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Undoing
the damage done to Indian History-Part 3 by Aniruddha Avanipal
Undoing the damage done to
Indian History-Part 3 by Aniruddha Avanipal
Aniruddha Avanipal
Last week, we left off with the saga of Caliph Usman's decision to
forego any more raids on India, following his hearing about
details of the defeat suffered by Hakim.
Ali and Muawiyah- the "pious" Caliphs
Ali succeeded Usman as Caliph in AD 656. In spite of the fact that
the all the previous Caliphs were defeated miserably by Indian
forces, the allure of beautiful Indian women and abundance of
Indian wealth were two strong attractions for lusty lecherous
Arabs like Ali to resist. He decided to review the plans for
attacking India.
In 659 AD, Ali organized a strong raiding party under the
leadership of Abdi. Abdi's Islamic gang committed great atrocities
for nearly three years on the fringe of India killing defenseless
people, kidnapping some to be sold as slaves, destroying their
homes and carrying away the loot. Although the Arabic chronicler
Al Biladuri claims some success for this predatory gang, he also
admits that Abdi was ultimately slain by Hindu soldiers in the
battle. Al Biladuri describes "Abdi was victorious, gathered
the loot, made captives and distributed in one day a thousand
heads. Save a few, he and those who were with him were slain in
the land of Kikan (in Sindh, near the Khorasan frontier) in 661
AD."
Thus the three "pious" Caliphs of Islam (Umar, Usman and
Ali) died without hearing the news of a victory over "Sindh
or Hind".
Muawiyah, the succeeding Caliph (AD 661-680) sent as many as six
expeditions by land. Hindu forces slaughtered most of the Muslim
marauders belonging to Muawiyah's raiding party. For the next 28
years, the Arabs did not dare send another army against India. The
next expedition was organized to take Debal (present day Karachi
and originally Devalay) in AD 708. Its two successive commanders
Ubaidullah and Budail were killed and the Arab army was routed.
Hajjaj, The Pimp
Arabic chronicles "Tarikh-i-Masumi", "Mujjamal-ut-Tawarikh"
and "Futuh-ul-Buldan" describe a common pattern involved
in all the above mentioned Islamic raids. Whether on land or on
sea, the Arab marauders used to attack civilians, murder the men,
rape women, carry away the children, burn the homes, villages or
ships of the hapless victims, loot all their wealth and turn their
Hindu shrines into mosques.
Although, the Indian forces the border area were vigilant and
severely punished the Islamic armies in each of their raids, there
was a lack of concerted move on behalf of Indian kings to track
down the root of the problem and put an end to it. This very lack
of effort is what encouraged Hajjaj, the then governor of Iraq to
plan another raid on India.
Hajjaj's character has been amply described by certain famous
historians. Sir H.M Elliot describes Hajjaj's character which was
typical of all governors of Iraq in those days. Elliot observes,
"Under the auspices of the cruel tyrant, Hajjaj, who though
nominally governor only of Iraq was in fact ruler over all the
places which constituted the former Persian kingdoms, the spirit
of more extended conquest arose. By his orders, one army under
Kutaiba...penetrated even to Kashgar, at which place Chinese
ambassadors entered into a compact with the marauders..."
In his book "Biographical Dictionary", in the article
"Al Hajjaj", the author Pascual de Gayangos records:
" That sanguinary wretch (Al Hajjaj) is said to have
slaughtered by his arbitrary mandates 120,000 persons. After his
death there were found in his different prisons, 30,000 men and
20,000 women. This is drawn from Persian sources. The Sunni
writers represent him as just and impartial notwithstanding his
unflinching severity...."
Hajjaj's plan regarding India was nothing radically different than
the previous Islamic invaders. When he asked the Caliph Walid for
permission to send another expedition, the Caliph wrote back:
" This affair will be a source of great anxiety and so we
must put it off, for every time an army goes, vast number of
Muslims are killed. So think of no more of such a design".
But Hajjaj was a very tenacious person. He spent the next four
years in equipping an army more formidable than any which had been
sent against Sindh. The plan was to establish an infernal machine
to plunder India's wealth, to terrorize India's civilians to
accepting Islam and to abduct its women and children for sexual
assaults. The infernal machine was also visioned to have a two-way
conveyor belt. One side of the belt would carry Muslim gangs of
barbarians equipped with horses, spears, swords, mangonels and
enough stocks of narcotics and strong liquors. The other side of
the belt would be used for carrying the harvest of robbery to
Damascus and Baghdad, consisting of molested women and children,
plundered bullion and gems, sacred idols of the Hindus and
treasures from innumerable Hindu temples.
Hajjaj started sending his gang of Islamic armies in small groups
in ships to Indian border areas in 710 AD. In one such raid, the
Islamic gang captured some orphaned Muslim women -dependants of
deceased merchants and others from Ceylon and planned to ship them
to Damascus to pander to the lust of Caliph and Hajjaj. The convoy
was attacked by pirates near Karachi (originally known as Devalay).
The consignment of hapless women having failed to reach its
destination, the Caliph and Hajjaj were sorely disappointed.
Making this as a convenient excuse Hajjaj sent a haughty message
to Dahir, the Indian King of Sindh, holding him responsible for
the loss of the consignment. King Dahir replied that he had
nothing to do with the attack on the high seas.
Disappointed in some of the earlier commanders deputed by him,
since they did not measure up to his requirements of tyranny and
treachery, Hajjaj now put his own nephew-cum-son-in-law, Mohammed
Qasem, in charge of the Arab marauders.
Qasem, then only 17 years old, apparently had shown enough promise
to his father-in-law Hajjaj at that young age. Hajjaj decided that
Qasem is well qualified to be in charge of committing wholesale
adultery, rape and mass destruction in India. While sending off
his nephew, with the gang of Islamic criminals in AD 712, Hajjaj
said: " I swear by Allah that I am determined to spend the
whole wealth of Iraq, this is in my possession, on this
expedition".
Next week, Qasem's foray into India will be dealt with in greater
detail.
Aniruddha Avanipal
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