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Islam is the second-largest religion in India, making up 14.2% of the country's population with about 172 million adherents (2011 census).[6][7][8][9][10][11] Islam first came to the western coast of India with Arab traders as early as the 7th century AD to coastalMalabar[12] and the Konkan-Gujarat.[13]Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kerala is thought to be the first mosque in India, built in 629 AD by Malik lbn Dinar.[14][15][16][17][18][19] Following an expedition from the governor of Bahrain toBharuch in the 7th century AD, immigrantArab and Persian trading communities fromSouth Arabia and the Persian Gulf began settling in coastal Gujarat.[20] Islam arrived in north India in the 12th century with Turkic invasions and has since become a part of India's religious and cultural heritage.[21] Over the centuries, there has been significant integration of Hindu and Muslim cultures across India[22][23] and the Muslims have played a prominent role in India's economic rise and cultural influence.[24]
Early history of Islam in India
Trade relations have existed between Arabia and the Indian subcontinent since ancient times. Even in the pre-Islamic era, Arab traders used to visit the Konkan-Gujarat coast and Malabar region, which linked them with the ports of South East Asia. Newly Islamised Arabs were Islam's first contact with India. The historians Elliot and Dowson say in their book The History of India as told by its own Historians, the first ship bearing Muslim travellers was seen on the Indian coast as early as 630 AD. H.G. Rawlinson, in his book:Ancient and Medieval History of India[26] claims the first Arab Muslims settled on the Indian coast in the last part of the 7th century AD. Shaykh Zainuddin Makhdum's "Tuhfat al-Mujahidin" is also a reliable work.[27] This fact is corroborated, by J. Sturrock in his South Kanara and Madras Districts Manuals,[28] and also by Haridas Bhattacharya in Cultural Heritage of India Vol. IV.[29] It was with the advent of Islam that the Arabs became a prominent cultural force in the world. The Arab merchants and traders became the carriers of the new religion and they propagated it wherever they went.[30]
Muslim neighbourhood in Delhi circa 1852.
Pencil and wash drawing of a mosque at Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh by Thomas(1749-1840) and William (1769-1837) Daniell, 24 March 1789
The first Indian mosque, Cheraman Juma Masjid, is thought to have been built in 629 AD by Malik Bin Deenar.[31][32][33][34]
In Malabar, the Mappilas may have been the first community to convert to Islam.[citation needed] Intensive missionary activities were carried out along the coast and many natives also embraced Islam. These new converts were now added to the Mappila community. Thus among the Mappilas, we find, both the descendants of the Arabs through local women and the converts from among the local people.[citation needed]
In the 8th century, the province of Sindh (in present-day Pakistan) was conquered by an Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim. Sindh became the easternmost province of the Umayyad Caliphate.
In the first half of the 10th century, Mahmud of Ghazni added the Punjab to the Ghaznavid Empire and conducted 17 raids on modern-day India. In the 11th century, Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud played a significant role in the conversion of locals (Hindus) to Islam. A more successful invasion came at the end of the 12th century by Muhammad of Ghor. This eventually led to the formation of the Delhi Sultanate.
Arab–Indian interactions
There is much historical evidence to show that Arabs and Muslims interacted with India and Indians from the very early days of Islam, if not before the arrival of Islam in Arabia. Arab traders transmitted the numeral system developed by Indians to the Middle East and Europe.
