Eaton thus seeks to dismiss the notion that various Muslim rulers in India wantonly engaged in destroying Hindu temples, allegedly driven by a theology of iconoclasm. Such a picture, he insists, cannot, sustained by evidence from original sources from the early thirteenth century onwards. Had instances of temple desecration been driven by a theology of iconoclasm, he argues, this would have committed Muslims in India to destroying all temples everywhere, including ordinary village temples, as opposed to the highly selective operation that seems actually to have taken place. In contrast, Eaton meticulous research leads him to believe that the original data associate instances of temple desecration with the annexation of newly conquered territories held by enemy kings whose domains lay on the path of moving military frontiers. Temple desecration also occurred when Hindu patrons of prominent temples committed acts of treason or disloyalty to the Indo-Muslim states they served. Otherwise, he notes, temples lying within Indo-Muslim sovereign domains, viewed normally as protected state property, were left unmolested.
This slim volume is a path-breaking book, a passionate protest against the horrendous uses to which the notion of the theology of iconoclasm has been put by contemporary Hindutva ideologues to justify murder in the name of avenging historical wrongs. It urgently deserves to be translated into various Indian languages and made readily available at a more affordable price.
