History Of Muslims In India: Hindu-Muslim Relations

With this article, I would like to tell you about three things: (1) the History of Islam and Muslims in India; then I will try to elaborate, specifically telling (2) What went wrong; and finally, I will conclude by telling (3) The future of relations amongst Muslims and Hindus.


Although it is routine to give references, in the end, I shall start with the list of three reference books in the beginning. All these details are not mine, I’ve only summarized them from these books.

1. "Miyan Ne Mahadev No Mel Padshe J Padshe” (Gujarati - “મિયાં ને મહાદેવ નો મેળ પડશે જ પડશે”) by Kanti Shah.
Published by Yaagna Prakasan Samiti, Hujaratpaga, Vadodara.
A Gujarati book. Title meaning “Muslims and Hindus will certainly unite…”.
Pages 80, Cost Rs. 30.

2. “Indian Muslims – Where They Have Gone Wrong” (English) by Rafiq Zakaria.
Published by Popular Prakasan and Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan.
Pages 620, Cost Rs 495.

3. “Rashtra Aur Musalman” (Hindi - “राष्ट्र और मुसलमान”) by Nasira Sharma.
Published by Kitabghar Prakasan.
Pages 263, Cost Rs. 250.

Muslim Statistics:
  • 25% of the world’s total population are Muslims.
  • India has more than 15 Crore (150 Million) Muslims, more than those in Pakistan.
  • 50+ countries in the world have Muslim populations - Indonesia has the highest number, seconded by none but India.
  • Of the total Muslim population, only 10% are rich; 10% are middle class and the rest 80% are poor.
  • The sorry fact remains is most of them are poor, illiterate, backward, and deprived.
Islam:
  • Only 1400 years back, Mohammad Paigambar established this religion. So the first Muslims are ones known as “Sunni” - believing in Mohammad Paigambar.
  • After 300 years, Ali developed a revised form of Islam known as “Siya”. It has a touch of Aryan philosophy and is put forward in Iran.
  • The religious book is Quran having 114 chapters with 6000 aayats. It was prepared by Mohammad Paigambar in 26 years.
  • Allah sent 1,24,000 Rasuls with messages to guide them.
  • Quran does not tell of marriage with more than one woman, nor allows divorce, and is not against family planning at all. This holy book does say about Burakha (Burqa). Muslims of Iraq follow all this.
  • Afghan, Tartar, Pathans, and Mughals attacked India and did robbery for personal gain. It has nothing to do with Islam - the religion.
Muslim Rulers in India:
  • Year 996 to 1526: Afghan dynasty
  • 996 to 1186: Gajini dynasty with Mahmud Gajini and 11 others
  • 1186 to 1206: Ghori Dynasty of Shabuddin alias Mohmad Ghori
  • 1206 to 1288: Gulam Dynasty having Kutubuddin and other 9 to rule
  • 1288 to 1321: Khilji Dynasty
  • 1321 to 1412: Tughlak Dynasty having Mohammad Taghlak and other 7 kings
  • 1414 to 1450: Saiyad Dynasty
  • 1450 to 1526: Lodi Dynasty
  • 1526 to 1857: Mughal Emperors (They were Babar, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan, Aurangzeb Bahadur Shah-I, and seven others, last on the list being Bahadur Shah Jafar.)
I know you were aware of most of the details I enlisted so far. Let me give the names of certain great Urdu shaayars (poets):
  1. Amir Khushroo
  2. Mirza Ghalib
  3. Akbar Allahabadi and
  4. Mohammad Iqbal (who wrote “Mazhab nahin sikhata, aapas me bair rakhana…”- meaning ‘Religion does not teach us to have animosity amongst each other’.)
Last in this list of lists, I’d like to add the names of some of the Muslim freedom fighters, because then immediately, I am going to ask “WHAT WENT WRONG”?
  1. Badaruddin Taiyabji
  2. Rahemtulla Sayani
  3. Abbas Taiyabaji
  4. Majrul Haq
  5. Dr Ansari
  6. Hakim Ajmal Khan
  7. Khan Abdul Gafar Khan
  8. Rafiqq Ahmad Kidwai
  9. Allah Bax
  10. Dr Zakir Hussein
So, what went wrong in India as regards Hindu-Muslim relations and why?

All Muslims are not Dawood or Osama-bin-Laden.
All Muslims are not terrorists, extremists, or Jihadis.
All Muslims are not rigid in relation to manners.
It is only a very small percentage of them that creates a bad impression and a bad image.

