Religious Tolerance in India from Turks to Mughals: A Etrospection

The Mongols proposed a concept of secular international law; they generally allowed religious tolerance in the first hundred years. Followers of the adopted father of Changez Khan, Ong Khan, were Christians, and the Mongols easily accepted Jesus Christ as a healer. Changez had four sons and all were married to Christian women resulting in many Christian descendants. Weatherford wrote (after Ming troops destroyed it in 1380), "it was probably most religiously liberal and tolerant city in the world." Not a single court in Asia would match this religious tolerance except for that of Akbar, who welcomed all religious people to his court and interacted with the theologians in a friendly debate. Changez Khan himself practiced shamanic which focused on the worship of sky. Most Muslims in India were not converted by sword which is contrary to the widespread belief. Some cases of forced conversions surely did happen in India, but if census data is to be believed then most of the converts were voluntary. The Hindus and Buddhist were brought into early Islamic government as trusted advisors and important military officers. This was a policy that continued under the Delhi Sultanate and also to the Mughal Empire. The peculiarity of Indian soil convinced many immigrant Muslim invaders a life of peaceful coexistence as the preferred option. The Indian Sunnis have peacefully coexisted with their Shia minority better than any place in the Islamic world. Sufi missionaries were given freedom to move everywhere. There are clear indicators that immigrants Muslims have learnt religious tolerance from the Indians and it spread all over the decades from the advent of the first foot of Mongols on Indian soil to that of the last foot of Mughals.