ISLAM in INDIA
The
Muslims are about 12% of India's population. But their
influence on the Indian society was much stronger. The
main reason was that there were many Muslims rulers in
different parts of India. Most of the Muslim rulers of
India were invaders from the west (see India in the past ).
Islam
was established in Saudi Arabia. But most of Islam's
spreaders in India arrived from non-Arab countries (It must be
noted that Arab traders and travellers had arrived into India even
before Islam was established in Arabia. These Arabs probably had their
own places of worship, later on transformed into mosques.). The
first spreaders of Islam in India were individuals who
saw in spreading Islam a holy precept. They began
coming to India from the 11th
century . They arrived in India from Bukhara, Turkey,
Iran, Yemen and Afghanistan. The most famous preacher of
Islam in India was Khwaja Chishti, who arrived from Iran
and his sect is called Sufism. But the accepted assumption
in India is that most of India's Muslims were converted
to Islam through the sword. Meaning the Indians were
given an option between death or adopting Islam. The
third option was getting examined in Islam religion along
with heavy taxes- Jeziya (poll tax) and Kharaj (property tax).
The
process of converting Indians to Islam began in the 8th
century, when the Arabs began invading north India and
present day Pakistan. After the Arabs other Muslims
invaded India. These invasions by Muslims in India were
not continuous and not all Muslim invaders were Islamic
fanatics. One of the Moghul emperors, Akbar, was very
liberal and he even established a new religion, Din E
Elahi, which included in it, beliefs from different
religions. In some of the monuments built by Akbar
symbols of different religions are
visible. In contrast with Akbar his great grand son,
Aurangazeb, was a fanatic Muslim and during his term the
non-Muslims suffered a lot. Many worshipping sites of
different religions were destroyed and transformed into
mosques.
Most of
the Indian Muslims converted to Islam were belonged to
the lower classes of the Indian society. Besides these
Muslims there are also Muslims who belonged to the ruling
families of the different Indian kingdoms. Some of these
rulers were Hindus who actually belonged to the warrior
castes of the Hindu society and adopted Islam. Others are
descendants of Muslim rulers who invaded India. The
different Muslim rulers of India also brought to their
kingdoms Muslim mercenaries, businessmen and slaves from
different parts of the world like Russia; Afghanistan;
Turkey; Arab countries and Africa. These people remained
in India, married local Indians and converted them to
Islam. Because of the different origins as stated and
because of other reasons the Muslims of India refer to
themselves not only as Muslims but also with other
titles.
In
general the Muslims of India like the Muslim world is
divided into two main sects, Sunni and Shia. And just
like in the whole Muslim world there is tension between
these two sects. Each sect has many different schools.
There are also Muslims who claim to be the descendants
from the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and the men in this
community add the title Syed before their names. Other
claim to be the descendants from the first Muslims and
add the title Sheik. Along with these Muslim world
divisions, the Indian Muslims also have other divisions.
Different
communities who adopted Islam in different ways have
different community names. In west India the Bohra and
Khoja are Muslim communities who adopted Islam influenced
by different Muslim preachers. The Khojas also split into different communities. The leader of the Khoja (Nizari)
community is Aga Khan. The Nawait are descendants of Arab
and Persian immigrants. In south India in the state of
Kerala, the Mophilla community is descendants from Arab
merchants. A well known Indian Muslim community is
Pathan. The Pathan are Muslims who arrived from
Afghanistan. They normally have their surname as Khan.
The Pathan have an image of being brave, honest and
righteous. Many Indians who adopted Islam adopted the
surname Khan and they claim that they are Pathans, which
is not always true. The original Pathans claim that they
originate from the Tribes of Israel.
In the
beginning of the 20th
century, some reformist Muslims organizations evolved in
India who wanted to adjust Islamic philosophy to the
modern world. These organizations wanted to cancel
polygamy and were in favor of women education.
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