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Shudras, their conversion, etc.
Following are some excerpts from 'Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar' by
Mr. Koenraad Elst (Voice of India, 1993).
Against this common belief, we maintain that the Backward Castes were even
more tenacious in their resistance to Islam than the Forward Castes, that
Islamic rule did not acquaint them with equality, and that conversions from
among their ranks had an altgether different motive.
In an inscription, dated AD 1345, the Reddi dynasty of Andhra Pradesh desc-
ribes how after the elimination of the Kshatriya defenders, the duty of defend-
ing cows and Brahmins fell on Shudras, "born of the feet of Vishnu". The first
independent Reddi king, Vema, "restored all the agraharas of Brahmins, which
had been taken away by the wicked Mleccha kings". He was "a very Agastya to the
ocean which was the Mlecchas". (J Ramayya: "Madras Museum plates of Vema", in
Epigraphia Indica, vol.VIII, P.9, V9-12). Another inscription of the same
dynasty proudly proclaims Vema's birth from "the victorious fourth varna",
which "sprang from the feet of Vishnu", and which ruled "the remainder of the
territory once ruled by the dwijas [before the Muslim conquest]", and describes
how his first son Anna-Vema freed the country of the "crowd of enemies" and
used his wealth to sponsor the "men of learning" (E. Hultzsch: "Vanapalli
Plates of Anna-Vema", in Epigraphia Indica, vol III, p.64-65, v.5,1216,20). The
Shudras take it as a proud duty to defend the country against the Muslims and
uphold the Brahminical culture.
In general, inscriptions of Shudra dynasties declare time and again that
belonging to the fourth varna was a matter of pride. An inscription of
Singaya-Nayaka (AD 1368) says: "The three castes, viz. Brahmanas and the next
[=Kshatriyas and Vaishyas], were produced from the face, the arms and the
thighs of the Lord; and for their support was born the fourth caste from His
feet. That the latter caste is purer than the former [three] is self-evident;
for this caste was born along with the river Ganga [which also springs from His
feet], the purifier of the three worlds. The members of this caste are eagerly
attentive to their duties, not wicked, pure-minded, and are devoid of passion
and other such blemishes; they ably bear all the burden of the earth by helping
those born in the kingly caste." (K. Rama Sastri: "Akkalapundi grant of Singya-
Nayaka Saka-Samvat 1290", in Epigraphia Indica vol. XIII, p259, v.5-7). Another
inscription relates how his relative Kapaya-Nayaka "rescued the Andhra country
from the ravages of the Mohammedans."
If it were true that the Shudras were so terribly oppressed by the Brahmins,
we would expect them to take some kind of revenge upon coming to power, but
the extant records indicate the contrary. And we would expect them to make
common cause with the merciless Muslim persecuters of the Brahmins, but
exactly the opposite is the case.
In the Mewat region of Delhi, the Shudras led the unrelenting resistance
against the Sultans, waging a guerrilla war from hide-outs in the forest. The
Sultans had to clear away the forest before they could hunt down and forcibly
convert a substantial part of this population. It is only in the last century
that their Islamization has reached below the surface, and that they made the
area highly unsafe for Hindus. Like these Mewat Muslims, many of the most
fanatical Muslims of today are descendants of forcibly converted resisters
against the Islamic onslaught.
Apart from conversions by force, what were the motives and origins of
converts? The lowest castes were certainly not the target group of Muslim
proselytizers. The professional groups of Chamars, Bhangis, Chandals etc. have
remained almost exclusively Hindu. Till today, the harijans are the first
target of Muslim mobs in communal riots. When Rajputs or Yadavs maltreat them,
it is called "atrocities on Harijans", but the far more numerous Harijan
victims of Muslim attacks are drowned in the cover-up language of "communal
riot" reporting, in which the victims get the blame, or remain unidentified
by community. The tribals too have retained an inveterate aversion for the
Muslims.
The upper castes were more fruiteful recruiting-ground. Most important was
the induction of Hindu women in harems (or smaller-scale marriages), forcible
or otherwise. Their children grew up as Muslims.
The power-oriented sections of the upper castes yielded a fair number of
careerist conversions. In order to gain acceptance as genuine Muslims, they
often turned into zealous persecuters, as examplified by Malik Kafur. What
attracted these people to Islam was not its fabled equality, but its stark
inequality: between Muslim rulers and non-Muslim subjects.
The non-untouchable Shudra castes were the numerically most important source
of "voluntary" converts, simply because they were more numerous to start with.
Mostly, material and social pressure, related to avenues of employment, provid-
ed the incentive for conversion. Artists and artisans in the employ of the
courts and elite families were under strong pressure to become Muslims, a
well-known example being the musicians. When Muslims play Hindu classical music
some secularist nincompoop will start praising the "contribution of Islam to
our rich composite culture" (as opposed to the case when caste practices are
shown to exist within the Muslim community: then it is called "a Hindu hold-
over for which Islam cannot be blamed"), but in fact, these are Hindu castes
who had to take on Muslim names because the Hindu patrons had been removed
and only Muslim rulers could provide employment.
Looking for the explanation of Islamic successes in the "evils of Hindu
society" is historicaly unwarranted, but the attempt can be understood as a
normal phenomenon in the psychology of defeat. Many rape victims develop
doubts whether they themselves are not somehow to be blamed for what happened
to them. The rationality behind this psychological mechanism is that one seeks
to exorcise the defeat by situating its cause, and therefore also its future
remedy, in an area which one can control, viz. in one's own house-hold.
Still, the collective Hindu self-reproach would not have taken place on a
substantial scale if it had not been promoted by outside forces. Because the
Hindu armies were defeated, Hindu society could be dissected by guilt-mongers
and declared to be the pinnacle of injustice. And because Islamic armies were
victorious, Islamic doctrine and Muslim society were glorified. Now that
Islamic rule is no more there to impose a rosy picture of Islam, it is high
time to restore the honour of Hindu society as a comparatively humane society
which had the necessary cohesion and appropriate structure to survive and
ultimately repel Islamic aggression, and to survive the sustained propaganda
war waged by Christian and Communist agitators.
>From "Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar" by Mr. Koenraad Elst
(page 384-87)
