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would also be in order to emphasize that the Hindu resistance to
Muslim invasions, conquests and rule was truly heroic, both in fact
and in spirit. The first aspect is by now well recognized and need
not therefore detain us.1 The latter
aspect has, however, not received much attention at the hands of
historians and, therefore, needs to be specially emphasized.
The Bhakti movement was doubtless
part of the Hindu response to Muslim rule. But it is a travesty of
the truth to suggest, as is done by any number of Hindu
intellectuals, that it represented an attempt to produce a synthesis
between Hinduism and Islam. If anything, it was an attempt, even if
unconscious, to disarm Islam with the help of a popular movement
which clearly demonstrated that equality before God was as much part
of Hinduism as it was of Islam. The Bhakti movement was a form of
resistance and not an attempt at synthesis or compromise. Many Hindu
intellectuals are just not able to comprehend the fact that there is
no human aspiration or experience which lies outside the range of
Hinduism; it provides for even demon-Gods. In contrast, all
religions are in the nature of sects, though they cannot be so
defined because of their insistence on their separateness and,
indeed, hostility to Hinduism.
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