141-564: The Kewat , also spelled Kevat , is a Hindu caste , found in the states of Assam , Bihar , Tripura , Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in India. They are the traditional boatmen of northern India , and also in neighbouring country Nepal . The name "Kevata" was first appeared in the Pillar Edict V of Emperor Ashoka . The Kewat are among the 17 OBC communities of Uttar Pradesh that have been proposed for Scheduled Caste status by
282-489: A Hindu religious identity". Scholars state that Hindu, Buddhist and Jain identities are retrospectively-introduced modern constructions. Inscriptional evidence from the 8th century onwards, in regions such as South India, suggests that medieval era India, at both elite and folk religious practices level, likely had a "shared religious culture", and their collective identities were "multiple, layered and fuzzy". Even among Hinduism denominations such as Shaivism and Vaishnavism,
423-526: A North western Indian region of seven rivers and as an India whole). The Greek cognates of the same terms are " Indus " (for the river) and " India " (for the land of the river). Likewise Hebrew cognate hōd-dū refers to India mentioned in Hebrew Bible ( Esther 1:1 ). The term " Hindu " also implied a geographic, ethnic or cultural identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent around or beyond
564-768: A center of the Ismaili sect of Islam. The Saffarid Dynasty of Zaranj occupied Kabul and the kingdom of Zunbil permanently in 871 AD. A new chapter of Muslim conquests began when the Samanid Dynasty took over the Saffarid Kingdom and Sabuktigin seized Ghazni . After the Decline of the Caliphate , Muslim incursions resumed under the later Turkic and Central Asian dynasties like the Saffarid dynasty and
705-615: A common name for the country. Al-Biruni 's 11th-century text Tarikh Al-Hind , and the texts of the Delhi Sultanate period use the term 'Hindu', where it includes all non-Islamic people such as Buddhists, and retains the ambiguity of being "a region or a religion". The 'Hindu' community occurs as the amorphous 'Other' of the Muslim community in the court chronicles, according to the Indian historian Romila Thapar . The comparative religion scholar Wilfred Cantwell Smith notes that
846-534: A consequence, religious groups have an interest in being recognised as distinct from the Hindu majority in order to qualify as a "religious minority". Thus, the Supreme Court was forced to consider the question whether Jainism is part of Hinduism in 2005 and 2006. Starting after the 10th century and particularly after the 12th century Islamic invasion, states Sheldon Pollock , the political response fused with
987-582: A diversity of beliefs, and seems to oscillate between Hindus holding a centralist and pluralist religious views. In the texts of Delhi Sultanate era, states Sharma, the term Hindu remains ambiguous on whether it means people of a region or religion, giving the example of Ibn Battuta's explanation of the name "Hindu Kush" for a mountain range in Afghanistan. It was so called, wrote Ibn Battuta, because many Indian slaves died there of snow cold, as they were marched across that mountain range. The term Hindu there
1128-571: A fixed set of religious beliefs within Hinduism. One need not be religious in the minimal sense, states Julius Lipner , to be accepted as Hindu by Hindus, or to describe oneself as Hindu. Hindus subscribe to a diversity of ideas on spirituality and traditions, but have no ecclesiastical order, no unquestionable religious authorities, no governing body, nor a single founding prophet; Hindus can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist. Because of
1269-526: A period of thirty years and more. God be merciful to both father and son! Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed there wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims. This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of
1410-401: A reasonable construction of history. However, the existence of non-textual evidence such as cave temples separated by thousands of kilometers, as well as lists of medieval era pilgrimage sites, is evidence of a shared sacred geography and existence of a community that was self-aware of shared religious premises and landscape. Further, it is a norm in evolving cultures that there is a gap between
1551-503: A recon mission to Sindh in 653. The mission described Makran as inhospitable, and Caliph Uthman, probably assuming the country beyond the Indus was much worse, forbade any further incursions into Indian subcontinent. During the caliphate of Ali, many Hindus of Sindh had come under the influence of Shi'ism and some even participated in the Battle of Camel and died fighting for Ali. Under
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#17327875019511692-430: A result of Western influence during its colonial history. Scholars such as Fleming and Eck state that the post-Epic era literature from the 1st millennium CE amply demonstrate that there was a historic concept of the Indian subcontinent as a sacred geography, where the sacredness was a shared set of religious ideas. For example, the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shaivism and fifty-one Shaktipithas of Shaktism are described in
1833-555: A result until 870 AD. Arab troops disliked being stationed in Makran. Fierce resistance stalled Arab progress repeatedly in the "frontier zone". and the Arabs had to focus on tribute extraction instead of systematic conquest as a result. Arabs launched several campaigns in eastern Balochistan between 661 and 681 AD. Four Arab commanders were killed during these campaigns, however, Sinan b. Salma managed to conquer parts of Makran including
1974-646: A sacred pilgrimage site is documented in the Varanasimahatmya text embedded inside the Skanda Purana , and the oldest versions of this text are dated to 6th to 8th-century CE. The idea of twelve sacred sites in Shiva Hindu tradition spread across the Indian subcontinent appears not only in the medieval era temples but also in copper plate inscriptions and temple seals discovered in different sites. According to Bhardwaj, non-Hindu texts such as
2115-703: A saint. [...] When Khusraw stopped at his residence, [Arjan] came out and had an interview with [Khusraw]. Giving him some elementary spiritual precepts picked up here and there, he made a mark with saffron on his forehead, which is called qashqa in the idiom of the Hindus and which they consider lucky. When this was reported to me, I realized how perfectly false he was and ordered him brought to me. I awarded his houses and dwellings and those of his children to Murtaza Khan, and I ordered his possessions and goods confiscated and him executed. Sikh scholar Pashaura Singh states, "in Persian writings, Sikhs were regarded as Hindu in
2256-536: A succession of inroads twelve or fourteen in number, into Gandhar – the present Peshwar valley – in the course of his proselytizing invasions of Hindustan. Fire and sword, havoc and destruction, marked his course everywhere. Gandhar which was styled the Garden of the North was left at his death a weird and desolate waste. Its rich fields and fruitful gardens, together with the canal which watered them (the course of which
2397-533: A uniform civil code, where all citizens are subject to the same laws, everyone has equal civil rights, and individual rights do not depend on the individual's religion. In contrast, opponents of Hindu nationalists remark that eliminating religious law from India poses a threat to the cultural identity and religious rights of Muslims, and people of Islamic faith have a constitutional right to Islamic shariah -based personal laws. A specific law, contentious between Hindu nationalists and their opponents in India, relates to
2538-604: A wedding or when a baby is born or cremation rituals. Some Hindus go on pilgrimage to shared sites they consider spiritually significant, practice one or more forms of bhakti or puja , celebrate mythology and epics, major festivals, love and respect for guru and family, and other cultural traditions. A Hindu could: In the Constitution of India , the word "Hindu" has been used in some places to denote persons professing any of these religions: Hinduism , Jainism , Buddhism or Sikhism . This however has been challenged by
