Islam in India - Conversion Controversy

Conversion Controversy

Islam in India

History

Malik Bin Deenar Kunhali Marakkar I Cheraman Juma Masjid Ali Raja Mappila Rebellion Islahi Movement in Kerala

Architecture

Mughal · Indo-Islamic Indo-Saracenic · Sharqi

Major figures

Moinuddin Chishti Sarkar Waris Pak Shah Waliullah Ahmad Raza Khan Syed Ahmed Khan Allama Iqbal Abdul Qadeer Siddiqui Sayyed Ahmad Saeed Kazmi Shah Ahmad Noorani Siddiqi Syed Faiz-ul Hassan Shah Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi Ubaidullah Sindhi Abul Kalam Azad Shabbir Ahmad Usmani Abul Ala Maududi K. M. Maulavi

Communities

Northern · Mappilas (Kerala) · Tamil Konkani · Vora Patel Memons · Kashmiris Hyderabadi · Dawoodi Bohras Khoja · Oriya · Nawayath · Bearys The Saits · Meo · Sunni Bohras Kayamkhani · Goan Muslims

Religious jurisprudence

Hanafi · Shafi`i · Ja'fari

Schools of thought

Barelwi AhleSunnat (Deobandi) Shia Ahle Hadith

Mosques in India

List of mosques in India

Culture, Heritage and Museums

Muslim culture of Hyderabad Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences

Muslim managed universities

Aligarh Muslim University Govt Jamia Millia Islamia Govt Markazu Saqafathi Sunniya Ahle Sunnat Al Jamiatul Ashrafia Ahle Sunnat Jamia Nizamia Ahle Sunnat Darul Uloom Deoband Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama'ah Aliah University Darul huda islamic university

Influential bodies

All India Ulema & Mashaikh Board Ahle Sunnat Movement in South Asia Raza Academy All-India Muslim League Jamaat-e-Islami Hind All India Shia Personal Law Board All India Muslim Personal Law Board Indian Muslim nationalism Muslim chronicles for Indian history All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen

See also: Persecution of Hindus#During Islamic rule of the Indian sub-continent

Considerable controversy exists both in scholarly and public opinion about the conversions to Islam typically represented by the following schools of thought:

1. The bulk of Muslims are descendants of migrants from the Iranian plateau or Arabs.
2. Conversions occurred for non-religious reasons of pragmatism and patronage such as social mobility among the Muslim ruling elite or for relief from taxes
3. Conversion was a result of the actions of Sunni Sufi saints and involved a genuine change of heart.
4. Conversion came from Buddhists and the en masse conversions of lower castes for social liberation and as a rejection of the oppressive Hindu caste strictures.
5. A combination, initially made under duress followed by a genuine change of heart.
6. As a socio-cultural process of diffusion and integration over an extended period of time into the sphere of the dominant Muslim civilization and global polity at large.

Embedded within this lies the concept of Islam as a foreign imposition and Hinduism being a natural condition of the natives who resisted, resulting in the failure of the project to Islamicize the Indian subcontinent and is highly embroiled within the politics of the partition and communalism in India. An estimate of the number of people killed, based on the Muslim chronicles and demographic calculations, was done by K.S. Lal in his book Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, who claimed that between 1000 CE and 1500 CE, the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million. His work has come under criticism by historians such as Simon Digby (School of Oriental and African Studies) and Irfan Habib for its agenda and lack of accurate data in pre-census times. Lal has responded to these criticisms in later works. Historians such as Will Durant contend that Islam was spread through violence. Sir Jadunath Sarkar contends that several Muslim invaders were waging a systematic jihad against Hindus in India to the effect that "Every device short of massacre in cold blood was resorted to in order to convert heathen subjects". Hindus who converted to Islam were not immune to persecution due to the Muslim Caste System in India established by Ziauddin al-Barani in the Fatawa-i Jahandari, where they were regarded as an "Ajlaf" caste and subjected to discrimination by the "Ashraf" castes.

Disputers of the "Conversion by the Sword Theory" point to the presence of the large Muslim communities found in Southern India, Sri Lanka, Western Burma, Bangladesh, Southern Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia coupled with the distinctive lack of equivalent Muslim communities around the heartland of historical Muslim Empires in the Indian Sub-Continent as refutation to the "Conversion by the Sword Theory". The legacy of the Muslim conquest of South Asia is a hotly debated issue and argued even today. Different population estimates by economics historian Angus Maddison and by Jean-Noël Biraben also indicate that India's population did not decrease between 1000 and 1500, but increased by about 35 million during that time.

Not all Muslim invaders were simply raiders. Later rulers fought on to win kingdoms and stayed to create new ruling dynasties. The practices of these new rulers and their subsequent heirs (some of whom were borne of Hindu wives) varied considerably. While some were uniformly hated, others developed a popular following. According to the memoirs of Ibn Batuta who travelled through Delhi in the 14th century, one of the previous sultans had been especially brutal and was deeply hated by Delhi's population, Batuta's memoirs also indicate that Muslims from the Arab world, Persia and Anatolia were often favored with important posts at the royal courts suggesting that locals may have played a somewhat subordinate role in the Delhi administration. The term "Turk" was commonly used to refer to their higher social status. S.A.A. Rizvi (The Wonder That Was India – II), however points to Muhammad bin Tughlaq as not only encouraging locals but promoting artisan groups such as cooks, barbers and gardeners to high administrative posts. In his reign, it is likely that conversions to Islam took place as a means of seeking greater social mobility and improved social standing.