Muslims live, as they have always lived, in the Middle Ages. Else, there was no need for Salamat Masih to seek asylum outside Pakistan and Taslima Nasreen to flee from Bangladesh. No poet, scholar or writer even in modem times is impregnable from the argus eye of the Muhtasib. A few instances will suffice to drive home the point.

c11.s1.40

An Urdu poet Mohammad Alvi based in Ahmedabad recited a *ghazal at a mushaira.* The ghazal was repeated from Alvi's famous collection, *Chautha Aasman,* which won the Sahitya Akademi award. But on April 4, 1995, Mufti Shabbir Siddiqui of the Dar-ul-Uloom Shah-i-Alam, a small religious school in Ahmedabad, issued a fatwa terming Mohammed Alvi, a Kafir and apostate, ordered him to tender a public apology, renew his faith in Islam and remarry his wife, failing which the Mufti called upon the Muslims to excommunicate Alvi and break all social contact with him.

c11.s1.41

The couplets, which led to the issuance of the fatwa 17 years after they were written, reflected the poet's concern at the happenings around him. Considering that evil, violence and injustice have made this world God-forsaken and suggesting that God has become indifferent, in sheer pain and agony he prays to Allah:

c11.s1.42

"Agar tujhko fursat nahin, to na aa
*magar ek acchha Nabi bhej de,*
*Bahot nek bands hain ab bhi tire*
*kisi pe tu ya Rab Vahi bhej de,*
*Qayamat ka din kho na jaye kahin,*
*ye achchi ghadi hai abhi bhej de."*

c11.s1.43

(O Allah, if you do not have time, do not come, but at least send a good guide; there are numerous pious people in this world, bestow a divine message upon someone. This is the right time, lest we miss the doomsday.) What provoked the Mufti to issue the fatwa was a letter written to him by the Nazim-i-Ala of Dar-ul-Uloom Shah-i-Alam, Usman Khatri. When asked whether Alvi was invited to appear before him and defend his case, the principal of Dar-ul-Uloom, Maulana Moinuddin Razvi, said there was no need to call Alvi. If a thing was wrong in the Shariat, prima facie the Mufti had the right to issue the fatwa.

c11.s1.44

Asked whether the Mufti was authorised to issue such a fatwa, the principal said: "We do not have to seek anybody's authority."

c11.s1.45

Mohammed Alvi, however, said he did not have the slightest inclination to disbelieve in the finality of the Prophet, which is an Islamic injunction, nor had he tried to malign Allah. It was a simple poetic imagination where he called upon Allah to send a messenger or a guide (and not Prophet) with a divine message. There was nothing blasphemous in the three couplets, he maintained. On receiving an unconditional apology from Alvi, Mufti Shabbir Siddiqi pardoned the Kafir! "Now he is back in our fraternity", said he in Urdu on telephone.¹²

c11.s1.46

The fatwa against the lawyer in Beed in South India is another example of the gag on the freedom of expression by Muslims. "The maulvis ' of Beed town today (July 23, 95) excommunicated a lawyer, Shaikh Altaf Ahmed, from the community for writing an article expressing his opinion on the uniform civil code. Mr. Ahmed is reported to have opposed polygamy and *talaq* in an article in the district newspaper Zunjar Neta on July 11. This infuriated some religious leaders who expressed their displeasure over the article. Fundamentalists, too, started threatening Mr. Ahmed with dire consequences and some of them pelted stones on his residence on July 19. It is alleged that they even made an attempt on his life. The *fatwa* to expel the advocate was issued during the Friday *namaz* in his absence. He was asked to leave Beed at once. Mr. Ahmed apologised publicly clarifying that his intention was not to hurt religious sentiments but only to point out certain misconceptions. However, the Muslim clerics were not satisfied and declared that the decision to expel him would stand. The apology was not expressed as per Islamic rules, they added."¹³