2679-473: Is a controversial political subject, with no consensus about what it means or implies in terms of the form of government and religious rights of the minorities. There are 1.2 billion Hindus worldwide (15% of world's population), with about 95% of them being concentrated in India alone. Along with Christians (31.5%), Muslims (23.2%) and Buddhists (7.1%), Hindus are one of the four major religious groups of
2820-471: Is a term used to describe the culture and identity of Hindus and Hinduism , including the historic Vedic people . Hindu culture can be intensively seen in the form of art , architecture , history , diet , clothing , astrology and other forms. The culture of India and Hinduism is deeply influenced and assimilated with each other. With the Indianisation of southeast Asia and Greater India ,
2961-676: Is ambivalent and could mean geographical region or religion. The term Hindu appears in the texts from the Mughal Empire era. Jahangir , for example, called the Sikh Guru Arjan a Hindu: There was a Hindu named Arjan in Gobindwal on the banks of the Beas River. Pretending to be a spiritual guide, he had won over as devotees many simple-minded Indians and even some ignorant, stupid Muslims by broadcasting his claims to be
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#17327875019513102-478: Is an organic relation of Sikhs to Hindus, states Zaehner, both in religious thought and their communities, and virtually all Sikhs' ancestors were Hindus. Marriages between Sikhs and Hindus, particularly among Khatris , were frequent. Some Hindu families brought up a son as a Sikh, and some Hindus view Sikhism as a tradition within Hinduism, even though the Sikh faith is a distinct religion. Julius Lipner states that
3243-643: Is documented in Islamic literature such as those relating to 8th century Muhammad bin-Qasim , 11th century Mahmud of Ghazni , the Persian traveler Al Biruni, the 14th century Islamic army invasion led by Timur, and various Sunni Islamic rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire. There were occasional exceptions such as Akbar who stopped the persecution of Hindus, and occasional severe persecution such as under Aurangzeb , who destroyed temples, forcibly converted non-Muslims to Islam and banned
3384-576: Is lacking. The Arabs moved east from Sindh in several detachments and probably attacked from both the land and the sea, occupying Mirmad (Marumada, in Jaisalmer ), Al-Mandal (perhaps Okhamandal in Gujarat) or Marwar, and raiding Dahnaj , not identified, al-Baylaman ( Bhilmal ) and Jurz (Gurjara country—north Gujarat and southern Rajasthan), and attacking Barwas ( Broach ). Gurjara king Siluka repelled Arabs from "Stravani and Valla", probably
3525-481: Is still partially traceable in the western part of the plain), had all disappeared. Its numerous stone built cities, monasteries, and topes with their valuable and revered monuments and sculptures, were sacked, fired, razed to the ground, and utterly destroyed as habitations. The Ghaznavid conquests were initially directed against the Ismaili Fatimids of Multan, who were engaged in an ongoing struggle with
3666-567: Is this Rama to be described.. who freed Varanasi from the mleccha (barbarian, Turk Muslim) horde, and built there a golden temple of Sarngadhara". Pollock notes that the Yadava king Ramacandra is described as a devotee of deity Shiva (Shaivism), yet his political achievements and temple construction sponsorship in Varanasi, far from his kingdom's location in the Deccan region, is described in
3807-721: The 2023 caste census . The Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal classifies the Kewat as a subgroup within the broader social group of Madheshi Other Caste. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census , 153,772 people (0.6% of the population of Nepal) were Kewat. The frequency of Kewat by province was as follows: The frequency of Kewat was higher than national average (0.6%) in the following districts: Hindu Traditional Hindus ( Hindustani: [ˈɦɪndu] ; / ˈ h ɪ n d uː z / ; also known as Sanātanīs ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism , also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma . Historically,
3948-719: The Arabian Sea , not to start the conquest of India. Shortly after the Muslim conquest of Persia , the connection between the Sindh and Islam was established by the initial Muslim missions during the Rashidun Caliphate. The kingdoms of Kapisa - Gandhara in modern-day Afghanistan, Zabulistan , and Sindh (which then held Makran) in modern-day Pakistan, all of which were culturally part of Indian subcontinent since ancient times, were known as "The Frontier of Al Hind" to
4089-613: The Battle of Rasil in 644 on the Indian Ocean coast, then reached the Indus River . Caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab denied Suhail permission to carry on across the river. Al-Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who attacked Makran in the year 649 AD, was an early partisan of Ali ibn Abu Talib. Abdullah ibn Aamir led the invasion of Khurasan in 650 AD, and his general Rabi b. Ziyad Al Harithi attacked Sistan and took Zaranj and surrounding areas in 651 while Ahnaf ibn Qais conquered
4230-705: The Bolan Pass . King Chach of Sindh sent an army against the Arabs, the Arabs were trapped when the enemy blocked the mountain passes, Haris was killed and his army was annihilated. Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra took a detachment through the Khyber pass towards Multan in Southern Punjab in modern-day Pakistan in 664 AD, then pushed south into Kikan, and may have also raided Quandabil. Turki Shah and Zunbil expelled Arabs from their respective kingdoms by 670, and Zunbil began assisting in organizing resistance against
4371-556: The Hepthalites of Herat and advanced up to Balkh by 653. Arab conquests now bordered the Kingdoms of Kapisa, Zabul and Sindh in modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Arabs levied annual tributes on the newly captured areas, and after leaving 4,000 men garrisons at Merv and Zaranj, retired to Iraq instead of pushing on against the frontier of India. Caliph Uthman b. Affan sanctioned an attack against Makran in 652, and sent
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4512-493: The Hindu Sabhas (Hindu associations), and ultimately a Hindu-identity driven nationalism in the 1920s. The colonial era Hindu revivalism and mobilisation, along with Hindu nationalism, states Peter van der Veer, was primarily a reaction to and competition with Muslim separatism and Muslim nationalism. The successes of each side fed the fears of the other, leading to the growth of Hindu nationalism and Muslim nationalism in
4653-713: The Mamluk dynasty . With the Delhi Sultanate established, Islam was spread across most parts of the Indian subcontinent. In the 14th century, the Khalji dynasty under Alauddin Khalji , extended Muslim rule southwards to Gujarat , Rajasthan , and the Deccan . The successor Tughlaq dynasty temporarily expanded its territorial reach to Tamil Nadu . The disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate, capped by Timur's invasion in 1398, caused several Muslim sultanates and dynasties to emerge across
4794-548: The Mughal Empire in 1526, which was one of the three gunpowder empires . Emperor Akbar gradually enlarged the Mughal Empire to include a large portion of the subcontinent. Under Akbar, who stressed the importance of religious tolerance and winning over the goodwill of the subjects, a multicultural empire came into being with various non-Muslim subjects being actively integrated into the Mughal Empire's bureaucracy and military machinery. The economic and territorial zenith of
4935-708: The Mughal dynasty of India. Informed about civil war in South Asia, Timur began a trek starting in 1398 to invade the reigning Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud of the Tughlaq Dynasty in the north Indian city of Delhi. His campaign was politically pretexted that the Muslim Delhi Sultanate was too tolerant toward its "Hindu" subjects, but that could not mask the real reason being to amass the wealth of
