Conversion to Islam in South Asia Problems in Analysis

Abstract

From the earliest times, South Asia* has been a scene of invasion. It
is a long tale of incursion. conquest, settlement, and then assimilation. The
Greeks, Sakas, and Eushanas forced their way in as dominant groups and
established kingdoms and dynasties, only to be assimilated by what Dr. Spear
called "the Hindu sponge." The push by Muslims into the sub-continent was
by well-worn routes and to a familiar pattern of conquest and rule, first of
Sind and the Punjab, then of the Gangetic Plain, and, finally, of almost the
whole of South Asia.
Conquest and settlement were not followed by assimilation, however.
Muslims retained a separate identity and their numbers, proportionate and
absolute, grew until today a quarter of all Muslims in the world are to be
found in South Asia. In 1975, they formed some 97 percent of the population
of Pakistan, 85 percent of that of Bangladesh, and 13 percent of that of
India.
But these Muslims come from different roots and origins, they speak
different languages, and their understanding and practice of Islam differs according
to their educational and social background and to their regional and
geographicaJ setting. Many of them are of Arab, Afghan, Mughal and Persian
descent, but the majority of them are descendants of South Asian converts
to Islam.
The spread and expansion of Islam and its acceptance by such large groups
of people of a variety of ethnic, historical, and cultural backgrounds and
across a range of diverse geographical areas can scarcely be the outcome
of any simple uniform process. Conversion to Islam is thus a challenging
and absorbing subject for research. Yet it has attracted the attention of scholars
only since the last decade of the nineteenth century.
What follows does not claim to be more than a pre! iminary and rather
hurriedly prepared survey of the main theories about conversion to Islam
propounded by Asian and Western scholars. The dearth of source material
presents difficulties as "medieval Islam" produced no missionaries, bishops,
baptismal rites, or other indicators of conversion that could be conveniently
recorded by the Muslim chronicler. Hopefully the subject will be a spur
to the detailed review and analysis of sources, modern and medieval, which
the subject both deserves and requires ...