6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

CHAPTER X
INTERMITTENT HINDU RETALIATION AGAINST
MUSLIM RELIGIOUS AGGRESSION
497. At the end of an earlier chapter we had expressed
our astonishment as to how the Hindu Society did not perish
Completely in spite of the various defects of class-differences,
ban on reconversion, misconceptions about virtues and the
like, and how it escaped with the loss of only some millions;
of Hindus converted. For, beyond the frontiers of India
wherever such Muslim religious aggression took place, the
natives there were totally deprived of their religions^. The
northern coast of Africa up to Spain and the Asian lands up
to the frontiers of India were totally converted to Islam.
But in India alone their attempts were not completely
successful*. At the time of Muhammad Kasim's invasion of
Sindh in the 8th century and then from the 11th century i.e..
for nearly a thousand years from the marauding expedition
of Mahmud of Ghazni and of Ghori to the complete overthrow
of the Moghul [empire by the Peshwas in the 18th century,
the Muslim invaders violently con-verted lakhs of Hindus and
tried to multiply their numbers. The circumstances in this
land—most adverse for the Hindus—also favoured them.
Why then did the Muslims fail to destroy the Hindu Society
completely ?
498. The first reason which can explain this strange
occurrence is the political defeat which the Hindus inflicted
on these Muslims. In the initial stages Bhim' and Rana
Pratap* and other Rajput princes and next the Hindu kings
of Vijayanagar^ had rendered the Muslim power out of gear
and crippled it. Lastly the Marathas dealt it deadly blows
and fluttered their victorious banner under the leadership of
the Peshwar right up to Attock. This political defeat of the