India has been a land of freedom of thought and tolerance from the very dawn of her history. Conformism of any kind, religious or political, is alien to her genius and culture. As a result different schools of philosophy, forms of government and ways of worship have co-existed in it all through the history. Theistic and atheists, spiritualists, and materialists, Shaivas and Vaishanavas, Buddhists, and Jains have flourished here side by side with full freedom to preach their viewpoints and convert others to their line of thinking and way of worship. Even Charwak, the Indian precursor of Karl Marx, has been accepted as a Rishi in the Indian tradition.
This situation was changed by the advent of Islam in this country. Apart from the fact that it came to India on the wings of foreign invaders one of whose main motivation was spread of Islam in this country, its very character was anti-thesis of Indian thinking and attitude in regard to religion. Unlike the numerous forms of worship and systems of thought that co-existed in India at the time, it stood for a monolithic uniformity and conformism. It had no tolerance for any other form of worship. It not only aimed at converting all the Indian to Islam, on the point of the sword if necessary, but also expected such converts to reject their pre-Islamic past and ancestors. The Muslim invaders looked upon the people of this country as kafirs or heretics. They behaved towards the Hindus in a barbaric manner. They destroyed temples
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by Srinivas on Jan 19, 2008 03:38 PM Permalink
and libraries and indulged in most heinous type of vandalism. Their cruelty and harshness towards Indian kafirs knew no bounds. When Mahmud of Ghazni saw the temple of Mathura he was so much wonder struck by their splendor, magnificence and art that he exclaimed that they must have been built not by men but by angels who must have taken centuries to complete them. But his Islamic zeal impelled him to raze them to the ground.
Indians who had been accustomed to wars in which the women, the old, children, the peasants were left untouched and who had never seen temples and other places of worship being desecrated or destroyed like this felt aghast at the conduct of the new invaders. This further explains the notorious declaration of Maulana Mohammed Ali, the President of All-India Congress Committee in 1923 that for him a goonda and an adulterer Muslim was thousand times superior to Mahatma Gandhi.
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by Srinivas on Jan 19, 2008 03:41 PM Permalink
The first Muslim invasion of India came from the north-west by the Arabs who were led by Mahommad Bin Qasim. It took place in 711 A.D. and resulted in the conquest of Sind. This first Muslim invasion did not result in a permanent occupation of the country because the Caliphate of Baghdad, by whose order and command the invasion had taken place, was obliged by the middle of 9th century A.D. to withdraw its direct control from this distant province of Sind. Soon after this withdrawal, there began a series of terrible invasions by Muhammad of Ghazni (the idol breaker) in 1001 A.D. Muhammad died in 1030 A.D., but within the short span of 30 years, he invaded India 17 times. He was followed by Mahommed Ghori, who began his career as an invader in 1173. He was killed in 1206. For thirty years Muhammad of Ghazni ravaged India and for thirty years Mahommad Ghori harried the same country in the same way.
Then followed the incursions of the Moghul hordes of Chenghiz Khan. They first came in 1221. They then stayed on the border of India but did not enter it. Twenty years later, they marched on Lahore and sacked it. Of their inroads, the most terrible was under Timur in 1398. Then comes on the scene a new invader in the person of Babar who invaded India in 1526. The invasion of India did not stop with that of Babar. There occurred two more invasions. In 1738 Nadir Shah%u2019s invading host swept over the Punjab like a flooded river %u201Cfurious as the ocean%u201D. He was followed by Ahmad Shah Ab
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by Srinivas on Jan 19, 2008 03:43 PM Permalink
These Muslim invasions were not undertaken merely out of lust for loot or conquest, but also to strike a blow at the idolatry and polytheism of Hindus and establishing Islam in India.
Muhammad of Ghazni also looked upon his numerous invasions of India as the waging of a holy war. Al%u2019Utbi, the historian of Muhammad, describing his raids writes:
%u201CHe demolished idol temples and established Islam. He captured %u2026%u2026cities, destroyed the idolaters, and gratifying Muslims. He then returned home and promulgated accounts of the victories obtained for Islam%u2026%u2026..and vowed that every year he would undertake a holy war against Hind.%u201D
(source: Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches. Reprint of Pakistan or The Partition of India. Education Department. Government of Maharashtra 1990 Vol. 8. p. 53-66
