USA, November 7, 2007: (HPI Note: The following excerpt from the website of a Rajasthan-based travel agent occurs in a page — URL above — called “Medieval Indian History.” It is an example of the misleading information easily encountered when googling for Indian history.)
“The conquest of Delhi by Muhammad Ghuri would change the future of Indian history radically. A word here about the much-maligned ‘Islamic hordes’ who conquered India and ‘stamped out’ the so-called ‘Hindu’ culture. With the coming of Ghuri came the long rule of Islamic rulers in the country, and for the first time India saw a succession of proper dynastic rule which it had not really seen up till now. There were no more gaps in rule anymore. No more hundred years of no central authority, and certainly no chaos like the one India had just witnessed before the Islamic conquest of India – until deep into the 18th century AD, for a very brief period before the British took over.
“Of course there were bad times, especially when the ruler suddenly decided to go more Islamic than thou and break temples (which were remodeled as mosques) built by the Hindus, a term which started being used around this time. However, this needs to be put in perspective. Muslims saw idol worship as a blasphemy against Allah and were shocked that the Hindus would think differently. Religious tolerance, especially under the Mughals, was practiced quite actively and even under the infamous Aurangzeb who had lots of political compulsions forcing him to act the way he did.”