India's Muslims and Lessons for the West

Although Arabs had started invading India at the beginning of the eighth century, they came to the subcontinent mainly to plunder, spread their Islamic faith, and then retreat. The Arabs converted the Central Asians to Islam, who in turn converted the Afghans. The Afghans were traditionally Hindus and had then become Buddhist. The Buddhas of Bamiyan, monumental statues of Gautama Buddha carved into the sides of a cliff in Afghanistan in the sixth century AD, were evidence of how much Buddhism had spread in Afghanistan. The Taliban destroyed these statues in 2001.The Afghans started invading the Indian Subcontinent, but it was not until circa 1200 AD that their rule was firmly established in Delhi. The Afghans had become fanatical Muslims by then. This time though the Muslims did not come to India just to loot and proselytize and then leave. They came to stay. The Afghans ruled India for three hundred consecutive years. No Hindu king could topple them. Ironically, they were toppled by another type of Muslims, Central Asians of Mongol descent, who came to be known as the Mughals.