Ali wrote
- The point I was trying to make about transferring of Hindu ethos and value was that while Hinduism is very rich in traditions and Ideas, It seems to me that Hindus are more susceptible to conversion either by force or manipulation. I agree that Hindu ethos have survived for centuries, but it seems like Hinduism is constantly under theological invasion even in relatively peaceful time and is shrinking. Again this is just my opinion without any scientific research so feel free to correct me if I am wrong. So if I were a Hindu, I would have been a little worried about my grandchildren getting forcefully converted to something else, especially since this has already happened to my ancestors once.
Curious logic - though!
Anyway - can you provide any example of a region where Islam penetrated before the modern period and where non-Muslims have survived in the majority - and where those non-Muslims did not viciously fight back? yes the crucial examples of survival are the two ends of Europe and India. The same bad-boys of Islam (oh only the Turks were beastly, all else were dripping with kindness and Sufi-ness) - the mameluk slave Turks - who did all those face-losing stuff the Islamic narrators boast about but for which Islam should not be blamed - were responsible for reaching into East Europe and India. The supposedly civilized post-zahiliya Arabs mixed with North African tribes and reached al Andalus in the west. From both those places they were beaten out. What makes you claim that Muslims in India suddenly changed their spots and became pacified without war? reality is that Muslims were never so strong as to have total and undisputed rule over the entire subcontinent.
Even in Russian Volga downstream, and eastern Europe - surely you must be knowing that at one point Bulgaria turned Muslim - and in Spain initial Islamic advance was overwhelming. Non-Muslims retreated, but then over centuries learned how Islamics were completely based on deception to win wars, and that they would always be treacherous and break treaties and agreements - and that chivalry or non-muslim values had to be dropped to deal with Muslims. This learning period in Europe and India stretches for centuries - which is typical to unlearn the values of a higher civilization to sink low enough to return Islamic favour in kind.
From the supposed birth and revelation of Islam in northern Arabia, to the conquest of Spain took just about 80 years. Starting from exactly the same period - it took muslims around 850 years to establish dominance by defeating last major Hindu kingdom in the Deccan. What made the progress so slow? Even then that control and dominance gave way to non-Muslim power within another 100 years, and from then on it was downhill skiing for Muslims. If the British had not arrived on the scene, most likely you would have been the descendant of a second conversion - this time out of Islam.
if you have the time, do some research on the alternative modern voices from the "Hindu" side about the reality of the Hindu-Muslim power struggle, where unopposed and undisputed progress of Islam is not supported in the parallel records of Hindu successful military resistance - which has been the main reason that Hindus still outnumber Muslims on the subcontinent.
Spain and east Europe or Russia were smaller and less populated places so were easier to clean up. India naturally needed longer time and the process had started but was stalled due to the appearance of the Brits. In the future the process will perhaps be restarted.
Islam is not free of the precedence of conversion out of Islam by force and submission/extinction by invasion - the Spanish, East European and southern Russian examples of reconversion under coercion should be pretty good cases you perhaps need to familiarize yourself with.
Your last statement is what drove my curiosity though in logical terms : I thought it would be you, say, as a Muslim, who should be rather worried that your grandchildren might be forced to be converted out again since their ancestor was once converted into Islam! Those who are still Hindus had been able to retain their Hinduism - isnt it - (so apart from a few cases of Suddhi in the earliest periods) so they could not have been descended from ancestors who had been converted into Islam!