5076-538: The Rashidun Caliphate , long before any Arab army reached the frontier of India by land. Uthman ibn Abi al-As al-Thaqafi , the governor of Bahrain and Oman, had dispatched naval expeditions against the Sasanian coast, and further east to the borders of India, as confirmed by the contemporary Armenian historian, Sebeos . Uthman, on his own initiative and without the sanction of Caliph Umar , according to
5217-566: The Samajwadi Party -controlled Government . However, this proposal, which relates to votebank politics and has been made in the past, has been stayed by the courts; a prior attempt was also rejected by the Government of India . Kewats are recognised as Scheduled Caste in the states of Assam , West Bengal and Tripura as Keot, Keyot or Jalkeot. With a population of 937,861, Kewats constitute 0.7174% of Bihar 's population in
5358-644: The Samanid Dynasty with more local capitals. They supplanted the Abbasid Caliphate and expanded their domains both northwards and eastwards. Continuous raids from these empires in the north-west of India led to the loss of stability in the Indian kingdoms. Under Sabuktigin , the Ghaznavid Empire found itself in conflict with the Kabul Shahi Raja Jayapala in the east. When Sabuktigin died and his son Mahmud ascended
5499-770: The Sindhu (Indus) River . By the 16th century CE, the term began to refer to residents of the subcontinent who were not Turkic or Muslims . Since ancient times, Hindu has been used to refer to people inhibiting region beyond the Sindhu river, therefore some assumptions that medieval Persian authors considered Hindu as derogatory is not accepted by practicing Hindus themselves as those references are much later to references used in pre-Islamic Persian sources, early Arab and Indian sources, all of them had positive connotation only as they either referred to region or followers of Hinduism. The historical development of Hindu self-identity within
5640-600: The United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom . These together accounted for 99% of the world's Hindu population, and the remaining nations of the world combined had about 6 million Hindus as of 2010 . The word Hindu is an exonym . This word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan and Sanskrit word Sindhu , which means "a large body of water", covering "river, ocean". It was used as
5781-830: The Upanishads . The Puranas and the Itihasa (mainly Ramayana and the Mahabharata ) are enduring traditions among Indonesian Hindus, expressed in community dances and shadow puppet ( wayang ) performances. As in India, Indonesian Hindus recognise four paths of spirituality, calling it Catur Marga . Similarly, like Hindus in India, Balinese Hindus believe that there are four proper goals of human life, calling it Catur Purusartha – dharma (pursuit of moral and ethical living), artha (pursuit of wealth and creative activity), kama (pursuit of joy and love) and moksha (pursuit of self-knowledge and liberation). Hindu culture
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5922-513: The "Doomed Army". Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath next led 20,000 troops each from Kufa and Basra (dubbed the "Peacock Army" due to the splendor of their equipment and the participation of numerous members of Arab nobility). His methodical 699 AD campaign made gains, but he was contemptuously rebuked by Hajjaj at every step. When Ibn al-Ash'ath paused his operation to consolidate, Hajjaj insulted him and ordered an immediate advance. This unreasonable demand led to mutiny. The mutiny
6063-399: The "lived and historical realities" of a religious tradition and the emergence of related "textual authorities". The tradition and temples likely existed well before the medieval era Hindu manuscripts appeared that describe them and the sacred geography. This, states Fleming, is apparent given the sophistication of the architecture and the sacred sites along with the variance in the versions of
6204-571: The 11th century. After the capture of Lahore and the end of the Ghaznavids , the Ghurid ruler Muhammad of Ghor laid the foundation of Muslim rule in India in 1192. In 1202, Bakhtiyar Khalji led the Muslim conquest of Bengal , marking the easternmost expansion of Islam at the time. The Ghurid Empire soon evolved into the Delhi Sultanate in 1206, ruled by Qutb ud-Din Aibak , the founder of
6345-573: The 13th and the 18th centuries, establishing the Indo-Muslim period . Earlier Muslim conquests in the subcontinent include the invasions which started in the northwestern subcontinent (modern-day Pakistan ), especially the Umayyad campaigns during the 8th century. Mahmud of Ghazni , Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire , preserved an ideological link to the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate and invaded vast parts of Punjab and Gujarat during
6486-587: The 17th-century Bhakta Mala text using the phrase "Hindu dharma ". Scholar Arvind Sharma notes that the term "Hindus" was used in the 'Brahmanabad settlement' which Muhammad ibn Qasim made with non-Muslims after the Arab invasion of northwestern Sindh region of India, in 712 CE. The term 'Hindu' meant people who were non-Muslims, and it included Buddhists of the region. In the 11th-century text of Al Biruni, Hindus are referred to as "religious antagonists" to Islam, as those who believe in rebirth, presents them to hold
6627-801: The 1920s, as a reaction to the Islamic Khilafat Movement wherein Indian Muslims championed and took the cause of the Turkish Ottoman sultan as the Caliph of all Muslims, at the end of the World War I . Hindus viewed this development as one of divided loyalties of Indian Muslim population, of pan-Islamic hegemony, and questioned whether Indian Muslims were a part of an inclusive anti-colonial Indian nationalism. The Hindu nationalism ideology that emerged, states Jeffrelot,
6768-579: The 19th century as a response to British colonialism by Indian nationalists and neo-Hinduism gurus. Jaffrelot states that the efforts of Christian missionaries and Islamic proselytizers, during the British colonial era, each of whom tried to gain new converts to their own religion, by stereotyping and stigmatising Hindus to an identity of being inferior and superstitious, contributed to Hindus re-asserting their spiritual heritage and counter cross examining Islam and Christianity, forming organisations such as
6909-521: The 7th-century CE Chinese text Records on the Western Regions by the Buddhist scholar Xuanzang . Xuanzang uses the transliterated term In-tu whose "connotation overflows in the religious" according to Arvind Sharma . While Xuanzang suggested that the term refers to the country named after the moon, another Buddhist scholar I-tsing contradicted the conclusion saying that In-tu was not
7050-553: The Abbasid Caliph, al-Qadir Billah. Ghaznavid's rule in Northwestern India (modern Afghanistan and Pakistan) lasted over for 175 years, from 1010 to 1187. It was during this period that Lahore assumed considerable importance, apart from being the second capital, and later the only capital of the Ghaznavid Empire . At the end of his reign, Mahmud's empire extended from Kurdistan in the west to Samarkand in
7191-581: The Arabs in 728 AD, and saw off two Abbasid invasions in 769 and 785. Abbasids attacked Kabul several times and collected tribute between 787 and 815 AD and extracted tribute after each campaign. Abbasid's Governor of Sindh, Hisham (in office 768–773) raided Kashmir, recaptured parts of Punjab from Karkota control, and launched naval raids against ports of Gujarat. These raids like other Abbasid Naval raids launched in 776 and 779 AD, gained no territory. Arabs occupied Sindian (Southern Kutch) in 810, only to lose it in 841. Civil war erupted in Sindh in 842 AD, and
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#17327875019517332-463: The Arabs in Makran. This was the beginning of a prolonged struggle between the rulers of Kabul and Zabul in modern-day and Pakistan against successive Arab governors of Sistan, Khurasan and Makran. The Kabul Shahi kings and their Zunbil kinsmen successfully blocked access to the Khyber Pass and Gomal Pass routes into India from 653 to 870 AD, while modern Balochistan, Pakistan, comprising
