ISLAM / MUGHAL-OCCUPIERS CONTRIBUTED NOTHING ORIGINAL TO BHARATAVARSA

                                    Ramakant Tiwari

( the views expressed are of the author only not that of PatriotsForum)

It took 500 years for establishment of Muslim rule i.e. 712-1206 and 150 for its decline into oblivion i.e. 1707-1857. Turning points of Mughal occupation are C.E. 712 when Muhammad bin Qasim invaded Sind, C.E. 1000 when Mahmud of Ghazni embarked upon a serial invasions on Bharata, C.E. 1192-1206 when Prithviraj Chauhan lost to Muhammad Ghauri and Qutbuddin Aibak raised Turki Sultanate at Delhi and C.E. 1296 when Alauddin Khalji pushed into the Deccans. Stages of their downfall are C.E. 1707 when Aurangzeb died, C.E. 1739 when a trembling Mughal Occupier stood as a supplicant before Persian invader Nadir Shah, C.E. 1803 when Delhi was captured by British occupiers and C.E. 1858 when the last Mughal Occupier was expelled to Rangoon as a prisoner of British occupier. Islam believes in dividing humanity into believers and Kafirs, Muslim community i.e.Ummah is enjoined upon not to cooperate on the basis of equality or peaceful coexistence with Kafirs. Islam offers some alternatives like conversion to Islam, slavery or death. At best, Islam allows survival on payment of Jiziyah and acceptance of inferior status in society, that of Zimmi. As a matter of fact, Muslims invaded Bharata to turn it into an Islamic country and implant their culture, essentially a carrier culture borrowed from exotic streams. Islam has only Koran and Hadis in the name of culture. They invaded not to co-exist but to wipe out Hindu culture. Their proclaimed objective was Islamization of Bharata through Jihad. However, in spite of repeated invasions and centuries of Muslim occupation, Bharata could not be turned into a Muslim country. Had Bharata been completely converted to Islam, we all would have been proud of organising Islamic revolutions, spearheading pan-Islamic movements and espousing despotic Islamic causes like Iranians / Libyans !!

An entirely irrational myth has been propagated that Mughal occupiers exerted a scintillating role in development of Bharatavarsa. Let us resolve the contentious issue of Islamic contributions to Bharatavarsa and Hindu society at large. We are poised to scrutinise a few disciplines of endeavour, the prominent ones that will demystify the issue forever.

Educational Institutions

Before invasion of Islam on Bharatiya soil, Bharata had as many as 20 large universities and some of them were of international stature. Prominent ones were Taksila, Nalanda, Sarada Pitha-s at Varanasi, Kanchipurama, Valabhi, Vikramsila, Jagaddala, Lalitgiri, Phuphagiri, Udayagiri, Odantapuri, Ratnagiri etc., where student from all over the world came to study Mathematics, Algebra, Astronomy Physics, Alchemy, Medicine, Anatomy, Surgery, Literature etc. As Muslim invaders progressed towards east, these Universities were extinguished by burning down one by one beginning with the largest and oldest Taksila, to the brutal destruction and burning of Nalanda by Bhaktiyar Khilji in 1193 AD. None of these monstrous invaders from Bin Qasim to Kutub-udin-Aibak to Babur to Aurangzeb to Nadir Shah, ever instituted even a single new University or center of learning. We challenge apologists of Islam to cite even a single instance when an educational institution of repute was raised from ground zero brick by brick.

Irrigation & Agriculture

Irrigation projects and canal building were undertaken by Hindu Kings all over Bharata. Kingdoms constructed water tanks for irrigation, infrastructure to harvest rain water, some of which are still in use today for farming. Farmers had perfected the art of irrigation using Phada i.e. river water diverted into fields and Badha i.e. overflowing river, tank or lake breached to irrigate fields besides other mechanical methods still used today. Intellectually stunted Islamic apologists derive great pleasure in berating Vijaynagar empire, their achievements and rejoice in their destruction by resorting to an absurd decadence theory. Vijaynagar was one of the first welfare states in the world if not the only one. Kingdom paid from treasury for entire empire-wide water works to ensure running water for their subjects. Even today, remnants of aqueducts / network may be examined in southern Bharata of that era. Kings of Vijaynagar, particularly Krishnadeva Raya, personally engineered and supervised construction of a damn across Tungabhadra, still used even now. In cities like Bhopal, huge natural lakes were maintained by Hindu Kings for fish farming and irrigation for farmers which were drained by Mughal’s to play polo. Mughals did not construct even a single such project during their entire period of occupation of Bharata.

Taxation & Revenue Collection

It is a blatant lie propagated by ‘Eminent Marxist Historians’ to allude revenue and taxation system to Mughal despots particularly Akbar. System of revenue collection and taxation existed since time immemorial instituted by Hindu Kings based on Hindu scriptures and Kautilya’s Arthasastra which Delhi Sultanate, followed by Mughals institutionalized to brutally oppress Hindu-s. It is unimaginable, barbarian tribal warlords roaming around Central Asian deserts had any knowledge of taxation and revenue collection that they could implant in other countries, least of all Bharata, a highly advanced civilization.

