Introduction

Consider a modern multicultural society like the one in Silicon Valley. Here live people of many native languages, cultures (cuisine, fashion, arts, and events), and approaches to God. They respect each other’s choices and are comfortable with their own identities. When it comes to work, individuals fill different roles corresponding to their aptitude, training, and specialized knowledge and differ in earnings and status but work together without any show of status or rank. In addition to laws, people follow codes of conduct relating to safety, security, or public health. There is no conflict because people find the rules natural and follow them voluntarily. So many distinct communities can be happy and productive together. That’s exactly what the ideal Hindu society seeks to achieve, although that’s suppressed and denied by the defamatory “Hinduism” as proclaimed by Western authors and institutions.

[Editor: In this and other related articles, we use “Hinduism” (i.e., with the quotation marks) to signify the distorted and defamatory version of Hinduism proclaimed by Western authors and institutions]

Unlike the better-known field of Hindu philosophy, Hindu sociology is dynamic and adaptable – despite the contrary claims of “Hinduism”. Hindu society has indeed changed tremendously in the last century! Here we focus on the 19th century, just before the British decided to invent their own version of it. How they created the so-called Caste System is covered in Secret#3. You can also read it directly and return to this article for reference as needed. Remember, however, that Hindu Dharma cannot be defined by discrete declarations. It believes in the rule of reason.

Hindu Society: Principles

Less than 100 miles NW of Bharat’s capital lie remnants of a 5,000-year-old city with unmistakable proof of an advanced urban civilization [1]. DNA recovered from a single skeleton here shows no trace of foreign genes [2].  It was part of the Indus-Saraswati civilization before Egypt’s Old Kingdom when the Saraswati river extolled in the Vedas was in full flow. A port in Gujarat and evidence of trade with Mesopotamia have been found dating to 2800 BC. Thus, India was an advanced civilization in 3000 BC, which required an advanced social organization.

This organization was plural during all of Hindu history. The Rigveda contains exquisite poetry in praise of multiple deities, although, as an aside, the self-proclaimed deans of “Hinduism” like Michael Witzel have badly messed up the translation [3]. Rigid dogma and warfare among believers in multiple interpretations, while common in Christianity and Islam, are unheard of in Hindu Dharma. It is inconceivable that such a society could have created an ironclad, unyielding system of oppression and dehumanization.

The beliefs and practices of Hindus ranged from abstract monism to Shakti sacrifices, and languages, food, arts, music, and so on were equally diverse. It takes a special genius to allow such diversity to flourish side-by-side: not just peacefully but respectfully. That genius was a multi-identity nation or multiculturalism in modern parlance. The difference is that multiculturalism so glorified by modern society came after much bloodshed.

Four fundamental principles of Hindu society can be distinguished:

• The first is the high value of abstract thinking. The Purush Sukta [4, 5] lists four Varnas in order of decreasing abstraction: Brahmins, abstract thinkers and intellectuals, Kshatriyas, skilled and disciplined professionals who risk their lives, Vaishyas, other skilled professionals in civilian life, and Shudras, workers at large whose services are critical for the other three. These Varnas are likened to a person’s mouth, chest, thighs, and feet, respectively. Society needs them all, just as a person needs all organs. A statement like “Brahmins are intellectuals” sounds like Brahmin is an entitlement, a category you are born into, like a British title. But it really is an earned title based on your innate and achieved qualities. In other words, “intellectuals are Brahmins.”  There are many examples of Shudras by birth who became Kshatriyas or Brahmins by achievement. Another common confusion is between occupation and Varna. Even within the same industry or occupation, individuals can operate at different levels of abstraction, i.e., in different Varnas. Lastly, under emergencies such as genocide or war that prevent proper qualification, Varna may be inherited.
• The second principle of Hindu society is the power of kinship. The nitty-gritty of society: families, marriages, socialization and education of children, vocational training of wage-earners, rules of creating and sharing wealth, and so on, was organized around families, which kept track of their lineage and ancestry. Family-based groups include the parivar, kul, vansh, gotra, and the largest, jati or jaat. The last one is analogous to distinct cultural groups in a multicultural society.
• The third principle is the decoupling of individual religion from society. Hindus worship God in any form and in any way, all of them equally worthy of respect. Your status in society, your occupation, education, or wealth – are all decoupled from your approach to God.  As a corollary, Hindus cannot discriminate on the basis of religion.
• The fourth principle is decentralization. There is no top-down autocracy of state or of religion. A dispute that can be adjudicated at the village level, for example, did not go any further.  A decision that only concerned members of one family was made by the elders. Priests were revered for their wisdom and teaching, but not out of fear or dogma. There were no social disruptions or fights over religion.

