Aftab Khan: Indian Muslims

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History of Indian Civilization

A set of some 26 lectures, each around 45-50 minutes in length, on the history of Indian civilization from antiquity to 1947, originally delivered by Vinay Lal as an undergraduate course at University of California LA in Winter 2012. Watch lectures >>>>

The history of the Indian subcontinent begins with evidence of human activity as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids includ from about 500,000 years ago.

The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE in present-day Pakistan and northwest India, was the first major civilization in South Asia. A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture developed in the Mature Harappan period, from 2600 to 1900 BCE. This civilization collapsed at the start of the second millennium BCE and was later followed by the Iron Age Vedic Civilization, which extended over much of the Indo-Gangetic plain and which witness the rise of major polities known as the Mahajanapadas. In one of these kingdoms, Magadha, Mahavira and Gautama Buddha propagated their Shramanic philosophies during the fifth and sixth century BCE.

Most of the subcontinent was conquered by the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. Various parts of India were ruled by numerous Middle kingdoms for the next 1,500 years, among which the Gupta Empire stands out. This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known as the classical or "Golden Age of India". During this period, aspects of Indian civilization, administration, culture, and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of Asia, while kingdoms in southern India had maritime business links with the Roman Empire from around 77 CE. During this period Indian cultural influence spread over many parts of Southeast Asia which led to the establishment of Indianized kingdoms in Southeast Asia.

7th-11th centuries saw the Tripartite struggle between the Pala Empire, Rashtrakuta Empire, and Gurjara Pratihara Empire centered on Kannauj. Southern India saw the rule of the Chalukya Empire, Chola Empire, Pallava Empire, Pandyan Empire, and Western Chalukya Empire. The Chola dynasty conquered southern India and successfully invaded parts of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka in the 11th century. The early medieval period Indian mathematics influenced the development of mathematics and astronomy in the Arab world and the Hindu numerals were introduced.

Muslim rule started in some parts of north India in the 13th century when the Delhi Sultanate was established in 1206 CE by the central Asian Turks. [Though Muslims conquered Sindh to Multan in 711-12, by Umayeds, continued till establishment of Delhi Sultante]. The Delhi Sultanate ruled the major part of northern India in the early 14th century, but declined in the late 14th century, which saw the emergence of several powerful Hindu states like the Vijayanagara Empire, Gajapati Kingdom, Ahom Kingdom and Mewar dynasty.

In the 16th century Mughals came from Central Asia and covered most of India gradually. The Mughal Empire suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, which provided opportunities for the Maratha Empire, Sikh Empire and Mysore Kingdom to exercise control over large areas in the subcontinent.

Beginning in the late 18th century and over the next century, large areas of India were annexed by the British East India Company. Dissatisfaction with Company rule led to theIndian Rebellion of 1857, after which the British provinces of India were directly administered by the British Crown and witnessed a period of both rapid development of infrastructure and economic stagnation. During the first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched with the leading party involved being the Indian National Congress which was later joined by Muslim League as well.

The subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, after the British provinces were partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan and the princely states all acceded to one of the new states. [Wikipedia]

More: http://freebookpark.blogspot.com/2014/11/history-of-indian-civilization.html

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India 'love jihad' claims fuel Hindu-Muslim tensions

When a Hindu woman tearfully claimed to national media recently she had been kidnapped, raped and forcibly converted to Islam, India's religious hardliners seized the chance to hike their “love jihad” fears.

Hardline Hindu activists, encouraged by the media attention, claimed scores of Muslim boys were attempting to abduct, seduce and elope with Hindu girls across the country for the sole purpose of conversion.

On websites and leaflets, right-wing groups warned India's Hindu majority of the “dangers”, and a senior government minister called for talks between religious leaders “to find a solution to the issue”.

Last week, the woman, from northern Uttar Pradesh state, sensationally retracted her claims, saying she had in fact been pressured by her family to concoct the story.

But hardliners remain adamant that Muslims, numbering about 150 million in India, have a secret strategy to turn the secular country of 1.25 billion into their own.

“Of course the girl is being forced to give false statements,” Vinod Bansal, a spokesman for the radical Vishwa Hindu Parishad outfit, told AFP of the woman's retraction.

“Our police systems are so weak that women find it tough to open up on how they are being tortured by Muslim men,” Bansal said, claiming he knew of at least 10 “love jihad” cases in New Delhi alone.

Hindu activists like Bansal have been emboldened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party stormed to power at elections in May after 10 years of rule by the centre-left Congress party.

Modi, who himself has deep roots in the Hindu grassroots Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organisation, has tried to allay fears among religious minorities of marginalisation under his right-wing administration.

And certainly moderate, mainstream Hindus dismiss “love jihad” as a ridiculous conspiracy theory. But experts warn efforts by hardliners to divide India along religious lines risk fuelling animosity between its many faiths.

“Some people are trying to polarise the country along communal lines,” political and social commentator Paranjoy Guha Thakurta told AFP.

“It will be most unfortunate if those who are in power and their supporters allow it to happen (because) it is bound to inflame Hindu-Muslim tensions in the country,” he said.

'Seduce Hindu women'
Police said the 20-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh, the scene of deadly communal violence last year, had eloped with her Muslim lover.

With inter-faith relationships considered taboo in some parts of India, she had originally felt pressured in August to claim rape and conversion.

