Why weren't Indians converted en masse to Islam or Christianity?

Every nation and religion has its own nature. Nature of Indian religions (such as Hinduism) is to mix with others and tolerate. This is the fundamental reason for their contunued existence for the past 5000 years. Besides the Muslims and British, India has been attacked by many other nations and all of them assimilated and became Indian later.

Muslims came to India. They forced Hindus to convert. As a result a large part of India (modern Pakistan and Bangladesh) became Muslim. At that time a socio-religious movement (called Bhakti and Sufi movement) was started by some Hindu and Muslim leaders. These prevented Hindus from converting to Islam. As a result India became the country of both Hindus and Muslims. Such leaders were Sri-Chaitanyadev (in Bengal), Guru Nanak (In Punjab), Santa Ramadash, Khaja Mainuddin Chisty (Muslim in Rajastan)etc.

In British period many Hindus were converted to Christian in Bengal, Assam and other places. Same type of movement was started which is called Indian Renessaince. In Bengal Shri Ramakrishnadeva and his follower Swami Vivekananda (called The Father of Indian Nationalism) played a creative role which prevented Hindus from becoming Christian all over India. Slowly many Christian Indians came to the main flow of Indian life.

Moreover the religious and philosophical foundations on which various Indian religions are standing is very rich. This is the main reason. Otherwise they may have become Muslim many years ago.

I would not be able to give any sources, but the fact that Hinduism survived nine centuries of Islamic / Christian rule is in itself the answer. Actually "Hinduism is not a religion.It is a way of life" said Mahatma Gandhi. Further it probably is the most catholic of all faiths - practices from other religions have been absorbed into the rituals of the religion. Similarly the other religions like Christianity and Islam in India have inculcated some practices from Hinduism [Sacrilege of the first order].

The Bhagavad Gita - the words Lord Krishna spoke to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra underlie the Hindu Philosophy - the last verse "Forsaking all your beliefs and faith take refuge at My feet. I will liberate you."

There is also a prayer chanted by many Hindus "Like the waters raining from heavens all reach the sea Obesiance made to any God reaches Keshava" [the Supreme God]. Western Indologists have interpreted this to indicate that since Hunduism is not monotheist, this prayer is included, but I feel one should take a wider view.

There is a modern Hindi Bhajan (hymn) - it was the favourite of Mahatma Gandhi - "Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram" - one of the lines says "Ishwar and Allah are Your names, God grant all of us good wisdom" [to see all religions and faiths as different pathways to the same God.

Enlightened rulers like the great mogul Akbar and most of the British Governor-Generals and Viceroys realized that Hinduism is an inclusive religion and too much pressure on conversion could result in more problems for the rulers than benefits.

As stated I am unable to provide reference sources - old Indian texts like Puranas excepted [many don't have an English / German translation]. This answer may be suitably edited to make it acceptable at the History site.

Although Islam and Christianity are more egalitarian than Hinduism, there was a caste system in India in both these religions. I'm a Tamilian and I know that there is a caste system among Tamil and Kerala Christians just like Hinduism. An upper caste Christian/Muslim will never marry a lower caste Christian/Muslim in India. Yet many Dalits did convert because they found these religions more attractive and less ridden with social evils which are widespread in Hinduism.

Actually, there were Indian populations who did convert to Islam and Christianity-(though to a lesser extent).

When we look at Contemporary India, we must remember that it is actually part of a much larger and wider subcontinent. The vast majority of Indians within India proper are Hindus, though approximately 10% of India's population are Muslim. Many Indian Muslims reside in the North of India-(though I believe there are some Indian Muslim communities throughout its central and Southern regions). In order to understand the relationship between Islam and India, one must go back several centuries.

The Mogul Dynasty was one of the most preeminent Islamic Empires in World History; it rivaled some of the earlier Arab Caliphates, as well as the Ottoman Empire in terms of political power and wealth. The Mogul Emperors conquered and converted sizable percentages of Indian communities living throughout the Greater Northern Indian subcontinent, which included, Pakistan,as well as the regions of Kashmir, the Punjab and other parts of Northern India.

When the British occupied India from the 1700's, until the 1940's, they had occupied what is today, India and Pakistan. During the British occupation, Pakistan had a centuries old Hindu population and as mentioned earlier, India had a centuries old Muslim population. Similar to the 1922 Treaty of Lausanne-( which arranged for a population exchange between Greece and Turkey, primarily based upon religious differences), there was also a population exchange between Pakistan and India-(based almost exclusively on religious identification) that occurred in the 1940's.