7473-514: The Arabs. Makran had been conquered by Chach of Aror in 631 AD, but ten years later, it was described as "under the government of Persia" by Xuanzang , who had visited the region in 641. The first clash between a ruler of an Indian kingdom and the Arabs took place in 643, when Arab forces defeated Rutbil, the King of Zabulistan in Sistan . Arabs led by Suhail b. Abdi later defeated a Sindhi army in
7614-469: The British East India Company seized control of much of the Indian subcontinent up till 1857. Throughout the 18th century, European powers continued to exert a large amount of political influence over the Indian subcontinent, and by the end of the 19th century most of the Indian subcontinent came under European colonial domination , most notably the British Raj until 1947. The first ever recorded incursion by Arabs in India occurred around 636/7 AD, during
7755-441: The Chagai area, and established a permanent base of operations by 673 AD. Rashid b. Amr, the next governor of Makran, subdued Mashkey in 672 CE. Munzir b. Jarood Al Abadi managed to garrison Kikan and conquer Buqan by 681 CE, while Ibn Harri Al Bahili conducted several campaigns to secure the Arab hold on Kikan, Makran and Buqan by 683 AD. Zunbil saw off Arab campaigns in 668, 672 and 673 by paying tribute. Although Arabs occupied
7896-482: The Delhi Sultanate. Timur's invasion did not go unopposed, however, and he did meet some resistance during his march to Delhi, most notably with the Sarv Khap coalition in northern India, as well as the Governor of Meerut . Although impressed and momentarily stalled by the valour of Ilyaas Awan , Timur was able to continue his relentless approach to Delhi, arriving in 1398 to combat the armies of Sultan Mehmud, already weakened by an internal battle for ascension within
8037-420: The European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. Other prominent mentions of 'Hindu' include the epigraphical inscriptions from Andhra Pradesh kingdoms who battled military expansion of Muslim dynasties in the 14th century, where the word 'Hindu' partly implies a religious identity in contrast to 'Turks' or Islamic religious identity. The term Hindu
8178-418: The Habbari dynasty occupied Mansurah, and by 871, five independent principalities had emerged, with the Banu Habbari clan controlling in Mansurah, Banu Munabbih occupying Multan, Banu Madan ruling in Makran, and Makshey and Turan falling to other rulers, all outside direct Caliphate control. Ismaili missionaries found a receptive audience among both the Sunni and non-Muslim populations in Multan, which became
8319-678: The Hindu identities, states Leslie Orr, lacked "firm definitions and clear boundaries". Overlaps in Jain-Hindu identities have included Jains worshipping Hindu deities, intermarriages between Jains and Hindus, and medieval era Jain temples featuring Hindu religious icons and sculpture. Beyond India, on Java island of Indonesia , historical records attest to marriages between Hindus and Buddhists, medieval era temple architecture and sculptures that simultaneously incorporate Hindu and Buddhist themes, where Hinduism and Buddhism merged and functioned as "two separate paths within one overall system", according to Ann Kenney and other scholars. Similarly, there
8460-523: The Hindu identity and religious response to Islamic invasion and wars developed in different kingdoms, such as wars between Islamic Sultanates and the Vijayanagara kingdom, and Islamic raids on the kingdoms in Tamil Nadu . These wars were described not just using the mythical story of Rama from Ramayana, states Chattopadhyaya, the medieval records used a wide range of religious symbolism and myths that are now considered as part of Hindu literature. This emergence of religious with political terminology began with
8601-413: The Hindu-majority post-British India. After the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947, the Hindu nationalism movement developed the concept of Hindutva in second half of the 20th century. The Hindu nationalism movement has sought to reform Indian laws, that critics say attempts to impose Hindu values on India's Islamic minority. Gerald Larson states, for example, that Hindu nationalists have sought
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#17327875019518742-701: The Hindus and intensely scrutinized them, but did not interrogate and avoided reporting the practices and religion of Mughal and Arabs in South Asia", and often relied on Muslim scholars to characterise Hindus. In contemporary era, the term Hindus are individuals who identify with one or more aspects of Hinduism , whether they are practising or non-practicing or Laissez-faire . The term does not include those who identify with other Indian religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism or various animist tribal religions found in India such as Sarnaism . The term Hindu, in contemporary parlance, includes people who accept themselves as culturally or ethnically Hindu rather than with
8883-434: The Indian subcontinent further accelerating the geopolitical disintegration of the Indian subcontinent. The Maratha Empire replaced Mughals as the dominant power of the subcontinent from 1720 to 1818. The Muslim conquests in Indian subcontinent came to a halt after the Battle of Plassey (1757), the Battle of Buxar (1764), Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767–1799), Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775–1818) and Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845–1848) as
9024-414: The Indian subcontinent, such as the Gujarat Sultanate , Malwa Sultanate , Bahmani Sultanate , Jaunpur Sultanate , Madurai Sultanate , and the Bengal Sultanate . Some of these, however, were followed by Hindu reconquests and resistance from the native powers and states, such as the Telugu Nayakas, Vijayanagara , and Rajput states under the Kingdom of Mewar . The Delhi Sultanate was replaced by
9165-450: The Indian subcontinent. In the 20th century, the sense of religious nationalism grew in India, states van der Veer, but only Muslim nationalism succeeded with the formation of the West and East Pakistan (later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh), as "an Islamic state" upon independence. Religious riots and social trauma followed as millions of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs moved out of the newly created Islamic states and resettled into
9306-403: The Indic religious culture and doctrines. Temples dedicated to deity Rama were built from north to south India, and textual records as well as hagiographic inscriptions began comparing the Hindu epic of Ramayana to regional kings and their response to Islamic attacks. The Yadava king of Devagiri named Ramacandra , for example states Pollock, is described in a 13th-century record as, "How
9447-459: The Indus, clearing the region up to Budha. Some towns like Nerun and Sadusan ( Sehwan ) surrendered peacefully. Muhammad bin Qasim moved back to Nerun to resupply and receive reinforcements sent by Hajjaj. The Arabs crossed the Indus further South and defeated the army of Dahir, who was killed. Brahmanabad , then Alor ( Aror ) and finally Multan , were captured alongside other in-between towns with only light Muslim casualties. Arabs marched up to
9588-413: The Mamluk (1206–1290), the Khalji (1290–1320), the Tughlaq (1320–1414), the Sayyid (1414–51), and the Lodhi (1451–1526). By the mid-century, Bengal and much of central India was under the Delhi Sultanate. The Tughlaqs conquered Delhi with the support of the Khokhar tribes who formed the vanguard of the army. The Tughlaqs claimed to be "bound to all Indians by ties of blood and relation". Under
9729-419: The Mughals was reached at the end of the 17th century, when under the reign of emperor Aurangzeb the empire witnessed the full establishment of Islamic Sharia through the Fatawa al-Alamgir . The Mughals went into a sudden decline immediately after achieving their peak following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, due to a lack of competent and effective rulers among Aurangzeb's successors. Other factors included
