Chapter 4
Growth under the Mughals
By the time Akbar the Great (1556-1605) embarked upon the policy of reuniting these kingdom under his imperial banner, Muslim population was rising all over the country. Still, despite all the exertion of the Muslims at proselytization, Hindu resistance to it was also admirably effective. Sind and Punjab no doubt had a sizeable Muslim population. But at the beginning of the sixteenth century, northern Sind (north of the River Indus) had, according to Portuguese accounts, a local Hindu as its ruler or governor.
About the percentage of Muslims in the total population no precise information can be obtained from the contemporary records. Babur’s statement that most of the inhabitants were Hindus, conveys only a general impression. Two facts are, however, certain. First, it is widely recognised that the majority of Muslims were converts from Hinduism. Secondly, the largest number of conversions took place under the Turks and Afghans who ruled between C. 1300 and 1556.
There is one contemporary source which gives precise information about the proportion of Muslims in the total population, but it is not reliable. The Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi,
Jahangir is supposed to have repeated this ratio at another place. ‘Of the whole population of Hindustan it is notorious that five parts in six are composed of Hindus, the adorers of images, and the whole concerns of trade and manufacture are entirely under the management of these classes. Were it, therefore, ever so much my desire to convert them to the true faith, it would be impossible, otherwise than through excision of millions of men but the massacre of a whole people can never be any business of mine.’
These statements, attributed to Jahangir, about the proportion of Muslim population could not have been easily brushed aside but for the fact that they appear to be obviously wrong. From what we know of Akbar and Jahangir, such sentiments and statements cannot be attributed to them. Whosoever be the writer of the Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi, he cannot delude us because, as will be seen later, Muslims were not one-sixth of the Hindu population even as late as the year 1800. By 1600 Muslim numbers may not have risen beyond 15 million. In that year the total population of India has been estimated at 140 millions. Muslims would have formed about one-ninth to one-tenth of India’s total population.
During the first quarter of the seventeenth century, Jahangir, by and large, continued to follow Akbar’s policy of sulehkul. Perhaps a few cases of forcible conversions might have been brought to his notice so as to prompt him to issue, in the sixth year of his reign, a royal order prohibiting the provincial governors from converting any one forcibly to Islam.
In one respect alone Jahangir deviated from the policy of his father: he did not permit people to embrace Hinduism even of their own free will. He severely punished Kaukab, Sharif and Abdul Latif who, under the influence of a Sanyasi, showed inclination for Hinduism.
Shahjahan was even otherwise interested in making converts. Professor Sri Ram Sharma has collected facts and figures of Hindus converted to Islam from the works of Qazvini, Lahori, Salih, Mohsin Fani, Khafi Khan, etc. during Shajahan’s reign and has thus saved me the labour of doing the same. The following is the summary of what he says. ‘Early in his reign Shahjahan had appointed a Superintendent of converts to Islam, thus setting up a department for the special purpose of making converts. The one common practice was to make terms with the criminals The Hindus of the Punjab, Bhimbar, Bhadauri and Sirhind were all offered remission of their sentences provided they accepted the ‘true faith’. When the war with the Portuguese started, of the 400 prisoners taken a few became Muslims. The rest were kept in prison with orders that whenever they expressed willingness to embrace Islam, they were to be converted, liberated and given daily allowances.
Some other practices discontinued by Akbar were revived by Shahjahan. Forcible conversion during war became common in his reign. ‘When Shuja was appointed governor of Kabul (he carried on) a ruthless war in the Hindu territory beyond the Indus Sixteen sons and dependants of Hathi were converted by force. The sword of Islam further yielded a crop of Muslim converts The rebellion of Jujhar Singh yielded a rich crop of Muslim converts, mostly minors. His young son Durga and his grandson Durjan Sal were both converted to become Imam Quli and Ali Quli
Akbar had prohibited enslavement and sale of women and children of peasants who had defaulted in payment of revenue. He knew, as Abul Fazl says, that many evil hearted and vicious men either because of ill-founded suspicion or sheer greed, used to proceed to villages and mahals and sack them.
Under Shahjahan, therefore, active steps were taken to swell the number of Muslims. He is praised by all contemporary Persian chroniclers as a great Muslim king who was anxious to restore the prestige of Islam. But proselytization to Islam as such could not be extensive under Shahjahan. He was not a royal missionary like Sultan Firoz Tughlaq, Sikandar Butshikan, Jalaluddin of Bengal, Mahmud Beghara of Gujarat or the Emperor Aurangzeb. In spite of certain deviations, the catholic spirit of Akbar’s government had not been lost under Jahangir and Shahjahan.
