Attacks on Hinduism through the ages

Hinduism - A modern term used to refer to Sanatan Dharma - a way of life which has been in existence for 1000s of years. It is this very concept that has been a torch to show a path to the world about kindness and righteousness. Sanatan Dharma has been teaching us the doctrines of Karma (duty), moksha (salvation), tapasya (meditation) over the years and it's a matter of great pride that the West is accepting these ideas and trying to follow this great path.

But the sad part is that in our own country Bharat - the birthplace of Sanatan Dharma, the religion has suffered the most. It all started with the invasions by the Afghans, Turks and the Persians who had a religious aim to convert and destroy the "Kaafirs" (Infidels who don't believe in Islam). What began as a conquest soon turned into looting, rapes, murders, slavery and forced conversions. The most notorious of these invaders was Mahmud of Ghazni, a chieftain of the city of Ghazni. He launched multiple invasions into Bharat and was known for destroying and looting all the temples that stood in his way. The worst destruction was inflicted upon the Somnath temple in Gujarat. The gates of the temple were taken to Ghazni to be used in Mahmud's palace. The idols of the Gods were broken and melted to be used as money. The local rulers tried opposing the invader but were defeated. The loot from Mathura is estimated at 3 million rupees and over 5,000 slaves. According to British historical writer Victoria Schofield, Sabuktagin, the Turkish ruler of Ghazni and father of Mahmud, "set as his goal the expulsion of the Hindus from the Kabul valley and Gandhara, as the vale of Peshawar was still called. His son and successor, the Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, continued his work, carrying the so called 'holy war' against the Hindus into India"

Ruins of Somnath Temple

Mahmud of Ghazni was followed by Mohammad Ghori. Ghori fought against Prithviraj Chauhan, the ruler of Indraprastha and Ajmer. Inspite of being defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan multiple times, Ghori proved his cruel nature by forgetting the mercy shown by the Maharaja and took him to his hometown as a prisoner. The women folk had to commit Jauhar in order to escape from the cruel invaders. Prithviraj Chauhan however killed Mohammad Ghori during an archery contest wherein he shot an arrow through Ghori inspite of being blinded.

Ghori's territories were being managed by Qutb ud din Aibak from Delhi. He built the Quwwat ul Islam mosque over the ruins of around 20 temples in Delhi. His general, Bakhtiyar Khilji destroyed the famous university of Nalanda which had been the centre for education of Hindu and Buddhist scriptures and literature. A pity that a city near Nalanda is named Bakhtiyarpur in honour of the destroyer!

They were followed by the Khiljis. Kazi Mughisuddin of Bayánah advised Allauddin to "keep Hindus in subjection, in abasement, as a religious duty, because they are the most inveterate enemies of the Prophet, and because the Prophet has commanded us to slay them, plunder them, and make them captive; saying - convert them to Islam or kill them, enslave them and spoil their wealth and property". The hatred was evident! In 1311, Malik Kafur entered the Srirangam temple, massacred the Brahmin priests of the temple who resisted the invasion for three days, plundered the temple treasury and the storehouse and desecrated and destroyed numerous religious icons.

Moroccan traveler Ibn Batuta described the cruel behaviour of the Madurai sultan Ghiyas-ud-Din Muhammad Damghani, in his memoirs. His army routinely rounded local Hindu villagers and impaling and decapitated them, indiscriminately with women and children being included. Ibn Battuta expressed shock and revulsion with the comment, "this was an abomination which I have not known of any other king. That is why God hastened his death."

In 1323 Ulugh Khan began new invasions of the Hindu kingdoms of South India. At Srirangam, the invading army desecrated the shrine and killed 12,000 unarmed ascetics. The Vaishnava philosopher Sri Vedanta Desika, hid himself amongst the corpses together with the sole manuscript of the Srutaprakasika, the magnum opus of Sri Sudarsana Suri whose eyes were put out, and also the latter's two sons.

