Tuesday 25 April 2017

How Hindus converted to Islam ?


Great thing of current times is we can look at subjective issues in an objective manner through a tool called science and spread the word through internet.
“Genetic research says Indian Muslims are much more closely related to other Indians than they are to Arab populations in the Middle East and Central Asia, according to a series of genetic studies of Muslims from around the country. This growing body of research establishes that the spread of Islam in India was primarily a cultural fusion rather than a case of genetic inflow from “the Muslim world.” Indian Muslims are just as “Indian” as the Khatris, Kurmis, Brahmins and Thakurs amidst whom they live…….” - See more at: Muslim Genetic Studies Show India is in Our DNA, Islamic Society, Saif Shahin, New Age Islam, New Age Islam
Looking at the maternal and paternal genetic evidence, it is safe to assume that Indian Muslims are very much sons of the soil or as much as any other social group in India. It will not be surprising to find some evidence of foreign lineage among Muslims but in fact we find them at very low levels which suggest that a majority of Muslims are Indians who became Muslim or there was enough marital interaction with other Indian groups over the years.
If Indians were forced to convert then we would have seen Indian Muslims genetically closer to lower castes that are in probability are less likely to resist or more to gain socially by accepting an egalitarian faith. Contrary to this, we find evidence that brings Muslims closer to Brahmins and Rajputs for both maternal and paternal genetic markers.In case of paternal genetic markers we find all Indians are similar. When they differ Muslims in half the cases are unique and in other half they are either in the same camp as higher castes or lower castes of Hindus." 
Now the important question is how did they convert to Islam ? what were the forces that were responsible for their conversion? It certainly was not the knowledge of Islam that convinced hindu converts into the lap of Islam - as even today less than 1% of muslims might have read Koran in chronological order and in their own language - for Koran is all jumbled up book - which cannot be easily understood. So leave alone non-muslims first reading Koran or understanding it and then converting to Islam.
There are four possible theories of hindus converting to Islam :
1. "religion of the sword" theory – that Indian Muslims were forcibly converted
2. "political patronage" theory - the view that Indians of the medieval period converted in order to receive some nonreligious favors from the ruling class—relief from taxes, promotion in the bureaucracy, and so forth
3. "religion of social liberation" theory - substance of the theory is that the Hindu caste system is a rigidly discriminatory form of social organization and that the lowest and most degraded castes, recognizing in Islam an ideology of social equality, converted to it en masse in order to escape Brahmanical oppression.
4. “Accretion and Reform” theory –
‘accretion’ - aspect of conversion sees a people either adding new deities or superhuman agencies to their existing cosmological stock, or identifying new deities or agencies with existing entities in their cosmology.
‘ reform’ - dimension of the process, on the other hand, Islamic supernatural agencies are not only distinguished from the preexisting cosmological structure, but the latter is firmly repudiated. This is accompanied with greater attention given to the all-encompassing power of one Islamic agency in particular, the Supreme god Allah, who assumes the function and powers of all other agencies in the former pantheon. In a history of religions framework, this corresponds to what Max Weber has called the process of religious rationalization, that is, the absorption of many lesser beings by one universal, supreme god.
The above possibilities are summarized by Richard Eton – a secular American professor (who is often quoted by muslims and secularists to justify destruction of temples). He negates the first three options and feels fourth one is the main reason for conversion.
I disagree with him. I feel, it was the combination of the all four above mentioned reasons that hindus converted to islam.
Islam mainly spread by sword throughout Arabia, Central Asia and North Africa as is testified by their own records (Read ‘Islamic conquest of Syria’) . The conquered subjects were given three options : convert to Islam or live as dhimmis and pay Jazia or face death. It cannot be any different in India – as same is mentioned in the court documents of the muslim rulers – to which Eaton says that these documents should not be taken too literally.
Muslims converts did receive state patronage, were exempted from taxes, were favoured in laws of the land, etc.
Social discrimination amongst hindu culture and theoretical egalitarianism of Islam would have also tempted lower caste hindus to convert as almost 85% of muslims in India ae called ‘pasmanda’ muslims ie lower caste muslims.
But whatever the cause – knowledge or study of Islam was NOT the reason for conversion ie people did not know what allah stood for and who mohammed was.
Conversion to Islam is a one way street – you can enter it but cannot leave it – as there is apostasy law where an apostate is supposed to be killed for leaving Islam - so Islam got stuck and the next generation was brainwashed from childhood that made them see their ancestral religion as an enemy and inferior to Islam.
In due course, muslims have been reverting to the original hindu custom of deity worship (http://www.dawn.com/…/how-shrines-helped-indigenise-islam-a…), caste discrimination / identification (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36220329) and custom / rituals of marriages.
Now there is an opportunity – muslims can know what Islam is – there is internet – no mediatory is required – can now understand Koran, hadith and know what allah stands for and who mohammed was (the luxury that their forefathers did not have) - they can escape from this evil cult which was imposed on their ancestors.