Evaluating Muslim Rule in India

Introduction

Early Moslem conquerors

The Muslims entered India from the 8th century. Initially, their influence was confined to North India, but later their rule encompassed most of the subcontinent, except the far eastern tribal parts. The British entered India as traders, but in a short span of time, they became the rulers.
The Muslims were defeated and they sulked. The British had the distinction of ruling the largest empire in History. In addition, their writ ran in the tribal areas and they created buffer states in Tibet and Afghanistan.

Essential Ingredients of Moslem Rule

Muslim rulers

The Moslem rule, however, was quite different from the British rule. One aspect of Moslem rule was that destruction of temples. This led to widespread carnage because Muslims regarded the Hindus as infidels and therefore slaughtered and converted millions of Hindus. The famous writer Will Durant(1885-1981) argued in his 1935 book "The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage" states
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"The Mohammedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. The Islamic historians and scholars have recorded with great glee and pride the slaughters of Hindus, forced conversions, abduction of Hindu women and children to slave markets and the destruction of temples carried out by the warriors of Islam during 800 AD to 1700 AD. Millions of Hindus were converted to Islam by sword during this period."

Thus some of the holiest shrines of the Hindus like Ayodhya, Brindavan, and Kashi among others were razed to the ground and mosques built on their ruins. This was because the Moslem never considered the benefits of their subjects, so intent was they in spreading Islam. They also clamped archaic laws on their subjects like Jizzia as enshrined in the Koran.

It is estimated that the Hindu population decreased by 80 million during the Muslim rule.

Moslem Rule, a Dark Age

accepting Jizziya

However there were some enlightened rulers among the Moslem, but their rule was only marked by a degree of tyranny being less. Thus Akbar was less of a tyrant than Aurangzeb, but he also in a number of instances ground the Hindus to dust under his feet.
The Moslem rule was thus a period of a dark age in the subcontinent and it was a godsend that the British arrived. One shudders to think what would have happened In case the British rule had not come to India. This thought that is both frightening and scary as the Moslem rule would have further crushed the Hindus. One cannot forget the slaughter of 100,000 Hindus by Timur-e-Lang during his occupation of Delhi in 1398.

Two aspects of Moslem rule forcible conversion to Islam and the destruction of Hindu temples and building of mosques on them cannot be wished away. The imposition of Jizzia and the failure to spread education and a universal law applicable to every citizen will dam Moslem rule. Some Moslem did use Hindus in high positions, but only to further their cause and not for any other purpose.

Last Word

Selection for Moslem Harem

The British rule, on the other hand, had its limitations, but the concept of a secular nation and universal spread education and applicability of laws to all and sundry will mark this age as perhaps one of the best in Indian history. As Nirad Choudhry wrote "To the memory of the British Empire in India, which conferred subjecthood upon us, but withheld citizenship; to which yet every one of us threw out the challenge: ``Civis Britannicus sum' because all that was good and living within us was made, shaped, and quickened by the same British rule"
But the Moslem rule was a dark age and it must be seen for what it was without wishing it away.