So one can see that Islam has played a significant religious and demographic role within the history of the Greater India subcontinent. The same can also be said for Christianity.....(though to a lesser extent).

There are Christian communities in India; the most famous of course, was Mother Teresa's Mission based in Calcutta, which included the ministry of Indian Christian Clergy. However, India's Christian History dates back to the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1500's. The city of Goa, in Western-(or Southwestern) India, was a Portuguese colonial city. Like the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire also converted various subjugated populations and Goa, was a major center for Portuguese-Indian cultural admixture, which included, the presence of Portuguese Roman Catholicism.

I am not exactly sure as to how influential the Anglican Church was within Greater India during British colonial rule. Although the ethnic English colonial residents of India were certainly members of the Anglican Church, I am unsure as to whether there was any widespread proselytizing or conversion of indigenous Indians to Anglican/Episcopalian Christianity. (It would be an interesting topic to examine and research).

Overall, India, has been and is still, one of the most religiously pluralistic countries in world history. Although Hinduism is by far, the largest and oldest religion within India proper, there are centuries old communities of Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians/(Parsis), Buddhists, Jews, as well as Muslims and Christians.

I believe it also to be of significance to the question that the British did not generally inter-marry with their non-European colonial subjects.

This was in contrast to the Spanish in Latin America, and the Philippines, who both converted (often bloodily) and inter-married. Similarly the Portuguese (someone mentioned Goa) in their colonies, and to some extent the French in Indo-China.

The British never attempted to 'settle' Asia with large white communities, probably because they had huge territories like Australia, Canada and Africa south of the Zambezi, more suitable to European settlemt. An exception was parts of East Africa, such as Kenya, which were considered suitable climatically and agriculturally for white settlement.

The relatively small British populations in Asian cities lived lives largely segregated socially from local communities. E.M.Forster's novel 'A passage to India', and George Orwell's 'Burmese Days' very aptly describe the juxtaposition of British and Asian societies of the sub-continent.

There are some interesting answers here however none contesting the question itself. I would rather like to put a contradictory view on this.

India, in fact, was mass converted by Islam and to a lesser extent by Christianity. I believe most of the answers here see India as it is present in the current form. However if you historically see, the entire subcontinent could be called as India and sub-continental religions (Hinduism/Jainism/Budhism) even reigned far beyond the sub continent to cover most of South-east Asia as we know today. The boundaries would be roughly bordering the Persian empire in the west to Indonesia in the east, which was ruled by enterprising empires from South that had brilliant naval capabilities.

Mass conversion was more successful in the extremities and that is clearly visible from the current religion map of the region including present day India. The reason why the entire populace is not yet converted can be multiple as mentioned by the other answers but one major factor is the vast area and the true population of the entire region. Both of which would make it one of the largest ever in the history.

As we know today only the core was able to withstand the continuous onslaught for over a millennium now.

I would like to give some historical facts:

1. Prithviraj Chauhan from Chauhan Dynasty was ruling Rajasthan and Delhi and he fought against Md. Ghori. Prithviraj defended Hindus at that time. After his death there were many kings in North India but were not as strong as him. Because of this North Indian culture is completely different from South. States like Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir, Delhi have more Muslim population now.

2. Where as in South India it was totally different. With Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian ocean covering it from three sides Mughals had to come from North India. But Vijayanagara Empire dominated and defended South India for 3 centuries and Chatrapati Shivaji from Marathas saved Hindu religion from Mughals.

Not only these Kingdoms saved Hindu religion, there were also regional revolutionaries who fought for defending the religion and nation. Mughals destroyed Hindu temples and built mosques on it. This was the reason why Hindus stayed in their religion and many among those who got converted forcefully, committed suicide. From time to time religious reformers were successful in reconverting them to Hinduism.

Whereas British ruled India for short period of time and they were not aggressive as Mughals. Also their intention was to get natural resources like spices. They were mostly trade oriented. But Portuguese were bit different and in Places like Goa and Calicut [Kerala] they forced Christianity. But we see some unique Persons like Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who have contributed a lot to save Hinduism. There are thousands of stories on how Hindus defended their religion from invaders.

The Moghuls ruled only the northern half or 2/3 of India, not the entire sub-continent, and practiced a more tolerant version of Islam than the Arabs further West.

Update:
Reading further on Aurangzeb reveals that in fact he did actively attempt conversion of his subjects to Islam. They took so nicely to the attempted proselytization that they constantly rebelled.

Consequently Aurangzeb spent virtually his entire reign subduing rebellions, and failed to create any sort of stable administration for his empire. Upon his death, the empire rapidly disintegrated.

