Syed Ubaidur Rahman is a New Delhi based author and historian. His latest book, ‘Peaceful Expansion of Islam in India’ is making waves as he has tried to give a different, though right perspective to the idea as to how Islam spread in India. His other books include ‘Forgotten Muslim Empires of South India’, Biographical Encyclopaedia of Indian Muslim Freedom Fighters’, ‘Ulema’s Role in India’s Freedom Movement’ etc. In this interview Syed Ubaidur Rahman talks about his book, the early arrival of Islam in India through merchants from Western and Eastern Coast as well as Muslim Sufis. Anjum speaks with Syed Ubaidur Rahman. Excerpts:
Q-Recently, your book “Peaceful Expansion of Islam in India” has become a topic of discussion. Please tell us how the idea of writing this book came about.
Ans: This was in the making for a long time. I was working on it for quite sometimes as I had realised that the false notion of ‘forced conversion’ of the local population to Islam in India was a narrative that must be debunked and refuted in a thoroughly scholarly fashion. I am fortunate that I was able to work on such an important theme and was able to do justice with the subject.
Q- You mentioned that Islam’s arrival in India predates the common perception. What are some key findings or discoveries you made during your research that surprised you the most?
Ans: If you follow the common narrative, you tend to believe that Islam came through Khyber Pass and northern regions and that the locals were converted through use of force. However, there is no evidence of large-scale forced conversion anywhere in the Indian Subcontinent. On the contrary, many historians, including Eton and TW Arnold, besides many others, have rejected this theory and suggested that Islam spread through peaceful means in most cases in the Indian Subcontinent. There are innumerable aspects that will surprise you. However, you will have to go through the book to have that feeling of surprise and astonishment. One of them is the fact that rajas of Malabar actually asked many families to convert one or two male members of their families to Islam.
Q-Syed Ubaidur Rahman, could you elaborate on the role of Arab merchants in spreading Islam in India? How did their mercantile activities contribute to the dissemination of the faith?
Ans: Islam’s peaceful and early arrival in India has been completely forgotten. It is surprising as Islam spread across much of India through peaceful means. There are many regions in the country where Islam prospered without a single sword ever being used for the propagation of Islam. And this happened over a period of hundreds of years and across a huge swath of land. Even in North India Islam spread not through the use of swords but through intermingling of Muslims with the local population and also by the influence of Sufis, whose role in the spread of Islam across the Indian subcontinent hasn’t been explored much.
Muslim traders influenced a large number of people across the Western and Eastern Ghats. A large number of locals embraced Islam without any use of force after being influenced by these traders and their religion. Traders came to India, much before Sufis. And in the case of Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Konkan, Goa, Lakshdweep and even Bengal, they came hundreds of years before the arrival of Sufis. The Arab traders had a longstanding relation with the western coast of India even before the Christian era. The Arab traders and presumably many local Muslims were already there in large number in the eighth century, not just in Malabar, but also in Chaul, Mangalore, Konkan, Gujarat and many other coastal regions and towns when Muhammad bin Qasim hadn’t even heard the name of Sindh.
Traders and saints have impacted India much beyond what has been appreciated thus far. The oft-repeated assertion that Islam spread in the South Asian nation by the use of sword or through brutal use of power has been obviously overdone in such a manner that almost everyone tends to believe it.
Q-In your book, you discuss the peaceful spread of Islam in various regions of India. Can you provide examples or anecdotes that illustrate this peaceful coexistence and conversion process?
Ans: There are too many anecdotes to share. Sufis have been an important factor in the spread of Islam in India, notwithstanding the fact that they never consciously tried to convert people. There has been very little evidence about Sufis acting as proselytizers for their faith during the years when the country was ruled by different Muslim dynasties. However the history of Sufism in India is much older than the history of Muslim dynasties in the country and so is their influence on the Indian society and people. Sufis started arriving in the country centuries before the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate. There were sufis and their khanqahs across the country including in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as early as ninth and tenth century.