Hindu society has been beset by expeditions, invasions, massacres, and conquests of varying intensity, duration, and geographical extent, from 530 BC (Darius I) to 1947 (George VI). It has survived only because it is flexible enough to adapt to challenges while remembering its roots. But the modern Indian nation-state is challenged daily by anti-Hindu Dharma both in and out of Bharat. The forces of “Hinduism” are wealthy, powerful, and against pluralism and idolatry. They use our own principles to keep us weak and divided. “Hinduism” must be recognized for the Trojan horse it is.

Varnashram Dharma

Hindu thought recognizes four fundamental goals of human life: Dharma, Arth, Kaam, and Moksha. Dharma is literally what holds society together, i.e., makes it run trouble-free. Everything that humans do, including the pursuit of the other three goals,  is informed and guided by Dharma. Arth refers to the economic-financial aspects of human life. Kaam stands for desire, i.e., attachment, not exclusively sexual. Moksha, or liberation from the cycle of births, is the ultimate goal of every living species, but most easily accessible to humans.

Here we are concerned with Dharma, which is not one-size-fits-all. It depends on time, place, the persons, and the situation involved, such as Samanya (normal) Dharma, Vishisht (Special) Dharma, Apad (emergency) Dharma, and Stree (Women’s) Dharma. All the writings on Dharma in Hindu spiritual literature, however, emphasize duty, sacrifice, and selfless service and prescribe nonviolence, truth, purity, and self-control. The Bhagvat Gita is probably the best source. Sanatan Dharma is the generic Dharma for all time, and Varnashrama Dharma is the standard of behavior and conduct. Varnashrama is the union of two words, Varna and Ashram.

Varnas

The ‘Varnas’ are four broad categories of individuals based on their goals (svadharma). Their goals are chosen by them (or assigned by God, according to Manusmriti) based on innate nature (svabhava, guna).  The Bhagavad Gita (4.13) relates the four Varnas to a person’s gunas (innate qualities), karmas (actions), and his dharma based on svabhava (18.41). Bhagavata Purana (11.17.13) relates the four Varnas to Atma-acharas (natural activities) resulting from his svadharma. Mahabharata (12.188) represents each Varna by colors reflecting the individual’s prakriti (balance of sattvic, rajasic, tamasic). There are extensive writings on the relationship among all these concepts.

For modern purposes, Varna boils down to a person’s temperament, which determines everything he does. There are various theories of what causes a certain temperament, but it is a mixture of nature and nurture. From the Shudra robber who went on to author the seminal and highly influential Ramayana (Valmiki) to the adopted wanderer who never met his father but became a billionaire (Steve Jobs), one’s Varna is not set at birth, although it’s possible that it is set at birth but only revealed later.

The Varnas are ideal types applicable to individuals. Not everyone’s actual livelihood will parallel his Varna. In the past, when families educated their own children, sons often inherited their father’s Varna. In the modern economy, one’s livelihood is set by aptitude and training, related to Varna, but also by the labor market. However, it can be said that people are happiest and most productive when their livelihood is aligned with their “real” Varna determined by their guna and svabhav. According to Swami Vivekananda [6] every Hindu should strive to be a Brahmin, meaning an ideal person.

Ashramas

The second aspect of human life outside our control is time. Every human being goes through certain stages. You grow up, get educated, get a job, get married, have and raise children, and in most cases, retire with time left to “give back.” Hindu thinkers formalized these stages into four consecutive ashramas: (1) Brahmacharya, celibate knowledge-seeking, (2) Grahasth or householder, raising a family, (3) Vanprasth, preparing for retirement, and (4) Sanyas, retiring to focus on spiritual enlightenment. The last two ashramas involve gradually increasing austerities [6], and may not be for everyone. Note that the traditional rules are couched in terms of an agricultural economy. In this article, we will briefly summarize the main duties with more modern terminology.

In the first stage, celibate learning or Brahmacharya, you learn everything necessary to be a productive and law-abiding citizen, living simply, practicing self-restraint, and surrendering one’s ego to the Guru. Service of the Guru is important as training for a lifelong spirit of humble service. Unlike the West, teachers are still respected in Bharat. In the traditional Hindu education system, the guru’s departing address (an individualized commencement speech) provided instructions for your active life  [7].

