Changing Names Of Places Cannot Wipeout Indian Muslim History
By Syed Ubaidur Rahman
Jan/Feb 25
History is being re-written in India, and textbooks are steadily being erased of medieval history dealing with the Muslim period. A fictional Hindu history is being developed that omits all references to Muslim history, although Islam has been in India since the 7th century. In 712 Muhammad bin Qasim (d. 715), the commander of the Umayyad kingdom, defeated and killed Dahir, the ruler of Sindh, in the battle.
This was followed by Mahmud of Ghazni’s (d. 1030) conquests and Muhammad of Ghur’s (d.1206) establishment of Delhi sultanate. The spread of Islamic rule to South India came during the reigns of Alauddin Khalji (d.1316) and Muhammad bin Tughluq (d.1351). Not only the Mughals, but also the Muslim ruling dynasties in Kashmir, Bengal, Malwa, Khandesh, Gujarat, Sharqis of Jaunpur; the Bahmanis of Gulbarga/Bidar; the successor Deccani Sultanates of Ahmednagar, Bijapur, and Golconda; as well as Nizam of Hyderabad and Mysore Sultanate of Hyder Ali (d.1782) and Tipu Sultan (d. 1799) were part of this expansion.
Since gaining independence in 1947, and especially after the extreme right wing Hindu majoritarian party Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ascension to power, the names of cities, gardens, and monuments have been changed to rewrite medieval India’s history. Fortunately, books authored by reputed scholars are still available and referred to. Muslims are integral to India, and their history will never disappear.
Such name changing is groundless. For example, the BJP wants to change Ahmednagar’s name to Ahilya Nagar, honoring the 18th-century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar. The Sultanate of Ahmednagar or the Nizam Shahi Sultanate was a late medieval Indian Muslim kingdom located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur, ruled by the Nizam Shahi or Bahri dynasty (John Horace Parry, “The Age of Reconnaissance,” the University of California Press. p. 246, 1981). It was established when Malik Ahmed (d.1510), the Bahmani governor of Junnar, declared independence after defeating the Bahmani army led by general Jahangir Khan on May 28, 1490, and established the Nizam Shahi dynasty of the Sultanate of Ahmednagar (Shailendra Sen, “A Textbook of Medieval Indian History,” Primus Books. p. 118, 2013). There was no town in existence there. So, what is the basis of this desired change? His father Malik Bahri, prime minister in the Brahmin empire, had converted and Ahmednagar was the empire’s most important state.
Similarly, Aurangabad is a historic town, a new city founded by Malik Anbar (d. 1626), prime minister of Murtaza Nizam Shah II (d.1610), sultan of Ahmednagar. Changing its name to Sambhaji Nagar after Sambhaji, Shivaji’s son who was killed in war with the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, is illogical.
It is important to teach the young generation about Muslim history and heritage and the great past. Over the past ten years, the author published six books on medieval Indian history, among them “Biographical Encyclopedia of Indian Muslim Freedom Fighters,” “Forgotten Muslim Empires of South India,” “Ulema’s Role in India’s Freedom Movement,” and, most recently, “Peaceful Expansion of Islam in India” . This 2024 book has become a talking point across India and beyond, as it debunks the fallacious notion of the local population’s forced conversion. Through meticulous research, it shows that Islam came to South India long before its arrival in the north, and spread due to the efforts of Arab and Persian merchants, along with the many Sufis who settled throughout India.
Name changes cause historic places to lose their importance and people to forget them. Its background, the reason for giving the original name, and its founder will be forgotten. This is what the ruling junta desires – to wipe out our ancestors’ contributions and take away their credit for creating marvelous cities and monuments. BJP rulers thus aim to make Muslims irrelevant, which will have catastrophic impact. Although Muslim Indians are Indian citizens, they will feel let down and completely disconnected.
Some of the references to the Mughals are being purged in school and college textbooks. However, books by Irfan Habib (professor emeritus, Aligarh Muslim University) and Richard Maxwell Eaton (professor of history, University of Arizona) which are referred to in books at the international level, will not disappear. They will remain in libraries, and the world will criticize India for fudging history.
Habib, among other books, has authored “The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1556-1707,” “An Atlas of the Mughal Empire”, and “Atlas of Ancient Indian History.” Eaton, known for notable books on India’s pre-1800 history, focuses on the Deccan, the Bengal frontier, and Islam in India. Some of his notable works include “Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States,” “India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765,” “Essays on Islam and Indian History” (Oxford University Press: 2000), “Approaches to the Study of Conversion to Islam in India in Religious Movements in South Asia 600-1800” (Oxford University Press: 2005), and “Temple Desecration and Muslim States in Medieval India.”
The new history will be worthless once India’s original history reappears. It is important to circulate authentic and authoritative books on this history.
India should rise above such bias and appreciate scholars like Ram Puniyani who was a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and has been involved with human rights activities and initiatives to oppose Hindu fundamentalism in India.
Muslims history in India dates back hundreds of years. Muslims are an indisputable and integral part of India, and no one can separate them. The known earliest mention of Muslims in Kerala is in the Quilon Syrian copper plates of 9th century CE, granted by the ruler of Kollam (C.G. Cereti, [2009]. “The Pahlavi Signatures on the Quilon Copper Plates” In W. Sundermann, A. Hintze, and F. de Blois, [eds.], Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, Germany).
Muslims have and continue to make contributions to India. For example, the country’s oldest college, Zakir Husain Delhi College (renamed to honor Zakir Husain, a distinguished educator and president of India [1967-69]) was established in 1693, when Ghaziuddin Khan , one of the Aurangzeb’s leading Deccan commanders and the first Nizam of Hyderabad’s father, founded a madrasa.
The upheavals that weakened the Mughal empire during the 18th century resulted in the madrasa’s closure in the early 1790s. However, with the support of Delhi’s wealthy citizens, a college for literature, science and art, was established at the site in 1792. Instruction was provided in prose, literature, rhetoric, logic, philosophy, jurisprudence, astrology, and medicine. In 1824, it was engrafted onto this institution by the British East India Company’s government. Nawab Itmad-ud-daula, the Oudh Vazir (chief executive), provided an endowment of Rs. 1.7 million in 1829, which would be an estimated Rs. 80 million today, to promote learning. Instruction was imparted chiefly in Persian and Arabic, and there was also a Sanskrit department.
Muslims are here to stay.
Syed Ubaidur Rahman is director of Global Media Publications, New Delhi, India.