9870-401: The Near East but owed them no allegiance. They based their laws on the Quran and the sharia and permitted non-Muslim subjects to practice their own religions if they paid the jizya (poll tax). They ruled from urban centers, while military camps and trading posts provided the nuclei for towns that sprang up in the countryside. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Sultanate
10011-584: The Northeast, and from the Caspian Sea to the Punjab in the west. Although his raids carried his forces across Northern and Western India, only Punjab came under his permanent rule while Kashmir , the Doab , Rajasthan, and Gujarat remained nominal under the control of the local Indian dynasties. In 1030, Mahmud fell gravely ill and died at age 59. As with the invaders of three centuries ago, Mahmud's armies reached temples in Varanasi , Mathura , Ujjain , Maheshwar , Jwalamukhi, Somnath and Dwarka . Mu'izz al-Din , better known as Shahāb-ud-Din Muhammad Ghori
10152-570: The Puranic literature. According to Diana L. Eck and other Indologists such as André Wink, Muslim invaders were aware of Hindu sacred geography such as Mathura, Ujjain, and Varanasi by the 11th century. These sites became a target of their serial attacks in the centuries that followed. The Hindus have been persecuted during the medieval and modern era. The medieval persecution included waves of plunder, killing, destruction of temples and enslavement by Turk-Mongol Muslim armies from central Asia. This
10293-725: The Sikhs and by neo-Buddhists who were formerly Hindus. According to Sheen and Boyle, Jains have not objected to being covered by personal laws termed under 'Hindu', but Indian courts have acknowledged that Jainism is a distinct religion. The Republic of India is in the peculiar situation that the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly been called upon to define "Hinduism" because the Constitution of India , while it prohibits "discrimination of any citizen" on grounds of religion in article 15, article 30 foresees special rights for "All minorities, whether based on religion or language". As
10434-780: The Sultanate before it was conquered by Zahiruddin Babur in 1526, who subsequently founded the Mughal dynasty that ruled from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Tīmūr bin Tara gh ay Barlas , known in the West as Tamerlane or "Timur the lame", was a 14th-century warlord of Turco-Mongol descent. He had conquered much of western and central Asia, and founded the Timurid Empire (1370–1507) in Central Asia which survived until 1857 as
10575-643: The Turks of the Khwarizmian Empire, whiles his armies continued to advance through Northern India, raiding as far as Bengal . Mu'izz al-Din returned to Lahore after 1200. In 1206, Mu'izz al-Din had to travel to Lahore to crush a revolt. On his way back to Ghazni his caravan rested at Damik near Sohawa (which is near the city of Jhelum in the Punjab province of modern-day Pakistan). He was assassinated on 15 March 1206, while offering his evening prayers by
10716-612: The Umayyads (661–750 AD), many Shias sought asylum in the region of Sindh, to live in relative peace in the remote area. Ziyad Hindi was one of those refugees. Mu'awiya I established the Umayyad rule over the Arabs after the First Fitna in 661 AD, and resumed expansion of the Muslim empire. Al-Baladuri wrote that, "In the year 44 H. (664 A.D.), and in the days of the Khalif Mu'awiya, Muhallib son of Abu Safra made war upon
10857-542: The Yavanas [Muslims], The Kali age now deserves deepest congratulations for being at the zenith of its power, gone is the sacred learning, hidden is refinement, hushed is the voice of Dharma . The historiographic writings in Telugu language from the 13th- and 14th-century Kakatiya dynasty period presents a similar "alien other (Turk)" and "self-identity (Hindu)" contrast. Chattopadhyaya, and other scholars, state that
10998-402: The area North of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur , and the invasion of Malwa but were ultimately defeated by Bappa Rawal and Nagabhata I in 725 AD near Ujjain. Arabs lost control over the newly conquered territories and part of Sindh due to Arab tribal infighting and Arab soldiers deserting the newly conquered territory in 731 AD. Al Hakam b. Awana Al Kalbi founded the garrison city of Al Mahfuza on
11139-509: The areas of Kikan or Qiqanan, Nukan, Turan, Buqan, Qufs, Mashkey and Makran, would face several Arab expeditions between 661 and 711 AD. The Arabs launched several raids against these frontier lands, but repeated rebellions in Sistan and Khurasan between 653 and 691 AD diverted much of their military resources in order to subdue these breakaway provinces and away from expansion into Al Hind. Muslim control of these areas ebbed and flowed repeatedly as
11280-716: The areas south of Helmand in 673 permanently Zunbil defeated Yazid b. Salm's army in 681 AD at Junzah, and Arabs had to pay 500,000 dirhams as ransom to get free their prisoners. Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf Al Thaqifi , who had played a crucial role during the Second Fitna for the Umayyad cause, was appointed the governor of Iraq in 694 AD. Hajjaj received governorship of Khurasan and Sistan in 697 and he sponsored Muslim expansions in Makran , Sistan, Transoxiana and Sindh. The Arab's hold on Makran weakened when Arab rebels seized
11421-457: The army marched along the coast to Tiaz in Makran, where the army of Makran joined him, and the combined force moved to the Kech valley. Muhammad subdued the restive towns of Fannazbur and Armabil, finally completing the conquest of Makran. Then the army met up with the reinforcements and catapults sent by sea near Debal and took Debal through assault. From Debal, the Arabs moved towards north along
11562-722: The assassins from the Ismaili Muslim sect. Muhammad Ghoris successors established the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate , while the Mamluk Dynasty in 1211 (however, the Delhi Sultanate is traditionally held to have been founded in 1206) seized the reins of the empire. Mamluk means "slave" and referred to the Turkic slave soldiers who became rulers. The territory under control of the Muslim rulers in Delhi expanded rapidly. Several Turko-Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi:
11703-537: The celebration of Hindu festivals such as Holi and Diwali . Other recorded persecution of Hindus include those under the reign of 18th century Tipu Sultan in south India, and during the colonial era. In the modern era, religious persecution of Hindus have been reported outside India in Pakistan and Bangladesh . Christophe Jaffrelot states that modern Hindu nationalism was born in Maharashtra , in
11844-502: The country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmir, Benares, and other places. And there the antagonism between them and all foreigners receives more and more nourishment both from political and religious sources. During the closing years of the tenth and the early years of the succeeding century of our era, Mahmud the first Sultan and Musalman of the Turk dynasty of kings who ruled at Ghazni , made
11985-409: The culture has also influenced a long region and other religions people of that area. All Indian religions , including Buddhism , Jainism and Sikhism are deeply influenced and soft-powered by Hinduism . Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent Political Militant [REDACTED] Islam portal The Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent mainly took place between
12126-431: The custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs is a modern phenomena, but one that is a convenient abstraction. Distinguishing Indian traditions is a fairly recent practice, states Lipner, and is the result of "not only Western preconceptions about the nature of religion in general and of religion in India in particular, but also with the political awareness that has arisen in India" in its people and