c11.s1.47

Islam superintends every action of Muslims, and there are fatwas directing them to do this and do not do that. According to newspaper reports, the Milli Parliament recently issued a fatwa directing Muslims to refrain from exercising their franchise in the on-going elections (India's 1996 General Elections). "It is completely unlawful for Muslims," the Milli Parliament is reported to have pronounced, "to give authority to any non-Muslim political party or group to rule over Muslims, for in the Quran we are told that Allah does not allow disbelievers to have any authority over the believers." Professor Imtiaz Ahmad protested against this fatwa on the ground that "One of the explicit requirements of Islam is that a *fatwa* can be issued only by someone who is learned in the scripture, the traditions and Islamic jurisprudence. The Milli Parliament's credentials on this count are seriously questionable. Even otherwise, the Milli Parliament's pronouncement is wholly misguided. For one thing, even though Muslims constitute a minority, they are co-sharers of political power within the framework of the Constitution. Wilfred Cantwell Smith had drawn pointed attention to the uniqueness of this situation in the Muslim world in *Islam in History*. Under the circumstances, for the Milli Parliament to invoke the distinction between believers and disbelievers amounts to sticking to outmoded ways of thinking and repudiating the emerging realities of Islam."14 The fact is that invoking the distinction between believers and disbelievers, does not amount to outmoded ways of thinking; it forms the very basic principle of Islamic ideology. Whether it is competent or not, the Milli Parliament has issued a fatwa. And it stands. Imtiaz Ahmad talks about India's democratic set up. There is no democracy in Islam. There is even no word for democracy in Islam. The "progressive" Imtiaz Ahmad can hardly make a dent in the think-tank of the Milli Parliament.

c11.s1.48

However, after challenging the fatwa, Imtiaz Ahmad, like any discreet Muslim thought it necessary to add the following: "There is a verse in the Quran to the effect that Allah does not change the situation of a people who are unwilling to change their character (*ausaf*). For over fifty years a particular brand of Muslim religio-political leaders in the country have indulged in ways of thinking and acting which are the source of their community's predicament in contemporary India. It is time that this brand of leaders, of which the Milli Parliament is the latest example, drew guidance from this Quranic verse and corrected its obsolete ways of thinking and action so as to be able to act as real leaders of the community." Appeal to a Quranic verse protects Imtiaz from any adverse reaction of the clerics or the community even if the obsolete thinking is not changed even a whit. The fatwas are not confined to Muslims alone, the issuers have the audacity of admonishing and threatening people of other faiths also. The Express News Service reports from London how a "Fatwa forces editor into hiding":

c11.s1.49

"In the normal course of things, Mr. Namassiwayam Ramalingam, the editor-in-chief of the weekly *L'Independent*, would have been back in Port Louis, Mauritius, planning his next issue. But for the past two months or so, Mr. Ramalingam has been holed up in a small hotel in Croydon, on the outskirts of London, waiting for an elusive phone call that will inform him that it is safe to return home and resume publication.

c11.s1.50

"The wait is likely to be prolonged. The government of Sir Anecrudh Juggnauth is in a serious dilemma about what to do with an editor who is now threatened with a fate similar to that of Salman Rushdie and Tasleema Nasreen.

c11.s1.51

"The facts are somewhat bizarre. In March this year, on the occasion of the beginning of Ramzan, Mr. Ramalingam *reprinted* an article on the life and times of the Prophet Muhammad from the well-known French weekly *Le Point*. Matters would have ended there had not one Maulana Haroon read sinister meaning and blasphemy in the article.

c11.s1.52

"Within days of the publication, Maulana Haroon convened a public meeting in the Muslim-dominated Plaine Verte locality of Port Louis and, after arousing religious passions, issue a fatwa of death against Mr. Ramalingam.

c11.s1.53

"Muslims constitute 18 per cent of the population of Mauritius. The Hindu community is in a majority with 52 per cent.

c11.s1.54

"Two days later, the press of *L'Independent* was firebombed, and although the March 17 issue of the weekly hit the stands, it was the last. On March 24, Mr. Ramalingam boarded a flight to London, leaving his family in Mauritius, hoping that a small period of absence would allow passions to cool.

c11.s1.55

"Mr. Ramalingam, on the advice of Prime Minister Juggnauth, also tendered an apology for any unintended offence to the Muslim community."¹⁵

