IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN CULTURE – Anthropology by K.V RAMESH

Introduction :

Islam is the second biggest religion of humankind. It entered India in the 1001 century A.D. But the Islamic culture started exercising its influence in a serious manner only after the 15*|J and 16th centuries. Almost upto Akbar’s rule, tine Muslim invaders in India never made any systematic efforts to provide for India a strong and a stable political administration. Even though the triumph of Islam provided an opportunity for the intermixture of both the cultures in the beginning, it resulted in serious consequences later particularly when the Muslim invaders started destroying the Hindu and Buddhist monuments. But the continued stay of Muslims in India compelled the people of both the communities, to develop better understanding: Slowly, there took place between the two cultural exchanges, borrowings and inter-mixtures. One culture started influencing the other. The “give -and-take” attitude which these cultures developed resulted in the enrichment of both the cultures. As Alberuni has pointed out “the administrative system and the styles of life of the Muslims modified the socio-economic conditions of India”.

Impact on social life ;

(i) Islam created more ethnic complexity in India. Muslim conquest of India differed from all preceding in vasions. Islam is a monotheistic religion. Islam could not make any compromise with Hinduism. Hence, the absorption of the IndoMuslims into the fold of Hinduism by recognising Allah as another of the numberless of incarnations of Vishnu and Muhammad as an inspired sadhu, was impossible. The four groups of Indo-Muslims namely Sayyeds, Sheiks, Mughals and Pathans did not merge into Hindu society, rather they continued their identity.
(ii) Islam favoured a separate ethnic system similar to the caste system in India. The Sayyeds, the Sheiks, the Mughals and Pathans formed the upper strata and the rulers among the Muslims. In course of time, the Muslims rules recruited the local caste members into Islam. Among the first generation converts, the Brahmins became Sayyeds, and the Rajput converts merged with Mughals, Sheiks and Pathans. Next came the converts from occupational castes such as the Julaha (weaver), Nai (barber), Dhuniya (cotton carder) Kumbhar (potter), Teli (oilmen), and so on. In Bengal there are 35 caste-like divisions among the Muslims. They related caste patterned endogamy and hereditary traditional occupations. So is die case in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and South India. In Kerala, the Moplah Muslims are divided into Thangals claminig descent from prophet’s daughter Fatima, Arabs claiming descent from immigrants from Arabia, Pusalars who are recent converts from the fisherman caste and Ossans who are barbers. Everywhere the converted Hindus retained their caste identity. The Sayyeds, Sheiks, Mughals and Pathans comprise Ashraf, a higher order and the converts comprise Ajlaf, a lower order. M.N. Srinivas says, ‘the Muslim Jatis in mamy respects are combinable to Hindu Jatis having specialised occupations and gradation of status. As S.C. Dube remarks ‘the Persistence of Jati has worried Muslim theologians and social reformers, but even the recent wave of fundamentalism has not been able to do away with it .Thus Islam favoured the formation of an ethnic system similar to but separate from the caste system among the Hindus.
(iii) Islam split Indian society on a vertical basis. Before the 13th century, Hindu society was divided horizontally and neither Buddhism nor Jainism affected this divisions. They were not unassailable elements and filled in easily with the existing division. On the other hand, Islam split Indian society into two sections of Hindus and the ethnic system of Muslims. As a result, two parallel societies, the Hindu society and the Muslim society were established. This kind of division of Indian society into two separate societies has come to be known in the phraseology of today two separate nations.
(iv) Islam favoured Muslim society remain mostly urban. Since the Muslim provided more prominence to the material pleasures, they preferred to settle in urban areas. They built several urban centers including Fatehpur Sikri, Auamgabad Secunderabad, Allahabad, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and soon. Muslims never showed any interest in purchasing land in rural areas to settle as agriculturists. This made many villages to develop indigenous culture of their own uncontaminated by the Muslims. The Muslims felt that it was easy for them to secure political protection at the hands of their own rules if they lived as one community in some selected towns and cities. Even today, Muslims are found in a bigger number in urban areas than in rural areas. Hence, the Muslim impact has been greater in towns and cities than in villages.
(v) Islam attempted towards communal harmony. It is true that Muslim rules had made various attempts to convert people of other religions. But it is wrong to exaggerate this aspect and say that all the Muslim rulers resorted to forcible conversions throughout their rule. S.C. Dube writes : “thus the alternatives for the Hindus were acceptance of Islam or death. Despite long years of Muslim rule, the overwhelming majority of the people remained Hindu. This would not have been possible had the requirements of Islam been strictly carried out.” Muslim rulers were aware of the fact that it was not possible for them to rule the country for long if they failed to obtain the co-operation and support of the majority community, i.e., Hindus. Hence they made special efforts to develop friendly relations with the Hindus. Thus, they used to recruit a large number of Hindus into the army and also administration. Thus Islam tried to maintain harmony between Muslims and Hindus.

