An Indian politician belonging to the AIMIM (All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen) political party recently made provocative and controversial statements at a rally in India. The politician quoted that Muslims ruled India for 832 years. The politician went to state further controversial statements as part of what can be termed as “hate-speech” against Hindus.
While setting aside personal remarks and opinions from the controversial speech, Indian Muslim historian Saquib Salim, in an article published on Awaz The Voice (an Indian digital news platform) set the record straight by countering this false narrative of history that Muslims ruled over India for 832 years. The historian points out that the politician must have arrived at the figure of 832 years by counting from Mahmud of Ghazni’s raid till the capture of Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1857. The historian goes on to remind that Mahmud of Ghazni never ruled but only raided territories of India. He further says that the first Muslim ruler to establish rule over Delhi was Mohammad Ghori, almost 150 years after Mahmud’s last raid into India. But even then, the historian reminds that ruling over Delhi never meant ruling India as a large part of India was still under the rule of Hindu sovereigns and they had political alliances with Muslim rulers.
Saquib Salim presents his second point that even though the rulers were Muslim, it never meant that no Hindus belonged to the ruling elite. He quotes Padma Bhushan K. S Narang, an eminent historian, who wrote about the Sultanate period, “The Muslims did not constitute one single class. They were divided into three subdivisions: the upper class, the lower-middle class, and the slaves.” Saquib points that the Mughal empire, which was widely spread under Akbar, was also not entirely a Muslim empire but a coalition of Hindus and Muslims. Saquib further quotes Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India, who said, “Much of the time and energy of the Mughal Emperors from Akbar right down to Aurangzeb was taken up in suppressing the revolts of Muslim Governors of Provinces or in conquering independent Muslim kingdoms.” Dr Rajendra Prasad had also said that Hindu generals like Man Singh and Bhagwandas in the time of Akbar and by Jaswant Singh and Jay Singh in the time of Aurangzeb, conquered and suppressed not only Muslim rulers and governors but also Hindus who were ruling at the time in parts of the country. And similarly, even Sivaji, a Hindu ruler, employed several Muslim military officers like General Siddi Hullal and General Nur Khan and Admirals Siddi Sambal, Siddi Misri, and Daulat Khan.
Further, another historian, Ram Gopal writes, “another wrong notion held is that with the establishment of Mohammad Ghori’s rule, India became an Islamic state and that only the kingdom changed hands from the one Muslim dynasty to the other.”
Saquib Salim ends his argument by recalling historical facts and writes that after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, Sikhs, Marathas, Jats, and Pathans emerged as sovereigns and that from 1707 to 1857, India was not a Mughal kingdom. Mughal rule was practically over by 1765.
The historian reminds that it was the Britishers who invented the divisions on the basis of language, caste and religion in order to exercise their “divide and rule” policy in India. He says that the British devised an education system where they deliberately classified the Indian history into three periods – the Hindu period (ancient), the Muslim period (medieval), and the Modern period. The historian further points out that while the previous eras were identified on the basis of religion, the Britishers never termed the British rule in India as “Christian rule”, which speaks volumes about their intent.
The historian calls for the need of complete decolonization of thought and education before national reconstruction of the history of India in order to avoid such false history and misinformation.
Controversial Remarks
Shaukat Ali, president of the AIMIM for Uttar Pradesh state, in a rally, said, “Worms and insects like you have been ruled by us for 832 years and you used to do ji huzoor with your hands folded at the back and now you are threatening us.” The statement is marked against Hindus. After his controversial statements, there was a widespread demand for police action against the remarks mentioned in his hate speech.
AIMIM UP leader, Shaukat Ali caught on tape making a hate speech while responding to Virat Hindu sabha hate mongering. @asadowaisi should sack him, the cops should book him. Zero tolerance for ALL hate speech, party/community no bar. Hate begets hate, firm hand needed ! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/yYMBdzP5H6
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) October 15, 2022
Reports suggest that Shaukat Ali has been booked under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language, etc) and 295A (deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code. It is also to be noted that Shaukat Ali and his party AIMIM was rejected by the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh state earlier this year. His party secured 0.49% votes in the elections while he received 1,525 votes out of 2,47,266 votes cast in the Zahoorabad constituency of Ghazipur.
*With inputs from Indian Digital News Platform – Awaz The Voice (awazthevoice.in)