The second stage, the earning, child-raising Grihastha or married householder, also sustains the other three. It begins with marriage soon after graduation. Husband and wife are equal partners in life, analogous to two wheels on an axle. Divorce and widow remarriage was forbidden, and a wife became part of her husband’s family. The status of Hindu women under Islam is discussed later. Except for the rich and royal, Sanatan Dharmic householders lived – and still live — simply and put their family first.

The Grihastha stage is society’s economic motor. Their contributions, whether formally via taxes or informally via donations or inclusion in the household, support the three nonproductive Ashrams. Auspicious occasions for giving are sprinkled throughout the year, as festivals, periodic observances, or in memory of ancestors. Equally important are taking care of schools, animals, ascetics, priests, and especially guests. These practices continued even when formal taxation was introduced and are still followed by a majority of Hindus as far as practical. Religious observances and festivals were celebrated by extended families of several households.

Brahmacharya and Grihasth form the pravritti marg, or ascending path, followed by the nivritti marg, or descending path to renunciation. The first nivritti stage, Vanprasth (literal meaning: going to the forest) consists of settling your worldly affairs and transitioning responsibility to your children while still being accessible and available for guidance and consultation. The second stage, Sannyas (“getting rid of it all”) can be thought of as being physically in the world but mentally away from it.

The purpose of a Sanyasi’s life is to attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth. This means no likes, dislikes, ego, lust, anger, greed or pride, equal vision, and balanced mind.  The only way of achieving this state is through yoga (a way of uniting with the Divine). All yogas require renouncing worldly attachments, but not all – such as karma yoga or bhakti yoga – require a physical exit from society. The nivritti marga is not suitable for everyone; some may find the sacrifice unsustainable due to illness or death. However, some degree of renunciation/sanyas was common in 19th-century British Bharat.

An Assessment 

Contrast the Varnashrama system with the bi-level  European system consisting of the hereditary idle nobility and the godforsaken serfs. Recall that it was the English worker’s pitiable predicament that inspired Karl Marx. The evangelicals trying to defame Hindus had to make them look worse than the serfs.

Nevertheless, writers, both Bharatiya and foreign, Hindu and Christian, have criticized the Varnashrama Dharma based on assumptions and fallacies. The most common one is to take the Manusmriti [MS], which the British translated first, as the infallible divine law of the Hindus. Not only is that interpretation false, but the “vulgate” version translated by William Jones is riddled with errors and interpolations. Fortunately for us,  MS Verse 2.1 is a disclaimer: “Know that to be true dharma, which the wise and the good and those who are free from passion and hatred follow and which appeals to the heart.”

All the criticisms start with the false assumption that Hindus are duty-bound to follow literally everything written in MS. There is no basis at all for it. Even the handful of kings who consulted MS were not duty-bound or expected to follow it literally. The best course is to ignore these fake and unfounded criticisms and apply the Varnashrama in spirit, not in the letter, paying attention to Verse 2.1 given above.

Units of Kinship

From the individual, we now turn to groups related by blood (genes, chromosomes, DNA)  in some fashion, and hence, obviously independent of Varna.

The most elementary group is a parivar or family consisting of generations alive at the same time, headed by men in most cases, but also by women, and including individuals in Brahmacharya, Grihastha, and Vanprasth ashrams. Women of a parivar are not meant to be subservient to and dominated by men, although the practice seeped in from Islam during periods of Muslim rule, partly for self-preservation. Boys and girls in a parivar are meant to be prepared for adult roles depending on their qualities. There were no nuclear families in 19th-century Bharat, but they have become common since then. Interestingly, however, the phenomenon has put a premium on closeness. A very Hindu synthesis of modernity and traditional values is taking place right now.

The parivar is of living persons; when ancestors are added you get collections such as Gotra. The Gotra is typically named after a famous ancestor and consists of everyone who is traced to him by tradition. The Gotra may be handed down by family lore or tracked by the family purohit (priest). Since members of a Gotra are genetically relatively close, they are not allowed to marry. Westerners often miss this exogamous tradition.

Direct lines of ancestry are known as Kul and Vansh, where family trees can be drawn, at least partially, for several generations and include spouses. The line between the two entities is fuzzy; often, the words are used interchangeably. In practice, family trees were traced only for luminaries like royal dynasties, learned gurus, or famous artists, but belonging to a renowned Kul was an honor. However, contrary to British fantasy, there was no racist obsession with endogamy. The group structure that they hammered into their “caste system” was a  concept called Jati, Jaat, or Biradari.