Many Sanskrit books were translated into Arabic as early as the eighth century. George Saliba writes in his book Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance that "some major Sanskrit texts began to be translated during the reign of the secondAbbasid caliph al-Mansur (754–775), if not before; some texts on logic even before that, and it has been generally accepted that the Persian and Sanskrit texts, few as they were, were indeed the first to be translated."[35]
Political history of Islam in India
Main article: Islamic rulers in the Indian subcontinent
For further details see: History of India
Delhi sultanate
Main article: Delhi Sultanate
Gujarat sultanate
Main article: Gujarat Sultanate
Mughal Empire
Main article: Mughal Empire
Deccan sultanates
Post Mughal era
For decline of Muslim politics in India see:Maratha Confederacy, East India Company
Role in Indian independence movement
Further information: Indian independence movement
The contribution of Muslim revolutionaries, poets and writers is documented in the struggle for independence. Titu Mir raised a revolt against British. Abul Kalam Azad,Hakim Ajmal Khan and Rafi Ahmed Kidwaiare Muslims who engaged in this purpose.Muhammad Ashfaq Ullah Khan ofShahjehanpur conspired to loot the British treasury at Kakori (Lucknow). Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (popularly known as Frontier Gandhi), was a noted nationalist who spent 45 of his 95 years of life in jail; Barakatullah of Bhopal was one of the founders of theGhadar party which created a network of anti-British organisations; Syed Rahmat Shah of the Ghadar party worked as an underground revolutionary in France and was hanged for his part in the unsuccessful Ghadar (mutiny) uprising in 1915; Ali Ahmad Siddiqui ofFaizabad (UP) planned the Indian Mutiny inMalaya and Burma along with Syed Mujtaba Hussain of Jaunpur and was hanged in 1917;Vakkom Abdul Khadir of Kerala participated in the "Quit India" struggle in 1942 and was hanged; Umar Subhani, an industrialist and millionaire of Bombay provided Gandhi with congress expenses and ultimately died for the cause of independence. Among Muslim women, Hazrat Mahal, Asghari Begum, Bi Amma contributed in the struggle for independence from the British.
Maulana Azad was a prominent leader of the Indian independence movement and a strong advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity. Shown here is Azad (left) with Sardar Patel andMahatma Gandhi in 1940.
The first ever Indian rebellion against the British saw itself in the Vellore Mutiny of 10 July 1806 which left around 200 British Officers and troops dead or injured. But it was subdued by the British and the mutineers and the family of Tippu Sultan who were incarcerated in the Vellore Fort at that time had to pay a heavy price. It predates theIndian Rebellion of 1857. And as a result of the Sepoy Mutiny, mostly the upper class Muslim rebels were targeted by the Britishers, as under their leadership the war was mostly fought in and around Delhi. Thousands of kith and kins were shot or hanged near the gate of Red Fort, Delhi, which is now known as 'Khooni Darwaza'(the bloody gate). The renowned Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib(1797–1869) has given a vivid description of such executions in his letters now published by the Oxford University Press 'Ghalib his life and letters'compiled and translated by Ralph Russel and Khurshidul Islam(1994).
As the Muslim power waned with the gradual demise of the Mughal Empire, the Muslims of India faced a new challenge – that of protecting their culture and interests, yet interacting with the alien, technologically advantaged power. In this period, the Ulama of Firangi Mahal, based first at Sehali in District Barabanki, and, since the 1690s, based in Lucknow, educated and guided the Muslims. The Firangi Mahal led and steered the Muslims of India.
Other famous Muslims who fought for independence against the British rule: Abul Kalam Azad, Mehmud Hasan of Darul Uloom Deoband who was implicated in the famousSilk Letter Conspiracy to overthrow the British through an armed struggle, Husain Ahmed Madani, former Shaikhul Hadith of Darul Uloom Deoband, Ubaidullah Sindhi, Hakeem Ajmal Khan, Hasrat Mohani, Syed Mahmud, Professor Maulavi Barkatullah, Zakir Husain,Saifuddin Kichlu, Vakkom Abdul Khadir, Manzoor Abdul Wahab, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Hakeem Nusrat Husain, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai, Colonel Shahnawaz, M.A.Ansari, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad, Ansar Harwani, Tak Sherwani, Nawab Viqarul Mulk, Nawab Mohsinul Mulk, Mustsafa Husain, VM Ubaidullah, SR Rahim, Badaruddin Taiyabji, and Moulvi Abdul Hamid.
Until 1920, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a member of the Indian National Congress and was part of the independence struggle.Allama Muhammad Iqbal, poet and philosopher, was a strong proponent of Hindu–Muslim unity and an undivdided India perhaps until 1930.Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was also active in the Indian National Congress in Bengal during his early political career. Muhammad Ali Jauhar andShaukat Ali struggled for the emancipation of the Muslims in the overall Indian context, and struggled for independence alongsideMahatma Gandhi and Abdul Bari of Firangi Mahal. Until the 1930s, the Muslims of India broadly
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