Swami Vivekananda and Islam, Criticism no 6:

Criticism no 6:

 " The most curious thing was the code of war of those days; as soon as the battle for the day ceased and evening came, the opposing parties were good friends, even going to each other's tents; however, when the morning came, again they proceeded to fight each other. That was the strange trait that the Hindus carried downto the time of the Mohammedan invasion.

Then again, a man on horseback must not strike one on foot; must not poison the weapon; must not vanquish the enemy in any unequal fight, or by dishonesty; and must never take undue advantage of another and so on. If any deviated from these rules he would be covered with dishonour and shunned. The Kshatriyas were trained in that way. And when the foreign invasion came from Central Asia, the Hindus treated the invaders in the same way. They defeated them several times, and on as many occasions sent them back to their homes with presents etc. The code laid down was that they must not usurp anybody's country; and when a man was beaten, he must be sent back to his country with due regard to his position. The Mohammedan conquerors treated the Hindu kings differently, and when they got them once, they destroyed them without remorse." 

(Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol IV. 93-4)

Response: 

The new millennium began with the rise of Islamic power in the world, and it is ending with an established Western dominance of the globe. Both these developments changed the nature of the world, but had particularly profound effects on India. For one thing the governance of India shifted from the collection of diverse Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms (just described) at the end of the last millennium to a diversity of Islamic rules, culminating in the Moghal empire.

It must also be recollected the nearly all the major world religions other than Islam were already well represented in India well before the last millennium.

Cause for Invasion : Construction or Destruction ?

Pre-Islamic India!

The Indian subcontinent - to looked at our own locality - also was not devoid of divisions and wars. As the year 1000 A.D. approached, the Palas ruled over Bengal and Bihar, the Pratiharas reigned over West india and the upper Ganges valley, Cholas governed Tamil Nadu, Chandellas controlled Bundelkhand, Kalachuris had Madhya Pradesh, Chahamanis ruled East Rajasthan, Paramaras were in charge of Malwa, and while one line of Chalukyas reigned over West and Central Deccan, another was powerful in Gujarat. King Rajaraja of the Chola dynasty conquered Sri Lanka as the millennium came to an end.

It is worth beginning by recollecting that even pre-Muslim India was not just Hindu India. Indeed, to begin with the most obvious, perhaps the greatest Indian emperor in the pre-Muslim period was a Buddhist, to wit, Ashoka, and there were other great non-Hindu emperors, including Harsha.


In response of Caliph Umar’s question about the Makran region, the Messenger from Makran who bring the news of the victory told him:

'O Commander of the faithful! It's a land where the plains are stony; Where water is scanty; Where the fruits are unsavory Where men are known for treachery; Where plenty is unknown; Where virtue is held of little account; And where evil is dominant; A large army is less for there; And a less army is use less there; The land beyond it, is even worst (referring to Sind).}}

Umar looked at the messenger and said: "Are you a messenger or a poet? He replied “Messenger”. Thereupon Caliph Umar, after listening to the unfavorable situations for sending an army instructed Hakim bin Amr al Taghlabi that for the time being Makran should be the easternmost frontier of the Rashidun Caliphate, and that no further attempt should be made to extend the conquests. Thereupon on of the commander of Islamic army in Makran said the following verses:

“ If the Commander of faithful wouldn’t have stopped us from going beyond, so we would have bought our forces to the temple of prostitutes ”

Referring to the Hindu Temple in interior Sind where prostitutes use to give a part of their earning as charity.

Zaheeruddin Babar in his Autobiography 'Tuzuk-i-Babari,' (Founder of Mughal Dynasty, Ruled India 1526-1530).

There are neither good horses in India, nor good meat, nor grapes, nor melons, nor ice, nor cold water, nor baths, nor candle, nor candlestick, nor torch. In the place of the candle, they use the divat. It rests on three legs: a small iron piece resembling the snout of a lamp... Even in case of Rajas and Maharajas, the attendants stand holding the clumsy divat in their hands when they are in need of a light in the night.

There is no arrangement for running water in gardens and buildings. The buildings lack beauty, symmetry, ventilation and neatness. Commonly, the people walk barefooted with a narrow slip tied round the loins. Women wear a dress ...?

The Invasion!

The invasion of Sind by Muhammad Ibn Qasim al-Thaqafi in 713 A.D. was precipitated by the failure of Dahir, the ruler of Sind, to punish the pirates who had interfered with Muslim shipping near the coast of his province.[10] The Muslim kings and emperors who ruled over India for over one thousand years were not colonial rulers. Those who had gone there from other countries made the sub-continent their own home. They did not make any discrimination between religious communities but gave equal opportunity and ensured social justice to all irrespective of their religious affinity. In fact, the Muslim rulers-the Khaljis, the Lodis, the Syeds and the Mughals- kept the indigenous Muslims, who constituted the bulk of Indian Muslims, at a safe distance from the apparatus of power. In the words of Iqbal Ansari, "It is the greatest travesty of facts to call this period of dynastic rule of Persian and Turkish origin as Muslim rule. Islam did make its presence felt during this period on Indian social and cultural life. But Islam did not play a dominant role in statecraft. The conquest of India by Islam was again not on the agenda of the Muslim kings. Islam and its promotion was not even a major factor in state policies."[11] This is well-established by the fact that although Delhi remained the capital of Muslim rulers for 647 years (1211-1858 A.D.), the Muslims were a small minority there throughout the period. According to the 1971 census, the Muslims of Delhi constituted only 7.8 percent of the total population of the city. The bulk of the indigenous converted Muslims- artisans, craftsmen, and tillers- did not enjoy any privilege under the system of Muslim rule. Rather high caste groups from among Hindus enjoyed greater privileges under the patronage of the Muslim monarchies. In many cases, the most important jobs like those of ministers and chiefs of army were given to non-Muslims, especially Hindus.