The word Jati comes from Janam, meaning birth; Biradari comes from brotherhood, or the Sanskrit bhratra meaning brother. Hindus had, and have, thousands of different ways of doing things that vary in millions of details down to the kitchen recipe level. A marriage, and the parivar it created, would be happier and more successful if husband and wife shared as many details as possible. The obvious solution was to marry within your largest affinity group, i.e., your Jati. It was not about racial purity, although some genetic commonalities naturally developed over dozens of generations.

All the families in a Jati weren’t always close genetically, but their lifestyle, customs, and values were common, and they socialized their children in nearly identical ways. Often families of the same Jati lived in the same village, and over time they began pursuing the same, similar, or complementary occupations. To this day, there exist mohallas (communities or neighborhoods) dedicated to occupational specialties, but a common occupation does not imply common genes. The common denominator of people belonging to a certain Jati was and is the details of how they conduct their lives. The glue that unites them is a shared sense of belonging and responsibility towards the Jati. The closest Western analog of a Hindu Jati is a Clan but the Jati allows more individual freedom.

Over time the Jatis became distinct, established communities connected by their micro-culture, regardless of where they lived.  Like everything Hindu, there was no formal labeling or demarcation. People knew what Jati they were, and that was that. The only point of disagreement was the relative status of your Jati versus somebody else’s. But again, it was like a friendly jostling rather than a fight.

The Jatis taken together are a flexible and adaptable but connected network, not fixed compartments. Individually they are subnational identities that their members take pride in, celebrate and protect. Adjustments to new circumstances occur at the Jati level before it becomes a national liability, and Jatis compete but peacefully. People of different Jatis live right next to each other without being cultural clones.  Just like Silicon Valley!

Impact of Islam

Europeans first saw Hindus in the 16th century, but Muslim invaders’ atrocities had already begun in the 8th century under Mir Qasim. Western academics have ignored the impact of predatory Islam on Hindu society, but the psychological impact of the waves of terror and the pseudo-slavery following it cannot be overstated. The economic impact was even worse. Lal [8] has documented the collapse of Hindu living standards from the 14th to 16th century based on eyewitness accounts of foreign travelers.

Tales of mindless, unheard-of cruelty spread right from Muhammad bin Qasim’s invasion of Sind around  710 CE. The Buddhists in Afghanistan were the first to encounter the invaders’ vicious fury and preying instinct. Conversion, or surrender to the invaders’ will, was the only way to escape kidnapping, slavery, torture, or death.  Revisionists and Pakistani bureaucrats have tried to whitewash written records of the time  [9], but the British writer Eliot, without any Pakistani ax to grind [10], is frank about the invaders’ atrocities and cruelty in his 8-volume “History of India.” According to Murray Titus [11], a missionary aiming to write a factual history and pull no punches, the rank cruelty and vicious persecution of idolaters in Sindh became a template for later Muslim rulers. Indeed, later Muslim invaders such as Khilji, Tughlaq, and Timur were no less cruel and destructive than bin Qasim [12]. Especially cruel and inhuman torture was reserved for the brave Sikhs who did not bend [13].  The total number of Hindus killed under Islam is very difficult to know since Hindu records are non-existent. But Swami Vivekananda estimates it at 400 million [14] based on a statement by Ferishta.

Socially, Hindus who resisted Muslim customs fell in standing. Those who adopted Muslim dress, phrases, language, cooking, and styles did well. There was no escape from the lust of the Muslim petty-bourgeois who treated every Hindu girl as their own personal plaything. Heavy, oppressive countermeasures had to be taken, such as child marriage, large wedding processions, dowries to secure grooms who could protect their women, not allowing women to have any assets, going fully covered in public, and transport of Hindu women in palanquins carried by four strong men.  In addition, Hindus considered the use of meat and leather taboo. The vegetarianism that Jains and Buddhists originated gained popularity as a defense against Islam.