Under the rule of Firuz Shah Tughlaq, Hindus who were forced to pay the mandatory Jizya tax were recorded as infidels and their communities monitored. Hindus who erected a deity or built a temple and those who praticised their religion in public such as near a kund (water tank) were arrested, brought to the palace and executed. Firuz Shah Tughlaq wrote in his autobiography,

"Some Hindus had erected a new idol-temple in the village of Kohana, and the idolaters used to assemble there and perform their idolatrous rites. These people were seized and brought before me. I ordered that the perverse conduct of this wickedness be publicly proclaimed and they should be put to death before the gate of the palace. I also ordered that the infidel books, the idols, and the vessels used in their worship should all be publicly burnt. The others were restrained by threats and punishments, as a warning to all men, that no zimmi could follow such wicked practices in a Musulman country."
— Firuz Shah Tughluq, Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi

In Kashmir, Sultan Sikandar began expanding, and unleashed religious violence that earned him the name but-shikan or idol-breaker. He earned this sobriquet because of the sheer scale of desecration and destruction of Hindu and Buddhist temples, shrines, ashrams, hermitages and other holy places in what is now known as Kashmir and its neighbouring territories. He destroyed the vast majority of Hindu and Buddhist temples within his reach in the Kashmir region (north and northwest India). Encouraged by Islamic theologian, Muhammad Hamadani, Sikandar Butshikan also destroyed ancient Hindu and Buddhist books and banned followers of dharmic religions from prayers, dance, music, consumption of wine and observation of their religious festivals. To escape the religious violence during his reign, many Hindus converted to Islam and many left Kashmir. Many were also killed. The Martand Sun temple was also destroyed during his reign.

Ruins of Martand Sun Temple

In 1565, at the Battle of Talikota, a coalition of Muslim sultanates entered into a war with the Vijayanagara Empire. They captured and beheaded the king Aliya Rama Raya, followed by a massive destruction of the infrastructure fabric of Hampi and the metropolitan Vijayanagara. The city was pillaged, looted and burnt for six months after the war, then abandoned as ruins, which are now called the Group of Monuments at Hampi.

Ruins of Hampi

The destruction of temples and educational institutions, the killings of learned monks and the scattering of students, led to a widespread decline in Hindu education. With the fall of Hindu kings, science research and philosophy faced some setbacks due to a lack of funding, royal support, and an open environment.

The Delhi sultanate was followed by the Mughal empire and they were no less than their predecessors. In the Babur Nama, it is clearly written that "the aim of Babur was to promote the spread of Islam throughout the newly conquered land and for that reason, he ordered the destruction of prominent Hindu temples and put a stop to the celebration of local festivals." In the Akbar Nama, it is stated that Akbar allowed his Rajput queens and ministers to celebrate their festivals in the palaces of Fatehpur Sikri and was witness to the celebrations. The Emperor, however used to sneak into the fairs and misbehave with the wives and daughters of some of his Rajput ministers. Tired of this the wife of Prithviraj, a poet, committed suicide.  Will Durant called the Muslim conquest of India "probably the bloodiest story in history" Historian K. S. Lal in his book Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India claims that between the years 1000 AD and 1500 AD, the population of the Indian subcontinent decreased from 200 to 170 million. In "Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India" meanwhile he claimed that it fell from 200 million to 120 million by establishment of the Mughal empire because of killings, deportations, dissemination and wars
Idols in numerous temples were unarmed, temples were desecrated. Most of the great temples in North India were destroyed and no great temples were built under Muslim rulers except the Vrindavan temples under Akbar

Records about the Raids on temples -
"Orders were given that all the temples should be burnt with naphthala and fire and levelled with the ground. The city was given up to plunder for twenty days. Among the spoil are said to have been five great idols of pure gold with eyes of rubies and adornments of other precious stones, together with a vast number of smaller silver images, which, when broken up, formed a load for more than a hundred camels."

According to the autobiographical historical record of Emperor Babur, Tuzak-i Babari, Babur's campaign in northwest India targeted Hindu and Sikh civilians as well as non-Sunni sects of Islam. Immense numbers of people were killed, with the Muslim camps being described as building "towers of skulls of the infidels" on hillocks. Baburnama, similarly records massacre of Hindu villages and towns by Babur's Muslim army

Akbar is known for his religious tolerance. However, in early years of his reign, religious violence included the massacre of Hindus of Garha in 1560 AD, under the command of Mughal Viceroy Asaf Khan. Other campaigns targeted Chitor and Rantambhor. Maulana Ahmad, the historian of that era, wrote of the battle at Chitor fort,

"They (Hindus) committed jauhar (...). In the night, the (Muslim) assailants forced their way into the fortress in several places, and fell to slaughtering and plundering. At early dawn the Emperor went in mounted on an elephant, attended by his nobles and chiefs on foot. The order was given for a general massacre of the infidels as a punishment. The number exceeded 8,000 (Abu-l Fazl states there were 40,000 peasants with 8,000 Rajputs forming the garrison). Those who escaped the sword, men and women, were made prisoners and their property came into the hands of the Musulmans."

