Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
1

There was a letter in DAWN yesterday that Muslims and Islam brought civilisation to India? Do you’ll think this is true. Are Muslims more sphisticated and civilised and cultured than Hindus?

Is it true that most Pakistanis are more sophisticated than Indians? What is India missing that Pakistan has?

http://www.dawn.com/2006/11/09/letted.htm

IN her letter, Ms Mujahid suggests that the ban on Indian channels should be relaxed because the Indus and Ganges valley civilisation were part of India and Pakistan. She is not alone in this misconception of our great civilisations.

Most of the civilisations in the subcontinent reside in Pakistani areas such as the Indus civilization and Harrappa and so forth. Most of the people in these civilisations were immigrants from Central Asia or west Asia, which means simply that most of them were non-Indians. And obviously this applies to Pakistanis in general also. Pakistani culture, especially the Urdu language, is a non-Indian entity.

Pakistan is more sophisticated in its language and culture then India. Our ancestors brought civilisation to India for example beautiful Islamic buildings, Ittar (perfume) Urdu language and etiquette.

We should learn a great lesson from the Mughals who tried hard to mix Indians and Muslims but ]they ended up evaporating. Every Pakistani knows today that Urdu language is in great threat from Indian channels.

We should watch embrace every culture and society movies and shows including India’s but not at the cost of Pakistan’s own culture and language.

JAVED ALTAF
San Ramon, USA

2

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

So are you saying that before Islam, Indians lived as primitive barbarians with no culture, buildings, religion etc etc? (forgeting ofcourse, even Alexander the great had to fight the great army of Porus a few thousand years ago).

And what is Indians before 1947?

According to most, the indus valley inhabitants were dravidians.

And what's so special about Urdu? I prefer Punjabi and most Pakistani punjabis prefer Punjabi over Urdu.

3

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

This is pitiful. This man has got to be an ignorant fool, for he has prooved it in ever single statement he made.

Urdu is a Indic language and is the same as it's Hindi variant spoken in Indian. The only difference is the script and the heavy persian influence on Urdu Vocab and an equal amount of Sanskrit influence on Hindi vocab.
Pakistani culture is very much an Indian entity and so is Urdu.

His claim that the ancestors of Pakistanis were central asian and middle eastern is another fallacy. The only people of central asian or middle eastern descent are Pashtuns, Balochis and the the people of the Northern Areas. The rest of Pakistan's population is primarily South Asian with some influence from foreigners. Telling by his name, he is probably a Punjabi/Urdu-speaking person so he is no where close to central asian or middle eastern.

Indian channels are not threatning Urdu but rather giving it and Indic culture support in Pakistan. Urdu is actually threatning local Pakistani cultures and languages.

4

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

The sad thing is that Pakistani Punjabis do not prefer Punjabi. Punjabis are the only ethnic group in Pakistan who have embraced Urdu with open arms.

BATS
5

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

Not that I totally agree with the letter;

Urdu is the preffered language of poetry even in India, example all the film songs.

I don't agree, I am punjabi, I respect both the languages for their own beauty.

6

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

How so?

7

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

so some dude wrote a letter in a newspaper and we are jumping up and down :)
nice..reading letters to editors would make your head spin if you really bothered with what any einstein with a computer has to say

8

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

This letter is from an educated Pakistani from California and that is even more surprising.

9

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

Please explain.

10

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

In Pakistan they teach them all this nonesense in Social Studies about how they are all Central Asian and Middle Eastern who came to rule the South Asian Indians when in reality everyone knows deep down that all of South Asia including Pakistan and India share pretty much the same history.

[quote]
The only people of central asian or middle eastern descent are Pashtuns, Balochis and the the people of the Northern Areas.
[/quote]

Yes the Pashtuns and Balochs are Central Asian whilst the rest of Pakistan is definately South Asian, but I wouldn't say we are Middle Eastern because Middle East is West Asia who are Semites and North Africa who are Berbers, we are neither Semites nor Berbers, we've more simialrities with Persians, Kurds, Ossettians and all that.

People are surprised when I tell them I am Pakistani because they think I am a Kurdish assylum seeker or an Iranian or something, if the majority of Pakistanis were Central Asian people would know they look Central Asian, just go to Alum Rock or Bradford Pakis look indistinguishable from Indians espeially from Sikhs.

My Asian Haute Couture Designs. *SairaJi*
11

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

how can anybody be this ill informed and why does dawn bother printing such garbage?

12

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

I would disagree with the fact that Pathans and Balochi's are central asian/middle eastern. I am Punjabi and an Awan. Historically I (and all awans) are of arab/middle eastern descent.

Say English Word , the other will say Urdu Word for it
13

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

^
I heard that Awans claim descent from a certain Sayyad Saint but in actual fact they were Hindus converted by him, God knows which is true.

I know a few Awans and they neither look nor act Arab, even if they were orignally Arabs they've mixed in that much with the locals that they are pure Punjabis.

14

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

Disagree with the fact all you like, it's still a fact.

Geographically our side of Pakistan is on the Central Asian/Iranian plate whilst the rest on the South Asian/Indian.

Ethnically our people have more in common with Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Kurdistan.. whilst other Pakistanis are just like north Indians. That's why a Punjabi will have no idea what a Pashtun is saying but he will get a jist of the conversation if a Bengali is speaking, sameway a Pashtun who didn't study Urdu will have no idea what someone from Karachi is saying but he will get a jist of the conversation if he heard someone speak Ossetic.

People from the Northern Areas and Kashmir are not like the rest of South Asia but they should be seperate from both India and Pakistan and have their own country.

15

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

Agree with everything in the letter except the bolded part.

16

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

I mentioned Middle Eastern, for those Persian speaking communities in Balochistan which migrated from Iran and the Makran coast which is a mix of African, Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture. Most Persians I know refer to themselves as Middle Eastern. You are right though, Most Pakistanis are not Middle Eastern.

17

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

Just because a few Arabs settled in Punjab and married local women does not make you Middle Eastern. That was too many generations back. It amazes me how south Asians completely disregard their race just because 500 years ago some Arab came and inseminated one of their great great great great great..........................................................................grandmothers.

18

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

I can show you websites and webzines by educated indians..they will not just surprise you, they will shock you.

btw nice new nick, what happened to all the old ones :wink:

19

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

[QUOTE]
Disagree with the fact all you like, it's still a fact.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, I didn't mean it that way, I just wanted to point out the fact that they are not the only people of Middle Eastern descent.

20

Re: Did Muslims and Islam bring civilisation to India?

[quote]
Just because a few Arabs settled in Punjab and married local women does not make you Middle Eastern. That was too many generations back. It amazes me how south Asians completely disregard their race just because 500 years ago some Arab came and inseminated one of their great great great great great............................................. .............................grandmothers.
[/quote]

I understand that, I just wanted to state that some ethnicities in Pakistan are of Middle Eastern descent (no matter how far back) and sure I know for a fact that I am way more South Asian than Arab. I mean you can see this in our culture, our culture is completely different from those in the Middle East. Ours is closer to India and Bangladesh's, but in no way the same.