Most Persecuted Religions in History

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Most Persecuted Religions in History

@calypsodc

Bengal was a buddhist kingdom before the arrival of Islam. Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji controlled Bengal which was when the region had the most number of converts . Muslim missionaries played a part equally important. Most of the areas which are predominantly muslim were buddhist kingdoms- sindh, baluchisthan, Afghanisthan, Bengal were all Buddhist with a hindu minority. Exception being Kashmir which was hindu majority. Punjab before Islam was under control of the pala empire (750-1220) and hindu shahi which were both buddhist and hindu in nature. It is the buddhist majority of pre-islamic india with exceptions of parts of punjab and kashmir which are muslim majority today. Buddhism is a casteless religion unlike hinduism and they were the first to convert. They did not face any discrimination based on “castes”. Hindus converted too but they held on longer despite the so called “evil caste system” as is proclaimed today. So how can we consider caste system as the main cause of voluntary conversion of Hindus ?

Note my post #119 where I have acknowledged the work of sufis in trying to gain converts.

During the Delhi sultanate almost all of northern India was in their control, why is that east Bengal converted while Delhi, UP,Bihar and West Bengal remained Hindu dominated?

Castes played a big reason for conversions in Punjab, many researches have been done to that respect. We need to see about the rise of Sikhism as well, maybe the caste system was very entrenched in the social fabric of the province. That is the reason when Sufis preached,people converted. Another reason is the religion of punjab has always been the religion being followed in Kabul, before it used to be Buddhism, then Hinduism and in the last Islam.