M K Gandhi And The Gandhian Legacy

[Bharatvarsh]

By the way does the following prove that there was not much persecution of Hindus in Bengal as you claim:

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Chaitanya-mañgala, a biography of the great Vaishnava saint of medieval India, presents the plight of Hindus in Navadvipa on the eve of the saint’s birth in 1484 AD. The author, Jayananda, writes: “The king seizes the Brahmanas, pollutes their caste and even takes their lives. If a conch-shell is heard to blow in any house, its owner is made to forfeit his wealth, caste and even life. The king plunders the houses of those who wear sacred threads on the shoulder and put scared marks on the forehead, and then binds them. He breaks the temples and uproots tulsi plants… The bathing in Ganga is prohibited and hundreds of scared asvattha and jack trees have been cut down.”

Vijaya Gupta wrote a poem in praise of Husain Shah of Bengal (1493-1519 AD). The two qazi brothers, Hasan and Husain, are typical Islamic characters in this poem. They had issued orders that any one who had a tulsi leaf on his head was to be brought to them bound hand and foot. He was then beaten up. The peons employed by the qazis tore away the sacred threads of the Brahmans and spat saliva in their mouths. One day a mullah drew the attention of these qazis to some Hindu boys who were worshipping Goddess Manasa and singing hymns to her. The qazis went wild, and shouted: “What! the harãmzãdah Hindus make so bold as to perform Hindu rituals in our village! The culprit boys should be seized and made outcastes by being forced to eat Muslim food.” The mother of these qazis was a Hindu lady who had been forcibly married to their father. She tried to stop them. But they demolished the house of those Hindu boys, smashed the sacred pots, and threw away the pûjã materials. The boys had to run away to save their lives.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->About the conversions in Bengal three statements, one each from Wolseley Haig, Dr. Wise and Duarte Barbosa, should suffice to assess the situation. Haig writes that “it is evident, from the numerical superiority in Eastern Bengal of the Muslims… that at some period an immense wave of proselytization must have swept over the country and it is most probable that the period was the period of Jalaluddin Muhammad (converted son of Hindu Raja Ganesh) during whose reign of seventeen years (1414-1431)… hosts of Hindus are said to have been forcibly converted to Islam”.81 With regard to these conversions, Dr. Wise writes that “the only condition he offered were the Koran or death… many Hindus fled to Kamrup and the jungles of Assam, but it is nevertheless probable that more Muhammadans were added to Islam during these seventeen years (1414-31) than in the next three hundred years”.82 And Barbosa writes that “It is obviously an advantage in the sixteenth century Bengal to be a Moor, in as much as the Hindus daily become Moors to gain the favour of their rulers”.83 The militant Mashaikh also found in Bengal a soil fertile for conversion, and worked hard to raise Muslim numbers.84

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The practice of converting men into eunuchs was very common in Bengal. “In Hindustan,” writes Jahangir, “especially in the province of Sylhet, which is a dependency of Bengal, it was the custom for the people of those parts to make eunuchs of some of their sons and give them to the governor in place of revenue (mal-wajibi)… This custom by degrees has been adopted in other provinces and every year some children are thus ruined and cut off from procreation. This practice has become common.”43 Bengal in the time of Jahangir was a very large province. Large tracts of Northern Hills, the Sarkar of Orissa and large parts of Bihar were in4dluded in it.44 If the practice of making eunuchs had become common outside Bengal also, then it seems it had spread almost all over the empire. Jahangir issued farmans abolishing the practice and hoped for the best. But a system in which revenue was collected in the form of eunuchs, could not be changed through a few orders. Said Khan Chaghtai, a noble of Jahangir possessed 1,200 eunuchs.45 Besides, eunuchs formed a profitable commercial commodity and, as we shall see in the chapter on Slave Trade, the price of a eunuch in the market was three times that of an ordinary slave. Therefore, some areas, notably Bengal, were regular providers of eunuchs for the Muslim upper classes in Delhi, Isfahan and Samarkand.46

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Bengal


Sind and Punjab lay on the route of Muslim invaders.  They bore the brunt of so many Muslim invasions for a thousand years from 712 to 1761.  In these provinces as well as North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan Muslim immigration too was considerable.  Therefore, the extensive growth of Muslim population in this region is understandable.  But Bengal, especially eastern Bengal, calls for a special study, for Bengal did not lie on the route of the Muslim invaders.  Nor did it form a base of operations for further conquests into India as were Punjab and Sind.  But Bengal was another region where the rise of Muslim population was rapid, and probably in the medieval period itself eastern Bengal especially began to have a majority of Muslim population.  An explanation for this phenomenon has posed a problem before scholars and demographers.  However, as we shall see presently, the overall picture of Islamization in Bengal is quite clear: only in details it is a little blurred.


