Mourning incompetence of Muslim state
Shahbaz Hussain
Mourning for the incompetence of the Muslim state and Muslim society of the subcontinent is common in the secular and liberal circles of Pakistan. Hassan Nisar and others like him say when the West was building Oxford University, the Muslim state of the subcontinent was building the Taj Mahal. The Muslim state and Muslim society of the subcontinent were asleep when the West was promoting science and technology. When Europe was waging an industrial revolution, the state and society of the subcontinent were breathing in the agricultural environment. When the West was controlling the stars, the people of the subcontinent were “inventing” food. These words prove that the Muslim state and society of the subcontinent was not only incompetent but also stupid. It had nothing to do with knowledge, civilization and development.
Unfortunately, most of these allegations are false and superficial. An example of what the Muslims did in the subcontinent can hardly be found in the history of the world.
The Muslim conquests in the subcontinent are historic and shocking. Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh with the help of only 17,000 troops. He was up against Raja Dahir, whose army numbered one hundred thousand, but due to his strength of faith and better fighting strategy, Muhammad bin Qasim’s army overcame an army of one hundred thousand.
When Babar came to India, he had only 8,000 soldiers. He was up against Ibrahim Lodhi, whose army numbered one hundred thousand men. Babar could not succeed despite his efforts for several days. Then Babar murmured and repented to Allah and promised to stop drinking. The next day, Babar’s 8,000 troops defeated an army of 100,000. The conquests of Muhammad ibn Qasim and Babar were, so to speak, individual conquests, but these conquests paved the way for the domination of Islam and Muslims in the subcontinent.
The mention of the victories reminded me that those who mourn the incompetence of the Muslim state and the Muslim society of the subcontinent are not aware that if the Muslim state and the Muslim society of the subcontinent were as incompetent and stupid as propaganda. So could Muslims have ruled the subcontinent for a thousand years?
When incompetent and stupid people come to power, they fail in five or seven years and disappear from the scene, but the Muslim state has been raising its flag in the subcontinent for a thousand years. One aspect of Islam and Muslim conquests in the subcontinent is that Muslims defeated a 6,000-year-old civilization in the subcontinent. According to his claim, this civilization had the divine book, Veda, Gita, Mahabharata, it had people like Rama and Krishna, this civilization had created a world of perfections in every sphere of life, it had philosophy. The tradition of four moons, extraordinary linguistic ideas were created, it produced poets like Valmiki, Sur Das and Tulsi Das. Had created a wonderful tradition of stories. That is to say, the Muslims were competing with a powerful civilization, but the Muslims overcame this civilization because of their faith, their ideology and their extraordinary civilization.
It is a historical fact that not as many Muslims received Islam from the subcontinent. The Muslims of the subcontinent converted millions of Hindus in a thousand years. The important thing is that the Muslims did this without the power of the state and capital. A study of history shows that just as the sword and the power of the state change human beings, nothing affects human beings, but in the process of converting Hindus to Islam in the subcontinent, the rulers and their swords were never used. The landscape of the subcontinent was dominated by Sufis and scholars and their efforts, their piety, knowledge and love touched the hearts of millions of Hindus. It is also on the record of history that whatever came to India from outside was absorbed into Hinduism. The Kushans came from outside and Hinduism devoured them. Jats and Gujars were absorbed by Hinduism from outside. Buddhism was a rebellion against Brahmanism but Hinduism changed it so much that it seems to be part of Hinduism. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion, but the situation of Sikhs in India suggests that it is nothing more than a branch of Hinduism. But the great achievement of the Muslims of the subcontinent is that they lived with the Hindus for a thousand years and maintained their separate religious and cultural identity. In India, Muslims have never been able to become a majority, they have remained a minority, but the minority has never compromised on its identity. This situation is a concrete proof of the spiritual and cultural ability of Muslims.
It is also part of the historical record that the Muslim subcontinent was called the “Golden Sparrow”. The British historian William Dale Rimple, in his book The Anarchy, rightly states that when the British came to the subcontinent, the subcontinent was producing 25% of world production. To understand the importance of this in today’s context, it would be said that the United States is currently the only superpower in the world, according to statistics, the United States is currently producing 21 percent of world production and according to some experts 23 percent. This is the 21st century. This is the century of science and technology. This is the world after the Industrial Revolution. The United States is the world’s largest center for knowledge, invention, and innovation. Yet the United States produces only 21% or 23% of world production. But the subcontinent was producing 25% of world production in the 19th century. So can an incompetent state and an incompetent and stupid society do that? Today, the whole world is watching China’s development in amazement, but China is currently producing 17 or 19% of world production. But the Muslim subcontinent was producing 25% of world production. Instead of looking at this subcontinent with astonishment, there are people among us who consider it their duty to abuse this subcontinent.
Hassan Nisar says that when the West was building Oxford, we were building the Taj Mahal. He does not understand that the Taj Mahal is a masterpiece of architecture or engineering and that this masterpiece could not have been created without the extraordinary mastery of the knowledge of the time. Leading Indian researcher Utsa Patnaik has proved through research that the British looted 45 45,000 billion from India. The progress made by the British from this looting is in front of everyone but with regard to this looting no one is aware of the fact that if the Muslim subcontinent was very rich then 45 thousand billion dollars would have been looted from it. So can incompetent states and incompetent societies be so rich?
The last three hundred and four hundred years of the Muslim subcontinent is called the period of decline of subcontinental society, but even in this period of decline, the creativity of the collective consciousness of Muslims is a sign that it has created a great language like Urdu. ۔ The history of the world is before us. In the last three hundred and four hundred years, no nation or civilization in the world has created a new language. Language creation is not a joke. It requires an extraordinary creative mind. Individual competence does not work in this regard.
Millions of people have only one intelligence, then a language comes into being. This meant that the society of the subcontinent was alive enough to create a new language. The Muslim subcontinent not only created Urdu but also created gigantic people in different literary genres of this language. There is hardly a language in the world that has produced great poets like Mir Ghalib and Iqbal in the first two hundred and three hundred years. Urdu has created such a wonderful tradition of commentary in the last one and a half hundred years that even Arabic and Persian have been unable to present such a tradition of commentary in the last one and a half hundred years.
Urdu has great fiction writers, great critics, great researchers, great comedians. The question is whether all these facts show the incompetence of the Muslim state and the Muslim society of the subcontinent or prove its extraordinary ability.
We also have the fact that the Islamic nation of the subcontinent stood up for the establishment of Pakistan in what is called the age of the decline of the Muslim state and Muslim society. This is an indication that the Islamic nation of the subcontinent could think big even in the decline. The question is, can an incompetent society think big? Can an incompetent society produce Muhammad Ali Jinnah? The Islamic nation of the subcontinent has not only demanded Pakistan, it has made this dream a reality. Importantly, conditions were not conducive to such a task. On one side were the British who were the only superpower of the time and they did not want Pakistan. On the other hand, the Hindu majority did not want Pakistan.
Seen in this context, Pakistan was nothing but a quest for the impossible, but under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam, a society immersed in the decline of the subcontinent made the impossible possible. What does it mean other than that there was life in the society despite the decline? There was consciousness, there was motivation, the question is, if the Muslim state of the subcontinent and the Muslim society could have done so much in spite of a thousand weaknesses, what would it not have been able to do in the heyday?