12267-539: The days of the Turks, when they seized the power in Ghazna under the Sâmânî dynasty , and the supreme power fell to the lot of Nasir-addaula Sabuktagin. This prince chose the holy war as his calling, and therefore called himself al-Ghazi ("the warrior/invader"). In the interest of his successors, he constructed, to weaken the Indian frontier, those roads on which afterwards his son Yamin-addaula Mahmud marched into India during
12408-477: The early medieval era Puranas as pilgrimage sites around a theme. This sacred geography and Shaiva temples with same iconography, shared themes, motifs and embedded legends are found across India, from the Himalayas to hills of South India, from Ellora Caves to Varanasi by about the middle of 1st millennium. Shakti temples, dated to a few centuries later, are verifiable across the subcontinent. Varanasi as
12549-471: The eastern side of a lake near Brahmanabad. Hakam next attempted to reclaim the conquests of Junaid in Al Hind. Arab records merely state that he was successful, Indian records at Navasari details that Arab forces defeated "Kacchella, Saindhava, Saurashtra, Cavotaka, Maurya and Gurjara" kings. The city of Al Mansura was founded near Al Mahfuza by Amr b. Muhammad. Al Hakam next invaded the Deccan in 739 with
12690-556: The expensive and bloody Mughal-Rajput Wars and the Mughal–Maratha Wars . The Afsharid ruler Nader Shah's invasion in 1739 was an unexpected attack which demonstrated the weakness of the Mughal Empire. This provided opportunities for various regional states such as Rajput states , Mysore Kingdom , Sindh State , Nawabs of Bengal and Murshidabad , Maratha Empire , Sikh Empire , and Nizams of Hyderabad to declare their independence and exercising control over large regions of
12831-539: The first Muslim invasion of Sindh in the 8th century CE, and intensified 13th century onwards. The 14th-century Sanskrit text, Madhuravijayam , a memoir written by Gangadevi , the wife of Vijayanagara prince, for example describes the consequences of war using religious terms, I very much lament for what happened to the groves in Madhura , The coconut trees have all been cut and in their place are to be seen, rows of iron spikes with human skulls dangling at
12972-672: The first ruler of the dynasty, Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq, the Tughlaq court wrote a war ballad known as the Vaar in the Punjabi language , describing the introduction of Ghazi Malik's rise to the throne. This was the earliest known Vaar in Punjabi poetry. The Tughalqs attacked and plundered Malwa, Gujarat, Mahratta, Tilang, Kampila, Dhur-samundar, Mabar, Lakhnauti, Chittagong, Sunarganw and Tirhut. The Tughlaqs chose Daulatabad in southern India as
13113-635: The foothills of Kashmir along the Jhelum in 713 AD, and stormed the Al-Kiraj (possibly the Kangra valley). Muhammad was deposed after the death of Caliph Walid in 715 . Jai Singh, son of Dahir captured Brahmanabad and Arab rule was restricted to the Western shore of the Indus. Sindh was briefly lost to the caliph when the rebel Yazid b. Muhallab took over Sindh in 720. Junaid b. Abd Al Rahman Al Marri became
13254-441: The governor of Sindh in 723 AD. He conquered Debal, defeated and killed Jai Singh, secured Sindh and Southern Punjab and then stormed Al Kiraj (Kangra valley) in 724 AD. Junaid next attacked a number of Hindu kingdoms in what is now Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh aiming at permanent conquest, but the chronology and area of operation of the campaigns during 725–743 is difficult to follow because accurate, complete information
13395-486: The highest percentage of Hindus (in decreasing order) are Nepal , India , Mauritius , Fiji , Guyana , Bhutan , Suriname , Trinidad and Tobago , Qatar , Sri Lanka , Kuwait , Bangladesh , Réunion , Malaysia , and Singapore . The fertility rate, that is children per woman, for Hindus is 2.4, which is less than the world average of 2.5. Pew Research projects that there will be 1.4 billion Hindus by 2050. In more ancient times, Hindu kingdoms arose and spread
13536-609: The historical records in Vaishnavism terms of Rama, a deity Vishnu avatar. Pollock presents many such examples and suggests an emerging Hindu political identity that was grounded in the Hindu religious text of Ramayana, one that has continued into the modern times, and suggests that this historic process began with the arrival of Islam in India. Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya has questioned the Pollock theory and presented textual and inscriptional evidence. According to Chattopadhyaya,
13677-499: The history of al-Baladhuri , had also launched two naval raids against ports of the Indian subcontinent, the first of these raids targeted Thane (a small town near Mumbai ) and Bharuch (a city in Gujarat ). The second raid targeted Debal (a town near Karachi ). The assault on Thane, the first recorded Arab raid on India, was commanded by Uthman's brother al-Hakam, who also led the raid on Bharuch. The following raid on Debal
13818-476: The influential Asiatick Researches founded in the 18th century, later called The Asiatic Society , initially identified just two religions in India – Islam, and Hinduism. These orientalists included all Indian religions such as Buddhism as a subgroup of Hinduism in the 18th century. These texts called followers of Islam as Mohamedans , and all others as Hindus . The text, by the early 19th century, began dividing Hindus into separate groups, for chronology studies of
13959-695: The inhabitants of the Deccan to become Muslim. These elite colonists from the capital of Delhi were Urdu-speakers , who carried the Urdu language to the Deccan. During the time of Delhi Sultanate, the Vijayanagara Empire resisted attempts of Delhi Sultanate to establish dominion in the Southern India , serving as a barrier against invasion by the Muslims. The Sultans of Delhi enjoyed cordial, if superficial, relations with Muslim rulers in
14100-607: The intention of permanent conquest, but was decisively defeated at Navsari by the viceroy Avanijanashraya Pulakeshin of the Chalukya Empire serving Vikramaditya II . Arab rule was restricted to the west of Thar desert. When the Abbasid Revolution overthrew the Umayyads in 750 AD after the Third Fitna , Sindh became independent and was captured by Musa b. K'ab al Tamimi in 752 AD. Zunbil had defeated
14241-474: The language of Urdu (literally meaning "horde" or "camp" in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Delhi Sultanate period as a result of the mingling of Sanskritic Hindi and the Persian, Turkish, Arabic favoured by the Muslim invaders of India . The Sultanate suffered significantly from the sacking of Delhi in 1398 by Timur , but revived briefly under the Lodi Dynasty. This was the final dynasty of
14382-715: The last of Ghaznavid territory under his control. His early campaigns in the Indian Subcontinent were against the Qarmatians of Multan. In 1191, he invaded the territory of Prithviraj III of Ajmer , who ruled his territory from Delhi to Ajmer in present-day Rajasthan , but was defeated at the First Battle of Tarain . The following year, Mu'izz al-Din assembled 120,000 horsemen and once again invaded India. Mu'izz al-Din's army met Prithviraj's army again at Tarain, and this time Mu'izz al-Din won; Govindraj
14523-486: The legal age of marriage for girls. Hindu nationalists seek that the legal age for marriage be eighteen that is universally applied to all girls regardless of their religion and that marriages be registered with local government to verify the age of marriage. Muslim clerics consider this proposal as unacceptable because under the shariah-derived personal law, a Muslim girl can be married at any age after she reaches puberty. Hindu nationalism in India, states Katharine Adeney,
14664-626: The local Indian population, in a religious or cultural sense, is unclear. Competing theories state that Hindu identity developed in the British colonial era , or that it may have developed post-8th century CE after the Muslim invasions and medieval Hindu–Muslim wars . A sense of Hindu identity and the term Hindu appears in some texts dated between the 13th and 18th century in Sanskrit and Bengali . The 14th- and 18th-century Indian poets such as Vidyapati , Kabir , Tulsidas and Eknath used
