THE UNABATED POWER of Sanatana Dharma of absorbing alien forces by Hinduising them and culturally conquering foreign lands received its first rude blow during Muhammad bin Qasim’s virgin raid on Sindh in 712 CE.
The fact that this jolt occurred in less than two centuries after the extinction of the Gupta Empire is highly significant. Qasim’s success owed to the thawing and the eventual loss of what K.M. Munshi memorably called the Aryavarta Consciousness.
Despite this initial setback, the Sanatana society remained remarkably resilient. Barely months after Qasim left, Hindus in the Sindh region returned to their Mātr̥-Dharma, rebuilt their destroyed temples, reclaimed their lands and evicted the vestiges of the Mleccha invaders who had polluted and defiled their sacred Bhoomi. For the next three centuries, this region remained untouched by Mleecha incursions.
But this relative lull in northwestern Bharatavarsha was once more violently shattered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1000 CE — after nearly three centuries of uncertain and disquieting peace. In the interim, sweeping changes had occurred in two vast theatres of Asia — from the Arabian peninsula stretching up to Central Asia, and Bharatavarsha. Central Asia, once a major hub of Bauddha Dharma, had been thoroughly Islamised, its past erased forever and replaced by a bloodthirsty religious imperialism. Meanwhile, Bharatavarsha had become a blood-soaked playground of mutually warring Hindu kings.
The same period had also birthed an extraordinary giant of philosophy who unified Bharata-Bhumi even as its political leaders were busy chopping each other’s necks for a few square kilometres of land. His name was Adi Sankara. Indeed, few Sanyasins can equal his vision and action of spiritually unifying a politically splintered Bharatavarsha — from Kalady to Kashi; from Sringeri to Dwaraka; from Puri to Badrinath. He became a pioneer and a role model who inspired a marquee of Sanyasins who sustained our national unity and cultural integrity. Indeed, our Sadhus and Sanyasins succeeded where our Samrats failed. This historical truth is perhaps truer today.
MAHMUD OF GHAZNI altered Bharatavarsha forever for the worse. In a series of fanatical welts, he extinguished Classical India and caused mass migrations of Hindus in their own homeland. While the stunned Hindu society didn’t know what had hit it with such ferocious suddenness, it recovered rather quickly and devised a variety of responses hewn from its native spiritual genius.
On the political front, it took the form of — for example, the Turushka-Danda (The Turushka or Muslim Tax) as early as the eleventh century itself. In this context, it is worth recalling D.R. Bhandarkar’s brilliant note.
"Shortly before the foreign invasions began from the 11th century onwards, the Hindu body politique was fast losing the two invaluable qualities of colonisation and proselytisation so indispensable for the self-preservation and continuance of a race or people and its culture. On the other hand, the new foreign invaders who were of Muslim religion were aggressive proselytisers, with the consequence that instead of Muslims being converted to Hinduism, many Hindus became Muhammadans. Hindu Society was now on its trial. Nevertheless, it wonderfully began to tide over this crisis by reclaiming most of the Hindus that were being converted to Muhammadanism. Śud'dhi movement in India began, not recently with the Arya Samajists re-converting the Muhammadan Malkana Rajputs, but in the tenth century." (Emphasis added)
This brings us to what is now popularly known as Ghar-Wapsi or the homecoming of Hindus who were forcibly or fraudulently converted to Islam or Christianity. From the 19th century onwards, Ghar-Wapsi was known variously as Śud'dhi or Śud'dhīkaraṇa, literally meaning purification (or the process of purification). However, the original term for Śud'dhi was Parāvartana, a compound Sanskrit term that can be split as follows: Parā + Vr̥t + āna. It variously means, “turn back,” “turn around,” “return,” restoration.”
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE of Parāvartana first occurs in the early years of the tenth century in a renowned and highly-respected Dharmasastra treatise titled Dēvala-Smr̥ti, predating Mahmud’s invasion. The Dēvala-Smr̥ti seeded a glorious and unbroken tradition of Parāvartana and is still the foundational text for all Ghar-Wapsi initiatives. It was also the foundation upon which the Arya Samaj built its Śud'dhīkaraṇa efforts and achieved remarkable successes for more than half a century. In fact, in 1930, the Arya Samaj published a scholarly booklet titled Śud'dhi Sanātana hai, drawing from copious Dharmasastra treatises dealing with Parāvartana, going all the way back to the Dēvala-Smr̥ti.
Even a peripheral read of this corpus of Dharmasastra material related to Parāvartana more than suffices to disprove a twofold but widespread myth. One, that you must be born a Hindu to remain one; two, that Ghar-Wapsi is prohibited by Hindu Sastras.
In fact, the opposite is actually true, and abundant first-hand evidence exists in the Muslim annals, which shows how the converted Hindus reverted to Sanatana Dharma in massive numbers throughout the centuries. We can cite two samples for this. The first is the lament of the Arab/Persian chronicler, Al-Biladuri in his Kitab Futuh al-Buldan:
"The people of India had returned to idolatry except those of Kassa, and the Musulmans had no place of security in which they could take refuge. Had they also followed the pernicious example, the Arabs would have been deprived of all retreat in case of danger." (Emphasis added)
The second is by the renowned Alberuni, who in 1024 CE, provided an even more telling commentary.
"I have been repeatedly told that when Hindu slaves (in the Muslim countries) escape and return to their country and religion, the Hindus order that they should fast by way of expiation, then they bury them in the dung, stale and milk of cows for a certain number of days, till they get into a state of fermentation. Then they drag them out of the dirt and give them similar dirt to eat, and more of the like." (Emphasis added)
As we shall see, this anguish by Muslim chroniclers of that era finds corroboration in the Dēvala-Smr̥ti; Alberuni’s description of Parāvartana — although erroneous — is highly noteworthy.
To be continued
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