AHC: Mass conversions in India post-1700

What is the biggest conversion in India possible in the last few centuries? Either from Hinduism to Islam, Islam to Hinduism, or Sikhism to one of the big two. How would you get there?
 
Maybe have a Mughal sultan who is a religious zealot successfully defeat the Sikhs and order a mass conversion?
 
Really? How would this happen? Do the Sikhs have enough territory?

The Sikhs have enough territory, and they probably had quite a few OTL conversions post-1700. Avoid the massacres of the Sikhs by the Durrani, and I think you'll have a stronger Khalsa, which may very well mean more conversions.
 

fi11222

Banned
What is the biggest conversion in India possible in the last few centuries? Either from Hinduism to Islam, Islam to Hinduism, or Sikhism to one of the big two. How would you get there?
If the British do not conquer it, India would become a majority Muslim country by the XXth century.
 

fi11222

Banned
And your support for that is ?
Percentage of Muslims had been increasing steadily since the 10th century. With rural exodus to the cities, as happened in every country during the XIXth/XXth century, this trend could only increase. What kept Hindusim alive were the large rural populations and their relative isolation. In cities, upwardly mobile people were becoming Muslims within a few generations. The Nizam's state is a perfect example. The bulk of the Andhra population was Hindu but Hyderabad was an overwhelmingly Muslim city.
 

longsword14

Banned
Percentage of Muslims had been increasing steadily since the 10th century. With rural exodus to the cities, as happened in every country during the XIXth/XXth century, this trend could only increase. What kept Hindusim alive were the large rural populations and their relative isolation. In cities, upwardly mobile people were becoming Muslims within a few generations. The Nizam's state is a perfect example. The bulk of the Andhra population was Hindu but Hyderabad was an overwhelmingly Muslim city.
All tru, but the magnitude of change is what I wanted support for. Britain did not have an all pervasive social influence, which is why I asked for how could they have stopped it ?
 

fi11222

Banned
All tru, but the magnitude of change is what I wanted support for. Britain did not have an all pervasive social influence, which is why I asked for how could they have stopped it ?
After the mutiny of 1857, the British became strongly anti-Muslim. Even before that, the divide and rule policy meant that Hinduism was protected and social identities were increasingly frozen in place. Even more importantly, conversion to Islam was no longer the path to social advancement. And the defeat of so many Muslim rulers also deeply eroded the prestige of Islam.
 
That was attempted. It didn't work and triggered the decline of the Mughal Empire with little to show for it.

No. The Mughal decline was caused by the southern expansion draining the treasuries and causing Alamgir to neglect the north, not by zealotry. Quite frankly, I find that Alamgir's zealotry is often exaggerated with absurd claims that he banned music and some other shit.
 
No. The Mughal decline was caused by the southern expansion draining the treasuries and causing Alamgir to neglect the north, not by zealotry. Quite frankly, I find that Alamgir's zealotry is often exaggerated with absurd claims that he banned music and some other shit.

I think he may be talking about Aurangzeb.
 

Japhy

Banned
No. The Mughal decline was caused by the southern expansion draining the treasuries and causing Alamgir to neglect the north, not by zealotry. Quite frankly, I find that Alamgir's zealotry is often exaggerated with absurd claims that he banned music and some other shit.
Regardless he did try to push a religious line on the other faiths of the Empire and didn't pull it off and did damage by it.
 
Even more importantly, conversion to Islam was no longer the path to social advancement.

Conversion to Islam was never the path to social advancement under the Mughals. Hindus served in many high positions in the empire, many serving within the divan as the emperor's most trusted advisors. Rajputs served in all facets of Mughal society due to a long-standing alliance between the Rajput kingdoms and the Mughal Empire.

No, the path to advancement was culture. Having to learn Persian and Persian poetry was a fundamental skill in the Mughal court, and Rajputs and other Hindus working within the empire learned Persian and adopted Persian styles. It is for this reason that many great Indo-Persian poets were Hindu. And one of the great political conflicts within the empire was between the native Indians and Persian and Turani arrivals, with emperors variously aligned with the Indians and the Persians/Turanis.
 
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