The common Hindu suffered under Muslim rule. Traveler accounts of the 14th century and earlier, including the much-cited Al-Beruni, do not remark on the Indians’ poverty. But a Dutch visitor to Jahangir’s court in the 16th century [15] wrote: “The common people (live in) poverty so great and miserable that the life of the people can be depicted or accurately described only as the home of stark want and the dwelling place of bitter woe.”  Two centuries were enough to impoverish the Hindu working class. It was done by taking away ownership of property in towns and in villages and leaving Hindu peasants to till the land and pay the tax regardless of crop conditions. Such resistance as could be mustered only resulted in more heinous acts of mass violence. The only exception was banking because interest is taboo in Islam. Interestingly, astrologers were also spared because many Muslim rulers believed in astrology.

Population studies estimate that about 80 million Hindus died due to Islamic invasions. In any case, millions of terrified Hindus fled to forests to save their lives,  losing touch with their communities, their belongings, their identity, and their means of livelihood. Some migrated West and became gypsies but the vast majority were exiled to their own land, creating a very large underclass with no social network, no known Varna, and no means of support. When they returned to civilization it was often through hazardous jobs like scavenging with a high risk of contracting and spreading deadly tropical diseases. They may also have spread new viruses caused by consuming forest products. The link between tropical forests and disease is well known [16] Hence, untouchability likely originated as an empirical protective measure. Restrictions on sharing food with others and eating food cooked by others also most likely began here. Starvation conditions were also behind families adopting a life of crime. And illiteracy grew because there was no educational infrastructure in the forest.

What the reader needs to picture is a massively dislocated society with tens of millions of people fighting for survival without any government to help them. A holocaust of this nature, as we know from modern times, drives people to extreme actions. Although this is speculation, the sudden fall in population and in living standards, untouchability, restrictions on cooking and eating, criminal Jatis, ignorance, superstitions, and falling prey to charlatans and ignorant “priests” – were all real. The condition of the Hindu masses seen by Europeans from the 16th century onwards was not what Hindus had been before the Islamic thunderstorm. The prosperous Hindu civilization with the ideal Varna and Jati culture that Xuen Tsang and Al-Beruni, et. al., reported on had been ravaged and damaged beyond all recognition by then.

A word of caution about finding genuine information about the condition of Hindus under Muslim rule. Google searches are worthless because the highest priority goes to paid search words which, on this subject, are all recent (1-2 years old). A Book search or a Scholar search is better, and Bing tends to give less biased results.

Ideals Compromised

We have seen how sudden calamity led Hindus to develop a fifth Varna, so to speak, of people who had lost everything. Some of them left the country, some took to crime, and most took whatever jobs they could get. Practices such as untouchability, cooking, and inter-dining restrictions, took hold not just among displaced people but also in the general population out of fear of disease more than prejudice. The easy social intercourse of the past became uneasy and skeptical. The high number of illiterate and superstitious people encouraged charlatans and fake astrologers, pandits, and gurus. The now-divided and duped Hindus also had to put up with demoralizing daily rebuke and humiliation by Muslims, some of whom were recent converts. The stiff resistance that Hindus had put up in the beginning, may have made it worse.

Although amid this decay, the learned class kept up their recitation of the Sanskrit texts and their services for Jajmans (client families), and the Bania moneylenders did well, the majority of Hindus became hidebound and diffident. Temples were constantly in danger, which probably encouraged worship at home or in small groups except for one or two special annual festivals. Life within one’s Jati was still much as before, with common suffering and mutual support, but fences between Jatis grew stronger and mutual suspicions increased. Collaboration between related occupations, which used to be routine, became a thing of the past due to economic hardship.

Meanwhile, Muslims – mostly converted from oppressed Hindu castes – gradually took over urban centers and skilled trades. The bazaars around narrow Islamic-style lanes close to the big mosque can still be seen. Most consumer-facing trades, such as tailors, barbers, carriage (now car) and mechanical repairmen, rickshaw pullers, taxi drivers, and so on, still have a disproportionate Muslim presence. There are also tales of entire localities being forced to convert or stop working in that trade. Hindu schools were relegated to the villages, and the conversion of official records to Farsi or Urdu sent Hindu clerical and official workers out of business. The net result of all this was further de-urbanization and impoverishment of the Hindus. [17]

We are speaking here about the Hindu masses in rural Bharat. In the cities, there were still a few rich Hindus – usually moneylenders or priests – who lived as before, but of course, not as well as the Muslim ruling class. Duarte Barbosa, in his 1508 book [18], speaks of city life, where Hindus lived according to their rules, e.g., not killing for any reason and were allowed to retain wealth. But he cannot avoid the Christian practice of depicting heathens as evil, superstitious, and sexually aberrant. These paragraphs about Vijayanagar are best discarded. Unfortunately, he and other travelers tended to ignore the common man’s lot in the villages and the forests.

