Example of essay on impact of islam on indian culture

Following Harsha’s reign and prior to the Islam advent, political disintegration and a spell of intellectual stagnation was witnessed in India. The country got portioned into numerous small states. The people’s outlook and identities were majorly parochial. Authoritarianism and formalism were dominant in cultural and religious life. The intellectuals failed to give a significant contribution towards innovating ideas, commentaries or religious writing. The Gurjars, Shakas and Hunas abolished the golden age in the dynasty of Gupta.
The foreigners progressively adopted the culture and religion of Hindu. Foreigners claimed to be descendants from the Kshrtiyas but they were largely perceived as invaders. The culture of literature, poetry Raj put culture and drama. Bengali, Ajmer and Mandu became places for both Raj put chivalry, new culture, literature and architecture. At this time there was concrete stability in south India while there was marked disintegration in the politics of India.
The Muslim and Hindu represent different cultures, the lifestyles and the views of the world. The two cultures have over time interacted and in a common synthesis. There have been insults towards the two cultures. Islamic traditions in India are a result of three stages.
Firstly, there is a stage that centers on the duration of the rule of Islam in India. This stage is marked with tension, cultural syncretism, and conflict between Islamic and Hindu culture. The rulers of Muslims conducted religious warfare aided by the Ulemas.
The Muslims assimilated majority of the practices of the Hindu. The Indians, as a society were influenced by the traditions of the Muslims by a great deal. The effects of Islam were both negative and positive on the culture of the Indians. There was an indirect effect of the Muslim culture that resulted in making the society of Hindu to become exclusive and mainly caste-ridden.
As the Muslims occupied India, they enhanced certain tendencies that were greatly undesirable. These tendencies had already started to manifest in India but their climax took shape at the time of conquest by the Muslims. Prior to the 13th century, the Indian society was under horizontal division. This means that both Jainism and Buddhism could not influence the divisions. Instead, ease assimilation of both prevailed. The Islam culture resulted in the split of the Indian society into distinct two divisions.
At a later stage the two sections underwent evolution and resulted into separate nations that were squarely within the same country. It is interesting to note that the societies developed were parallel to each other. In an attempt to fortify firmly their stand against the dispersal of the Islam culture. The Indians introduced numerous taboos and rules termed as caste. Such rules were very rigid. Continuous development was fading from the Hindus due to Islam impact.
The position of women was greatly impacted upon by the Muslim rule and the culture of Islam. When a girl child was born, it was regarded as an unfortunate event. This belief became wide spread among the Muslims and the Hindus and as a result an infanticide that was mainly for females was adopted widely among the Hindu in an attempt to safeguard chastity. The women were subjects of seclusion in their very own homes.
Marriage of young children was introduced from the Islam traditions. This culture was adopted by the Hindu people so that they could protect the girls from being attacked by the Muslims. The women were suppressed by the system of sati. Sati was meant to impose serious rules that aimed at making the women live a faithful life regardless of the conjugal needs. The stress that women suffered subjected them to dependency whereby they relied on men for their needs.
Slavery was another conspicuous feature that the Muslim culture introduced to the Hindus. In the Islam, the practice of slavery was very common. Both women and men could be made slaves. The Hindu chiefs got stimulated towards making their men and women slaves. The practice of slavery was a foreign culture that only took root as the Muslims came to India.
The caste was made more rigid and it was purposed to enhance conversion of more Hindus to the Islam culture. The restrictions of marriage and caste were very stringent in the Hindus lifestyles. Other rules were newly subscribed.
The Muslims introduced the perception of equality among the people and a system of dispute resolution. The Hindu rulers were compelled to work towards upholding religion of the Hindu. The message of Islam that was basically centered on universal brotherhood enhanced equity and discarded the tradition of untouchability and caste. The spread of brotherhood promoted a conscious philosophical mind in the Hindu. This fostered liberal uprising that were driven by religious reformers. The elementary structure of dispute resolution was prevalent at village level and was greatly different at the upper level. Presently Indian system of the judiciary has Persian language.
The contact of the Hindu and Muslims resulted in the synthesis of language. Arabic, Turkish, and Persian words integrated to form the Urdu language which later became the people’s language. The Indian literature was under the influence of the Turko-Afghans. Several good works later got written and composed in Gujarati.
In conclusion, the long period of association served to bring the Muslims and Hindus very closer in such a way that evolution of the culture of the Hindu was enhanced with islam. the culture of the Hindu also influenced greatly the elements of Islam. It is worth noting that, the Muslims and Hindus have by a large extent led to the development of a cultural heritage characteristic of present India.