There are the following facts that damaged their look.
  1. Mughal Empires: Certain Muslim rulers broke Hindu temples and destroyed the idols of God.
  2. British Rule: In 1857, the first freedom struggle, English rulers observed great Hindu-Muslim unity and were shocked to see the brotherhood, they planned a “Divide and Rule” policy to rule easily. This led to the partition of India.
  3. Mohammad Ali Jinnah: A person of Gujarati origin with no faith or any following of Islam, wrongfully stimulated the religious Muslims against Hindus leading to the partition of India into India-Pakistan. Pakistan was later divided into two, Pakistan—Bangladesh. So, the same Muslims of one India were separated into three countries having all the pains of partition and separation from brothers. The sorry fact is those going to their own brothers also hated telling Mujahir.
  4. Politicians: Thanks to party politics with corrupted and selfish politicians, the fire did not settle between the two communities; more importantly, they did not allow any signal of unity and brotherhood to flourish.
  5. Jihadis and Terrorists: Illiterate and poor Muslims were trained to fight in the name of religious Jihad, which ultimately made them terrorists – killing their brothers.
Future of Hindu-Muslim Relationship:

Having introduced the Muslims, and told them about what went wrong, I will conclude the article on this positive note:

India is the best home as was in the past for anybody and everybody, be it Muslim or Hindu. (In Hindi, Mohammad Iqbal said “Saare jahan se achchha Hindustan hamara…”.)
All Indians love each other in general, they do not want any quarrel on whatsoever ground be it religion or anything.
Muslims are going to stay in India. Then what is prudent?
To love them and live peacefully with them. (Otherwise?)

In fact, we have to learn from the Union of Europe and plan to make Asia one. In my opinion, the real terrorist is America ready to kill the whole world for selfish motives. We need to fight that, and not one another.
If you ask, what if we do not unite and continue fighting? Then we have to be ready for India-Pakistan war scenario in every village, town or city where two communities are staying separate, but not far away to kill each-other round the clock.
What do you say? I want you to tell me.


Post a Comment

28 Comments

  1. I had no hard feelings against the Muslims.
    But this article made me learn a lot.
    Thank you :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ritvik,

      Thanks for your views.

      We are all brethren and if can not love someone, we must avoid hating them.

      Do visit my other articles on Christianity, Jainism and Hinduism here: http://blog.drbharatdesai.com/search/label/religion

      Delete
  2. વસુધૈવ કુટુમ્બકમ. આ ભારતની સનાતન કાલથી ચાલતી વાત છે. મુસ્લીમો ભારત દેશમાં વસ્યા તેમના પૂર્વજો ઘણાંના હિન્દુઓ છે. ભારતમાં લોકશાહીને કારણે આપણે એટલી ચર્ચા કરી શકીએ છીએ. પાકિસ્તાન મુસ્લિમ રાષ્ટ્ર હોવા છતાં સિયા-સુન્ની વચ્ચે મરણ-તોલ જંગ ચાલી રહ્યો છે. ભારતમાંથી વસેલા મુસ્લિમોને પાકિસ્તાનમાં ન્યાય આજે પણ નથી મળતો. લઘુમતી હિન્દુઓની હાલત પાકિસ્તાનમાં બદતર છે. આવુંજ બાંગ્લાદેશમાં છે. સુબ્રહમનીઅમ સ્વામીને ત્યાં મુસ્લિમ પુત્રવધુ છે તેવું સાંભળ્યું છે અને તેઓ આજે આખા દેશમાં હિન્દુવાદની ચળવળ ચલાવે છે જે ઉપર લખ્યા મુજબ ની વાત મુજબ છે. Australiaનો દાખલો, U.K.નો દાખલો વિચારી જોજો.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Resp. Jyotindrabhai,

      I agree to what you said, the fact remains India is different and better than Pakistan for Muslims and others residing here.

      Delete
  3. i liked this artical, no more words to say.
    "koi nu saru ni thay to kai ni pan koi nu kharab ni karo"- my dad often uses this sentence.
    loved it bharat uncle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Uday,

      I am happy you read my article and commented.
      Yes, Do good.

