Dt:14/9/20
Similarities and Contrasts
Between
Two Eras (Muslim and British) of Darkness of India
Dr T H Chowdary*
1.Loot: The British East India Company (1757-1858) and the British colonial government looted (1858-1947). India & took the loot out of India. |
Islam’s invaders Mohammed of Ghazni ( 971 AD-1030 ) and Mohammed Ghori (1149-1206); Ahmed Shah Abdali, Taimur, Nadir Shah, Chinghiz Khan looted India and took the loot out of India |
2.Enslavement : The British did not enslave the defeated Indian soldier and their women |
Islam’s invaders often enslaved the defeated, took some of them out and sold them in Baghdad’s slave markets. |
3. Conversions: The British rulers did not officially engage in converting Hindus to Christianity but patronized and in many ways facilitated the Missionaries; work for gaining converts and gave huge grants of sites for construction of churches, and schools/ colleges . |
Islam’s invaders and early rulers were as much indulged in forced conversions as in loot n d aggrandizement and enrichment of the immigrant from central Asia, Persia , Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey… an native converts to Islam. The properties of wakf comprise of the properties by Muslim victors/ rulers confiscated defeated lands |
4. Language: The British made their language English as the official language of the government(s). |
Muslim rulers made Persian as the court/ official language. |
5. Socialising: The British did not marry Indians as a norm. They could take mistresses. The lowliest among the English soldiers took Indian wives from low classes. Their progeny is called. Anglo Indians, or Euro-Indians. These were preferentially employed in Railways, Telegraphs. & police |
Foreign ( ie immigrant) origin Muslims took Hindu women, forcibly converted them to Islam, practised polygamy ( upto four wives at a time); raised large families, living off Hindu-paid taxes including zezia; Hindu converts ( mostly forced) to Islam were haughty, looked upon themselves as a ruling class, often committing aggression on Hindu subjects; claiming and enjoying the privileges of ruling class. |
6. Religious Attitudes: The British rulers did not desecrate or destroy Hindus’ temples |
The Muslim invaders conquering rulers, in their theological/ religious zeal had dutifully and boastingly desecrated and destroyed temples, constructed mosques in profusion on confiscated lands and sites; imposed restrictions on celebration of Hindu festivals and processions, prohibited repairs to and construction of temples( especially Aurangzeb); destroyed the universities and burnt the libraries at Nalanda, Vikramasila, Odantapur…. |
7. Intellectual and psychological damage: The British rule colonized the minds of many Indians by introducing the Macaulay designed India-denigrating Anglo-phone education denationalized millions of English-media “educated” Indians . |
Muslim rule led to native converts to Islam repudiating their Hindu civilization and culture, reverence to mother-land and accession to foreign brother-hood ( as asserted during khilafat movement (1920-22); communal rights; repudiation of common nationhood; ready recourse to violence; feeling of ( lost) ruling race and invention of insatiable grievances (Gandhiji characterized Muslims as bullies and Hindus as cowards). |
8. Lasting Effects: The British Rule ended for good permanently. India marched into modern forms of government. Democracy, Rule of Law Universities, R&D Institutions, global role. |
Partition of India , emergence of a congenital, permanent enemy State of Pakistan as neighbour; a Muslim population- exporting (infiltrating) neighbour in the East, permanently divisive , separatist, proliferating grievance-inventing “minority”; unabating communal riots, jihadi sleeper cells in the service of foreign handlers; unabating Pakistaniat, Tablighi…; incitement to weak the Union by talk of Federalism an unsolicited fraternity with SCs, STs ( never cared for during Muslim rule); CPM in Kerala patronizing / partnering with the Muslim parties and Muslim vote banks about the Pakistaniat of Muslims, Dr B R Ambedkar observed: “I do not think the demand for Pakistan is the result of mere political distemper, which will pass away with the efflux of time. As I read the situation, it seems to me that it is a characteristic in the biological sense of the term which the Muslim body politic has developed in the same manner as an organism develops a characteristic. Whether it will survive or not, in the process of natural selection, must depend upon the forces that may become operative in the struggle for existence between Hindus and Musalmans. |