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Hinduism and Islam
Prior to the advent of Islam in South Asia, the
subcontinent was home to a wide variety of reli-
gious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism, and small populations of Christians
and Jews. By far the numerically and geographi-
cally largest of these was the complex of tradi-
tions grouped under the rubric of Hinduism,
a geographical term designating the religion
of the peoples who inhabited lands east of the
Indus River valley, which runs through modern-
day p
akistan
. The Hindu traditions developed
from the encounter between indigenous religions
devoted to particular places and deities and the
Vedic traditions brought by the migration of the
Aryans into the region, which began around 1500
b
.
c
.
e
. The Vedic religion of the Aryans empha-
sized reciprocity between humans and gods, the
importance of sacrifice, and precise recitation
of the sacred scriptures to ensure ritual efficacy.
The Aryan social structure was highly stratified,
and caste hierarchy remains an element in many
Hindu traditions. The Hindu belief in a multi-
plicity of deities contrasts sharply with Islamic
monotheism. However, it should be remembered
that some forms of philosophical Hinduism are
monist in doctrine, a fact acknowledged by
Muslim travelers to the subcontinent such as
al
-
b
irUni
(d. 1051).
The classical period of Hinduism that preceded
significant Muslim presence in South Asia saw the
consolidation of cults dedicated to the great gods
Shiva and Vishnu and the goddess (Devi) in her
myriad forms (for example, Lakshmi, Sita, Durga,
and Parvati). By the 10th century, the major
philosophical schools had emerged, the epic tales
Mahabharata and Ramayana were compiled, legal
and sacrificial manuals abounded, and the devel-
opment of a huge corpus of devotional literature
to particular deities was well under way. Hindu
traditions pervaded the subcontinent. Buddhism
was strong in the northeast and along the Silk
Road but was waning in influence in the subcon-
tinent as it waxed in Central, East, and Southeast
Asia. This was the world encountered by the first
significant influx of Muslims.
Islam first entered i
ndia
through long-estab-
lished trade routes from the Middle East: the
Silk Road in the north and ocean passages in the
south. There are signs of early communities along
the coast, where Muslims intermarried with local
people. In the north, the first area to fall under
direct Muslim rule was the Sind, conquered by
Muhammad ibn Qasim in 711. The next major
invasion was that of Mahmud of Ghazni (r. 998–
1030), who plundered the northwest region and
attacked Ismaili Muslims who had settled there
during the 10th century. Accompanying him to
India was the Arab polymath al-Biruni, who stud-
K 300
hilal
ied Indian languages, sciences, customs, and reli-
gions. His record is the first textual evidence that
the ballyhooed antipathy of Hindus and Muslims
is overstated. Al-Biruni’s writings reveal a rich and
nuanced appreciation for a great deal about Hindu
culture. From the 10th century onward, the north
of India was dominated by kingdoms whose rul-
ing dynasties were Turks and Mongols. However,
research reveals that the greatest
conversion
to
Islam was in the regions of South Asia, where Hin-
duism was least firmly entrenched. This would
dispel commonly held views that conversion was
either the result of force or a desire to escape an
oppressive caste structure.
For most of the thousand years of Muslim
dominance in South Asia, relations between Hin-
dus and Muslims were largely peaceful, with
Hindu and Muslim rulers employing high-level
ministers from other religions and ethnic groups,
patronizing each other’s buildings and festivals,
and visiting each other’s holy places. This reached
an apex under the Mughal emperor a
kbar
, who
briefly introduced a new religious system called
the Din-i Ilahi, or Religion of God, inspired by
his conversations with scholars and mystics from
Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Jain, and
Christian traditions. Also popular in this period
and to the present day are the shared devotional
practices associated with Muslim
saint
s, most
notably of the c
hishti
s
UFi
o
rder
, which is cen-
tered at a
Jmer
, Rajasthan.
Religious differences, however, have in the
past been contentious in South Asia, as they con-
tinue to be to the present day. In spite of 1,000
years of rule, Islam never became the majority
faith in the region; at the time of the comple-
tion of the British conquest in 1857, Muslims
made up approximately 25 percent of the popu-
lation. As the Indian independence movement
grew and the British prepared to depart from
the subcontinent, Muslims sought guarantees of
representation in government and civil services.
The nationalists of the Indian National Congress
under m
ohandas
k
aramchand
g
andhi
(d. 1948)
and Jawaharlal Nehru (d. 1964) opposed the
schemes put forward by m
Uhammad
a
li
J
innah
(d. 1948) and the a
ll
-i
ndia
m
Uslim
l
eagUe
for a strong federated state system. As a result,
when the British rapidly departed in 1947, the
subcontinent was partitioned into India and East
and West Pakistan. In a seismic population shift,
15 million people moved between the northwest
and northeast regions, and estimates of those
who lost their lives in the violent transition
range from 200,000 to 1 million. The legacy of
Partition in terms of Hindu-Muslim relations in
India has been traumatic. Indian Muslims today
remain vulnerable, less educated, poorer, and
Tomb of Chishti saint Qutb al-Din Bakhtiar Kaki in
Mehrauli, New Delhi, India
(Juan E. Campo)
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