Growth of Muslim population in medival india (A.D. 1000-1800) .
- Delhi Research. 1973
- 272
The influence of medieval Indian Muslims on Indian social order was active and palpable. And yet its dimension was not the same all through the medieval age ranging, say, between A.D. 1000 and 1800. In the beginning Muslims were few in numbers, indeed very few. Obviously the quantum of their impact at that stage could have been only limited. It grew as their numbers grew On the other hand, while the appearance of Muslims in India gave the Hindu civilisation a big jolt, its influence on Indian society continued to remain ever "strong. In any society people have to coexist, ideas are exchanged, and different sections of people influence one another's life and thought. So happened in medieval India too. Here the Muslims and Hindus clashed and coexisted ; their mutual relations passed through stresses and strains; but they also influenced each other in social and cultural spheres, Side by side, all through the centuries of the Middle Ages the Muslim numbers went on rising. Increase in population is not merely a growth in numbers and, as W. E. Moore points out, it changes not only "the size of social systems...... but also the com- plexity and interrelationships or organizational forms within systems, usually with accompanying strains". These ideas led me to the conclusion that in any study of medieval history and society our one task should be to try to estimate how many Muslims and non-Muslims there were and to determine the proportion of Muslims in the overall population of India. Then the picture of Muslims living and working with the majority of non-Muslims would become still more clear. For, “one fact is patently clear. The vast majority of Muslims in India (and Pakistan) are converts from indigenous elements, and the 'two nation theory' has no historical basis." Population studies of pre-census times are being successfully attempted in many western countries, but in India not much work has been done in this area. This book is almost a maiden attemp at population study of the medieval period. It need hardly be sai that to squeeze information on the design and size of populatio- in medieval times from centemporary sources has been an uphill task. Besides, any study of population of pre-census times can be based only on estimates and estimates by their very nature tend to be tentative. In our computation, however, sufficient historical evidence has been forthcoming for any demographic behaviour. If nothing more, I have at least been able to collect in one place direct and indirect evidence leading to fairly good estimates of medieval Indian population, although the estimates themselves may not always be invulnerable to challenge. However I hope that the uniqueness, magnitude and delicacy of the task would make the reader indulgent and the critic tolerant. In this study I have found it fruitful to divide the eight cen- turies of the medieval period into four parts of two centuries each, and study the overall population as well as the growth of Muslim numbers separately for the periods A. D. 1000 to 1200, 1200 to 1400, 1400 to 1600, and 1600 to 1800. These bench-marks are not as arbitrary or unscientific as they look. The year 1000 saw the introduction of Muslims in the cis-Indus region consequent upon the invarious from Ghazni. 1200 witnessed the establishment of Turkish rule and 1400 its decline. Akbar's Age came to a close by about 1600. The two last centuries witnessed the peak of glory and the nadir of decline of Muslim power in India. A number of friends, belonging to the University of Delhi where this study was carried out, helped and encouraged me in completing the work. Professor Donald F.Lach of the University of Chicago and a Visiting Professor in the Department of History, Delhi Uni- versity, during the year 1967-68, gave me some Demographic Tables of European cities prepared for his own use. Dr. Ashish Bose, Professor of Demography in the Institute of Economic Growth, went through the first draft of the book, lent ready advice on many points, and helped me in preparing Tables and Diagrams. Dr. Suren Navalakha of the Asian Research Centre placed at my disposal some very valuable material on the growth of Muslim population in Bengal. Dr. Feroz Ahmad of the Physics Department ungrudg- ingly carried out for me some calculations on the electronic com- puter, and Dr. H. C. Varma was kind enough to prepare the Index. To all these and many others not mentioned here I owe a debt of gratitude