Health Care

Fa-Hian wrote in 400 AD about Magadha empire, a well-organized health-care system existed in Bharata –

Nobles and householders of this country had founded hospitals within the city to which the poor of all countries, destitute, crippled and diseased may repair. They receive every kind of requisite help. Physicians inspect their diseases and according to their cases, order them food and drink, medicines or decoctions, everything in fact that contributes to their ease. When cured they depart at their ease.

Fa Hian’s account coupled with Maharsi Caraka’s treatise on medicine and hospitals, reveal that Bharata was the first country to institutionalize public health care. During Mauryana rule, Emperor Asoka in 300 BC had institutionalized hospitals, established veterinary clinics in towns and villages as well as on busy highways. Marathas had built series of Chatramas as rest and recovery places for travellers and pilgrims.

Chatrams were not mere boarding places. They provided food, health facilities and space for animals that accompanied travellers. It took one day travel to arrive at a Chatram from another. Old resting places for travellers are found in other countries too, but what makes these Chatrams different from the caravan serais is that they cater to all kinds of travellers — not merely traders. In southerb Bharata, trade and pilgrim routes coexisted and inns served both pilgrims and travellers. Endowing pilgrims, pilgrimage was considered important and special care, facilities were provided. Most important pilgrimage route in southern Bharata was the one that led to Ramesvaram. Along the route, 18 Chatrams were raised and patronized by Maratha Kings during 18th / 19th centuries. Most elaborate and ornate of them are Mukthambal Chatram at Orathanadu and Yamunambal Chatram at Needamangalam.

Chatrams were also built by Maratha ruler of Thanjavur, Maharaja Serfojee who wrote to British to continue the service –

‘Chatrams have Doctors, skillful in the cure of diseases, swellings and the poisonous bites of reptiles. Travellers who fall sick at Chatram or before arrival, receive medicines and proper diet for them and attended with respect and kindliness until their recovery’.

This letter of Sarfojee Maharaja has been complately reproduced in Annam Bahu Kurvita. The author also mentioned, he had not met any other people as generous as Hindu-s in Bharata. These institutionalized public health-care services were not stray, isolated acts of charity. It was entire knowledge of medical science that was transferred to Arabs during peacetime earlier, was brought back to Bharata by Mughal invaders. Hence, Mughals did not contribute to health care facilities during their occupation of Bharatavarsa. They privileged themselves with it and destroyed it ultimately.

Arts & Culture

1000 year long presence of Islam in Bharata from 713 AD to British occupation in 1857, Islam contributed NOTHING towards advancement of fine arts. Islam failed to introduce anything unique that did not already exist in Bharata. Dance and music was banned except in a few royal palaces or in brothels. Drama, dance and music were not encouraged under Mughal occupation and these continued to be patronised by Hindu Kings, village and town folks. What Muslims practised was entirely a Hindu heritage of classical music and they re-named Guru–Sisya Parampara as Gharana !! All great Muslim musicians were originally Hindu-s and they have continued with the tradition of singing an invocation to Devi Saraswati or some other deity before commencement of every performance. Similarly, dance is as elaborate as music based on Hindu Natya–Sastra. Sculptures of dancers and musicians carved on ancient and medieval temples, now mostly surviving in southern Bharata, bear testimony to their excellence, popularity and widespread practice. Mughal paintings were one-dimensional renderings of poor quality which failed to evolve after 10th century whilst Europe was mastering and perfecting painting in the same era. Silpakari i.e. sculpting was banned so was temple construction. No literary works were authored except panegyrics of Mughal occupiers, Nawabs and Darbara chronicles. Urdu, an assortment of Khadiboli of northern plains, Persian and Turkish was implanted, Urdu couplets were composed. However, for Bharata with their own vibrant, rich traditions of literature, languages, absence of Urdu wouldn’t have really mattered at all.

Medieval Monuments

Monuments of medieval period revive bitter memories in Hindu psyche. All these have been Hindu temples, demolished and vandalised to exist in the shape of Masjids, Idgahs, Dargahs, Ziarats, Sarais, Mazars, Madrasas and Maktabs. Throughout Muslim occupation, destruction of Hindu shrines and construction of Masjids went on as a normal practice. From Quwwal-ul-Islam Masjid in Delhi raised out of 27 Hindu and Jain temples during 12^th century to Taj-ul-Masjid raised from hundreds of Hindu and Jain temples at Bhopal during 18^th century, story of destruction and plunder is same everywhere. Temples were broken not just during war but in times of peace too. Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq writes, “I destroyed their idol temples and instead thereof raised mosques where infidels and idolaters worshipped idols, Musalmans now, by Allah’s mercy, perform their devotion to the true God.” So said and did Sikandar Lodi, Shahjahan, Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan. They destroyed temples because it is so enjoined upon them by their Koran. They derive their justification and validity from Koranic revelation and Prophet’s Sunna.

