Muslims living around us 'are not Mughals', got mostly converted to escape caste discrimination

By Himanshu Kumar*

Columbus was a Christian, but the occupation of America by him and the massacre of the Native Americans are not called a Christian attack or killings by Christians. The British, Dutch, Portuguese, and French came to India, but we never said that Christians ruled India. However, when the Mughals came to India and ruled, we call it a Muslim invasion of Hindus and say that Muslims imposed slavery on Hindus.

In fact, the Mughals in India gave patronage to the Bhakti movement. It was during their time that poets like Surdas, Tulsidas, Meera, Rahim, and Raidas thrived. Krishna's entire childhood stories developed during this period. Four hundred temples dedicated to Lord Rama were built during the Mughal period. The Ramcharitmanas was written during the Mughal era.

Nevertheless, today's point of reflection is: Was it really Muslim rule? Are today's Muslims Mughals? The Muslims living around us in India are mostly people who converted from the so-called lower castes of India. A large number of people adopted Islam in search of equality, escaping caste-based exploitation, discrimination, and untouchability.

In the 1857 rebellion, Muslims participated in large numbers and troubled the British. After 1857, a significant number of those hanged were Muslims. The British severely destroyed the Muslims. After that, many Muslim leaders assured the British that they wouldn't join Congress and would focus on education. The Muslim League was formed for this purpose, with the help of the British.

By then, Congress had begun to radicalize and embrace socialist and egalitarian ideas. The landlords and upper-caste people began to feel that their interests would not be protected in Congress. Traditional ruling class Hindus formed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindu Mahasabha and distanced themselves from Congress, while Muslim landlords supported the Muslim League. It was decided that after independence, zamindari (landlordism) would not be abolished in Pakistan.

Remember, the first law passed in India after independence was the Zamindari Abolition Act. But in Pakistan, zamindari has not been abolished to this day. An article by Madhu Limaye explains that Guru Golwalkar of the RSS strongly opposed the abolition of zamindari in India.

At the ideological level, the Muslim League and the RSS are on the same plane. In fact, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League together formed governments in India, and Jan Sangh leader Syama Prasad Mukherjee served as a minister in a government supported by the Muslim League. Both were opposed to Congress. The RSS supported the British during the Quit India movement. The RSS even informed the British how they could crush the Quit India movement.

There is evidence for all these things. I can testify because many people in my family were involved in the freedom struggle of that time, and my father himself participated in the Quit India movement.

In Pakistan, zamindari has not been abolished to this day. In India, Guru Golwalkar of RSS strongly opposed zamindari abolition

The worrying thing is that over the past 100 years, the RSS has completely distorted our history. Hatred against Muslims has been spread, and lies have been propagated. As a result, today's young Hindus are filled with hatred and have become supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has now completely seized power.

The BJP's hold on power is not like that of other parties. The BJP's control is total. The BJP now controls the Indian army, the Supreme Court, the Election Commission, universities, the police, industrialists, and the Reserve Bank. Earlier, all these institutions operated independently, and the government had to manage with their input. Today, all these institutions work at the behest of the government.

The worrying thing is that the government is now run by just two people. The cabinet is now useless, and Parliament has become irrelevant. India is in great trouble. We have made enemies of the countries around us. China is intruding into our territory. Within the country, student leaders and intellectuals are being jailed. Industries are collapsing, unemployment is spreading, education is stagnant, and the economy is in disarray.

It is during such times that governments begin to brutally suppress any voices of dissent. This is indeed a concerning time, but it should be seen as a challenge. We should not be afraid of being arrested or killed. We need to fiercely resist these forces and increase efforts to restore truth and justice.

---

*Social activist working in Dantewada. Source: The author's Facebook timeline

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra* The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

The war on junk food: Why India must adopt global warning labels

By Jag Jivan The global health landscape is witnessing a decisive shift toward aggressive regulation of the food industry, a movement highlighted by two significant policy developments shared by Dr. Arun Gupta of the Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPi).

The illusion of nuclear abundance: Why NTPC’s expansion demands public scrutiny

By Shankar Sharma* The recent news that NTPC is scouting 30 potential sites across India for a massive nuclear power expansion should be a wake-up call for every citizen. While the state-owned utility frames this as a bold stride toward a 100,000 MW nuclear capacity by 2047, a cold look at India’s nuclear saga over the last few decades suggests this ambition may be more illusory than achievable. More importantly, it carries implications that could fundamentally alter the safety, environment, and economic health of our communities.

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Search This Blog