c11.s1.56

When we turn our attention to countries beyond the Indian subcontinent, especially the Islamic countries, we realize how the Muslims still live in the Middle Ages. There are no churches in Saudi Arabia and of course no Hindu temples. It is stated that no Hindu can take any idol into Saudi Arabia. And about this situation Indian Muslims are not only satisfied but also encourage the Arabs not to give equal treatment to non-Muslims. Such an one is Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, the Rector of the Nadwat-ul-Ulama, popularly known as Ali Mian, whom we have met before. He is opposed to the construction of houses of worship of non-Muslims in the Arabian peninsula. He wrote a letter to this effect to the Emir of Kuwait first in 1963. That letter has been re-published in one of his books. Ali Mian's letter said: "You know that the Prophet of Allah made the Arabian peninsula exclusive to Islam. The Caliph Umar has reported that he heard the Prophet say: 'I shall throw the Christians out of the Arabian peninsula and will not allow anyone but the Muslims to live there.' Near the time of his death the Prophet said: 'There will never be two religions in the Arab land.'" Referring to (newly-built) non-Muslim houses of worship in Kuwait, Ali Mian said they were a threat to that country's integrity. He warned that it was necessary to be vigilant concerning the presence of alien minorities in Kuwait which could lead "to the creation of a nation within a nation". (Here he is conscious of the role of Muslims in India.) *Communalism Combat* (February, 1995) published the letter under the heading: "is This Ali Mian's Islam?" The letter-writer C.M. Naim, ended by saying: "Ali Mian has been to the United States and Europe several times. One hopes that visiting the numerous mosques there has produced in him some reciprocal sentiment of acceptance of the ways of worship of God by others." Obviously, not.

c11.s1.57

This is what Muzaffar Hussain has to say about the situation in Iran and other Islamic countries:

c11.s1.58

"Iran's criminal law is reverting to the mediaeval system of punishment. A woman accused of adultery is condemned to be buried chest-deep and killed by hitting her with rocks and stones... under Section 104 of the Iranian Criminal Code... Today when everywhere there is the din of slogans for protection of human rights and women's liberty groups are going from strength to strength, in the last decade of the 20th century, there is no one to protest against the cruel law that instructs people to kill women suspected of adultery by crushing them under a shower of stones... In Pakistan the *Hadud law* under the rule of General Zia was meted out to women, and today it is being practised in Iran. Today, progressive governments and enlightened societies do not stomach the outdated practices like *purdah*... if any government resists *purdah*, they will kill twenty women who have already discarded it. Retaliate one veiled with 20 veilless! It is reminiscent of the fanatics' slogan of *Hum panch, hamare pachis* in retaliation of the Indian government's legend for family planning, *Hum do, hamare do*. This is the description of the state of affairs in the Muslim countries especially in Saudi Arabia and Iran. *The Muslim intellectuals do not speak for fear of death* (emphasis ours), and when the non-Muslim world comments on such incidents, attempts are made to fool the world opinion by branding these comments as misinformation conspiracy by the Christians and the Israelis...

c11.s1.59

"The Human Rights Commission contains a news item that women were imprisoned for driving cars or defying the supposedly Islamic tradition of dress. In Saudi Arabia, some educated women gathered together and decided to drive cars simultaneously to defy the reactionary law prohibiting female car-driving. Thus 22 women came on the roads and began driving their cars. The Saudi Government... not only seized their cars but shut up the women drivers in jails.

c11.s1.60

"In the matter of restriction on women's attires, Iran is followed by Sudan. In Sudan, if a woman defies the rules regarding women's clothes she invites the punishment of 74 lashes of flogging. A girl student of Khartoum was subjected to 35 lashes for daring to flaunt a skirt-and-blouse ensemble. in the town of Oumdarman a woman received 37 lashes for committing the 'immodesty' of wearing a pyjama. The Human Rights Commission report is a collection of such blood-curdling tales. *When these dark-age societies will be liberated from the repressive system of the fanatics who perpetrate these crimes in the fair name of Islam, only the savior Allah knows!*" (emphasis ours).¹⁶

c11.s1.61

And of course the, fatwa on Rushdie will be implemented. A news item from Tehran says: "Iran's chief judge, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi said on Sunday the *fatwa* threatening the life of Indian born British author Salman Rushdie will eventually be implemented. The implementation of the decree is upto Muslims of the entire world and not only Iran. So Iran will not make any effort nor will pay money to kill Mr. Rushdie." (DPA)¹⁷

c11.s1.62

The problems faced by Governments in countries like Egypt, Turkey and Algeria against pure Islamists are well known. About their difficulties in dealing with the fundamentalists, the less said the better. The crux of the problem is the fact that "true" Muslims still live, as they have always lived in the Middle Ages when their unchanging and changeless religion was revealed to them - in all countries by force.