The reign of Aurangzeb witnessed one of the strongest campaigns of religious violence in the Mughal Empire's history. Aurangzeb re-introduced jizya (tax) on non-Muslims, led numerous campaigns of attacks against non-Muslims, forcibly converted Hindus to Islam and destroyed Hindu temples. Some temples were destroyed entirely; in other cases mosques were built on their foundations, sometimes using the same stones. Idols in temples were smashed, and the city of Mathura was temporarily renamed as Islamabad in local official documents. According to the Sabhasad Bakhar, Aurangzeb put a stop to the celebrations which were allowed by Akbar, saying that it was against the principles of Islam. He even destroyed the temples of Kashi Vishwanath and persecuted a lot of Hindus in the Deccan. Many Maratha generals were forcibly converted to Islam (Netaji Palkar) and killed if they refused to do so (Sambhaji Maharaj). Mughal governors used to raid the Hindu fairs organized during the festivals and carry away the wealth and the women present over there. The Kashi Vishwanath Temple was destroyed and a mosque was constructed on top of it!

Ruins of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the Mosque built on top of it

Tipu Sultan persecuted the Hindus, Christians with the Mappila Muslims and carried out forced conversions of Hindus and Christians. According to C. K. Kareem, Tippu Sultan issued an edict for the destruction of Hindu temples in Kerala. The portrayal of Tipu Sultan as a religious bigot has been also disputed by some sources suggesting that he in fact often embraced religious pluralism.

Tipu got Runmust Khan, the Nawab of Kurnool, to launch a surprise attack upon the Kodava Hindus (also called Coorgs or Coorgis) who were besieged by the invading Muslim army. 500 were killed and over 40,000 Kodavas fled to the woods and concealed themselves in the mountains. In Seringapatam, the young men were reported to be forcibly circumcised and incorporated into the Ahmedy Corps, and they formed eight Risalas or regiments. Thousands of Kodava Hindus were seized along with the Raja and held captive at Seringapatam (Srirangapatna). They were also subjected to forcible conversions to Islam, death, and torture. The actual number of Kodavas that were captured in the operation is unclear. The British administrator Mark Wilks gives it as 70,000, historian Lewis Rice arrives at the figure of 85,000, while Mir Kirmani's score for the Coorg campaign is 80,000 men, women and child prisoners. In a letter to Runmust Khan, Tipu himself stated:

We proceeded with the utmost speed, and, at once, made prisoners of 40,000 occasion-seeking and sedition-exciting Coorgis, who alarmed at the approach of our victorious army, had slunk into woods, and concealed themselves in lofty mountains, inaccessible even to birds. Then carrying them away from their native country (the native place of sedition) we raised them to the honour of Islam, and incorporated them into our Ahmedy corps.

In 1788, Tipu reportedly ordered his governor in Calicut Sher Khan to begin the process of converting Hindus to Islam.

The archaeological survey of India has listed three temples which were destroyed during the reign of Tipu Sultan. These were the Harihareshwar Temple at Harihar which was converted into a mosque, the Varahswami Temple in Srirangapatnam and the Odakaraya Temple in Hospet.

The following is a translation of an inscription on the stone found at Seringapatam, which was situated in a conspicuous place in the fort:

"Oh Almighty God! dispose the whole body of infidels! Scatter their tribe, cause their feet to stagger! Overthrow their councils, change their state, destroy their very root! Cause death to be near them, cut off from them the means of sustenance! Shorten their days! Be their bodies the constant object of their cares (i.e., infest them with diseases), deprive their eyes of sight, make black their faces (i.e., bring shame)."