14805-509: The memoirs of Chinese Buddhist and Persian Muslim travellers attest to the existence and significance of the pilgrimage to sacred geography among Hindus by later 1st millennium CE. According to Fleming, those who question whether the term Hindu and Hinduism are a modern construction in a religious context present their arguments based on some texts that have survived into the modern era, either of Islamic courts or of literature published by Western missionaries or colonial-era Indologists aiming for
14946-415: The mid-19th century, colonial orientalist texts further distinguished Hindus from Buddhists , Sikhs and Jains , but the colonial laws continued to consider all of them to be within the scope of the term Hindu until about mid-20th century. Scholars state that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs is a modern phenomenon. At approximately 1.2 billion, Hindus are
15087-399: The military and political campaign during the medieval era wars in Deccan peninsula of India, and in the north India, were no longer a quest for sovereignty, they embodied a political and religious animosity against the "otherness of Islam", and this began the historical process of Hindu identity formation. Andrew Nicholson, in his review of scholarship on Hindu identity history, states that
15228-620: The name of the Indus River and also referred to its tributaries. The actual term 'hindu' first occurs, states Gavin Flood, as "a Persian geographical term for the people who lived beyond the river Indus (Sanskrit: Sindhu )", more specifically in the 5th-century BCE, DNa inscription of Darius I . The Punjab region , called Sapta Sindhu in the Vedas, is called Hapta Hindu in Zend Avesta . The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions
15369-445: The opinion that the Arabs raids may have been failures. and forced the Arabs to retreat. The raid on Debal may have occurred in 643 AD and faced success, but it is unlikely as Umar was still the Caliph and Uthman was unlikely to disobey his directive on sea raids, and the source reporting this is deemed unreliable. The motivation for these expeditions may have been to seek plunder or to attack pirates to safeguard Arabian trade in
15510-431: The phrase Hindu dharma (Hinduism) and contrasted it with Turaka dharma ( Islam ). The Christian friar Sebastiao Manrique used the term 'Hindu' in a religious context in 1649. In the 18th century, European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus , in contrast to Mohamedans for groups such as Turks, Mughals and Arabs , who were adherents of Islam. By
15651-486: The pirates. Hajjaj sent two expeditions to Sindh, both of which were defeated. Al Hajjaj next equipped an army built around 6,000 Syrian cavalry and detachments of mawali from Iraq, six thousand camel riders , and a baggage train of 3,000 camels under his Nephew Muhammad bin Qasim to Sindh. His artillery of five catapults were sent to Debal by sea ("manjaniks"). Muhammad bin Qasim departed from Shiraz in 710 AD,
15792-511: The points, In the highways which were once charming with anklets sound of beautiful women, are now heard ear-piercing noises of Brahmins being dragged, bound in iron-fetters, The waters of Tambraparni , which were once white with sandal paste, are now flowing red with the blood of cows slaughtered by miscreants, Earth is no longer the producer of wealth, nor does Indra give timely rains, The God of death takes his undue toll of what are left lives if undestroyed by
15933-433: The province of Hi[n]dush , referring to northwestern India. The people of India were referred to as Hinduvān and hindavī was used as the adjective for Indian language in the 8th century text Chachnama . According to D. N. Jha , the term 'Hindu' in these ancient records is an ethno-geographical term and did not refer to a religion. Among the earliest known records of 'Hindu' with connotations of religion may be in
16074-401: The province, and Hajjaj had to send expeditions under three governors between 694 and 707 AD before Makran was partially recovered by 694 AD. Al Hajjaj also fought against Zunbil in 698 and 700 AD. The 20,000 strong army led by Ubaidullah ibn Abu Bakra was trapped by the armies of Zunbil and Turki Shah near Kabul in 698 AD, and lost 15,000 men to thirst and hunger, earning this force the title of
16215-741: The provinces of the Abbasid Caliphate in conjunction with their compatriots of the Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa and the Middle East; Mahmud apparently hoped to curry the favor of the Abbasids in this fashion. However, once this aim was accomplished, he moved onto the looting of Indian temples and monasteries. By 1027, Mahmud had captured parts of North India and obtained formal recognition of Ghazni's sovereignty from
16356-522: The religion and traditions across Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand , Nepal , Burma , Malaysia , Indonesia , Cambodia , Laos , Philippines , and what is now central Vietnam . Over 3 million Hindus are found in Bali Indonesia, a culture whose origins trace back to ideas brought by Hindu traders to Indonesian islands in the 1st millennium CE. Their sacred texts are also the Vedas and
16497-401: The religions have drawn their curved swords;" however, the date of this text is unclear and considered by most scholars to be more recent. In Islamic literature, 'Abd al-Malik Isami 's Persian work, Futuhu's-salatin , composed in the Deccan under Bahmani rule in 1350, uses the word ' hindi' to mean Indian in the ethno-geographical sense and the word ' hindu' to mean 'Hindu' in
16638-414: The same frontier, and advanced as far as Banna [ Bannu ] and Alahwar [ Lahore ], which lie between Multan and Kabul ." After 663-665 CE, the Arabs launched an invasion against Kapisa, Zabul and what is now Pakistani Balochistan . Abdur Rahman b. Samurra besieged Kabul in 663 AD, while Haris b Marrah advanced against Kalat after marching through Fannazabur and Quandabil and moving through
16779-548: The second administrative capital of the Delhi Sultanate. The Delhi Sultanate forced migration of the Muslim population of Delhi, including his royal family, the nobles, Syeds, Sheikhs and 'Ulema to settle in Daulatabad. The purpose of transferring the entire Muslim elite to Daulatabad was to act as propagandists who would adapt Islamic religious symbolism to the rhetoric of empire, and so the Sufis could by persuasion bring many of
16920-425: The sense of a follower of the Hindu religion". The poet Vidyapati 's Kirtilata (1380) uses the term Hindu in the sense of a religion, it contrasts the cultures of Hindus and Turks (Muslims) in a city and concludes "The Hindus and the Turks live close together; Each makes fun of the other's religion ( dhamme )." One of the earliest uses of word 'Hindu' in a religious context, in a European language (Spanish),
17061-443: The sense of non-Muslim Indians". However, scholars like Robert Fraser and Mary Hammond opine that Sikhism began initially as a militant sect of Hinduism and it got formally separated from Hinduism only in the 20th century. During the colonial era, the term Hindu had connotations of native religions of India, that is religions other than Christianity and Islam. In early colonial era Anglo-Hindu laws and British India court system,
17202-470: The term 'Hindu' retained its geographical reference initially: 'Indian', 'indigenous, local', virtually 'native'. Slowly, the Indian groups themselves started using the term, differentiating themselves and their "traditional ways" from those of the invaders. The text Prithviraj Raso , by Chand Bardai , about the 1192 CE defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan at the hands of Muhammad Ghori , is full of references to "Hindus" and "Turks", and at one stage, says "both
17343-408: The term Hindu referred to people of all Indian religions as well as two non-Indian religions: Judaism and Zoroastrianism. In the 20th century, personal laws were formulated for Hindus, and the term 'Hindu' in these colonial 'Hindu laws' applied to Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in addition to denominational Hindus. Beyond the stipulations of British colonial law, European orientalists and particularly
