PART I

Chapter 7

WILLING AND PEACEFUL CONVERSION - A HALF TRUTH

Had the Kashmiri Hindus accepted Islam willingly and peacefully, it would have been a unique example in the history of Islam only to be rivalled by the history of Buddhism. Contrary to the claims of Bamzai and Bazaz, the dark reality remains that the spread of Islam in Kashmir was as blood-soaked and apocalyptic as it was in countries where Islam was introduced by force and coercion and at pain of death. 'Social and religious humanism, as projected by Sufi dervishes is a half-truth invented by Bamzai and 'religious humanism' is a pale repetition of the same half-truth by Bazaz. The sufi dervishes with rare exceptions could not be designated even remotely as humanists as they were deeply steeped in hide-bound Muslim orthodoxy and held fast to viciously sectarian notions and their psyche and each cell of their existence was highly biased and prejudiced and presided over by the idea of 'Kufra' for the extirpation of which they were uncompromising and absolutely ruthless. The first glimpse of their true face and also mind-set was betrayed through the prism of 'twenty humiliating conditions' as enshrined in the 'Zakhiratul-Muluk' which Bamzai and Bazaz were either not aware of or if at all were conversant with them, have conveniently brushed them aside like proverbial ostriches. Having known dark facts and grisly crimes committed in the name of Islam, they have deliberately concealed them or trimmed and tailored them to suit the requirements of so-called secular ideology and Royist thesis.