Impact on economic life ;

(i) Islam favoured the flourishing of urban occupations. Muslims always gave importance to the material pleasure and preference to settle in urban areas. They built numerous towns and cities. In towns and cities numerous crafts flourished to cater to the needs of elite Muslims classes. Further towns and cities became centers of trade activities.
(ii) Islam favoured internal and external trade. There was movement of goods between villages and urban centers. The Muslim rulers welcomed traders from Asian and European countries. The Muslim period led to the refraction of tough with outer world. Which included the revival of an Indian navy and sea-borne trade both of which been lost since the decline of the cholas.
(iii) Islam monetised Indian economy. No doubt monetisation of Indian economy helped easy transactions but it did not bring about a capitalistic economy in India.
(iv) Islam neglected agriculture. Undoubtedly Islam favoured horticulture and had several achievements to its credit in this field. However, Islam gave a blow to agriculture due to neglect. Further, due to the heavy taxes imposed on the peasentry the latter could not generate surplus.

Impact on political life :

(i) Islam created a new ruling elite of foreign origin consisting mainly of Sayyeds, Sheiks, Mughals and Pathans who comprised Ashrafs. The elite made efforts to bring political unity between Hindus and Muslims through friendly relations, through conquests and through conversions.
(ii) Islam provided oneness of administrative system to the whole of India. Especially two hundred years of Mughal mire gave to the whole of North India and to much of the Deccan also a single system of administration. The Hindu rulers copied down this administration. In some Rajput and Mahva states the administrative system was similar to that of Mughal empire.
(iii) Islam contributed to a uniform legal and judicial system. It introduced distinct and court dress. During Mughal rulers, the legal system was uniform throughout the length and breadth of North India and most of the Deccan.
(iv) Islam contributed most to the art of war. In fact Muslim contract led to an improvement in the art of war. The art of war was highly developed by the Muslim partly by borrowing from Europe (through Turkey) and partly through Persia. The imperial Mughal army served as a model which the Hindu Rajahas eagerly imitated. Muslims introduced gun powder: their cavalry rose to great prominence eclipsing the elephants of the old Hindu days.
(v) Islam greatly improved the system of fortification in India. The system of fortification reached its peak of development during the Mughal rule. Numerous Hindu Rajas copied down the system of fortification greatly improved by the Muslims, particularly Mughals in India. Plindus borrowed the custom of maintaining slaves, a custom which was a recognised institution among the Muslims. It is said that Firozshaw Sulthan had made special arrangements to maintain two lakh slaves. Hindu royal harems and palaces in Rajas than also maintained large number of slaves. Among the Rajput families women slaves were offered as dowry.

Impact on religious life:

(i) Islam brought a synthesis of Hindu-Muslim religious thought, the Sufi-saints and tine Hindu saints made attempts to synthesize Hindu-Muslim thought. The Sufi saints, for example, adopted Hindu doctrines and followed many of their traditions. Likewise, the Hindu saints adopted Muslim doctrines like universal brotherhood, social equality, devotional worship and other principles. As a result Hindus and Muslims came to have common doctrines and values. As P.K Kar said, “the Hindu and Sufi saints preached the unity of mankind, believed in the equality of all human beings before God, condemned caste distinctions and laid emphasis on love and devotional worship of the deity as against formal ritualism and external piety.” On account of such preachings, many Hindus became the disciples of Muslim saints. Some of the Muslims also became the disciples of Hindu saints and started worshipping Hindu Gods and Goddesses, In their social contacts also both the Muslims and Hindus, to a certain extent, have arisen above traditional barriers and religious orthodoxy.
(ii) Islam gave an impetus to the emergence of Bhakti cult. Islam preached universal brotherhood, social equality and rejected untouchability and idol worship. Its monotheism was a challenge to Hinduism. To meet this challenge the Hindu saints rejected idol worship and caste system, preached equality of men and oneness of all religions and showed their opposition to excessive ritualism and formalities and advocated a simple faith. They called _ this as Bhakti Marg or Bhakti cult. From this, it cannot be inferred that the Hindus did not known the oneness of god. It was known to them long before the Prophet of Islam preached . his religion, but contact with the Muslims gave an impetus to the revival of these ideas and produced a great effort on such religious leaders like Kabir, Namadeva Ramanand and others. The Bhakti movements aimed at purification of existing system and liberation of the masses from the dominance of priesthood.
(iii) Islam created a congenial atmosphere for the formation of new religions. Islam contributed to Bhakti tradition. Both the Muslims and Hindu traditions emphasized that Ram and Rahim are one and the same. All this influenced Akbar, Kabir, Nanak and others. As a result, Akbar innovated a new religion known as Din-i-Ilahi. Kabir foundered Kabirpanth and Nanak founded Sikhism. Such religions originated in an environment of reconciliation rather than confrontation.
(iv) Islam inspired native Kings to fight against the invaders in defence of their religion and culture. Islamic values such as unity, uniformity, equality, fraternity, commitment to religions and provided them a new vision. In an indirect way, all Islamic values gave inspiration for the Rajputs, Marthas, Sikhs and the Kings of Vijayanagar empire to fight against the invaders in defence of their religion and culture.

