It is a readable history of India from 712 A.D. to August 1947. Quotable opinions about Hindu Civilization are followed by six collections of the verses of the HOLY QURAN for the readers to determine whether Muslims are a separate nation; whether the structure of a typical Muslim society is owing to class struggle as defined by Marx; why Communism failed to make a dent in Islamic societies and whether it is possible to live peaceably with Muslims.
By the beginning of the eighth century A.D. Mussalmans ventured effective thrusts into Indian Sub-continent. Hindus were ruthlessly converted to Islam and within two centuries Hindu Civilization was wiped out of the entire region of Sindh. The Arabs learned from HINDUS the decimal system of writing numbers, logic, astronomy, architecture, medicine, and fine arts.
Arabs made incursions into India for plundering and destroying places of worship of kafirs and collecting lawful war booty consisting of unimaginable wealth, prized women, and slaves. The events are presented without any emotional muck or pre-conceived notions.
Muslim rule was characterized by compulsions, carnages, vandalism, and cataclysmic upheavals for the subject race, not for days or months, or years but from century to century. Muslim conquerors dashed from one corner to the other of the sub-continent. The natives dispossessed of nationality were under constant persecution scourged by calamities, epidemics, famines, and large-scale slaughters.
As the attrition between Shia principalities of the south and Delhi Sultanates was taking different aspects Europeans came prowling through various sides for trade and foothold and Christian proselytism.
Mughal emperors, Farruk Siyar and Shah Alam II transferred de jure sovereignty of India to the English. How Indian slaves were treated as “Jungli” wretches by the British is a tantalizing story. An English civil servant A.O.Humes laid the foundation of the Indian National Congress with the blessings of Lord Dufferin. Varied and mosaic political activities of the party accentuated communal fault lines which pulled apart appreciable chunks of land in the East and West as a separate homeland for Muslims. There are separate chapters on Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose.
I desired to write a book for Hindus. Though I wrote some books and poetry but could not find time to write this book. In 2002 I suffered a serious accident and had to be hospitalized for a head injury and later for prostrate resection. It took a long time to recover. I am really indebted to my wife who made it possible for me to write this book and complete it. I am thankful to my daughter Dr. Raj Shree Dhar, Professor of Mathematics, for her creative suggestions in publishing the manuscript.
T.N. Dhar