While the Sufis might not have made conscious efforts to convert people, what is equally true is the fact that they caused the peaceful conversion of a large number of people. Their asceticism, simplicity, charisma, kiramat and non-discriminatory behavior, irrespective of people’s caste or religious background, attracted a large number of people to them and their hospices.
Q-Sufism played a significant role in popularising Islam across India. How did Sufi saints influence societal norms and attitudes towards religion during that period?
Ans: Sufis were influential not just during their lifetime, they were useful even after their death. They continued to influence the local population and became a constant source of influence across the region wherever were their tombs. Richard Eton rightly says, “If a living Sufi had only minimal influence in the religious life of non-Muslim Indians, a deceased Sufi, especially one blessed with sainthood by the local population, could literally work miracles. This was because the charisma or baraka of a spiritually saturated Sufi saint became, with time, transferred to his tomb. And since brick and mortar shrines have much greater longevity than flesh and bone Sufis, self-sustaining centers of religious power were able in this way to grow and span many centuries”.
This is the reason that the influence of the Sufis hasn’t diminished even now and their hospices and khanqahs have remained a constant attraction for people of all faiths. From Shaikh Hujwiri’s mausoleum in Lahore to Hazrat Nathar Shah Wali’s dargah in Trichurapalli in Tamil Nadu, they continue to be among the greatest attractions for people of all faiths. Both the Sufis, from tenth century, were among the oldest Sufis in the Subcontinent and influenced people during their lifetime and continue to do so even now.
Q-Your book highlights the economic and social incentives that attracted people to Islam. Syed Ubaidur Rahman, could you elaborate on how these incentives facilitated the peaceful expansion of the religion?
Ans: It is said that there were some kings who had a particular liking for Muslims. Zamorin of Malabar, Kadamba Kings of Goa and the Balhara dynasty in the north not just supported the Muslim community, especially the traders who controlled the trade across the world in medieval period, Muslims became indispensable for the welfare and survival of these kings and their kingdoms. I have written in detail in the book as to how the support by these kingdoms helped not just the traders from faraway lands, but also the kingdoms of these sovereigns. Not just Muslim traders were allowed to practice their religion freely, they were also provided full state security, and in the case of Malabar Kings, Zamorins, some people were prompted by the state to actually convert. This sounds unbelievable, but it is true.
Q-How do you address the commonly held belief that Islam spread in India primarily through force and coercion? What evidence or arguments do you present to challenge this notion?
Ans-This is a fallacious notion and has nothing to do with reality. Some over zealot Muslim chroniclers too have played a role in perpetuating this false notion. It has been very well documented that Shaikh Hujwiri converted not one or two tribes, but as many as eleven tribes in and around Lahore in the tenth century. Conversions at the hands of Sufis in Tamil Nadu, Deccan, Gujarat, Bengal and Awadh have been well documented.
Q-Could you discuss the reception of your book thus far? Have you encountered any criticisms or pushback against your reinterpretation of Indian Islamic history?
Ans- It is too early to talk about numbers, but so far it has been decent, though not very good. To be fair, I was hoping a much more impressive reception for the book. However, these are very early days and the book has been launched merely three weeks ago, so hopefully, it will get better.
Q-Syed Ubaidur Rahman, what do you hope readers will take away from your book, and how do you envision it contributing to a broader understanding of Islam’s history in the Indian subcontinent?
Ans- My book, ‘Peaceful Expansion of Islam in India’ will, hopefully, help in making it easy to understand the history in proper perspective. Historiography hasn’t been a strong point for us. However, this book is going to make a strong pitch for understanding the history of the community in the region through proper historic evidences and not through the false narrative that has been largely followed thus far.
(Syed Ubaidur Rahman can be reached at 9818327757 and syedurahman@gmail.com; views are of the author, Syed Ubaidur Rahman.)