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Friday, March 29, 2024

Forced Religious Conversion and Persecution in India, Part 1 Early Invaders

In India, Forced Religious Conversion and Persecution are not newly incepted at all; this felony is persistently dismantling the Indian civilization for the past 1000 years. The Invasion by Mughals, Ghor’s, Ghaznavid, Mamluk’s, Caliphates, Arabs, Khilji’s, Tughlaq’s, Lodi’s, British, Portuguese, and several other Invading forces resulted in mass forced conversions, persecution and dismantling of religious places, monuments, idols and educational Structure of Hindus and other religious faiths.

American philosopher Will Durant calls the Muslim Conquest of India “The Bloodiest Story in History.” Many countries widely criticize this practice all over the globe, but India still needs an essential law over this issue to stop this persisting social evil for Centuries.

This research piece enlists gut-wrenching tales of atrocities over Bharat and Bhartiyata by Ghor, Ghaznavid, Arabs under Muhammad Bin Qasim, Tipu Sultan, Bakhtiyar Khalji, Shah Miri dynasty and Abdali:

Conversion and Persecution under Arabs:

Muhammad Bin-Qasim marched towards the Sindh province and attacked several Hindu and Buddhist Kingdoms in the early 8th century. According to the Chach Nama by Bakr Kufi, Qasim undertook massive conversions, persecutions of locals of Sindh, and plundered several religious monuments and temples.

According to historian Andre Wink, the Hindus were given two options either accept Islam and join Arab Army or face hands sealed and pay the heavy Jizya tax. Some historical sources also affirm forceful beef feeding to Hindus by Arab forces. But, the Arab Invasion was repulsed by Sons of this motherland like Bappa Rawal, Nagabhatta I, Mihir Bhoj, and several other Braveheart’s stood to safeguard our motherland from fanatics.

Conversion and Persecution under Ghaznavids:

Mahmud of Ghazni marched to the Indian Subcontinent, resulting in his campaign as the epitome of mass execution and atrocities upon non-Islamic faiths. During his campaign in the Indian Subcontinent, he plundered India around 17 times by converting roughly 2 Million Hindus (Calling them Infidels) into Islam and took several women as sex slaves to serve him and his Generals. He destroyed several temples in India, from Kashmir to Gujarat; the prominent ones include Somnath Temple

While sacking the Somnath Temple, many local kings and priests urged him not to plunder idols; Ghazni said I don’t want to be recognized as But-Farosha (idol maker) instead of that like to be honoured as But-Shikan (idol breaker) and then killed all the kings and priests of that area

During his Mathura campaign, he dismantled many idols, plundered the city’s wealth and burnt down the city and people. The Chauhans of Ajmer under Govindaraja III fought and defeated Ghaznavid invaders Mahmud and protected several enslaved people. After being defeated by Sangramaraja of Kashmir and Chauhans of Ajmer, frightened Mahmud didn’t dare to return.  

Invasion of Muhammad Ghori and persecution of Hindus:

Muhammad Ghori of Ghazna attacked India several times to loot, plunder culture and heritage and forcefully convert people into Islam. At first, Ghori decided to plunder the territory of Gujarat, but he was unaware of the son/daughter of the motherland called Chalukya King Mularaja II and Naiki Devi. Ghori faced colossal defeat at the hands of Mularaja and Naiki Devi at the Battle of Kasahrada; as a consequence of the same, Ghori retreated from the battlefield cowardly. Ghori, during his Invasion of weak Kingdoms, attacked, plundered, looted, and murdered several local inhabitants. Tensed by Ghori’s regular Invasion, local kings urged Prithviraj Chauhan to save their honour and life of inhabitants.

After realizing the grave danger to his religion and people, Prithviraj decided to fight and made Ghori fail around 17 times. Due to deceit by Jayachandra in the Second Battle of Tarain, Ghurid Army defeated Chauhans. After defeating Prithviraj in the Second Battle of Tarain, Ghori plundered 27 temples in Delhi’s Qila Rai Pithora of Prithviraj and further converted and persecuted several Hindu, Buddhist and Jain priests and common inhabitants upon his way back to Ghazna. Muhammad Ghori took Prithviraj to Ghazna, where he tortured, blinded and threw him in front of lions upon Prithviraj’s denial to accept Islam and Muhammad Ghori as Sultan. Prithviraj was a true follower of Dharma; thus, he didn’t give up and, in the end, killed Ghori and committed suicide to avert cruelties from Ghurid forces.