Impact on language and education :

(i) Islam contributed a new language Urdu to India. Urdu is a harmonious combination of Arabic, Persion, Turkish and Sanskrit. In fact Persian language influenced Indian languages and gave birth to Urdu.
(ii) Islam enriched Hindi in India. Muslims like Raskhan, Alam, Khusro and Jaisi enriched Hindi vocabulary by introducing many Arabic and Persian words.
(iii) Islam introduced Urdu as an official language. In some Hindu Rajput and Malwa States, the official language even in 1928 was Urdu and the Persion script was used instead of Devanagari.
(iv) Islam contributed to establishment of libraries. Some of the scholarly Muslim kings took special interest in developing libraries.
(v) Islam contributed to development of Urdu language and literature, thereby providing a new meeting ground between Hindus and Muslims. Scholarly Muslim kings got some of the Sanskrit works translated into Arabic, Persian and Urdu languages. Great Sanskrit works such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, Puranic Stories, Jataka Stories, etc., were translated into Arabic language. Hindu writers wrote in Hindi, Bengali and other vernaculars, often dealing with subjects of Hindu social life and religion, such as Radha and Krishna, Sita and Ram, Nala and Damayanti, and so on. Thus Islam influenced the development of Urdu language and literature and provided a new meeting ground between Hindus and Muslims.
(vi) Islam gave importance to education also. Muslim children got education through “mosque” and “madrasas”. Every major mosque had its own educational institution attached to it. Muslim rulers financed such educational institutions. Universities of Agra and Fatepur Sikri could be regarded as the great gifts of Muslim culture.
(vii) Islam introduced paper (kagaz) to facilitate recording of events, accounts Judicial proceedings and history. The use of paper encouraged the art of writing and the profession of scribing. Islam created the habit of writing of history of India.

Impact on diet, dress and decoration:

(i) Islam influenced the Hindus to adopt Muslim culinary, which included prepartion of Pulav, and Biriyani, and sweets such as Gulabjam, Badusha, Shakkar Pana, Kalakhand, Halwa, BurfI, Jilebi etc besides several types of Sharbats.
(ii) Islam contributed a distinct dress pattern to Hindus. Men Prior to the arrival of Muslims in India’s the Hindu men and women used to wear their traditional dress. However, after the arrival of Muslims in India, and establishmant of their rule, Hindus adopted the Muslim custom of wearing Sherwani, Achkan, Chudidar and Pyjama nad Khurtha. Before the arrival of the Muslims in India, there was no prevalence of the Pardah system in the Hindu society. Hindu women could move freely without restrictions of the Pardah. The Muslim conquest of India imposed Pardah on Hindu women also. The Hindu women were compelled to wear Pradah like their Muslim counterparts mainly to escape from the sexy looks of the invaders and to protect themselves from being kidnapped or reduced. Practice of wearing Pardah further added to the dependence of Hindu women on their men folk.

Impact on art and architecture:

(i) Islam contributed a harmonious combination of Hindu and Muslim art and architectural styles. Mughal architecture was an amalgam of influences of Persia, Byzantium and India. Babar had brought architects from Constantinople. In fact, the real synthesis of Muslim and Hindu features began Sikri, Jahanger Mahal, Moti Masjid, and the like. The same story is repeated in the Rampur Temple at Jodhpur. Muslim rulers with an ascetic sense built various buildings in different architectural styles some of which look like “Jaina Basadis”, a few others, like ” Bouddha vishars” ;a few more, like Hindu temples while the remaining ones resemble the Persion monuments. Thus, the Hindu and Muslims architects joined their hands to build a temple, a mosque, the palace of a king or the tldurbar” of a Sultan. The services of the artists or architects whether they were Muslims or Hindus ,were hired by the Hindu and Muslim kings alike.
(ii) Islam unconsciously adopted Hindu art. Muslims invaders were adventures and so they did not bring with them craftsmen and sculptors and employed the natives to construct their places and mosques. While conforming to the tastes of the Muslims the Hindus introduced their own techniques and thus influenced Muslim art. In the early days, palaces and mosques were built on the ruins of temples or by remodelling existing temples like replacing the Sikharas by domes and minarets. In this way, they unconsciously adopted elements of Hindu art.