The main reason for large-scale conversions in Bengal, as indeed elsewhere, lies in the proselytizing endeavour of its Muslim rulers and (this is peculiar to Bengal) Sufi Mashaikh. Muslim invasions from northern India had started from the early years of the thirteenth century.  Bakhtiyar Khalji had invaded Nadia (1203) and Balban had marched (c. 1279-80) as far as Sonargaon in eastern Bengal.  The Tughlaqs continued to assert their authority over Bengal and led many expeditions into it.  During such campaigns some usual conversions would have taken place.  But large number of Muslims were made under the independent Muslim rulers of Bengal. “It is evident, from the numerical superiority in Eastern Bengal of the Muslims… that at some period an immense wave of proselytization must have swept over the country and it is most probable that that period was the period of Jalaluddin Muhammad (converted son of Hindu Raja Ganesh) during whose reign of seventeen years (1414-1431)… hosts of Hindus are said to have been forcibly converted to Islam.”57 About these Dr. Wise writes that “the only condition he offered were the Koran or death… many Hindus fled to Kamrup and the jungles of Assam, but it is nevertheless probable that more Muhammadans were added to Islam during these seventeen years (1414-31) than in the next three hundred.”58


Employment prospects also helped in the rise of Muslim population, for says Barbosa: “It is obviously an advantage in the sixteenth century Bengal to be a Moor, in as much as the Hindus daily become Moors to gain the favour of their rulers.”59


Moreover, “the enthusiastic soldiers, who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, spread the faith of Islam among the timid race of Bengal, made forcible conversions by the sword, and, penetrating the dense forests of the Eastern frontier, planted the crescent in the villages of Sylhet.  Tradition still preserves the names of Adam Shahid, Shah Halal Mujarrad, and Karmfarma Sahib, as three of the most successful of these enthusiasts.”60  The story of conversions under independent Muslim kings of Bengal (1338-1576) is not very clear as written records about them are few, but stray references clearly show that “at some times and in some places, the Hindus were subjected to persecution.”61  Tradition credits the renowned Shah Jalal of Sylhet making large-scale conversions.  In Mardaran thana in Arambagh sub-division of Hoogly, where the Muhammadan population predominates over the Hindu, there is a tradition that Muhammad Ismail Shah Ghazi defeated the local Hindu Raja and forcibly converted the people to Islam.62


Hand in hand with the proselytizing efforts of the rulers was the work of Sufis and Maulvis.  From the time of Muhammad bin Tughlaq to that of Akbar, Bengal had attracted rebels, refugees, Sufi Mashaikh, disgruntled nobles and adventurers from northern India.  The militant type of Mashaikh found in Bengal a soil fertile for conversion, and worked hard to raise Muslim numbers.  Professor K.R. Qanungo has noted that the conversion of Bengal was mainly the work of Barah-Auliyas.63  Professor Abdul Karim has also referred to militant Sufi proselytization.64  But Dr. I.H. Qureshi is the most explicit in this regard.  He writes: “The fourteenth century was a period of expansion of Muslim authority in Bengal and the adjoining territories.  A significant part was played in this process by the warrior saints who were eager to take up the cause of any persecuted community.  This often resulted (in clash) with the native authority, followed, almost invariably, by annexation…”65  This also shows how elastic were the methods adopted by the Sufis.  They acted mostly as peaceful missionaries, but if they saw that the espousal of some just cause required military action, they were not averse to fighting.  “The Sufis… did not adopt the Ismaili technique of gradual conversion… They established their khanqahs and shrines at places which had already had a reputation for sanctity before Islam.  Thus some of the traditional i.e. (Hindu) gatherings were transformed into new festivals. (i.e. Muslim).  As a result of these efforts, Bengal in course of time became a Muslim land…”66  In brief, the Sufi Mashaikh converted people by both violent and non-violent means, occupied their places of worship and turned them into khanqahs and mosques to make Eastern Bengal specially a Muslim land.