      Regards,
      Dr. Bharat Desai

      Delete
  4. hello mr. desai,
    please go through these links and let me know your perceptions about them...i do agree that peace and brother hood goes a long way and we can only prosper as a country when all are united.
    But the amount of negation, beliefs and the animalism through which islam exists in this world cannot be neglected and must not be ignored.

    faithfreedon.com and faithfreedom.org
    Regards,
    Saffron united.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with most of the points in the article, good one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This blog give me the useful information about the Muslims in India. India is great country in which different kinds of people live like Hindu, Muslim, Sikh etc.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for giving me the information about the Muslims In India. India is great country in which different kind of people live Harmonically.
    Temples in India

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. good one. i love india

    ReplyDelete
  10. The article is written with a good intention.. I respect you thoughts.But there are some informations which I feel is not totally correct or I can say if you it would be better if would write those with more details.. Like "Only 1400 years back, Mohammad Paigambar established this religion" --Islam is a monotheistic abrahamic religion.You have written "Allah sent 1,24,000 Rasuls to with messages to guide" . Among those 1,24,000 Muhammad was last.So obviously he is not the founder of the religion, he was just the last messenger.For a Muslim Jesus, Moses, Abhraham, John, David, Joseph all are messengers and as respectable as Muhammad.. It took 22 years,5 months and 14 days to complete the revelation of Quran not 26 year.Quran was not prepared by Muhammad, he was totally illiterate person with no knowledge of either reading or writing. He just recited what he has learned during his meditation in the Hera cave.And Quran allows more than one marriage , divorce burqa(not full face cover), but for certain conditions. This is a debatable topic , can’t be explained in this small comment. But what I can say Quran has clear mention of those topics..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rounak,
      Thanks for reading my article and correcting the same .
      I may be wrong at places, because I have limited exposure to the subject. Dr Bharat Desai.

      Delete
  11. Sir Bharat Desai,I read your article.I feel good by reading this.I just want to say yoy that you told in some place about Jihad.Actually muslim's who did this in the name of religion ,it's totally wrong.Jihad actually means to keep smile in tough moment,keep patient,protest the wrong thing,respect your old parents and others.Nowhere it is written in the "Holy Quran"or other islamic book about violencen in the name of jihad.Actually peace and love each other is the heart of Islam.And another important thing of Islam is obligatory but n ot forcefully..

    ReplyDelete
  12. Poor blog, it seems that the fact are taken from some junior level school history book, even the name Gaznavi is written as gajini, Maybe you are too much inspired by the Amir Khan Film Ghajni. and you too have that syndrome of forgetting the facts quickly. what is written in your blog is childish and i request you to focus on bigger things and study well before writing sensitive topics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  13. IT`S GOOD BUT THE FACT IS THAT ALL MUSLIMS ARE NOT TERRIORISTS BUT MOST OF THE TERRIORISTS ARE MUSLIMS (99%). MUSLIM RELIGION IS WORST RELIGION IN THE WORLD AND THE RELIGION IS ANTI HUMAN AND MUSLIM COUNTRIES MENTALITY IS EXACTLY THE SAME OF INDIVIDUAL MUSLIM MENTALITY. THERE IS NO VALUE FOR DEMOCRACY IN MUSLIMS OR MUSLIM COUNTRIES.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sir Bharat Desai ji, I read your article. I feel " ALL MUSLIMS ARE NOT TERRIORISTS BUT ALL TERRIORISTS ARE MUSLIMS (99%). Muslimism is not good for Democracy and humanity. Democracy is not successful in Muslim countries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr. Mukund Zalki
      Ignorance leads one nowhere. In our India democracy exists but it is dominated by communal or financial interests, be it a hindu or a muslim brother. We will have to come out of our conservativeness to give our coming generations a better India. Terrorism is never appreciated by a hindu as well as a muslim. A terrorist has no religion because he doesn't have human values. His misguidance may be lead by somebody sitting in America, Pakistan or even in India, who knows. Islam is not a religion. It is a belief in the oneness of Allah, the almighty and Mohammad (SAW) his last messenger to bring the message of humanity to this world. Please don't be so rigid to make opinion about anything before knowing the facts.

      Delete
  15. I want to ask some heart touching questions/ answer yourselves by your heart:-

    1)Jab koi dusre mohalle ka insan humare mohalle ke kisi ladke ko marta pitata hai tab hum sab ke dil me ek aag si lag jati hai aur hum un logon ko mar bhagate hai... lekin agale hi din se hum aapas me ladane zagadne lagate hai... aisa kyu????

    1) Jabtak british india me the tabtak humsabhine ekjut hokar unhe maar bhagaya!!! lekin unke jane ke baad humne aapas me hi ladna shuru kiya kyu???
    2) Sunsan jungle raat ke samay jab kisi ki gadi kharab ho jati hai aur vo dusari gadi walo se madad mangata to madad karnewala uska mazhab puchata hai kya???

