Jameel Aahmed Milansaar: Religious and Cultural Impact of Islam on Hindu Society With special reference to Bhakti Movement

Research Paper By: Jameel Aahmed Milansaar

INSTITUTE OF OBJECTIVE STUDIES & THE NEW COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS)

Two-day Seminar

“Towards Equality, Justice and Fraternity in Contemporary India – Creating a Better Tomorrow through History”

December 2-3, 2017 at The New College, Chennai

Since the Indian Society (compromising mostly of Hindus) was living in isolation for several thousand years under a tight Brahminic control, it had lost its vigour and vitality. Bottled in their own customs and rites ,the Hindus were politically divided and militarily weak. This naturally resulted in a major shake up by the Muslims who were strong and better equipped.

Islam as the most powerful movement to bring mankind into one brotherhood, free from exploitation and corruption, had at that time a firm moral, intellectual and political control over the civilized world. The character of Hindu society was substantially changed after long and intimate association with the Muslims.

Islam in India constitutes the second-most practiced religion after Hinduism, with approximately 151 million Muslims in India's population as of 2007 (according to government census 2001), i.e., 13.4 percent of the population. Currently, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia and Pakistan.

Islam in India has had a fascinating, and powerful impact. Indeed, Islam has become woven into the very fabric of Indian civilization and culture.

Muslims arrived in India during the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS), establishing mosques and organizing missionary endeavours in the seventh century C.E. Those missionary efforts proved successful, rooting Islam firmly into Indian life. As often happens with missionary movements from all religions, merchant and trade endeavors went hand in hand with missionary work. Arabs had had a presence in India before the birth of Muhammad (SAWS). That probably facilitated making inroads for Islam, since Arab traders established in India who converted to Islam already had a base of operations established, in the phenomenally diverse religious and cultural landscape of India.

Islam brought to India a conception of human equality, pride in one’s religion, a legal system which was in many ways an advance on the codes of the time. Hindu rulers were influenced to work as the upholders of Hindu religion. Islam gave the message of universal brotherhood, introduced equality in society, rejected caste system and untouchability.

In due course, these ideas began to have a conscious or unconscious effect upon the philosophical Hindu mind and fostered the growth of liberal movements under religious reformers.

The influence of Islam was more pungent in the domain of religion. It gave a rude shock to Hinduism and shattered the Brahmanical influence from the Hindu society which it was availing since long. Besides this, the impact of Islam on Hinduism produced important consequences.

The Islamic message of universal brotherhood, introduction of equality in society, rejection of caste system and untouchability, opposition to idol-worship and the idea of oneness of God threw up a powerful challenge to the upholders of Hinduism. With the gradual march of time, this moulded the Hindu mind and fostered the growth of liberal movements by some saints and reformers.

This gave rise to the “Bhakti Cult” or Single-minded direct devotion and love to “One”, this movement produced saints like Ramanand, Kabir, Nanak, Sri Chaitanya and many more. These saints and reformers of fifteenth and sixteenth centuries like Kabira, Nanak and Srichaitanya and others preached fundamental equality of all religions.

This Bhakti cult provided a much coveted relief to the oppressed mass who were debarred from social privileges and they got liberation from the clutches of the priests. This Bhakti cult exerted great influence in South India Sankaracharya, Ramanuja, Basava and many others in South rose to reinterpret Hinduism in terms of Islamic monotheism.

Ramananda, the celebrated Vaishnava preacher of the 14th century, preached the message of unity of God and the unity of man, and introduced a radical reform of the Vaishnava sect.

Nanak the founder of Sikhism, like Kabir and Ramananda preached the futility of caste distinctions and stressed on the unity of man. The most influential and well-known among the religious reformers of this period was Sri Chaitanya. He was born in a Brahman family of Nabadwip. He laid great stress on universal love and did away with all artificial barriers. The teachings of the great reformers made profound and lasting impression on the life and thought of contemporary times and did much to bring the two communities into ever closer relations with each other.

A remarkable effect of this Hindu-Muslim impact was noticeable in the growth of Vernacular Literature. The great Sannyasi teachers of the 14th and 15th centuries preached in the simple language of the people and helped the growth and development of vernacular literature. While Ramananda and Kabir gave a great impetus to the development of Hindi literature, Bengali and Punjabi literature received a great impetus at the hands of Chaitanya and Nanak respectively. The vernacular literature of Bengal and Bihar was further enriched by the melodious songs composed by Chandidas and Vidyapati. Even the Sultans of Bengal were liberal patrons of vernacular literature. They encouraged a number of scholars and literary men who, at their instance, undertook the compilation of Bengali versions of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Srimad Bhagavat Gita.

As a result of close Hindu-Muslim contact a new vernacular known as Urdu came into existence. It did much to bring the two communities into closer relations with each other.

The above discussion, facts and figures lead to the conclusion that Islamic teachings influenced Indian religious thought, society and culture specially the religious sects and reform movements. The social and moral teachings of Islam broke the rigidity of the caste-system of the Hindu society and influenced the educated Hindus. This is most evident in the Lingayat sect established by Basava as early as the twelfth century. Similarly, the Virsaivas and Siddhars and almost all the socio-religious reform movements were influenced by Islam. Without doubt, the Muslim social manners and customs influenced those of the Hindus of all classes of society. Almost all the Indian languages whether of the north or of the south have been enriched by the vocabulary provided by Arabic, Persian and Turkish, Islamic ideas have been absorbed in the literatures of medieval India.

Indian History is witness to the fact that the basic teachings of Islam such as monotheism, universal brotherhood, introduction of equality in society, rejection of caste system and untouchability, opposition to idol-worship and the vernacular languages and literature which was created as an impact of Hindu Muslim co existence, played a major role in bridging the gap between two major Communities --- Hindus and Muslim and these played the role of catalyst to bring these two communities together. The basic tenets of Islam such as Justice, Unity, Fraternity and Equality have been adopted in the preamble of our Constitution as these are the basic building blocks of a prosperous Society with peaceful co-existence. Today when the secular fabric of our great Country is being torn to pieces there is a dire need to review and revive these basic tenets of islam and to use language and literature to propagate these great qualities so as to remove the misgivings and misPunderstandings being spread among different communities, only then can our country be saved from the fascist forces and a just and peaceful environment be created here.