islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic Jihadeight more plundering and enslaving forays on the borders of India before Qasim, by conquering Sindh in712, brought to the India proper the prophetic tradition of kidnapping and enslaving the womenfolk of thevanquished for keeping as sex-slaves. In his three-year tenure in Sindh, he had enslaved a few hundredthousand women and children. Sultan Mahmud had carried away 500,000 captives from India in 1001–02 andlarge numbers of them on other occasions. When Qasim conquered Sindh, women in the palace setthemselves on fire in order to avoid capture and sexual violation. This trend continued even into the reign ofenlightened Akbar. In his conquest of Chittor (1568), when Akbar ordered enslavement of the women of the8,000 slain Rajput soldiers, 629 some 8,000 of them committed Jauhar to avoid dishonor and sexual slavery.Chittor witnessed three major occurrences of Jauhar when it was attacked by Alauddin Khilji (1303),Bahadur Shah of Gujarat (1535) and Akbar (1568). In fact, the practice continued into the days of 1947Partition, when many Hindu and Sikh women saved their honor by setting themselves on fire, jumping intowells and consuming poisons as already noted.Sati worsened under the Muslim ruleSati, the Hindu funeral ritual of burning the wives alive with their dead husbands, was a pre-Islamic custom inIndia. Muslim rulers took no serious initiative to ban or suppress the practice. Only Akbar, the distinguishedapostate of Islam until then, was opposed to the practice but made no effort to abolish it. According to AkbarNama, he only tried ‘to prevent any woman being forcibly burnt.’ 630The institution of sati undoubtedly worsened under the Muslim rule. According to Ibn Battutah, itwas an optional practice as he writes, ‘The burning of the wife after her husband’s death is regarded by themas commendable act, but not compulsory… she is not forced to burn herself.’ 631 However, the practice becameheightened during the Muslim invasions and rule in India; for, the continuous warfare that Muslims ignited inIndia, in which they killed Hindus (men) in large numbers as a matter of great pride, the wives of the slain,who survived enslavement, obviously embrace sati. Ibn Battutah leaves an eyewitness testimony of this:‘Once in the town of Amjari (Amjhera near Dhar) I saw three women whose husbands had been killed inbattle and who had agreed to burn themselves… I rode out with my companions to see the way in which theburning was carried out.’ 632There is another reason that might have aggravated the practice of sati under the Muslim rule.Because of the prohibition of widow marriage in Hindu tradition, these women, if still young, obviouslybecame the target of rape, kidnapping or enslavement by Muslims. It should be understood that kidnapping ofHindus by Muslims, often for selling, were common. In Malabar, never occupied by Muslims, the MoplaMuslims had a rather small presence. Still they used to kidnap Hindus, particularly the children, in theeighteenth century and sell them to European traders, especially in the Dutch port of Cochin. 633 This factor,undoubtedly, had made the widows embrace sati in larger numbers and created greater social pressure to doso.Islam promoted child-marriageMuslim’s abduction and enslavement of Hindu women for subjecting them to rape and sex-slaveryencouraged Hindu parents to marry off their daughters at younger age. This must have had worsened thetradition of child-marriage in India under the Muslim rule. Dhan Gopal Mukerji, author of Caste and Outcast,629. Nizami KA (1989) Akbar and Religion, Idarah-i-Adabiyat-i-Delhi, New Delhi, p. 107,383–84630. Elliot & Downson, Vol. VI, p. 68–69631. Gibb, p. 191-2632. Ibid, p. 192633. Clarence-Smith, p. 30191