During his campaign in India – Timur describes the scene when his army conquered the Indian city of Delhi :
“In a short space of time all the people in the [Delhi] fort were put to the sword, and in the course of one hour the heads of 10,000 infidels were cut off. The sword of Islam was washed in the blood of the infidels, and all the goods and effects, the treasure and the grain which for many a long year had been stored in the fort became the spoil of my soldiers.
“They set fire to the houses and reduced them to ashes, and they razed the buildings and the fort to the ground….All these infidel Hindus were slain, their women and children, and their property and goods became the spoil of the victors. I proclaimed throughout the camp that every man who had infidel prisoners should put them to death, and whoever neglected to do so should himself be executed and his property given to the informer. When this order became known to the ghazis of Islam, they drew their swords and put their prisoners to death.”
The Mughal emperor Babur (who ruled India from 1526 -1530 AD) writing in his memoirs called the ‘Baburnama’ – wrote : ” In AH 934 (2538 C.E.) I attacked Chanderi and by the grace of Allah captured it in a few hours. We got the infidels slaughtered and the place which had been Daru’l-Harb (nation of non-muslims) for years was made into a Daru’l-Islam (a muslim nation).”
In Babur’s own words in a poem about killing Hindus (From the ‘Baburnama’ ) he wrote :
“For the sake of Islam I became a wanderer,
I battled infidels and Hindus,
I determined to become a martyr
Thank God I became a Killer of Non-Muslims!”
The atrocities of the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan (who ruled India between 1628 – 1658 AD) are mentioned in the contemporary record called : ‘Badshah Nama, Qazinivi & Badshah Nama , Lahori’ and goes on to state : “When Shuja was appointed as governor of Kabul he carried on a ruthless war in the Hindu territory beyond Indus…The sword of Islam yielded a rich crop of converts….Most of the women (to save their honour) burnt themselves to death. Those captured were distributed among Muslim Mansabdars (Noblemen)”
The Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali attacked India in 1757 AD and made his way to the holy Hindu city of Mathura, the Bethlehem of the Hindus and birthplace of Krishna.
The atrocities that followed are recorded in the contemporary chronicle called : ‘Tarikh-I-Alamgiri’ :
“Abdali’s soldiers would be paid 5 Rupees (a sizeable amount at the time) for every enemy head brought in. Every horseman had loaded up all his horses with the plundered property, and atop of it rode the girl-captives and the slaves. The severed heads were tied up in rugs like bundles of grain and placed on the heads of the captives…Then the heads were stuck upon lances and taken to the gate of the chief minister for payment.
“It was an extraordinary display! Daily did this manner of slaughter and plundering proceed. And at night the shrieks of the women captives who were being raped, deafened the ears of the people…All those heads that had been cut off were built into pillars, and the captive men upon whose heads those bloody bundles had been brought in, were made to grind corn, and then their heads too were cut off. These things went on all the way to the city of Agra, nor was any part of the country spared.”
Why we should remember
The biggest holocaust in World History has been whitewashed from history.
When we hear the word HOLOCAUST most of us think immediately of the Jewish holocaust. Today, with increased awareness and countless cinema films and television documentaries – many of us are also aware of the Holocaust of the Native American peoples, the genocide of the Armenian peoples in the Ottoman Empire, and the millions of African lives lost during the Atlantic slave trade.
Europe and America produced at least a few thousand films highlighting the human misery caused by Hitler and his army. The films expose the horrors of Nazi regime and reinforce the beliefs and attitude of the present day generation towards the evils of the Nazi dictatorship.
In contrast look at India. There is hardly any awareness among the Indians of today of what happened to their ancestors in the past, because a great majority of historians are reluctant to touch this sensitive subject.
The World seems to either ignore or just does not seem to care about the many millions of lives lost during the 800 – year long holocaust of Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhist in India.
The Indian historian Professor K.S. Lal estimates that the Hindu population in India decreased by 80 million between 1000 AD and 1525 AD, an extermination unparalleled in World history. This slaughter of millions of people occurred over regular periods during many centuries of Arab, Afghan, Turkish and Mughal rule in India.
Many Indian heroes emerged during these dark times – including the 10th Sikh Guru – Guru Gobind Singh and also the Hindu Maratha king – Shivaji Maratha – who led the resistance against this tyranny and eventually led to its defeat by the late 1700s – after centuries of death and destruction.
The modern World today is facing a global threat from organizations and groups of terrorists such as the ISIS, Taliban and Al-Qaeeda – whose ideology is chillingly similar to that of the perpetrators of the World’s biggest holocaust in India.
Let us hope that the bloody lessons of the past are learnt so that history does not even have the remotest chance of repeating itself.
Sad to know the gory history, to know the ordeals of our forefathers! This is the worst genocide of the history of mankind. Mankind has not fallen from folly, of such dastardly attacks, but had risen time and again with the indomitable spirit of human spirit achievements. Now the entire world, including fundamentalists, is reaping the benefits of technology and comforts. So is the case of Hindu philosophy, which has the following of most people who believe in 'Live & Let live' while achieving higher goals of human spirit…slowly & steadily, are tormenting the fundamentalists (satan). No fear, for me,… Read more »
Muslims are killing Muslims world over.
Another plot to defame Indian Muslim and a well devised story to increase Hindu Muslim tensions in India and thus destabilize indian peace and prosperity.