Impact on music and gardening:

(i) Islam contributed a blend of Persian and Hindustani music. Muslim kings had given patronage to Arabbi, Irani and Hindustani singers. Hindustani music witnessed its heyday in the reign of Mughals. There took place the process of blending of Persian and Hindu music. Muslims developed new musical instruments such as Sitar, Shahanay, Tabla, Dilruba, Sarangi and so on. There were expert singers like Surdas, Keshvadas, Tansen, and Abul Fazal in the court of Akbar.
(ii) Islam contributed devotional music. The Sufis regarded music as the chief means for the realisation of God. The Hindu saints copied devotional music from the Sufi saints. Muslims adopted music and processions in connection with the arrangements of marriages, weddings and festivals.
(iii) Islam contributed to gardening in India. Mughals took interest in developing beautiful gardens. Here also they showed their love towards variety- and novelty. They had introduced Persian and Turkish styles in building gardens. Shalimar gardens, Nishat and Barinag gardens of Kashmir, and Mughal gardens at Delhi stand as examples in this regard.
(iv) Islam introduced the best medical system of that age using Unani or Greeko-Arab system of Medicine.

Contemporary position :

The Muslims are a minority in India. They constitute about 13% of the total population.

1. Although there are about three dozen Muslim majority nations in the world, India has the 2nd biggest Muslim population in the world. Their numerical strength bestows on them an instantaneous political clout given the importance of number and communal interest groups in democratic politics.
2. The partition of the Indian subcontinent on the basis of the ill-conceived two nation theory not only led to the biggest known uprooting of humanity ( of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims ) in history but created a psychological distance between Hindus and Muslims
3. The formation of two Muslim nations in succession, in 1947 (Pakistan ) and in 1971 (Bangladesh) as immediate neighbours of India rendered Indian Muslims, objects of suspicion in the eyes of non-Muslim Indians. In general and Hindus in particular, with the result they have to prove constantly their loyalty to India. In this process, the Indian Muslims face double estrangement: most of the erstwhile co-religionist neighbours became alien citizens (Pak & Bangladesh) and the fellow Hindu citizens have become stranger neighbours.
4. For a variety of reasons Urdu came to be associated with North Indian Muslims, bestowing upon them the status of a speech community reinforcing a specific Muslim cultural identity. In this process, millions of Hindus disowned Urdu as their mothertongue (as the Hindus of Punjab did Vis-a-Vis Punjab) and Muslims perceived Hindus as destroyers of their language and culture.
5. Muslim masses particularly in North India have a distinct style of life in terms of dress, trimming of beard by men and observance of Pardali by women, dietary practices, architecture of dwelling units, stipulated and highly routinised forms of worship etc. all of which render them physically and socially visible. Muslims seem to be socially enclosed in that they tend to live in exclusive neighbourhood clusters. This may be partly due to cultural factors but partly atleast their tendencies seem to be a product of communal riots. Whatever may be the reason, exclusive Muslim residential areas logically implies exclusive Hindu neighbourhoods which in turn inhibits free interaction between the two communities leading to reinforcement of prejudices and differences.
6. Finally, the dichotomy between church and state does not exist in the Muslim concept. The source of Muslim law is the sacred text and its official legal interpreters, the Ulemas, have religious sanctions behind them. This inter-linkage between the secular and the religious realm in the Muslim thought and action inevitably puts a high premium on religious sanctions and is a constant source of tension in a secular state such as India, which is populated predominantly by Hindus. The Muslim world view inevitably leads to the mixing of religion and politics which has given birth to several Muslim communal political parties such as AIML (All India Muslim League) and Jamat-e-Islam- championing the Muslim interests in secular matters. In the final analysis past political glory, substantial size, present political clout, economic disabilities, socio-cultural insulation, close linkage between the religious and die secular and an abiding commitment to propagate their religion renders Indian Muslims a category apart as compared with all other religious “minorities” in India.