The “fifth” Varna people became known as Avarna or without Varna. In general, they were the poorest, least educated, humblest section of Hindu society, excluded and oppressed because of hazardous occupations and lack of assets. Their social isolation meant blocking access to temples and public spaces at any time. Their Jati activities were not interrupted, but they were mistreated and abused and often denied due process in any sort of conflict. Continuing ill-treatment at the hands of the out-of-power Hindus, themselves marginalized and impoverished, led some of them to convert to Islam and Christianity and even to Buddhism. In the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi took up the cause of their rehabilitation, while Babasaheb Ambedkar, a Dalit-born intellectual responsible for constitutional provisions to uplift Avarna communities, posthumously became the Dalits’ apostle.

Conclusion

We have covered the principles behind the ideal Hindu social structure and the Varnashrama Dharma that prevailed in Bharat. Vedic society has not been covered since we are interested in the post-Vedic “Caste System.” We have discussed somewhat speculatively the impact of Islamic invasions, massacres, and prioritization of Muslims during Muslim rule, justified by the known factual consequences. These “secrets” naturally do not accord with the “Hinduism” point of view. However, they are supported by references as well as unorthodox Hindu historians.

Citations

[1] “New Findings at Rakhigarhi”, 20 May 2022 by Disha Ahluwalia https://www.livehistoryindia.com/story/monuments/rakhigarhi-excavations Also see Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakhigarhi

[2] Genome of Nearly 5,000-year Old Woman, 5 Sep 2019, by Michael Price https://www.science.org/content/article/genome-nearly-5000-year-old-woman-links-modern-indians-ancient-civilization

[3] “Rigveda: A Still Undeciphered Text” by Karen Thompson, J. Indo-European Studies, Spring/summer 2009, pp. 26-29 http://www.rigveda.co.uk/asut1.pdf Verse 12, at https://shlokam.org/purushasuktam/

[4] Purush Sukta in Sanskrit and English, esp, Verse 12 https://shlokam.org/purushasuktam/

[5]  “The Purush Sukta and its Relation to the Caste System” by Arvind Sharma, J. Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. XXI, Part III. https://archive.org/details/ThePurushaSuktaItsRelationToTheCasteSystem

[6] “Swami Vivekananda on India and her Problems” Chapter VI, esp. p. 75-77. Download pdf at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.69177

[7] “All About Hinduism,” by Swami Sivananda, Section on The Brahmacharin. https://www.dlshq.org/download/all-about-hinduism/#_VPID_28

[8] “The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India”, Adity Prakashan, 1992, Chapter 7 https://archive.org/details/the-legacy-of-muslim-rule-in-india-k.-s.-lal

[9] “Religion and Society in Arab Sind” by Derryl Maclean, Ph. D. Thesis. McGill University Montreal, Canada, Chapter 3, Conquest and Conversion. Download at https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/3b5919199

[10] “The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians” by H. M. Elliot, Volume 6 https://ia802607.us.archive.org/18/items/historyindiaast07elligoog/historyindiaast07elligoog.pdf

[11] “Islam in India and Pakistan”, Murray T. Titus, Chapter II,  YMCA Calcutta https://ia902606.us.archive.org/0/items/bk591/1959-islamInIndiaAndPakistan591-clean-d.pdf

[12] “Islamic Invasions of India,” Dharmapedia Wiki, section 8. https://en.dharmapedia.net/wiki/Islamic_invasions_of_India

[13] “Islamic India- the Biggest Holocaust in World History” https://www.sikhnet.com/news/islamic-india-biggest-holocaust-world-history

[14] Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 8, Epistles; Fourth Series https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_8/Epistles_-_Fourth_Series/CXLV_Optimist

[15] “Jahangir’s India” by Francisco Pelsaert, translated by W H Moreland, especially relevant: Chapter 12, The Manner of Life. Download from  https://ia800702.us.archive.org/35/items/jahangirsindia035084mbp/jahangirsindia035084mbp.pdf

[16] “Forests and Emerging Infectious Diseases: Unleashing the Beast Within” https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8dd7/pdf

[17] “Theory and Practice of the Muslim State in India,” K. S. Lal, Chapter 4 http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tpmsi/ch04.htm

(This article was first published on hindudvesha.org on October 29, 2022 and has been republished with minor edits to conform to HinduPost style guide)