Oh really??? LOL… its history and you can't deny it. Muslim destyoed India and they r stilll doing samething.
Do u know anything about recent Malda violence? Muslim burnt cars, police station in west bengal and NO NEWS IN TV CHANNELS. This is what happen everytime. No news against muslim
History is mute witness of barbarity of moghuls on kafirs, genocide of Hindus by moghuls is unparalleled in world history. Lessons learnt from history must
not be ignored.
I have a few questions to ask of the intelligent and creative people who compiled these evidences. Elst is also known to be a Christian fundamentalist- many in the Hindu right think that the Vatican has been sponsoring conversions. Elst meanwhile purports to show the Hindu-Christian relations as peaceful with Islam as a common enemy.Mr. Elst hence in the face of mounting evidence of Hindutva hatred of Christianity tries to falsify facts and construct a common enemy. Why should his pseudo-history be believed? Moreover, he compares the holocaust lasting at most 12 years and causing enormous loss of life, to… Read more »
You have some points but we can't deny the fact that its our History. Hindu Kings fought each other and thats why Muslim easily conquered India. Same tactics was later used by British. Our Temple were destoyed and converted to mosque, People were killed and forced to convert to islam. However there were many people (Shudra Caste) who converted to Islam because they were treated as slave by Brahmins and Upper Classes. Hindu are not 80% of India, don't forget that Pakistan, Bangladesh and some parts of Afghanistan were also part of India. and now these countires are 99% Muslim.… Read more »
So the tortures in Sikh museum is their figment of imagination
Basically ISIS has always existed
It is a history written by Muslim historians only, no denial. Hats off to Sikh ancestors and and Maratha fighters. These Muslim barbarians existed right from 6 or 7th century..They create problems and claim they are peaceful:-). Muslims need to reform themselves in this modern society, there is no other option.
Well India had a Hindu population so obviously an invading Muslim army would be killing Hindus. 30k Hindus killed, that may have been the army. Armies are usually killed in such instances, historically speaking. Sad thing yea…but…Such massacres happened a lot in history. Romans did it, Persians did it. (Europeans did it in the Americas. It was not done primarily because they were not of the same faith. It was for ambitions, love of conquest, riches, gold and then later civilizing them by forcing Christianity on them. All conquests are.). Saying it was because it was because they were Hindu… Read more »
Another Chutiya Spotted… Sorry for my words but you don't have any knowledge of what is happening in India right now….. Entire cities were burnt and all inhabitants were killed. they were no army… I am from Sultanpur Lodhi, Punjab. This city was burnt 3 TIMES, by muslim invaders and all civilians were killed. There are still archaeology & written proof of it. So you don't give a fuck to what happened 100 years back… but what about that is happening right now in India? What about Kashmiri pandits (milliones were forced to leave their home in their own country).… Read more »
Good one Desi Munde…..where in Sultanpur are u from……?
Does the truth depend on Media? Should we trust to media which spread the news that creates dispute and birth the communal violence. I have a question like, I am not saying the Islamic India was good. But if they have really killed this number of Hindus, we have 80% population of this community in India. Muslims are just 20% inspite of people saying muslims are not following family member restrictions.
Please add 16 Crore Muslims of Bangladesh and 20 crore of Pakistan. Because these 2 countries were parts of India. Pkaistan 20 crore, Bangladesh 16 crore and India almost over 20 crore. 20+20+16 = 56 Crore. And You know whats the population of all Arab Countries put together????? 30 Crore. I hope you understand the situation here….
I agree with you. But as I believe, the Islamic India was for more than 500 years.If they have really killed the number that is mentioned, if they have really broken the temples that we aware via media then in 500 years they have destroyed everything…If all of them are cruel then 500 years is enough for that… But still in India we have lots of temples which are proud that we have thousands of year old temples in our country. If we consider 56Cr Muslim then we have around 90Cr Hindu community which is much much still higher. I… Read more »
Brother its a fact. Many of temples which still exist are located in small villages, so muslim rulers had no information about them. They destroyed , at least tried to destroy every temple that they found. Many of Mosque of India were originally Temples. Here is an example how they converted Temple to Mosque http://www.mysteryofindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Daityasudan-temple-Attempt-of-conversion-to-mosque.jpg
It’s Islam faith which allows for killing of non Muslims..
Even now the only religion that kills innocents are Muslims
Barbaric and Islam actually allows such killings
Shameful but true…look at all over the world now..terrorists allow Muslims to walk away but kill non Muslims
God is great Muslims say..doubt their rhetoric as his is merciful..
But how can that be true ? Islam its religion of peace ?
The inability to unite in distress has reduced us, Hindus from being the most advanced and prosperous civilization to being the most brutalised.
What is worrisome though is the fact that most of us, Hindus, are still very uncomfortable with the idea of Hindu Unification. It is as if possessed by a death wish we don’t want to learn from History. Those refusing to learn from history are destined to repeat it. God forbid.
What happened in Kashmir were these type of tortures to Hindu men and women..but no Indian Muslim protested it , criticized it .We hold every Indian Muslim accountable to the inhuman tortures done on Kashmiri Hindus…we will not excuse any Muslim for that …we will execute them for their sins…
There is fundamental error in Islam : Allah is only God, non believers are sinners. It has to evolve with times.
Good article. Makes sense.