The Mughals were a Mongol descendant dynasty.
Yes, but I'm talking about the immediate Mongols here, not their distant Islamized descendants.
The Mughals were a Mongol descendant dynasty.
Part of the reason Islam was so widely successful in Bangladesh is because it was mostly tribal pagan when the Muslims arrived on scene; same reason the Northeast went Christian under the British, their missionaries arrived before Hinduism had the means to advance into the area. It's a notch in favor of Christianity such the Mongols go Christian as they invade. Alternatively, of course, it also means that the better positioned Islamic rulers could help to further cement their rule by converting a wider swath of the population.
BTW, HL, does it strike you as a mistake on the Mughals' part that they did not try to more aggressively Islamize northern India? It seems like it would have been ideal for Pakistan post-1947 to have a land connection between its two parts, but that was not possible because the Muslim population in north-central India simply wasn't large enough for this region to be given to Pakistan:
I mean, I don't think the Mughals foresaw their own collapse or the future of India at large, so it's rather hindsight.
IIRC, something like 25-30% of India did become Muslim under the Mughals, and it was the prime faith of urbanized people. Entirely possible here Islam could become the majority faith in all of India.
You can take a look at Indian religious data for the late 19th and early 20th centuries here:
Where can I find religion data for British India for the time period between 1872 and 1947?
Where can I find religion data for British India for the time period between 1872 and 1947? Basically, I want to see how the Muslim-Hindu-other percentage composition changed in British India in its entirety as well as in various of its regions between 1872 and 1947.historum.com
If 25-30% of India truly was Muslim in the Mughal era, then this percentage slightly declined to around 20% by the late 19th century before beginning to increase again. It was 25% or so by the time of India's independence and partition in 1947. Partitioned India, of course, had a Muslim percentage of slightly below 10% due to Pakistan's and Bangladesh's secession from India.
I'd have to find the article I'm getting that figure from again; it was 25% according to it, but I've seen other sources claim up to 30%. During the late stages of the Mughals, Hindusim underwent an resurgence and was even (re)converting Muslims despite Mughal attempts to stop it. Interestingly, it was the areas without the caste system that converted the most, which lends credence to my suggestion of waves of Turkic warbands to convert the place, as they will crush the existing apparatus and thus enable greater "missionary" work.
According to historians Catherine Asher and Cynthia Talbot,[27]
The Jats also provide an important insight into how religious identities evolved during the precolonial era. Before they settled in the Punjab and other northern regions, the pastoralist Jats had little exposure to any of the mainstream religions. Only after they became more integrated into the agrarian world did the Jats adopt the dominant religion of the people in whose midst they dwelt.[27]
Over time the Jats became primarily Muslim in the western Punjab, Sikh in the eastern Punjab, and Hindu in the areas between Delhi Territory and Agra, with the divisions by faith reflecting the geographical strengths of these religions.[27]