In 1788, Tipu ordered his governor in Calicut Sher Khan to begin the process of converting Hindus to Islam, and in July of that year, 200 Brahmins were forcibly converted and made to eat beef. Mohibbul Hasan, Prof. Sheikh Ali, and other historians cast great doubt on the scale of the deportations and forced conversions in Coorg in particular, and Hasan says that the British versions of what happened were intended to malign Tipu Sultan, and to be used as propaganda against him. He argues that little reliance can be placed in Muslim accounts such as Kirmani's Nishan-e Haidari; in their anxiety to represent the Sultan as a champion of Islam, they had a tendency to exaggerate and distort the facts: Kirmani claims that 70,000 Coorgis were converted, when forty years later the entire population of Coorg was still less than that number. According to Ramchandra Rao Punganuri the true number of converts was about 500.

There have been a number of more recent attacks on Hindu temples and Hindus by Muslim militants in India. Prominent among them are the 1998 Chamba massacre, the 2002 fidayeen attacks on Raghunath temple, the 2002 Akshardham Temple attack allegedly perpetrated by Islamic terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the 2006 Varanasi bombings (supposedly perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba), resulting in many deaths and injuries.

In Godhra train burning, which happened on 27 February 2002, 59 people, including 25 women and 15 children Hindu pilgrims were the victims. In 2011, Judicial court convicted 31 people saying the incident was a "pre-planned conspiracy".

In Tripura, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) attacked a Hindu temple and killed a spiritual leader there. They are known to have forcefully converted Hindus to Christianity. In Assam, members of the primarily Christian Hmar ethnic group have placed bloodstained-crosses in temples and forced Hindus to convert at gunpoint. In 2020,in Meghalaya the banned militant Group the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) threatenee the Bengali Hindus to leave Ichamati and Majai regions in Meghalaya.

On 2 May 2003, eight Hindus were killed by a Muslim mob at Marad beach in Kozhikode district, Kerala. One of the attackers was also killed. The judicial commission that probed the incident concluded that members of several political parties were directly involved in planning and executing the killing. The commission affirmed "a clear communal conspiracy, with Muslim fundamentalist and terrorist organisations involved". The courts sentenced 62 Muslims to life imprisonment for committing the massacre in 2009.

But the worst of all is the case of Kashmir. The state has seen probably the worst cases of violence against the Pandit population over there. The incidents of violence included the Wandhama Massacre in 1998, in which 24 Kashmiri Hindus were gunned down by Muslims disguised as Indian soldiers.[citation needed] Many Kashmiri Non-Muslims have been killed and thousands of children orphaned over the course of the conflict in Kashmir. The 2000 Amarnath pilgrimage massacre was another such incident where 30 Hindu pilgrims were killed en route to the Amarnath temple.

In the Kashmir region, approximately 300 Kashmiri Pandits were killed between September 1989 to 1990 in various incidents. In early 1990, local Urdu newspapers Aftab and Al Safa called upon Kashmiris to wage jihad against India and ordered the expulsion of all Hindus choosing to remain in Kashmir. In the following days masked men ran in the streets with AK-47 shooting to kill Hindus who would not leave. Notices were placed on the houses of all Hindus, telling them to leave within 24 hours or die.

As of 2005, it is estimated that between 250,000 and 300,000 pandits have migrated outside Kashmir since the 1990s due to persecution by Islamic fundamentalists in the largest case of ethnic cleansing since the partition of India. The proportion of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley has declined from about 15% in 1947 to, by some estimates, less than 0.1% since the insurgency in Kashmir took on a religious and sectarian flavour.

The situation hasn't improved even in modern times. Hindu teachings and scriptures are insulted regularly. Some political parties and media houses have a problem even with the Ramayana and the mahabharat. Just using the word Hindu leads to a crackdown on those who use it! The recent killings of sadhus in many parts of the country shows the hatred people have for the Hindu religious men. What is even more shocking is that no action is being taken against the perpetrators of these crimes! The shameful part is that there are still Hindus out there who turn a blind eye to these matters and fail to see the picture. It is time we realize the danger our Dharma is going through to ensure that what happened in Kashmir doesn't happen in the whole country!

Jai Shree Ram 🚩🙏

Written by - Sumedhrao Malandkar