 Ref:

10. Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, vol. VII, Netherlands, 1991, p. 405.

11. Iqbal A. Ansari, The Muslim Situation in India, New Delhi, 1989, p.12.
Codes of War:

"Fight against those who fight you in the way of Allah, but do not Transgress, for Allah does not love transgressors"---- (Quran 2:190)

Here the Fundamental principles of War are;

1. Individuals cannot wage a War.

2. An Islamic state has been enjoined to fight but only in the way of Allah. A state cannot fight for material gains nor can it fight to establish the ruler's own supremacy.

3. The State has been allowed to fight against only those who are at war with it or who have waged a war against it.

4. Even if the time of war comes the muslim army has to follow certain codes.
And it was made clear that Allah does not like those who transgress the limits.( Syed yusuf Ali Translation)

The codes Muslims have to follow during War are;

1.Women, children, the old and the injured in the enemy camp must not be attacked.

2.Those who are busy worshipping god must not be hurt.

3.Crops and trees not be destroyed.

4.Animals not to be killed.

5.Deadbodies of enemies not to be mutialiated.

Warning:

Those who do not observe these instructions have been warned that all their struggle and sacrifice will go in Vain rather they would be considered transgressors in the eyes of Allah.

What did the Islamic influence do to India?

India is the seventh largest country in the world, and the second largest in Asia. Before the advent of Muslims, the country was fragmented into small warring states and there was no concept of Indian nationalism. The Muslim rulers, especially the Mughals, unified the country and gave it a central administration. They called the country Hind and Hindustan, i.e. a country of the Hindus (non-Muslims). The name 'India', a distortion of Hind, was given to her by the British rulers. But the new religion brought by Prophet Mohammad emphasized mono-theism with great vigor and, as a corollary advocated and to a great extent, practiced equality among men of different race, colour and social strata. This message of equality attracted a large number of converts and it soon spread to other parts of the land.

The impact of the invaders from the north-west and of Islam on India had been considerable. It had pointed out and shone up the abuses that had crept into Hindu society - the petrification of caste, untouchability, exclusiveness carried to fantastic lengths. The idea of the brotherhood of Islam and the theoretical equality of its adherents made a powerful appeal especially to those in the Hindu fold who were denied any semblance of equal treatment.?

Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Presidential Address to the Fifty-fifth Session of the Indian Congress, Jaipur, 1948.

(The Muslims had) enriched our culture, strengthened our administration, and brought near distant parts of the country... It (the Muslim Period) touched deeply the social life and the literature of the land.?

Humayun Kabir in 'The Indian Heritage,' 1955, p. 153.

Islam's democratic challenge has perhaps never been equaled by any other religious or social system. Its advent on the Indian scene was marked by a profound stirring of consciousness. It modified the basis of Hindu social structure throughout northern India.?

N.S. Mehta, in 'Islam and the Indian Civilization,' reproduced in 'Hindustan ke Ahd-i-Wusta ki ek Jhalak,' by S.A. Rahman.

Islam had brought to India a luminous torch which rescued humanity from darkness at a time when old civilizations were on the decline and lofty moral ideals had got reduced to empty intellectual concepts. As in other lands, so in India too, the conquests of Islam were more widespread in the world of thought than in the world of politics. Today, also, the Islamic World is a spiritual brotherhood which is held together by community of faith in the Oneness of God and human equality. Unfortunately, the history of Islam in this country remained tied up for centuries with that of government with the result that a veil was cast over its true spirit, and its fruits and blessings were hidden from the popular eye.?

Prof. K.M. Panikkar in 'A Survey of Indian History,' 1947, p. 163.

One thing is clear. Islam had a profound effect on Hinduism during this period. Medieval theism is in some ways a reply to the attack of Islam; and the doctrine of medieval teachers by whatever names their gods are known are essentially theistic. It is the one supreme God that is the object of the devotee's adoration and it is to His grace that we are asked to look for redemption.?

Dr. Gustav le Bon in 'Les Civilisations de L'Inde' (translated by S.A. Bilgrami).

"There does not exist a history of ancient India. Their books contain no historical data whatever, except for a few religious books in which historical information is buried under a heap of parables and folk-lore, and their buildings and other monuments also do nothing to fill the void for the oldest among them do not go beyond the third century B.C. To discover facts about India of the ancient times is as difficult a task as the discovery of the island of Atlantis, which, according to Plato, was destroyed due to the changes of the earth... The historical phase of India began with the Muslim invasion. Muslims were India's first historians.

Sir William Digby in 'Prosperous India: A Revelation,' p. 30.

"Someone has said that Europeans in South Africa dread the advent of Islam - Islam that civilized Spain - Islam that took the torch of light to Morocco and preached to the world the Gospel of brotherhood. The Europeans of South Africa dread the advent of Islam, as they may claim, equality with the white races. They may well dread it. If brotherhood is a sin, If it is equality of coloured races that they dread, then their dread is well founded."

Mahatma Gandhi quoted in Muhammed The prophet of the Islam: by Ramakrishna Rao Page 8.

Peace!