    3) Jab kisi patient ko blood ki zaroorat hoti hai to hum blood bank me hindu ya muslim ka blood hai yeh check karte hai kya???

    4) Hum apane dost kya usaka mazhab puchkar banate hai kya???

    5) insaan jab musibat me pad jaye tab vo sab fijul ki baten bhool jata hai??? jab sab thik hota hai tabhi usako fijul ki bate karane me maza aata hai!!!

    6) well known dialog by Nanapatekar in krantiveer, " Bhagwan aur allah ne jab koi fark hume banana me nahi rakha(All body parts are same, color of blood same) to hum kya unse bhi apne aap ko upar samazte hai kya???

    " mazhab nahi sikhata aapas me bair rakhana, hindi hai hum- hum vatan hai hindostan humara"

    NOTE:- All wholy messengers of GOD, ALLAH, BHAGWAN says to do good things good treatment with each other, respect other's religions.... are we following to these wholy god's messengers???

    ReplyDelete
  16. I want to ask some heart touching questions/ answer yourselves by your heart:-

    1)Jab koi dusre mohalle ka insan humare mohalle ke kisi ladke ko marta pitata hai tab hum sab ke dil me ek aag si lag jati hai aur hum un logon ko mar bhagate hai... lekin agale hi din se hum aapas me ladane zagadne lagate hai... aisa kyu????

    1) Jabtak british india me the tabtak humsabhine ekjut hokar unhe maar bhagaya!!! lekin unke jane ke baad humne aapas me hi ladna shuru kiya kyu???
    2) Sunsan jungle raat ke samay jab kisi ki gadi kharab ho jati hai aur vo dusari gadi walo se madad mangata to madad karnewala uska mazhab puchata hai kya???

    3) Jab kisi patient ko blood ki zaroorat hoti hai to hum blood bank me hindu ya muslim ka blood hai yeh check karte hai kya???

    4) Hum apane dost kya usaka mazhab puchkar banate hai kya???

    5) insaan jab musibat me pad jaye tab vo sab fijul ki baten bhool jata hai??? jab sab thik hota hai tabhi usako fijul ki bate karane me maza aata hai!!!

    6) well known dialog by Nanapatekar in krantiveer, " Bhagwan aur allah ne jab koi fark hume banana me nahi rakha(All body parts are same, color of blood same) to hum kya unse bhi apne aap ko upar samazte hai kya???

    " mazhab nahi sikhata aapas me bair rakhana, hindi hai hum- hum vatan hai hindostan humara"

    NOTE:- All wholy messengers of GOD, ALLAH, BHAGWAN says to do good things good treatment with each other, respect other's religions.... are we following to these wholy god's messengers???

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dear Bharatbhai,
    I read yr views on Islam and muslims, I believe the core answer is, it is the politicians who are responsible for unrest between muslims and others, it is the bad luck of India that till date we have not got a single govermennnt who will think, act and implement to unite us. I have lived with muslims and still living with them, till date i have not come across a single muslim who is not good. They have invaded India a lots of time agreed,, but what now, past is past no body can repair past, everybody has to forget past, and that is the only solution for our better tomorrow. While fighting for our freedom, they also have laid their life for free India. Mohamned Ali Zinna has written in his autobiography that Pakistan was my biggest mistake. This one line says every thing. I believe that if there is any body in this planet which has to be eradicated than it is the Americans and the white skin. They are the real culprits. infact they are the biggest enemies of humans. Let me tell you, if they are afraid, they are afraid of India, because they kknow we are the most powerfull people on this planet. we are the people who are far more advanced in all respect than rest of the world. we have vedic science, cosmic knowledge, our rishi munis were the first to invent airoplanes, our rishi munis were and are who can see cosmos, our rishi munis travelled into time and space, which these americans are wasting trillions of dollars trying to conquor the un conqorable - THAT IS TIME AND SPACE. so the need of the time is that we hindus, muslims and all others who are living in this country should unite and fight with them As i am jain i would not say fight, but my meaning that if wevstay united, than there is no body who can even think of dividing us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Hiteshbhai.

      I agree with all the details you have enlisted. After knowing about your caste, I am tempted to ask reading my article on Jainism in the same blog: http://blog.drbharatdesai.com/2012/10/jainism-simplified.html

      Thanking once again,

      Regards,
      Bharat Desai
      Bilimora

      Delete
  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment!