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

Islamic Imperialism in IndiaA tangible Muslim sovereignty over most parts of India was established only in the reign EmperorAkbar (r. 1556–1605), leaving some southern-most part (Malabar, Goa etc.) aside. But Akbar undertook apolicy of secularization; he even tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to supersede Islam with his own syncreticreligion. Islam undoubtedly experienced a decline in his reign. Akbar’s policy was slowly reversed in thereign of his son Jahangir (1605–27) and grandson Shah Jahan (1627–58) gradually reviving Islamization.Interrupted for a century, Islamization returned to full-force in the reign of Aurangzeb (1658–1707). It isalready noted that Aurangzeb’s reign was instrumental in converting bulk of the Muslim population of NorthIndia. Soon after Aurangzeb’s death, the British mercenaries started consolidating power, eventually endingforced conversion and creeping Islamization in India. Even Aurangzeb’s reign witnessed ceaseless revolts allover India; the Muslim authority was falling apart at the time of his death. The half-a-century of somewhateffective Islamization over most parts of India under Aurangzeb has contributed substantially to the shapingof current demography of Muslim population, particularly in Northern India. Hence, it will be easy tounderstand how continued Islamic rule, without the British interruption, would have impacted the Muslimversus non-Muslim demographics in the subcontinent.The change of religious demographics in the Muslim-dominated Bangladesh and Pakistan since 1947will give one a clear idea of how an uninterrupted Muslim rule would have changed the overall religiousdemographics in the subcontinent. In East Pakistan (Bangladesh), Hindus, 25–30 percent of the populationafter the Partition, are now about 10 percent. In Pakistan, Hindus constituted about 10 percent of thepopulation after the Partition; their number dwindled to 1.6 percent in 1998. A large number of them wereeither forcibly converted or driven out in the new wave of violence in 1950 (and thereafter) over Pakistan’sfailure in Kashmir. Today, it is frequently reported that Hindu (also Christian) girls are routinely kidnappedby Muslims in Pakistan, convert them to Islam, and force them to marry Muslims. According to PakistanMinorities Rights groups, some 600 Hindus, Sikhs and Christians are forcibly converted to Islam everyyear. 649 This and a host of other social problems and psychological pressure on the Hindus force them eitherto convert to Islam or relocate to India. This has effected the change in religious demographics in Pakistanover the past six decades as noted above.Similar circumstances cause the decline of Hindu population in Bangladesh. After the 2001 generalelection in Bangladesh, the winning pro-Islam Bangladesh Nationalist Party, allied with the Islamist Jamaate-IslamiParty, unleashed a wave of persecution—including humiliation, torture, rape and even murder—ofHindus for supporting the defeated somewhat-secular Awamy League Party. One investigative report in theleading Daily Star newspaper in Dhaka documented nearly 1,000 rapes of Hindu women in the district ofBhola alone. The victims ‘included eight-year-old Rita Rani and seventy-year-old Paru Bala.’ 650 This pogromforced an estimated 500,000 Hindus to flee Bangladesh and take refuge in India in the aftermath of the 2001election. 651MUSLIM RULE AND POVERTYFrom historical data, it becomes evident that the predominant contribution of Islam to India was the largescalemassacre of India’s non-Muslims, the enslavement of their women and children in great numbers, thewholesale destruction of religious places, the eradication of non-Muslim educational institutions causingserious decline in science and learning, and the reduction of non-Muslims to abject poverty through extreme649. Pakistani Christians asked to choose between ‘conversion’ or ‘death’, Christian Today, Australia, 11 Sept 2008;http://au.christiantoday.com/article/pakistani/4282.htm650. Harrowing tales of depravity, Daily Star (Dhaka), 10 November 2001651. Lundström J (2006) Rape as Genocide under International Criminal Law, The Case of Bangladesh, GlobalHuman Rights Defense, Lund University, p. 29-30196