Contributions of Muslims to Indian Subcontinents

In 1951 on my return from an extensive tour of the Middle East I was invited by the All India Radio to broadcast a series of talks in Arabic on Indian Muslims. These talks luckily were received favorably by some of the Indian missions lodged in that part of the world and they suggested their publication in the form of a booklet. The All India Radio also broadcast them subsequently in some other languages and an international Arabic Journal Muslims of Damascus was good enough to bring them out in its columns in a number of installments.In the present compilation five new essays have in all been included which were not broadcast over the radio. These are:• Influence of Muslims on Indian Civilization• Role of Muslims in the Struggle for Freedom• Indo-Islamic Culture• Sufi-Saints of India and their Impact on Society• Current Difficulties and ProblemsIt is hoped that the book with these additions will be read with interest among the educated circles of the various communities that go to make our people and prove of some value in reducing the ignorance and the attitude of indifference which exist in the sister-communities to wards the Muslims. It may further be helpful in promoting the growth of a broad realistic national perspective in the country it so badly needs today.It will also perhaps not be too much to expect that apart from non- Muslim friends many educated Muslims too will find in the.se pages something which will be new to them and will add to their knowledge about themselves and go some way however little towards ridding them of the inferior1ty complex they have developed lately but for which there can be no justification. The Muslim are not only citizens of an equal status with anybody in India ; they are also among its chief builders and architects and hold position second to none among the peoples of the world for selfless service to the motherland. They gave to India and to the Indian civilization a new Jibe and a new dimension and awakened its people to a new set of moral and spiritual values. Every patch of its land and every particle of its soil bears the imprint of their greatness and is a monument to their industry earnestness and creative genius. In every aspect of Indian life and civilizations can be seen evidences of their noble aestheticism and cultural richness.