c11.s1.63

(b) Islam is inherently a religion of aggression, violence, and dominance. Jihad is still proclaimed and practised. Allah-o-Akbar is as much a battle cry heard during communal riots, as it is heard during the call for prayer. Islam divides humanity between followers of the faith and infidels. Infidels are proclaimed as the enemies of Allah (think of it, God has enemies in poor humans), and are to be killed if they do not accept Islam. Words like Jihad, Zimmi, Kafir, Munkir, Mushrik hurled at unoffending people belonging to other faiths do not denote non-violence or peaceful coexistence. Jihad is advocated by Shariat and not a single Muslim will dare to say publicly that Shariat is unacceptable. Muslims are so much accustomed to violence that if there are no non-Muslim Kafirs available to fight with, one section of Muslims calls another Kafir and continues with the killing spree. There was a time when Afghanistan was Hindu and Buddhist. There was peace. Now it is torn by unceasing conflict. Let it revert to its ancient faith and, I challenge, who knows peace will automatically return.

c11.s1.64

In many areas in the world today, wherever there is violence, terrorism and conflict, there is involvement of Islam. Muslims have been practising terrorism in many non-Muslim as well as Muslim countries on trumped up grievances, for Islam is inherently a religion of violence.

c11.s1.65

(c) India is not a Muslim country. It is a secular state; Parsis, Jews, Christians, Hindus and Muslims live here on terms of equality. There is no problem with Parsis and Christians. But Muslims are not concerned with the problems of adherents of other faiths. They are only concerned about themselves and their 'Separate Identity'. For example, India wants to improve the condition of women. Women suffer from many disabilities. Muslim women in particular are at a disadvantage in matters of divorce, inheritance, polygamy and unequal status in Islamic society. For improving their lot and prohibiting polygamy among all religious groups a common civil code is needed. But Muslims oppose its enactment. Changeless Islam, founded in the Middle Ages, stands in the way of any reform. An Anti-Common Civil Code Convention was held by Muslims at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on July 4, 1995. The Convention demanded that the Muslims should be exempted from the purview of Article 44 of the Constitution which envisages such a code. Asad Madani, the chief of the Jamiat, called the demand for a common civil code a conspiracy to finish off the Muslims in India. He advised all Muslims to have four wives to increase the Muslim population and to enhance their influence with the Government. Zafaryab Jilani described the move for a common civil code as anti-Islamic and aimed at finishing Islam in India. Mufti Abdul Razzaq of Bhopal wanted Muslims to wage jihad against the Government and to kill those who opposed Muslim Personal Law. Many more separatist statements were made. If the Muslims were concerned about equality with devotees of other faiths, they would not oppose a common civil code meant *for and applicable to all Indians*. Instead of opposing it they should grab this opportunity to get into the proposed code all the good things in the Shariat concerning the "high status of women in Islam" about which Muslims are so vociferous. But they shun to live on terms of equality with the people of other faiths, they do not like to join the mainstream of Indian social and cultural life. They insist on asserting their separate identity not only in India but wherever they happen to be in a minority, United Kingdom and France included. This aspect has already been discussed in the *Legacy* (pp. 345-48) and need not be restated here.

c11.s1.66

9. In his hurried determination to belittle my book, Jackson failed to notice that I am well aware of the work of Peter Hardy and have quoted him at two places in the *Legacy* on pages 63-64 and 115. I have, however, not seen any book written by Yohannon Friedmann or Peter Jackson. I know that Irfan Habib headed the school of historical studies at Aligarh, but he has retired. There were newspaper reports that his continuance was resented by many members of the History Department who counted him, like me, among the "Marxists, pseudo-secularists, progressives etc." Like them, I am not bound to accept his views. The last-minute refusal of the Aligarh Muslim University authorities to grant permission to the Association for the Study of History and Archaeology (ASHA) to hold its second annual conference in their university stirred a controversy. The timing of the AMU authorities' refusal coincided with the removal of Prof. Habib from the post of coordinator, Centre of Advanced Study of History, AMU.

c11.s1.67

Fifteen years ago, Irfan Habib reviewed my book *Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India* (A.D. 1000-1800), brought out by Research Publications in Social Sciences, Delhi, in 1973. The similarity of spirit of criticism between the reviews of Peter Jackson and Irfan Habib is significant.

