Had Islam spread by sword, not a single Hindu would have survived in India today’, Karnataka ex- speaker Ramesh Kumar

Bangalore/ New Delhi: Debunking RSS and communal forces oft repeated propaganda that Islam was spread by the sword in the subcontinent, ex Karnataka speaker K R  Ramesh Kumar said if Islam was spread by the sword, not a single Hindu would have survived  in this country today as the Muslim ruled was stretched over 800 years. Kumar made this observation at the launch ceremony of former Chief Election Commissioner Dr. S.Y.Quraishi’s book ‘The Population Myth’ in Bangalore. He also attacked the communal forces saying they are undermining the Constitution of India.

Speaking at the event held on last Sunday (September 26), the ex speaker and five-time Congress MLA, Kumar  said  “If the Muslim rulers had forcibly spread Islam in this country during their 800 years of rule, not a single Hindu would have been left in India today”.

He said it is utterly false propaganda which has no historical basis. He said attempts are being made to distort the Muslim-rule history and their contributions to the development of the country.

“What Muslims have contributed for this country today is being erased from the minds of the people and historical facts are being distorted and presented to the people in such a way that Muslims have forcibly spread Islam”.

Kumar was the 16th speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly from 25 May 2018 to 29 July 2019 who had disqualified 17 rebel MLAs of Congress and JD(S) in 2019.  He represents the Srinivaspur assembly constituency of Kolar district in the House.

Lauding Quraishi’s book on Population growth, the congress leader said the book is a befitting reply to the propaganda of Muslim population explosion and Muslim would overtake Hindus in future.

Concurring with Kumar’s views, former Karnataka minister Dr H.C. Mahadevappa also spoke on the same lines. The allegation against Muslim rulers that they did spread Islam by force has no basis and historic facts, he said.

Muslims ruled this country for 800 years and for 200 years after the Muslim rule, the British ruled the country, but during that period there was no attempt made to declare India as Islamic state or a Christian state,” Dr Mahadevappa noted in his address.

It is to be noted that despite the longish period of Muslim rule,  India has still  80 percent non-Muslim population including Hindus, Adivasis( tribal), Dalits, Buddhsits, Jains , Lingyat, Sikhs  and others.  

Dr Mahadevappa said after the communal forces seized power in the country, it is being said that the country will be turned into a Hindu Rashtra.  However, he averred that ordinary Indians, be they Hindus or Muslims both want to live together and peacefully but a handful people, in order to serve their interest, are sowing the seeds of hatred. We need to respond to these forces effectively and frustrate their designs, he said.

Kumar also stressed the need of launching a concerted and joint effort to stop these forces in their tracks.

Unfortunately, today the power was captured by these forces at the Center and several states which represent the Manuwadi-thinking (caste supremacy) and want to confine power to only one class by dominating on the weaker sections of the society, the ex-speaker said.

On the occasion the author of the book and former IAS officer Dr.Quraishi highlighted various aspects of his seminal work. He said there has been an increasing rhetoric, propagated by the Right-wing, on the growth of Muslim population and this rhetoric has given rise to several myths, which are used to stoke majoritarian fears of a skewed demographic.

In the book, I use empirical evidence and government data to demolish these myths and demonstrate how a planned population is in the interest of all communities and it is the first such book in India that evaluates the country’s demography through a religious lens, Dr Quraishi said.