Local politicians seized on the false claims during state by-elections last month in a bid to polarise voters along communal lines, before she finally reversed her story.

“She said she was being threatened by her own family (into making the false claims),” said Onkar Singh, police superintendent of Meerut city.

The term “love jihad” first gained traction in India in 2009 when Hindu extremist Janajagruti Samiti claimed some 30,000 women in southern Karnataka state had been converted to Islam.

Sites and paraphernalia devoted to the issue claim militant groups are waging “love jihad” worldwide and blame the “fake secularism” of India's mainstream media for encouraging it.

Young Muslim men “are trained in camps” before being sent to seduce Hindu women, have a Muslim child and gradually finish off Hinduism “once and for all”, one document says.

The RSS, whose legions of volunteers mobilised to help Modi win the election and has since grown in prominence, has said it will continue to push authorities to stop the alleged conversions from happening.

RSS founders say India's non-Hindus must adopt Hindu culture and religion — “they must cease to be foreigners, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation”.

Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, a veteran of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, has said communities should hold talks on “love jihad” so they are “not jeopardised in any way”.

But Modi, who was chief minister of Gujarat state when deadly anti-Muslim riots erupted in 2002, has urged an end to communal tensions and violence, while another minister defused the current issue by saying he didn't understand what the term meant.

Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, a Muslim married to Hindu actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, won applause for his article in a national newspaper passionately debunking the idea.

“When Kareena and I married, there were similar death threats, with people on the Net saying ridiculous things about love jihad,” he wrote in the Indian Express this month.

“Marriage is not jihad. Intermarriage is India. India is a mix. “

India 'love jihad' claims fuel Hindu-Muslim tensions
by AFP, dawn.com

Understanding Azad

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was a great religious scholar, orator and politician who influenced the religious and political trends of his time. By virtue of being a member of a religious family he had a number of disciples who followed him devotedly. As a religious scholar, he believed that the Muslim community of India could be rejuvenated through religion. To accomplish this object, he organised a party of Ulema known as Hizbullah in 1912. He was the first person who involved the Ulema in politics with the aim of using religion as a tool to unite the Muslims of India and to create the political consciousness among them to struggle for their survival. On the basis of this organisation he wanted to train the Ulema in the art of politics and bring them out of their isolation.

To extend his role Azad became a Pan-Islamist and started two weekly newspapers, Al-Hilal in 1912 and AlBalagh in 1914, through which he disseminated the news of the Muslim world. When the Ottomans were engaged in the Balkan wars, his newspapers widely reported about it, sympathising with the Turkish cause. These newspapers were widely read by Indian Muslims as they created a sense of identity among them and they started to associate themselves with the larger Muslim world.

Azad also made an attempt to glorify the historical role of the Ulema. In his book, Tazkira, he traced the contribution of Indian Ulema to the Muslim community and paid high tributes to Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi who, according to him, alone resisted and defended Islam against the `atheism` of Mughal emperor Akbar. Azad was the first person who promoted Sirhindi as a hero and criticised Akbar`s religious policy. Unfortunately, Azad is greatly mistaken in saying that Akbar subscribed to atheism. This is historically wrong. Akbar was not an atheist; on the contrary, his intention was to search for truth. For this purpose, he invited scholars of all religions to the House of Worship (/badal Khana), which he established at Fathpur Sikri, and discussed the nature of their respective beliefs with them.

Azad`s interpretation of history created a lot of misunderstandings. As a result, Ahmad Sirhindi became the champion of the two nation theory, while Akbar is condemned as a `secular` and an enemy of Islam. Further, he glorified other Ulema such as Shah Waliullah for their laudable services as reformers of the Muslims of India. His account promoted the image of these Ulema, who later on played an important role in Indian politics.

When the Khilafat movement started in India, Azad became its ardent supporter. After its failure, he made an attempt to become a supreme religious leader of the Muslims of India, but failed in his attempt because religious scholars refused to accept him as an Imam. After its failure, his followers started to refer to him as Imam al Hind.

However, this opened the gate for more Imams to appear on the scene, such as imam-i-Sharia, the title given to Ataullah Shah Bukhari.

Azad also adopted his own style of Urdu writing. He changed the simple structure of`Urdu language which was introduced by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who liberated it from its Persianised form. Azad, opted to Arabicise the language by introducing religious terminology and Arabic words. As a result, the Urdu language became largely incomprehensible to the common reader.There were lots of misunderstandings about Azad`s personal life. No one knew his place of birth and there were speculations as to whether he studied at AlAzhar or not; but he remained silent and never clarified his position. Perhaps he loved to retain an aura of mystery around his persona.

Gradually, Azad`s religious and political views changed, and from being a Pan-Islamist he became an Indian nationalist and a member of the Indian National Congress.

During the conflict between the Congress and the Muslim League, he faced criticism from Pro-Muslim Leaguers.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah called him a `show boy` of the Congress. He endured all this humiliation and insult but continued his nationalist approach which he regarded as beneficial to the Muslims of India. On the eve of Partition, he appealed to the Muslims to stay in India and not to migrate to Pakistan, thus leaving their cultural heritage behind them. After independence, he played a pivotal role in ensuring the safety and security of the Muslims of India.

However, one aspect of Azad`s personality is that he never recognised the change of` his political and social views and the mistake he committed in his early career.

Now, it is the task of historians to unfold and discover Azad`s personality and his views.

By Mubarak Ali, Dawn.com
Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abul_Kalam_Azad