Indeed, it appears that from about the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century, conversions to Islam were not done on a very large scale. Bernier, who was in India towards the closing years of Shahjahan’s and early years of Aurangzeb’s reign found India a country of vast majority of Hindus. He even goes on to say: ‘The great Mogol is a foreigner in Hindustan, he finds himself in a hostile country, or nearly so; a country containing hundreds of Gentiles to one Mogol, or even to one Mahometan.’
But with the coming into power of Aurangzeb a spate of conversions followed. ‘The proselytizing activity of Aurangzeb seems to have started about the year 1666 (the year of Shahjahan’s death in prison), and remained unabated till the end of his life.’
In April 1667, four revenue collectors (qanungos), who had been dismissed for various faults, were reinstated on their accepting the Muhammadan faith.
Tempting offers were given to high and low to embrace Islam. Even Rajas and Zamindars could not resist such temptation. A brother of the Zamindar of Dev Garh converted to Muhammadanism and became Islam Yar. He was given the Zamindari, superseding the existing chief. Some others like Zorawar Singh and Shyam Singh of the same estate followed Suit.
The poor converted more easily and in larger numbers. Of the temptations given for conversion were an audience with the Emperor, a robe of Honour, and a daily allowance which generally ranged from four annas to seven rupees
Imposition of the Jiziyah brought a better crop of converts. We have seen that under Firoz Tughlaq the strict imposition of Jiziyah had compelled many people to become Musalmans. Akbar had abolished it, but under Aurangzeb this ‘economic pressure’ was revived. Manucci notes that the Jiziyah was instituted ‘to force the Hindus to become Muhammedans, to obtain relief from the insults of the collectors ’
The enslavement of women and children too was a common phenomenon now. The practice was revived under Shahjahan; it had not probably been abolished completely earlier. An interesting piece of information supplied by Manucd should suffice here. He gives a long list of women dancers, singers and slave-girls like Hira Bai, Sundar Bai, Nain-jot Bai, Chanchal Bai, Apsara Bai, Khushhal Bai, Kesar Bai, Gulal, Champa, Chameli, Saloni, Madhumati, Koil, Menhdi, Moti, Kishmish, Pista etc., etc., and adds: ‘All the above names are Hindu, and ordinarily these ’ are Hindus by race, who had been carried off in infancy from various villages or the houses of different rebel Hindu princes. In spite of their Hindu names, they are, however, Mohamedans’.
Thus Aurangzeb’s proselytizing zeal resulted in good number of conversions. He seems to have employed all the means at his disposal to raise Muslim population. In the dispute about estates between two brothers or relatives, the Raja or Zamindar who embraced Islam was given the property. Other kinds of pressures or temptations brought other Rajas into the fold of Islam.
Although the actual addition to Muslim numbers because of Aurangzeb’s all-embracing campaign for proselytization is difficult to compute, yet his pronouncements, his enthusiasm, his collection of day-to-day information about conversions, his personally instructing the neo-converts in the tenets of Islamic faith, and his ultimate satisfaction at his success together with the information contained in contemporary writings, do show clearly that addition to Muslim population during his reign was substantial.
After Aurangzeb’s death the spate of conversions abated. The Royal Princes got busy in wars of succession, the chief nobles in capturing power or carving out independent kingdoms. From the description of wars during the early part of the eighteenth century, aimed at succession or independence, it appears that they resulted in Muslim losses mainly, because ‘the descendants of Aurangzeb could not persuade one (Rajput) to strike a blow in defence of his throne.’
Invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali added to the loss in Muslim numbers. Disgruntled Muslim nobles and religious leaders used to implore foreign invaders to attack India. Babur was invited and so were Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali. Such Indian Muslims had little consideration for the overall interests of the countrymen as a whole. These invaders killed more Hindus than Muslims; but of course Muslims were also killed in large numbers. The effects of Nadir’s march through the Punjab, his massacre at Delhi which cost thousands of Muslim lives,
However, during this period a good number of Afghans had migrated to India, compensating to some extent the loss of Muslim population. In the region comprising the modern districts of Bijnor, Moradabad, Badaon, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Rohilla Afghans had started settling in the seventeenth century.
But for the compensating immigration, the resources of the Mughal empire in the eighteenth century rapidly declined and economic temptations could not be offered to obtain converts. Jiziyah was officially abolished in 1719-20.
Moreover, the Hindus - Jats, Marathas, Sikhs, and Rajputs - had gathered strength. By 1719 when the Faujdari of Surat was held by Raja Jai Singh and the Subedaris of Ahmedabad and Ajmer, including Jodhpur, by Ajit Singh, ‘the two Rajas held all the country from thirty kos of Delhi to the shores of the sea at Surat.’
In these circumstances, the spate of conversions to Islam slackened. Some stray efforts at conversion no doubt continued to be made even during the eighteenth century, but without much success. For instance when in 1716 Banda Bahadur with his 740 followers was given by Farrukh Siyar the choice between Islam and death, they all died to a man rather than become Musalman.