Dismantling of Indian Educational Structure and persecution by Bakhtiyar Khalji:

In the state of insecurity and jealousy that why these infidels (Kafir’s) have more Knowledge than the Islamic Hakim’s, Muhammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khalji destroyed many universities and libraries, including NalandaVikramasila, Odantapuri universities and Buddist monasteries. This brutal attack caused many teachers, scholars and monks to be burnt alive, for the only fault was that they possessed Knowledge. Around 90 lakh books were burnt in the triple-story building of Nalanda.

According to Minhaj Siraj in his book Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, he wrote that it took three weeks to burn all the books. This is considered a big blow to the “unstoppable flow of knowledge” a great treasure of Knowledge is destroyed, which even contains original manuscripts. The people from China, Turkey, Persia, Japan and other nations appear to seek Knowledge from these Universities and libraries. In those times, we can even term these universities having equal prominence in the world as what modern universities like Oxford, Harvard, and Manchester has in this era. 

Persecution and Conversion under Shah Miri Dynasty of Kashmir 

Sikandar Shah Mir and Zain-ul-Abidin invaded India and resulted in the mass assault of Hindus and other non-Islamic religions by slaughtering and converting them into Islam. Sikandar Shah Mir was famous for spreading the “Love Jihad” concept as he married many Hindu princesses of other local Kashmiri Hindu Kings and later destroyed Hinduism, slowly converting them into Islam.

Sikandar Shah Mir was also given the title of Sikandar Butshikan here; Butshikan means idol breaker after he destroyed several prominent Hindu and Buddhist temples, including Martand Sun Temple. He further converted many Hindu and Buddhist Priests of Ladakh. 

Forced Conversion and Persecution under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan:

During the Kerala Invasion of Hyder Ali of Mysore, he destroyed thousands of Hindu temples and ordered the mass killing of local Hindus. Hyder Ali captured nearly around 20,000 Hindus and forcibly converted them into Islam; the battalion of Hyder Ali named “Chela Battalion” comprised these converted 20,000 Hindus

Tipu Sultan of Mysore was also involved in this Jihad of Converting Hindus into Islam. He sorts every day reports from his Ministers on how many Hindus were converted into Islam daily. During his campaign in Coorg (Karnataka)Tipu Sultan and his army beheaded 20,000 Brahmins for not accepting Islam even on the holistic day of Diwali, which is the biggest reason why Brahmin people of that area don’t celebrate Diwali. During his Invasion of Malabar, around 4 Lakh Hindus were forcefully converted into Islam. The Captivity of Kodavas, Captivity of Nairs of Malabar and Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics, are enumerated as a taint on humanity and came as the epitome of barbarity under Tipu’s rule.

Also Read: Tipu Sultan: Atrocities and Unknown facts of Sultan of Mysore

Abdali’s Invasion and persecution history: 

Ahmed Shah Abdali invaded India around eight times. Abdali’s main objective was to plunder the wealth and sacred places of Indians like the Golden Temple (Amritsar). During the Battle of Kup, around 20,000 Sikhs were massacred, including elderly people, females and children; this incident is also known as the Second Sikh holocaust (Wadda Ghalughara).

During the fourth Invasion of India, Abdali plundered the Mughal cities of Lahore and Delhi and captured several women as sex slaves, including the daughter of Muhammad Shah and Alamgir II. Later during his Invasion of Mathura and Vrindavan with of view to plundering its immense wealth and persecuting Non-Islamic devotees, Naga Sadhus of the province decisively defeated the Abdali force and their motive, as a consequence, frightened by Naga Sadhu’s audacity Abdali retreated.

After the third battle of Panipat, Abdali slaughtered around 40,000 Maratha soldiers. The forces of Abdali captured thousands of Maratha women and were taking them to Afghanistan as sex slaves to Afghans, but Jassa Singh Ahluwalia rescued these Marathi women.

Therefore, the history of conversion, persecution and demolition of Indian heritage, culture and Educational Structure by bigot Islamic Invaders makes us aware of the sacrifice made by our ancestors and further inspires us to make this nation powerful (Educationally, militarily and economically) so that no one could even dare to harm it.

Check out Part 2 also:

Also Read: Forced Conversion and Persecution in India, Part 2 Delhi Sultanate

Also Read: Forced Conversion and persecution in India, Part 3 Dark Side of Mughals

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