Hinduism is a religion, or a way of life, Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, “the eternal tradition,” or the “eternal way,” beyond human history. Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, with over one billion followers or 15% of the global population, known as Hindus. Hinduism is the only religion in the world with no founder.Hinduism has gone through a lot of reforms and changes. Initially Hinduism was mostly practiced in South Asia. Hinduism has faced alot of difficulties over decade’s.
800 years of Mughal Islamic Rule:
Islamic king’s ruled 800 years on the Indian Subcontinent. It is well known fact that Mughal destroyed India and its Culture. They carried forcefull conversion of Hindu’s to Islam.
Conversions occurred for non-religious reasons of pragmatism and patronage such as social mobility among the Muslim ruling elite or for relief from taxes. Hindus were imposed heavy taxes and would get relief from tax only after conversion to Islam. Mughal exploited the Hindus during their rule. The Muslim rulers of India, zealots all but for a few exceptions, offered the Hindu subjects the stark choice between being slaughtered and converting to Islam.
- Muhammad Qasim : Historian Mr. UT Thakur has described the acts of the first Islamic invader in the year 712 as a black period in the history of Sindh. During this period, anti-Hindu acts such as forcible conversions, demolition of temples, slaughter of cows and killing of Hindus to wipe the race, reached a pinnacle. All historians (whether the earlier ones or modern) agree that conversions of Hindus in the Sindh region were done forcibly.
- Aurangzeb : After becoming the monarch of Delhi, he chalked out a political strategy for forcible conversions of Hindus into Muslims.
- Tipu Sultan: ‘When this king from the South assumed power, he vowed that he would convert all kafirs (Infidels, meaning Hindus) to Islam. He wrote to Muslims in all villages that they should preach Islam to all Hindu women and men. If they refused to accept Islam willingly, then to convert them forcibly or kill the Hindu men and give the Hindu women to Muslims. Later, Tipu converted one lakh Hindus to Islam in the Malabar region. When he raided Karnataka, within a day he converted 50,000 Hindus to Islam. He formed a special group of fanatic Muslims to convert Hindus.
- Nizam of Hyderabad: ‘During his tyrannical rule, Hindu soldiers employed in his army had to undergo circumcision. Countless Hindus who refused to convert were killed.
It was because of Great Warrior’s like Maharana Pratap and Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj that Hindus were saved and regained their pride.
200 hundred years of British and Portuguese rule:
‘During the rule of East India Company before 1857, Hindus were forcibly converted to Christianity by the missionaries.’ – Mr. Shankar D Gokhale, President, Swatantryaveer Savarkar Sahitya Abhyas Mandal, Mumbai. Christian missionaries were granted permission to propagate their religion. ‘In 1560, under Pope’s orders, the Portuguese army arrived in Goa to spread Christianity. This army committed brutal atrocities on Hindus and killed thousands of Hindus who refused to convert to Christianity. A classic example of their atrocities was making Hindus stand in a queue and breaking their teeth with a hammer.’
Portuguese set foot in Bharat in the year 1498 under the leadership of Vasco-da-Gama. With this began the political journey of imperialistic views of the Christians. The Christian missionaries immediately followed Vasco-da-Gama. Thereafter, the main objective of the Portuguese was to spread Christianity rather than expansion of their empire through trade. It is at this juncture that conversions began. Christian missionaries would throw bread into the wells behind the houses of Hindus at night, and when Hindus drank that water the next morning, these missionaries would proclaim ‘You have now become Christians’.
Even after such atrocities India still has a majority of Hindu population. As per Census 2001, out of 1028 million population over 827 million people are Hindus. The Rich Hindusim Religion Culture would and is believed to be prospour. It has currently spread all over the world !!
Reference:
- https://www.hindujagruti.org/hindu-issues/religious-conversion/15793-html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism
- Image: Gettyimages (images used for representation purpose only)
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