To conclude: while the total population of India from 1000 to 1800 had registered rise and fall by turns, Muslim population had shown only a constant rise. In 1000 Muslim numbers in India were microscopic. In 1200 they were perhaps about three to four hundred thousand. By 1400 their number had risen probably to 3.2 million and they formed about 1.85 percent of the total population. In 1600 they were probably 15 million. And from the 1:9 to 1:10 Muslim-Hindu ratio in 1600 the proportion of Muslims to Hindus had gone up to about 1:7 by the year 1800. When Bishop Heber wrote his journal (1826), his inquiries pointed to a Muslim-Hindu ratio of 1:6.
Footnotes:
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Lach, I, p.420, referring to the authority of Pires. ↩
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Pires, op. cit., cited in Lach, I, p.390. ↩
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Lach, op. cit., I, pp.368-69. ↩
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Lach, I, p.444. ↩
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Smith, Akbar the Great Mogul, p.188. ↩
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Peruschi in Lach, I, p.462. ↩
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Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation (Glasgow, 1903-05), V, p.477. ↩
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Lach, I, p.481. ↩
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Barbosa, op. cit., I, pp. 132-33. ↩
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‘Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir, written by himself, and translated from a Persian Manuscript’ by Major David Price (London, 1829), p.15. Calcutta Edition (Bangabasi Press, 1906), pp.21-22.
This work, according to Sir Henry Elliot, does not comprise the real Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri or Memoirs of Jahangir. He also points out a number of exaggerations in which the Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi indulges (E and D, VI, pp. 256-264), and adds that ‘some parts at least must be ranked in the same class’ as fiction. (E and D, VI, p.257).
Dr. Beni Prasad, writing on the Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi says: ‘The name of the author is unknown. On several points it is fuller than the genuine memoirs. But the work as a whole is a fabrication.’ History of Jahangir, pp. 387-88. ↩ -
Tarikh-i-Salim Shahi (Calcutta Edition), pp. 21-22. ↩
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Ibid., pp. 41-41. ↩
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For this conclusion see K.S.Lal, Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, p.143. ↩
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Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, or Memoirs of Jahangir, I, p105. ↩
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Ibid., I, pp.150-151. ↩
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Aziz Ahmad, Studies in Islamic Culture , p.83. ↩
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Sri Ram Sharma, The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, pp.61-62. ↩
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Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, I, p.171. ↩
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Ibid., II, p.181. ↩
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Loc. cit.
May be it was because of this that Akbar discouraged all kinds of intercommunal marriages. Badaoni, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, II, p.413. Also Ain-i-Akbari, Blochmann, I, p.220. ↩ -
Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, p.318 and Ram Swarup, Understanding Islam through Hadis, p.59. ↩
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Qazvini, Badshah Nama, pp. 444-45; Lahori, Badshah Nama, 2 vols. (Calcutta 1876); Khafi Khan, Muntakhab-ul-Lubab. I, p.510. ↩
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Sharma, op. cit., pp.88-89 and Sharma, Conversion and Re-conversion to Hinduism (D.A.V. College Historical series No.2 n.d.) also Qazvini, p.562. ↩
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Also Lahori, op. cit., I, p.534. ↩
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Sharma, op. cit., pp.90-91. ↩
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Lahori, I, ii, p.133. ↩
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Ibid., p.139. Khafi Khan, cp. cit., I, pp.522-23. ↩
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Sharma, op. cit., p.91. ↩
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Akbar Nama, trs. H. Beveridge, 3 vols (Calcutta, 1948), II, p.451. ↩
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Manucci, Storia do Mogor, 4 vols., II, p.451. ↩
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Manrique, Travels of Frey Sebastian Manrique, 2 vols, II, p.272. Also see Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire. ↩
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Qazvini, op. cit., p.405. ↩
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Bernier, op. cit., p.306. ↩
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Ibid., p.209. ↩
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Beni Prasad, ‘India in 1605 A.C.’ Modern Review (Calcutta, January 1921), pp.15-22, p.17n. ↩
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Early in the seventeenth century, Muhammad Sharif Hanafi, the author of Majalis-us-Salatin (composed C.E.1628) and a much travelled man, carried the same impression about the Southern region of the country. Writing about Carnatic he says: ‘All the people are idolaters. There is not a single Musalman. Occasionally a Musalman may visit the country deputed by Nizam Shah, Adil Shah or Kutb Shah, but the natives are all infidels.’ E. and D., VII, p.139. ↩
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S.R. Sharma, op. cit., p.165. Professor Sharma has again come to my rescue by collecting facts and figures of conversions from the original sources of Aurangzeb’s reign including News Letters (Akhbarat) and royal correspondence. Sharma pp.165-174. Since it is a matter of facts and figures and not of ‘interpretation’, or opinion, there need be no hesitation in accepting them. ↩