Commerce & Economics

Bharata has always been an agrarian trading economy. Trade within Bharata as well as with other countries were highly developed and well organized since ancient times. Bharatiya traders invented promissory note prevalent even today. So many Bharatiya trading families settled in Arabian Peninsula, Damascus, Persia, Jerusalem, Rome, Alexandria, South East Asia and other trading hubs around the globe. Trade was carried out through sea and land routes across an extensive trade network. International trade can be traced back to Sarasvati–Indu civilization and some of the oldest ports, dry docks have been unearthed. These are marvels of civil engineering of those centuries. Thus, even in this field Bharata was not benefited at all by those Islamic conquerors / Mughal despots that might have value-enhanced had they knew it already. In reality, Islam exerted destructive impact on trade and businesses with their anti ‘usury’ dictate. All trading families in ancient Bharata were Hindu’s with Muslims having no role to play at all. Islam had no impact on trade, nor did Islam open newer markets nor did Islam bring in new systems of commerce. Several Hindu traders of Bengal were multiple times bigger than even East India Company and all their shareholders clubbed together.

Ancient Bharata had been a highly successful civilization. Not a single Islamic conquest ever led to any value-addition at all as Islam and Mughal despots had NOTHING to offer except to loot and destroy what ancient glorious nation of Bharata already possessed. Bharatiya Muslims gloat over the dubious glory of Mughal era without realising that it was foreign Mughal occupiers who had ruled over Bharata and not Hindus-forcibly-converted-to-Islam !! These foreign invaders never ever considered Bharatiya Muslims as Muslims at all and treated them as “Ajlaf”. In South Asia, Muslims are divided as Ashrafs and Ajlafs. Ashrafs claim superior status derived from their Mughal ancestry while non-Ashrafs are purported to be converts from Hinduism, therefore inferior. Turkish scholar Zaiuddin Barraniin declared in the court of Mohammad Tughlaq that “Sons of Mohammed” i.e. Ashrafs must be given a higher social status than the low-born Ajlaf. In addition to the Ashraf/Ajlaf divide, there is an Arzal caste among Muslims who were regarded as untouchables. The term “Arzal” stands for “degraded” who are also called Muslims with whom no other Muhammadan would associate, forbidden to enter mosques or use public burial grounds.

Muslim Fundamentalism, Communal Riots & Partition of Bharata

These are the only ORIGINAL gifts that Muslims / Mughals / Islam delivered to Bharatavarsa.

Policy of Muslim occupiers was to keep Muslim minority in a privileged position, ensure there was no integration between two communities. Muslim occupiers were so allergic to prosperity of Hindu-s that they expressed open resentment at Hindu-s being well-dressed, riding horses or travelling in palanquins. Many of them enforced regulations requiring Hindu-s to wear distinguishing marks on their clothes so that they were not be mistaken for Muslims. Laiqat Ali Khan demanded from the then British Viceroy Lord Wavell on Jan. 24, 1946 that British would have to stop for several more years and Muslims were not at all anxious that British occupiers go. Muslim leaders like Shah Waliullah, Wiqar-ul-Mulk and Liaqat Ali Khan preferred to live under the rule of foreigners like Afghans and British than to live as free people with Hindu-s just because latter happened to be in a majority. Is it therefore any wonder that majority of Muslims were not interested in joining the freedom struggle for Bharata’s freedom ? The idea of Pakistan was as old as the Muslim occupation of Bharata. M.A. Jinnah is reported to have said that seeds of Pakistan were planted when the first Hindu was forcibly converted to Islam in Bharata. History of communal riots is synchronous with advent of Islam / Muslims in Bharata. For next hundreds of years, invaders and occupiers committed all sorts of atrocities on Hindu-s and country was charged with aggression and violence.

Ever since appearance of Muslims in Bharata, there has been a constant struggle between Islamic / Muslim communalism and Hindu nationalism. Today on the side of Muslim communalists are Marxists, pseudo-secularists, so-called progressives etc. They have chosen the safe side because they know that it is easy to decry Hindu-s and Hinduism but life-threatening to criticise Muslims or Islam. Hindu-s are now regaining their self-respect diminished over centuries. Their tough no-nonsense stance has rendered secularists and progressives panicky. Now they have floated a new rubbish doctrine, majority fundamentalism affects entire nation while minority fundamentalism, only minorities !! Hindu have trashed it with the contempt it deserves. Nationalism is the new buzzword for Hindu-s misconstrued by some, anti-Islam. India is on move now. It will neither go Communist nor communalist. India is steadily going Bharata. Let us observe with keen interest whether Indian Muslim or Muslim Indian leadership contribute to the historic movement or merely cherish and dream return of the brutal, despotic and detestable legacy of Muslim rule in Bharata.

With these stark and loud realities on board, it is easy to discern how half-baked historians concoct grand tales of Muslim rule, goading Bharatiya Muslims revel in a dreamland of fake Mughal glory, thereby trampling their roots and realities. This ludicrous unification and identification with foreign invaders viz. Turks, Mughals and Afghan is the root cause of division and distrust between Hindu-s and Muslims.

Bharatiya Muslims are in reality, victims of those despotic foreign invaders and it is high time for Bharatiya Muslims to assimilate these facts and stop being misled by people with anti-national agenda to boot.

Ramakant Tiwari