Conversion to Islam in Medieval Period

[malaiya at ravi.CS.ColoState.EDU]

1. Some of the accounts of conversion can be found in books written
by contemporary Muslim scholars who wrote about the conquest of India.

2. There are several accounts of conversions that are found in books
written by British authors during the British rule. Many of them are
about conversions that took place during the last period of the Moghul
rule.

These accounts are about individuals from noble families (zamindars, 
thikanedars etc). In many cases the conversion involved junior members
of the family, accounts suggest that the inheritance laws may have 
prompted the conversion.

There are several "traditional" accounts of how many Rajput individuals
from major families converted. These accounts suggest that they had to
convert because they had been "defiled" and could not be admitted to back
into the family.

It appears that many such Rajputs at one time had wanted to convert back
but such reconversion was not accepted by the Hindus. A few Rajput 
communites were "purified" by the Arya Samajis.

It appears that some communites became Muslim because they often dealt
with Muslims. The include tailors, dyers (rangrej, chhipa), weavers, 
spinners, and cotton processors (dhunias) all in the clothing business. 
Butchers were often Muslim, because the Hindus looked down on that 
profession. 

Some communities have had a "soft conversion", they followed both
Hinduism and Islam. There may still be one or two such communities.

Once a region became predominantly Muslim, others often had considerable
pressure to convert. People at the highest ranks tended to be most
resistant to conversion. Strangely, in some places the untouchables
were relatively immune. A very large fraction (perhaps about half) of 
Hindus left in Pakistan after the Partition were untouchable.

There was one person in Jawaharlal Nehru's family who had converted to 
Islam (that was several generations ago). A son of Mahatma Gandhi had
converted to Islam (to offend his father) but had later converted back.