7.2. Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India

c11.s2.1

At the 39th Annual Session of the Indian History Congress held at Hyderabad in December, 1978, Professor Irfan Habib presented a forty-page cyclostyled paper entitled "Economic History of the Delhi Sultanate - An Essay in Interpretation".

c11.s2.2

One half of the paper deals with the topic, the other consists of charges against me, Professor K.A. Nizami, and Professor Lallanji Gopal. However, the main thrust of his paper is an adverse criticism of my book. I presented a rejoinder to his paper at the 1979 session of the Indian History Culture Society, New Delhi. It was published in the Proceedings of the Society. The volume was entitled *Bias in Indian Historiography* and was edited by the late Dr. Devahuti. My rejoinder to Habib's criticism of my book as published in the Proceedings volume is being reproduced here with slight changes here and there.

c11.s2.3

Professor Irfan Habib starts with: "Professor Lallanji Gopal ... has discovered that poverty in India began with the coming of the Muslims", and "...Professor K.S. Lal has made the equally startling discovery that the sultans reduced the population of the country by over a third". This is followed by a stereotyped attack on Elliot for writing about "the murders and massacres" perpetrated by the "Mohamedans" (pp. 2, 2940 of his cyclostyled paper).

c11.s2.4

Professor Habib betrays a rather unscholarly strain by encompassing in the one sentence quoted above the entire impact of 130 pages of my study (pp. 26 to 156) *Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India*. As I have said in the Preface of the book: "Any study of the population of the precensus times can be based only on estimates, and estimates by their very nature tend to be tentative" (p. vi). I claim no finality about my assessments of demographic quantification nor, I beg to submit, can Professor Habib. But he does not make any assessment at all; he merely challenges and criticises my conclusions - a very easy task! In my computation, however, sufficient historical evidence has been set forth for any demographic behaviour and on that basis I have arrived at the conclusion that the population of India in A.D. 1000 was about 200 million and in the year 1500 it was 170 million. However, Irfan Habib gives a twist to my observation on the decline of population by saying that "the sultans reduced the population of the country by over a third" (p. 2) which would mean that I have stated that the sultans deliberately killed people to reduce the population of India. I have shown in my book under reference that the population of India in the ancient period was large and prosperous, citing the authority of Greek writers, Chinese travellers and Arab geographers together with the conclusions arrived at by many modern writers (pp. 25-32). What happened to this huge population? It was decimated by Muslim invaders and invaders like Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud Ghaznavi, Muhammad Ghauri and Qutbuddin Aibak, some of whom took pride in claiming that they had killed people by lakhs (hundreds of thousands). Their chroniclers have also credited them with tremendous achievements in this regard.¹⁸

c11.s2.5

Irfan Habib is all praise for Professor Mohammad Habib who was "so conscious of the negative aspects of the medieval Islamic civilization or so sensitive to the devastation that the wars and campaigns of the sultans wrought on the inhabitants" (page 3) while he attacks Professor Nizami for writing "without that critical view of Islamic society and the destruction accompanying the invasions" (p. 5). On the other hand, when I refer to this devastation and destruction resulting in the decline of Indian population, Irfan Habib finds it unpalatable. I should have thought that a dispute was out of the question as Habib has used the same sources in computing the number of slaves captured in some campaigns of the sultans as I have for the assessment of demographic decline. This is what Irfan Habib has to say about the acquisition of slaves by the sultans: "The evidence for such enslavement is there for all to see. So economically important was it that the success of military campaigns was often judged by the number of captives (*burdas*) obtained for enslavement. Qutbuddin Aibak's campaign in Gujarat in 1195 netted him 20,000 slaves, seven years later a campaign against Kalinjar yielded 50,000. In 1253 Balban obtained countless 'horses and slaves' from an expedition in Kalinjar. In the instructions that Alauddin Khalji is said to have issued to Malik Kafur before his campaigns in the Deccan it is assumed that 'horses and slaves' would form a large part of the booty. As the Sultanate began to be consolidated, the suppression of *mawas* or rebellious villages within its limits yielded a continuously rich harvest of slaves. Balban's successful expedition in the Doab made slaves cheap in the capital. How people of the village could be made slaves for nonpayment of revenue is described in the 14th century sources; and women so enslaved are mentioned in different contexts in two others" (pp. 16-17). This statement of Irfan reflects the imperialist style, in total disregard of the feeling of the slaves taken. When I write from the view of the victims, Jackson regards it as "propaganda, and rather crude propaganda at that". But of this a little more later on.

First 75 of 149 passages. Read on

Cites (5)