17484-509: The term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent . It is assumed that the term "Hindu" traces back to Avestan scripture Vendidad which refers to land of seven rivers as Hapta Hendu which itself is a cognate to Sanskrit term Sapta Sindhuḥ (This term Sapta Sindhuḥ is mentioned in RigVeda that refers to
17625-609: The throne in 998 AD, Ghazni was engaged in the North with the Qarakhanids when the Shahi Raja renewed hostilities in east once again. In the early 11th century, Mahmud of Ghazni launched seventeen expeditions into Indian subcontinent. In 1001, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni defeated Raja Jayapala of the Hindu Shahi Dynasty of Gandhara (in modern Afghanistan), in the Battle of Peshawar and marched further towards
17766-505: The various beliefs. Among the earliest terms to emerge were Seeks and their College (later spelled Sikhs by Charles Wilkins), Boudhism (later spelled Buddhism), and in the 9th volume of Asiatick Researches report on religions in India, the term Jainism received notice. According to Pennington, the terms Hindu and Hinduism were thus constructed for colonial studies of India. The various sub-divisions and separation of subgroup terms were assumed to be result of "communal conflict", and Hindu
17907-401: The vernacular literature of Bhakti movement sants from 15th to 17th century, such as Kabir , Anantadas, Eknath, Vidyapati, suggests that distinct religious identities, between Hindus and Turks (Muslims), had formed during these centuries. The poetry of this period contrasts Hindu and Islamic identities, states Nicholson, and the literature vilifies the Muslims coupled with a "distinct sense of
18048-462: The west of Peshawar (in modern Pakistan) and, in 1005, made it the center for his forces. In 1030, Al Biruni reported on the devastation caused during the conquest of Gandhara and much of northwest India by Mahmud of Ghazni following his defeat of Jayapala in the Battle of Peshawar in 1001: Now in the following times no Muslim conqueror passed beyond the frontier of Kabul and the river Sindh until
18189-424: The wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult. The religion "defies our desire to define and categorize it". A Hindu may, by his or her choice, draw upon ideas of other Indian or non-Indian religious thought as a resource, follow or evolve his or her personal beliefs, and still identify as a Hindu. In 1995, Chief Justice P. B. Gajendragadkar
18330-479: The world's third-largest religious group after Christians and Muslims. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 966 million (94.3% of the global Hindu population), live in India , according to the 2011 Indian census. After India, the next nine countries with the largest Hindu populations are, in decreasing order: Nepal , Bangladesh , Indonesia , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , the United States , Malaysia ,
18471-564: The world. Most Hindus are found in Asian countries. The top twenty-five countries with the most Hindu residents and citizens (in decreasing order) are India , Nepal , Bangladesh , Indonesia , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , United States , Malaysia , Myanmar , United Kingdom , Mauritius , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Canada , Australia , Saudi Arabia , Trinidad and Tobago , Singapore , Fiji , Qatar , Kuwait , Guyana , Bhutan , Oman and Yemen . The top fifteen countries with
18612-579: Was a conqueror from the region of Ghor in modern Afghanistan . Before 1160, the Ghaznavid Empire covered an area running from central Iran east to the Punjab, with capitals at Ghazni on the banks of Ghazni river in present-day Afghanistan, and at Lahore in present-day Pakistan . In 1173, Muhammad of Ghor was crowned Ghazni. In 1186, he conquered Lahore ending the Ghaznavid empire and bringing
18753-635: Was codified by Savarkar while he was a political prisoner of the British colonial authorities. Chris Bayly traces the roots of Hindu nationalism to the Hindu identity and political independence achieved by the Maratha confederacy , that overthrew the Islamic Mughal empire in large parts of India, allowing Hindus the freedom to pursue any of their diverse religious beliefs and restored Hindu holy places such as Varanasi. A few scholars view Hindu mobilisation and consequent nationalism to have emerged in
18894-498: Was commanded by another brother, al-Mughira. The raids were probably launched in c. 636 according to al-Baladhuri. These expeditions were not sanctioned by Caliph Umar and Uthman escaped punishment only because there weren't any casualties. The raids on Thane and Bharuch may have been successful as the Arabs had lost no men during these raids, but al-Baladhuri does not specifically state these raids as successful,( al-Balādhurī 1924 , p. 209), so some scholars are of
19035-664: Was constructed by these orientalists to imply people who adhered to "ancient default oppressive religious substratum of India", states Pennington. Followers of other Indian religions so identified were later referred Buddhists, Sikhs or Jains and distinguished from Hindus, in an antagonistic two-dimensional manner, with Hindus and Hinduism stereotyped as irrational traditional and others as rational reform religions. However, these mid-19th-century reports offered no indication of doctrinal or ritual differences between Hindu and Buddhist, or other newly constructed religious identities. These colonial studies, states Pennigton, "puzzled endlessly about
19176-590: Was its temporary success in insulating the subcontinent from the potential devastation of the Mongol invasion from Central Asia in the 13th century, which nonetheless led to the capture of Afghanistan and western Pakistan by the Mongols (see the Ilkhanate Dynasty). Under the Sultanate, "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion. In addition it is surmised that
19317-435: Was later used occasionally in some Sanskrit texts such as the later Rajataranginis of Kashmir (Hinduka, c. 1450 ) and some 16th- to 18th-century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts, including Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata . These texts used it to contrast Hindus from Muslims who are called Yavanas (foreigners) or Mlecchas (barbarians), with the 16th-century Chaitanya Charitamrita text and
19458-453: Was put down by 704 AD, and Al-Hajjaj granted a 7-year truce to Zunbil. Meds pirates operated from their bases at Kutch , Debal and Kathiawar and during one of their raids had kidnapped Muslim women travelling from Sri Lanka to Arabia , thus providing the casus belli against Sindh Raja Dahir . Raja Dahir of Sindh had previously refused to return Arab rebels from Sindh and furthermore, he now expressed his inability to punish
19599-442: Was quoted in an Indian Supreme Court ruling: Although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies, Hindus share philosophical concepts, such as but not limiting to dharma , karma , kama , artha , moksha and samsara , even if each subscribes to a diversity of views. Hindus also have shared texts such as the Vedas with embedded Upanishads , and common ritual grammar ( Sanskara (rite of passage) ) such as rituals during
19740-438: Was slain, Prithviraj executed and Mu'izz al-Din advanced onto Delhi. Within a year, Mu'izz al-Din controlled North-Western Rajasthan and Northern Ganges-Yamuna Doab. After these victories in India, and Mu'izz al-Din's establishment Delhi as the capital of his Indian provinces, Multan was also incorporated as a major part of his empire. Mu'izz al-Din then returned east to Ghazni to deal with the threat on his eastern frontiers from
19881-407: Was the publication in 1649 by Sebastio Manrique . In the Indian historian DN Jha 's essay "Looking for a Hindu identity" , he writes: "No Indians described themselves as Hindus before the fourteenth century" and that "The British borrowed the word 'Hindu' from India, gave it a new meaning and significance, [and] reimported it into India as a reified phenomenon called Hinduism." In the 18th century,
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