Stories of forcible conversions in Bengal are narrated by Muhammadan medieval historians themselves with great gusto and we need not dilate upon them.67  From early times “each seat of Government, and each military station was more or less a centre of missionary agitation”.  We find another agency from across the seas working towards the same end.  Arab merchants carried on an extensive and lucrative trade at Chittagong and disseminated their religious ideas among its inhabitants.  When Barbosa visited Bengal at the beginning of the sixteenth century, he found the inhabitants of the interior Gentiles, subject to the king of Bengal who was a Moor, while the sea ports were inhabited by both Moors and Gentiles.  He also met with many foreigners - Arabs Persians, Abyssinians and Indians (probably Gujaratis). Caesar Frederick and Vincent Le Blanc, who were in Bengal in 1570, also inform us that the island of Sandip was then inhabited by Moors.68  In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Chittagong surely was one of the centres from which unceasing propagandism was carried on.  When it is realised how Muslim merchants from India played a major role in the conversion of Mallaca and then the other parts of South-East Asia to Islam,69 an appreciation of their proselytizing endeavour and achievements in Gujarat, Malabar and Bengal can be easily made.  Thus foreign Muslims were there too in large numbers in Bengal.  They migrated on several occasions and for various reasons.  Some came in the wake of conquest, others as traders and businessmen.70  Ruknuddin Barbak Shah (1460-74) was probably the first ruler who maintained a large number of Abyssinians as protectors of his throne.  He recruited 8,000 Habshis and gave them key positions in his government.  Aside from the Abyssinian eunuchs at the court, it was common for other eunuchs to act as harem guards.71  In addition to the Abyssinians, Bengal played host to other foreigners, especially merchants from Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and other parts of India.  Many stayed on in Bengal because of its fertility, riches and cheap food.72 “Little is reported by European writers about the Hindu population of Bengal beyond remarks to the effect that their children are sometimes sold to be eunuchs, that many of them become converts to the Muslim faith, and that they constitute the majority of the population outside the port cities.”73  While European accounts of Gaur talk of a mixed population of Muslims, Hindus and foreigners (Moors), the Manasa Vijaya of Vipradasa (composed 1495) mentions large population of Muslims in Satgaon.  It says, “The Muslim population of Saptagrama is innumerable; they belong to the Mughals, Pathans and Mokadims, Saiyyads, Mullas and Qazis…”74  Obviously Bengal cities had a good number of Muslims in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.


The methods of conversion employed in Bengal were the same as seen elsewhere in medieval India.  But what made Bengal different from many other parts of India as non-resistant and vulnerable to conversions was its peculiar political, religious, and social condition.  Politically, Bengal could not withstand Muslim attacks from the very beginning as is clear from the shocking non-resistance of Lakshman Sen to Bakhtiyar Khalji’s invasion. Perhaps the kingdom was already thoroughly infiltrated by Muslim adventures from the west and traders from the north.  Its Muslim governors and rulers, due to its geographical location and the unsatisfactory medieval means of communication, mostly remained independent of Delhi, provoking, nevertheless, occasional attacks from the Delhi Sultans. Such emergencies brought the local rulers and the people closer to each other.  Besides, “throughout the period from the 13th to the 18th century, the northern, eastern and south-eastern frontiers of the Muslim ruled area of East Bengal remained in fluid condition and the boundaries swung to and fro with tides of fresh conquests…”75 (and conversions).


Thus the People of Bengal accepted their Muslim rulers as one of themselves, and the rulers on their part adopted and patronised the people’s language and literature, art and culture.76  Translations of many important Hindu works were done at the orders of Muslim rulers,77 and “as a result of this interaction of Hinduism and Islam curious syncretic cults and practices arose, (there) grew the worship of a common God, adored by Hindus and Muslims alike, namely, Satya Pir.  The Emperor Hussain Shah of Gauda is supposed to be the originator of this cult…”78 Adherents of such cults provided potential converts to Islam.  Muslim rulers were keen on increasing Muslim numbers.  They could provide jobs and other economic incentives to conversions and, as has been pointed out earlier, Barbosa was struck by the fact that in Bengal “everyday Gentiles turn Moors to obtain favour of the King and Governors”.  Others converted as the only means of escaping punishment for crimes.  Besides, wherever Muhammadan rule existed slavery was developed, and “slavery was accepted by the Hindus as a refuge for their troubles. Delhi court obtained not only its slaves (in thousands, as for example under Firoz Tughlaq) but also eunuchs from the villages of Eastern Bengal (a wide-spread practice which the Mughal Emperor Jahangir tried to stop).  The incursions of Assamese Maghs, the famines, pestilences and civil wars… drove them in sheer desperation to sell their children as Musalman slaves”.79


