Muslim Rajputs

Muslim Rajputs

Regions with significant populations
Languages
Punjabi • Sindhi • Seraiki • Urdu • Rajasthani • Gujarati • Hindi • Marwari • English
Religion
Islam •
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Aryan people • Rajputs • Ranghar • Punjabi Rajputs • Sindhi Rajputs • Pahari Rajputs • Muslim Dogras

Muslim Rajputs or Musulman Rajputs are Rajputs who practice Islam.^[1] There are numbers of Muslim Rajputs in northwestern India and eastern Pakistan.^[2]

History

The term Rajput is traditionally applied to the original Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi and Agnivanshi clans, the ancient Hindu ruling dynasties of South Asia.

Conversion to Islam

The fact of subsequent conversion to other faiths, did not deprive them of this heritage; just as the Greeks, after their conversion to Christianity, did not lose pride in the mighty achievements of their ancestors, of the Italians in the great days of the Roman Republic and early empire... Christians, Jews, Parsees, Moslems. Indian converts to these religions never ceased to be Indian on account of a change of their faith ...^[3]

Recent conversions and ethos

The Rajput conversions attracted criticism from their Hindu counterparts and Hubert Evans noted in his memoir of the British Raj era that in India:

By and large, the only converts who keep the prescriptions of the [Islamic] Faith intact are the Muslim Rajputs.^[4]

An example of the criticism occurred in Rajgarh during the viceroyalty of John Lawrence between 1858-69. At that time, the ruling Rajput chief of Rajgarh began to follow Islamic traditions, infuriating his Hindu peers to such an extent that he chose to abdicate the royal throne. A subsequent inquiry determined that he had been a good ruler and that his subjects had been satisfied with his rule. A year later, the former ruler declared the Kalima (Muslim affirmation of embracing Islam) and renounced the Hindu faith. This case established for the British Raj the precedent that no leader or ruler can be replaced simply because of his change of creed. Regardless of the feelings of his peers, it was the quality of his rule that mattered.^[5]

There is also recorded instances of recent conversions of Rajputs to Islam in Western Uttar Pradesh, Khurja tahsil of Bulanshahr.^[6]

But despite the difference in faith, where the question has arisen of common Rajput honour, there have been instances where both Muslim and Hindu Rajputs have united together against threats from external ethnic groups.^[7]

Beliefs and customs

Social practices

Rajputs who accepted Islam left religious practices of Hinduism but often retained social practices which they have been following. such as purdah (seclusion of women) is generally followed both by Hindu and Muslim Rajputs.^[2]

Marriages

Being recent converts to Islam from a culturally Rajput background, there was very little difference between Rajasthani and Uttar Pradeshi Hindu and Muslim Rajputs (outside of religious practices).^[8] Hence up until recently, marriages between Muslim and Hindu Rajputs also took place.^[9]

See also

• List of Muslim Rajputs
• List of Rajput dynasties
• Sindhi-Sipahi

References