Does anyone have any idea What would have happened if Islam had never come to India?
As today EID is celebrated all over the world ,here are some of the thing i would like to share between the relationship between Islam and India.
Keeping the Hindu Muslim rivalry events and some jokes apart there's much more to it. Islam didn't arrive in India through revered men or saint-likes. It came along with invading empires. To understand what would have happened, we’d need to understand what was happening then.
India and Hinduism were two faces of the same coin until the 10th century CE. Anything that happened in India after the Aryan migration until the Ghaznavid invasion is all Hinduism. The early figure, often considered the Vedic religion, was a fusion of cultures and traditions of the Sindhu civilization, the ethno-linguistic Indo-Aryans and those from the major landmass of India. From Indo-Iranian Sanskrit to the Shrutis and the Smritis to Science, Philosophy, Culture to revamped versions of religion and political empires and their constitutions, everything comes under Hinduism. It’s a little complex as there is nothing very defined. As land got juggled between different groups, the believes grew in number and as a result, the Dharma was outnumbered by rituals. Like a law of science: Entropy, i.e. randomness, increases over time, ideals too get dilute over time. This is very much in line with the concept of Yugas. So, as corruption increased due to fall in human social values, refurbished versions came up which were in contrast with the present. These contributed to the prominence of the monarchy. They formed empires over large stretches of land and continued the civilization progress. By the time of the first Islamic invasions, the rise and fall cycle had occurred several times and Indian lands were divided into as many as 20 kingdoms. There was no central power.
It was only India's geography which had until British colonization protected her from getting broken apart into small pieces like Europe. Now, maybe, if there weren't invasions, there would've been a Hindu revolution. Hinduism was very old and morphed which weakened the roots laying way for Islamic emergence. Imperialism and Religion have always prevailed hand in hand. Had there been no new religious impact, the cultural diffusion wouldn't have been observable. In fact, there are enough examples to show that the Mughal Islam shape was quite oriental. However, without Islam entering India, the virtues of Hinduism apart from the Dharma would've been much more prominent after a revolution. If the scale continued, most probably, the industrial, sociological and economic revolution would've happened in India before Europe. It might be even possible that today, ‘modernization’ would be akin to ‘Indianization’ and not ‘Westernization’. The India, Europeans came seeking out for, would've actually existed and Indian colonization would've been impossible.
However, there are more ways to look at it. Islamic empires have been more successful in shaping a more integrated India than the ones that preceded them over the previous three or four centuries. Who knows if there was no Islamic entrance, probably the then weakened indigenous powers would've taken India into oblivion along with them, as is expressed by their progressive rates then.
Now, for a moment, let us assume that none of those Muslims would have come to India. That would mean that the number system with zero would have remained inside India for a long time. This means, zero would have taken a long time to spread that far, if not for the Arabs. This would mean a delay in all the scientific and technological advancements for at least two or three centuries (assuming only the Europeans did them), since the basic computation is the backbone of all the advanced mathematics and in turn, science. Therefore, there would have been no East India company and no conquest on the Indian soil, at least for two to three hundred years. If I assume that everything went as it went, minus the Muslims, then we can safely assume that almost everything would be delayed by two or three centuries.
However, India, by that time, would have become a powerhouse of technology , as Nalanda and all its knowledge would have remained the same. Given the business with the Chinese via the Silk Route , India would have acquired the power of gunpowder and learned to use it in battle by inventing canons before the British.
Possibility 1: British won
That means, empires would have lasted much longer and the British would have had a hard time conquering India. That means, in the present time, we would be subservient to the British. Life, as we know it, would exist as we would have created lots of stuff (remember the 200 year gap?) earlier than them (assuming we did research in those fields and not wars), but would be under their government. New nations would have been created not on the basis of religion but on the basis of castes.
Possibility 2: British lost
If the British had lost and had maintained only superficial business relations with the Indians, we would still be living in an era of Kings and Emperors. We would be very advanced in science and technology, perhaps the best. However, I do not guarantee whether we would have invented all the stuff we use today. Wars are a costly affair and we might have used our knowledge to create the most destructive weapons, leaving little room for constructive research. Brahmastra and Narayanastra might have been formidable realities. Had it gone the other way round, we would have created pretty much all the stuff we use today, before the current time frame (200 year gap, remember?). Maybe a couple of centuries earlier. There would be no Noble Prize, perhaps some other prize named on some Indian scientist who did not exist, and we would have won many of them, since we would have created all that stuff.
Last but not least how interesting it becomes when there is a cricket match between India and Pakistan. Nothing more to say about it..lol
Note:- I am an Indian , i follow Hinduism and this post is all meant to bring love between all religion across the world. It is not meant to hurt any religious sentiment.
EID MUBARAK TO ALL MUSLIMS OUT HERE.
LIVE ..LOVE ..LAUGH