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Sharma op. cit., p.165. ↩
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K.R. Qanungo, Historical Essays, p.ii. ↩
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J.N. Sarkar, Aurangzeb. ↩
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Sharma, op. cit., pp.169-173. ↩
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Ibid., p.166. ↩
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Loc. cit. ↩
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Manucci, II, p. 436. ↩
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Sharma, p.170. ↩
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Alamgir Nama, p.567 cited in Sharma p.173. ↩
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Mustaad Khan, Maasir-i-Alamgiri Eng. trs. Jadunath Sarkar (Calcutta, 1947), p.73. ↩
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Sharma, op. cit., pp.170-172. Rizqullah mentions the case of a thief who converted to Islam and was given charge of a city. Waqiat-i-Mushtaqi, fols. 13b-14a. ↩
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News Letter of even date, cited in Sharma, p.166. ↩
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Manucci, op. cit., II, 234. ↩
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Ibid., III, pp.288-89, also IV, p.117. Also most Persian chroniclers. ↩
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Ibid., II, p.415. ↩
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Ibid., II, pp.336,337-338. Also Lal, The Mughal Harem, pp. 29-32; 165-67. For instances of enslavement by Aurangzeb see Khafi Khan E and D. VII, pp.300, 371. ↩
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See K.S. Lal, The Mughal Harem (New Delhi, 1988), pp.167-169. ↩
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Khafi Khan, op. cit., II, p.228. ↩
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Manucci, op. cit., II, p.436. ↩
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Sharma, p.168. ↩
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Manucci, op. cit., II, p.404. ↩
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Ibid., IV, p.398. ↩
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C.H.I., IV, p.358. ↩
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Eg. Khafi Khan, op. cit., pp.396, 452, 496, 542. ↩
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C.H.I., IV, p.361 and n.2. ↩
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Shaikh Abdur Rashid, Najibuddaullah, His Life and Times, (Cosmopolitan Publishers, Aligarh, 1952), Introduction, pp.xlix-li. Also see Irvine, Indian Antiquary, Vol. 36, 1907, pp.46ff. ↩
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W. Francklin. The History of the Reign of Shah-Aulum, pp.200-201. ↩
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Jadunath Sarkar, Fall of the Mughal Empire, op. cit., I, pp.27-28. ↩
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Abdur Rashid, Najibuddaulah, op. cit., Intro. xxxii, Iiii. ↩
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Ibid., liii-iv. ↩
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Ibid., lxxvi. ↩
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Khafi Khan, p.479. ↩
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Ibid., pp.462, 516, 524, also Kanz-ul-Mahfuz, E and D, VIII, p.39. ↩
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Khafi Khan, op. cit., p325. ↩
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Ibid., p.485. ↩
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‘Maharaja Ajit Singh took back the Maharani, his daughter who had been married to Farrukh Siyar, with all her Jewels he made her throw off her Musalman dress, dismissed her Muhammadan attendants and sent her to her native country In the reign of no former Emperor had any Raja been so presumptuous as to take his daughter after she had been married to a king and admitted to the honour of Islam.’ Khafi Khan, op. cit., p.483.
Probably this is not an isolated case of reconversion to Hinduism. ↩ -
Khafi Khan, op. cit., p.419. ↩
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E and D, VIII, p.58. ↩
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C.H.I., IV, op. cit., p.335.
Some people would have been converted during the invasions of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali. Muhammad Aslam in his Farhat-un-Nazirin says that during the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) about 90, 000 persons, ‘male and female, were taken prisoner and obtained eternal happiness by embracing the Muhammadan faith’, op. cit., p.171 But not only is he not supported by any other contemporary historians, the very incidents of the war militate against such large-scale conversions. ↩ -
Arnold, The Preaching of Islam, pp.261 ff cited in Titus, Islam in India and Pakistan, p.33. ↩
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Heber’s Narrative of a Journey. Also see J.M. Datta, Modern Review, January, 1918, pp.33-34. ↩
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Lal, Growth of Muslim Population op. cit., p.15. ↩
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S. Lanepoole, Medieval India, p.1. ↩
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See Census Report for 1901 and Kingsley Davis The Population of India and Pakistan, p.179, Table 77. ↩
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Robert Orme’s estimates are low both for the Muslim population as well as for the total population of India. His assessment of the Hindu-Muslim proportion also does not seem to be correct. What he writes is this: ‘From these origins time has formed in India a nation of near ten million of Mohamdans whom the Europeans call Moor, to them under the authority of the Great Mogul, the greatest part of Hindustan is now subject; but although the reigning nation, they are outnumbered by the Indians ten to one.’ Robert Orme, A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan, 3 vols. 4th ed. (London, 1803), I, p.24. ↩