تا HISTORY OF INDIA. CHAPTER I. ISLAM BEFORE THE CONQUEST OF INDIA. A.D. 570 TO 997. tween Mussul- effect on Indian THE history of Mussulman India is the record of CHAPTER I. a collision between two races, the Turks and the Collision beHindús. These races were the representatives of Hindus: its two hostile creeds, Islam and Brahmanism. In the Mussulmans. tenth and eleventh centuries of the Christian era, the Turks invaded India from the north-west by the same route as that taken by Alexander. They overcame the Hindús; they conquered the Punjab and greater part of Hindustan. Later on they conquered the remainder of Hindustan, and pushed southwards into the Dekhan and Peninsula.1 Seven or eight centuries passed away. The British appeared in the eastern seas; they took root in India; they grew into political power. But still the Mussulmans continued to exercise dominion in India. They introduced a polity of their own; they converted millions of Hindús to their own faith. But they never stamped out the Hindú element; 1 The division of India proper into the three zones of Hindustan, the Dekhan, and the Peninsula, has already been laid down in a previous chapter. See ante, vol. iii. CHAPTER I. they never drove out Brahmanism, nor broke up the caste system. At times they even yielded to the charm of Hinduism; to this day many Mussulmans in India are governed by caste ideas. At times the current of Mussulman invasion was overpowered by a counter-current of Hindú reaction; and the study of those reactions throws a new light upon political and religious developments in India. Some Mussulman rulers have drifted so near to Hinduism that they have all but lost their religion; others have grown so intolerant of Hinduism that they have all but lost their empire. Effect on Significance of the collision. But the effects of the collision were not confined to Mussulmans. Millions of Hindús became converts. Millions more were worked upon by Islam, who never left the pale of Brahmanism. From an early period in the history of the collision Hindú reformers were teaching that the God of the Mussulman and the God of the Hindú are one and the same. The Mussulman element is still noiselessly at work beneath the surface of Hindú life. growing lassitude about religion, the growing scepticism amongst educated natives, the loosening of the bonds of caste, all prove that a reaction is inevitable. What form it will take is a problem which has yet to be solved. The The progress of the Mussulmans in India thus reveals phenomena of the deepest interest. The Indian continent is still overladen with pagodas, and swarming with idols; but mosques meet the eyes in every city, as standing protests against idolatry. The antagonism between the two has lasted for centuries. The pagodas are close and sepulchral, like palaces of the dead. The idols are enthroned on high like temporal Rajas. They are CHAPTER I. feasted with sacrifices and offerings, gratified with music and dances, and propitiated by songs and praises. The mosque is a public hall open to all believers. There are no images, no altars, no musicians, no dancing-women, and few ornamentations. The daily worship is hostile to Brahmanism. It expresses a simple formula but profound faith: "There is but one God and Muhammad is his prophet." 2 The collision between Islam and Brahmanism is Political results. thus apparent to all beholders. The historian does not deal with the religious controversy; that is left to theologians. His simple task is to tell the story of the collision in India, to trace out its political results, and to unfold the lessons which they convey. The subject is not a mere speculative inquiry. It is of pressing importance at this moment; it is of vast importance for all time. The antagonism between Mussulman and Hindú, added to the con 2 The Mussulman mosque, whether large or small, is generally a plain square building. At each of the four quarters is a tower or minaret, from which the muezzins chant the daily call to prayers. In front is a square court, with a fountain in which the faithful perform the preliminary ablutions which are ordered by the Koran. The mosque, properly so called, is a large hall paved with marble or polished stone. There are no benches of any kind whatever; nothing but mats or carpets on which the worshippers kneel and make their prostrations. The walls are generally white, covered with texts of the Koran in black letters. The pulpit of the Imám or priest is set up with its face towards Mecca. As the believer takes off his shoes and enters the sacred precincts, he leaves the world behind him, and breathes an atmosphere of devotion and contemplation. The Mullah or Imam conducts the public prayers. He reads a portion of the Koran in Arabic, and usually subjoins a short explanation in the vulgar tongue. The whole congregation are in an attitude of worship. The names of Allah and Muhammad are on every lip; to all appearance the prayers of all present are fixed upon God and his prophet. The shrines or tombs built in honour of holy men, or of distinguished individuals, are of a different construction. The mosque is plain, because it is a house of prayer to God; but the shrines are often ornamented out of respect for the memory of the departed. CHAPTER I. viction that the British government was even-handed towards all princes and all religions, strengthened and upheld the British rule for nearly a century. The dallyings between the two religions, added to the dread that the British government was growing innovating and arbitrary, led to the mutiny of Fiftyseven. These political phenomena are not peculiar to British India; it will be seen hereafter that they were manifest in Mussulman India. Those who read Indian history as a record of wars, conquests, and personal adventure, will see none of these things. Those who read it as a record of the developments that grew out of the collision between Mussulmans and Hindús, will perceive that similar forces have been at work in India ever since the beginning of Mussulman conquest. They were active in the days of Mahmúd of Ghazní. They are active to this day; easily distinguished by all who are familiar with the people. Failure of The history of Mussulman India reveals other phenomena of even deeper interest. It explains the reason why Hindús have become Mussulmans and will not become Christians. In the sixteenth century there was a Protestant movement in Mussulman India as there was in Christian Europe. Mussulman thinkers were growing weary of the dogmatic arrogance of the priesthood. They inquired after other religions until they grew sceptical of their own. Christian Fathers were invited to Agra by the Moghul emperor; they preached before Akber and his court; they set up a chapel and altar within the precincts of the imperial palace. Many became believers, although few were baptized. Akber and his famous minister, Abul Fazl, were among the believers. Two princes of the imperial CHAPTER I. blood were baptized with the utmost pomp at Agra. The movement developed a conviction that there was but one God; that all men were striving after a knowledge of God, but by different ways; that the God of the Mussulman, the Hindú, and the Christian was one and the same. The movement languished into the same indifference of religion, the same laxity of morals, which are prevailing in India now. It ended in a religious reaction, which was inevitable then, and is inevitable now. history prior to the conquest of The Mussulman conquest of India begins with Mussulman the exploits of Mahmúd of Ghazní, 997–1030 A.D.; India. but the history of Mussulmans in general begins with Muhammad the prophet, 570-632 A.D. There is thus an interval of four centuries between Muhammad and Mahmúd; and it was during these four centuries that the Mussulmans established their empire in Asia, and were schooled for the conquest of India. It will be seen hereafter that the men who invaded India took their religion from Muhammad, their enthusiasm from the Arab conquest, and their culture from the Persian revival.3 the prophet of A.D. The career of Muhammad is a well-known story; Muhammad, but the main points of his religion are better Arabia, 570-632 gathered from his life and its surroundings than from a critical examination of his teachings. At the advent of Muhammad, Arabia was shut in from the outer world. Its shores were rocky and inhospitable; it had no great rivers to open up the interior. There were towns, villages, and culturable 3 The Persian revival in the ninth and tenth centuries of the Christian era will be brought under review towards the close of the present chapter. It was a revolt, not against the Mussulman apostle or religion, but against the Arab yoke. |