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

Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully?upper caste ones. It should be considered, however, that the lower caste Hindus, through persuasivepreaching, converted to Buddhism and, to a good extent, to Christianity at high frequencies. If the samehappened in conversion to Islam as well, the proportion of the lower caste people were obviously much higherin the past—probably as high as 80 percent of the Hindus in medieval India—when Islamic conversions tookplace. That means that the frequency of conversion to Islam was not that higher amongst lower caste Hindusthan those of the upper caste. The somewhat higher frequency can be accounted for by the fact that Islamicimposition of grinding taxes affected the poorer lower caste Hindus more severely. In truth, when the Islamicinvaders and rulers engaged in ceaseless campaigns over the centuries, in which they enslaved in tens tohundreds of thousands at the point of the sword and converted them to Islam, they had little time or concern todiscriminate who belong to the lower caste and who didn’t.Historically, Muslims took little interest in finding out which section of the people were convertingto Islam. It is some Europeans, who, based on some isolated incidents, first created the hype that the lowercaste Hindus converted to Islam to escape oppression of the Hindu society. Thereafter, Muslim scholars,stung by the charges of forced conversion, have jumped on the opportunity to emphasize the peacefulvoluntary conversion of low caste Hindus to Islam in large numbers in India. Khondkar Fazl-i Rabbi, diwan tothe Nawab of Murshidabad, claimed in the 1890s that lower class Hindus such as weavers and washermen hadaccepted Islam in Bengal. He, however, emphasized that such converts formed a small minority of theMuslim populace. 222It is important to note that, throughout the entire period of Muslim rule, the lower caste Hindus andSikhs joined the resistance and rebellion against Muslim rulers in large numbers; in many cases, it was thelower caste Hindus, who led the revolts. A few examples will be given here. Khusrau Khan, an enslaved andcastrated Hindu convert to Islam, got his patron Sultan Kutbuddin Mubarak Khilji killed in 1320 and wipedout the sultan’s leading Muslim officers. Khusrau Khan had allied with 20,000 Bewari Hindus (also calledParwari by some authors) from Gujarat. 223 Their aim was to wipe out Islam from the Delhi seat of power.According to Ziauddin Barani, ‘In the course of four or five days, preparations were made for idol warship inthe palace’ and ‘Copies of the Holy book (Quran) were used as seats, and idols were set up in the pulpits ofthe mosques.’ 224 Medieval chroniclers Ziauddin Barani, Amir Khusrau and Ibn Battutah recognize theBewaris as low caste Hindus having ‘bravery and readiness to lay down their lives for their masters.’ 225The lower caste Hindus took up arms in large numbers even against liberal and more equitable Akbarthe Great. It is noted already that, in Akbar’s attack of Chittor in 1568, some 40,000 peasants—the lower casteHindus—fought on the side of 8,000 Rajputs. They had put up such an obstinate resistance that enragedAkbar, abandoning his general measure of dealing with captives, ordered the massacre of the 30,000surrendered peasants. Similarly, Shivaji (d. 1680), who had founded the Maratha Kingdom, defyingAurangzeb, was a low caste Hindu (see Chapter VI, Section: Tolerance & chivalry of Hindu rulers duringMuslim period). The Marathas, who were low caste Hindu peasants, kept the resistance up until 1761; AhmadShah Abdali came from Afghanistan to decimate them in the Third Battle of Panipat. The low caste Hindus ofall kinds all over India—Bewaris, Marathas, Jats, Khokhars, Gonds, Bhils, Satnamis, Reddis and others—keptfighting the Muslim invaders from the beginning to the last days of Islamic domination. The Khokharpeasants (or Gukkurs)—who, according to Ferishtah, ‘were a race of wild barbarians, without either religionor morality’ 226 —offered the strongest of resistance to Sultan Muhammad Ghauri, such as in Multan. Multanwas conquered by Qasim in 715. Five centuries after Islam was brought to Multan, the Khokhar peasants, notimpressed by its message, took up arms against Sultan Ghauri. The sultan returned to crush the Khokhars, in222. Rabbi KF (1895) The Origins of the Musalmans of Bengal, Calcutta, p. 113223. Farishtah, Vol. I, p. 224224. Elliot & Dawson, Vol. III, p. 224225. Lal KS (1995) Growth of Scheduled Tribes and Castes in Medieval India, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, p. 73226. Ferishtah, Vol. I, p. 10484