To such compulsions obviously the very poor and socially backward people would have succumbed.  For the rich other methods were brought into operation.  The Census of India Report of 1901 says that “the tyrannical Murshid Kuli Khan enforced a law that any Amal, or Zamindar, failing to pay the revenue that was due… should, with his wife and children, be compelled to become Muhammadans”, but the practice was much older as vouched by the Banshasmriti.80  Conversions, such as that of the Raja of Samudragarh, had a chain reaction.  The converted Rajas and Zamindars used to compel others in their lands to become Musalmans for fear of losing their support, nay even for making them their active Muslim supporters.  In this regard we have seen the achievements of Sultan Jalaluddin, himself a convert form Hinduism.  Kala Pahar, the dreaded iconoclast, and Murshid Quli Khan were Brahman converts.  So was Pir Ali or Muhammad Tahir, a Brahman apostate, who “like all renegades… probably proved a worse persecutor of his original faith than others who were Muhammadans by birth.” The Census report of 1901 continues to say: “The present Raja of Parsouni in Darbhanga is descended form Raja Pudil Singh, who rebelled against the Emperor and became a Muhammadan by way of expiation.  The family of Asad Khan of Baranthan in Chittagong, has descended from Syam Rai Chowdhari who was fain to become a Musalman… The Diwan families of Pargana Sarail in Tippera, and of Haibatnagar and Jangalbari in Mymensingh, the Pathans of Majhauli in Darbhangha”, all sprang from old Hindu houses.  They, their propagation, and their progeny added to Muslim numbers.


The religious condition of Bengal too made people vulnerable to Muslim proselytization.  The Pala rulers of Bengal were Buddhists and Buddhism, in spite of the damage caused to it by Bakhtiyar Khalji, remained prevalent in the land until at least the fourteenth century.  The Senas were Hindus.  They patronised Brahmins and Sanskrit.  They were destroyed by Bakhtiyar, but not Hinduism.81 However, a sort of rivalry between Buddhism and Hinduism,82 and zeal of Muslim “Saints” combined to create a situation for people’s exposure to conversion.


The social structure of Bengal too was not coalesced. It was an amalgamation of Hindus, non-Hindus, and foreigners.  The invaders and immigrants from the side of Assam, Tibet and Burma were not Hindus.  Abdul Majid Khan even goes on to say: “In fact India or the land of the Hindus ended in Bengal west of the Bhagirathi.”83 The statement is not quite true, but in the Bengal Census Report of 1872 Beverley has explained in great detail the difficulty of settling who are and who are not Hindus.84 The dark, short and broadnosed people of Bengal are called pre-Dravidian by anthropologists.  Tibeto-Chinese or Mongoloids also came into Bengal and have become part and parcel of the people.  It is not known when the Bodo section of the Tibeto-Burman branch of these people (Bodo, Mech, Koch, Kachari, Rabha, Garo, Tipra) came to Assam and East Bengal, but are found spread all over North and East Bengal.


In brief in eastern Bengal, Chandals and Pods and in northern Rajbansis and Koches predominated; the proportion of orthodox Hindus was very small.  Pods, Chandals and Koches all have traces of Buddhist influence.  Among Koches traces of Buddhist influence still survived when Ralph Fitch visited the country in the sixteenth century.85  Muslim religion must have crumbled the defences of Chandals, Koches, Pods and other tribes and low classes on whom there was little Hindu influence.  Thus it were the peculiar political, religious, but more especially social conditions of Bengal that exposed its people much more to Muslim proselytization.  Had the common, poor, unsophisticated sections of the backward classes been left to themselves, they might have remained contented with their local forms of devotion and folk culture.  But Muslim rulers, soldiers and Sufi Mashaikh left the high and the low hardly any choice in the matter.  The lower classes of course were more vulnerable.  However, the picture of proselytization in Bengal is not very clear and the problem is still open to study.


But there can be no doubt as to the local origin of most of the Muhammadans in Bengal, especially in North and East.  Dewan Fazle Rabbi, however, has tried to prove that Bengal Muslims are mainly of foreign extraction.  Nothing can be farther from the truth, but before we critically assess his ill-founded thesis, we shall sift the evidence about the local origin of Bengal Muslims which in itself would refute their extra-Indian nativity.  Brian Hodgson writes about the voluntary conversion of Koch tribe of North Bengal,86 Dr. Wise about the tribes about Dacca, and Buchanan Hamilton about other tribes, but they all agree that Bengal Muslims are descendants of local inhabitants.87  And the appellations and professions of the low class indigenous people did not change with their conversion, as will be clearly seen in the following Table.

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