Anyone who knows India must be well aware of the complexity of the Hindu-Muslim relationship in the subcontinent. Among many Indians, there is a continuous debate on what and who created the Hindu-Muslim issues.
Some Indians see that as a British design to split the society under the policy of "Divide and Rule' while others hold the policies of Aurangzeb responsible for such a deep social divide. In this background, there is a need to take a holistic view of the expansion of Islam in India and its impact on Indian society and culture. Political power was the key driving force for the expansion of Islam in India, which was not any different from Islamic expansion in other parts of the world. Post-partition also, the power politics extended its protective wings to Islamic orthodoxy and appeased Muslims keeping them away from socio-political integration with the rest of society. Thus, the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims in India passed through various phases during history. Despite many transitions over the centuries, the social relationship between Muslims and Hindus remained fundamentally the same. The core socio-political issues are still the same as they used to be centuries before. This everlasting conflict-oriented relationship has not only significantly impacted the socio-economic progress of the nation but also made us lose a large part of the land, demography, precious lives and property through a painful process of partition.
To understand how and when these issues started creeping into Indian society, we need to have a look at the then society when Islam reached India. Over millennia, India had made significant progress in the fields of sciences, arts, spirituality and other aspects of civilization. This progress continued uninterrupted as the wars and politics did not interfere with the growth of knowledge, skills and philosophy. However, this momentum of growth of knowledge, arts and spiritual development was adversely impacted when Islam reached the Indian subcontinent. More than seven centuries long Islamic rule in various parts of India, not only halted the progress of continuously developing knowledge-base, arts, skills and evolving philosophical outlook but also significantly and permanently damaged a large part of that. The demolition of temples, destruction of Universities and Gurukuls, restrictions on pilgrimages and festivals along with the prohibition of idol worship etc; forced the masses to seek solace through alternative spiritual means like meditation and devotional songs (Bhajans) etc. This was the precise reason behind the Bhakti Movement during the medieval period. It was a complete clash of two different belief systems and their cultures. Islamic dominance in India resulted in almost a stagnated society where marginal progress was made only in the area of land warfare. Interestingly, there was no such development done in the areas of mountain and naval warfare during Islamic rule in India. This erosion of knowledge and stagnation of society made it vulnerable to European economic and political influence and interventions. The Muslim invaders had directly attacked the collective conscience of Hindu society and that created a socio-economic environment for political realignment within India. The weakening of the Mughal empire and revolts by Rajputs and Jats, along with the rise of Maratha and Sikh powers created an opportunity for Europeans to interfere in domestic politics.
Eventually, the British East India Company managed to gain control of India as the French company lost its influence due to a lack of required support from the French government and the French Revolution in 1789. When Muslim rulers lost power to the British East India Company, that was the point where Hindus and Muslims were socio-economically and politically at the same level, although Mughal rulers had already started paying tax (Chauth) to Marathas. However, the Maratha power declined after the Third Anglo-Maratha War, even though the Maratha empire revived the socio-political clout of the elite class among Hindus, there was not much change in the status of the Hindu masses at grassroots level. In the regions under Muslim rulers and chieftains, Hindus were still doing mostly menial jobs. After Shah Alam-II gave Diwani rights to the East India Company, Muslim power became merely symbolic. Ordinary Hindus had lost their socio-political powers centuries before and Muslims had lost that recently.
Hindus living in areas under prolonged Islamic rule had accepted it as fait accompli and more than 100 war victories of Akbar made them believe that the Mughal army was invincible. By then Hindu educational institutions and centres of learning were already destroyed by Muslim rulers, while Muslims had not developed any new centres of knowledge and learning. Politically, there were some regional chieftains, both Hindus and Muslims. Effectively neither Hindus nor Muslims had any political clout to rule such a large country. However, the Hindus quickly adopted Western education and emerging technologies which helped them to make deep inroads into the East India Company administration. On the other hand, Muslims were uneasy with growing British power and yet remained stuck with their traditional dilemma of Halal vs. Haram. Finally, the 1857 rebellion formally ended the symbolic Muslim rule in India.
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