The Religion Factor

To understand this, you have to understand Hinduism. Let me take up my own case- a Kokanast Maharashtrian Brahman. This is a sub-caste. The point of interest to us here is the amazing similarity in diversity in India.

Hinduism (Sanaatan Dharm) is an individual, a highly individual religion. it is common to have the Father worship Lord Hanuman, the Mother Worship Lord Ganapati, the Son to worship Maa Durgaa, and the Daughter to worship Lord Krishna. No one forces anything on anyone; there are no dictats or dogmas; no specific days to attend, and compulsion to pray. It is an individual choice.

Further, beliefs of Hinduism have roots deep in the ancient past - going back 6000 years and more. This means a deeply-set range of beliefs and attitudes, mores of behaviour, cultural traits etc that are totally different from any other religion. Thus, only the downtrodden can be a realistic target for religion change. General change from the local populace is not a consideration.

However, the downtrodden also have historically enjoyed total freedom to worship the Lord of their choice. They, too were never under any compulsion; they were persecuted - true, but persecution was not on praying; it was on praying in the higher-caste temples. Thus, they had no basic complaint against the religion per se, only the overall societal structure.

The Caste Factor

We have seen the nature of Hinduism, and its amazing diversity and total individuality. And yet, strangely, within this individualism is hidden a strange cohesion that is stronger than any known religious bond. Coming to myself, we kokanast brahmans, exhibit some peculiar traits that are identified with us: stingy behaviour, general reservedness in family functions (our functions are rather small affairs), tall, usually fair, our functions are rather contained affairs. Contrast this with the other main Brahman sub-caste in us Marathis: The Deshasth. These people are lively, you will find their functions full of energy, gift-giving, deep and extensive contacts. This is indicative of a deep cohesion due to in-breeding; the preferred match for a Kokanast is still a Kokanast even in the 21st century.

The point is that this is 2012, and nothing substantial has changed. if we are so cohesive now, what must we have been like 1000 years ago? in 2003, I shaved my moustache: and believe you me I got dirty looks from quite a few family members who gave me hell. These essentially caste-internal interactions create a deeply connected society, and this acts as an extremely powerful support base against as well as protector from subversive change. An individual has to after all live in the same society. Add to the the inherent religious freedom, and deep-rooted cultural and religious ethos. This cohesion combined with total individual freedom is further complicated by difficulties in marriage even today. In the old days. this must have been compounded by career and vocational hurdles as well. This creates a further barrier to change, keeping the religion intact

This factor means that there is societal pressure from within each sub-caste not to change; while no one will object to your decision, no one will agree to marry you (or you will find difficulty in getting a suitable match within your community). Further, the caste also pressurises in subtle (as well as not-so-subtle) ways the family members. In my case, Dad lowered the paper, gave me a look (no moustache), and raised the paper again without a word. Mom glared (apparently, only fatherless people shave off moustaches). This is modern india we are talking about - the case of an Army Colonel, MD in Anaesthesia, Mom being a post graduate gold medallist, sister a gynaecologist, self a postgraduate, and brother a graduate. Well, after Mom-Dad were taken away to the heavenly abode, I attempted it again - and told my wife. Her response to my no-moustache declaration of independence (I was on tour): so you are away for 3-4 months now? My wife is a double Postgraduate in Economics. And this is in the case of a moustache. Just imagine the reactions in case of religion! This is modern India, AD 2012. A family I know has one condition for a match for their son: the girl must be fluent in Marathi.

These, and innumerable other societal pressures still operate in India. What do you think it must have been like in 1400AD? Such pressures both insulate the individual as well as erect powerful barriers to change. You see, for a Hindu, worshipping a different deity is one thing; changing your religion quite another

The Historical Perspective

Yes, there was persecution by Muslim invaders. But the people to change their religion were, by and large, the downtrodden who had a powerful motivator to change. And even among them, change was restricted to a percentage due to the caste factors and religious factors discussed above. Then, the invaders were on a mission to rule, and loot. The objective was not conversion, it was a byproduct. The noblemen and ministers in the medieval muslim rulers' courts were totally turks and other muslims from outside India. Even local muslims were not included; both local hindus and muslims were treated with contempt. India was already home to a sizable muslim community by the time the invaders arrived; the earliest Muslim community in India dates back to around The Prophet's time (The Mopillahs). Furthermore, India had massive trade links through both Sea and Land routes to the Muslim world, and there were already muslim settlers who came for trade in the Northwest, and a few other isolated pockets. Yes, conversion also happened, and is good numbers, as discussed above. Further, the main interest areas were cities for the invaders and rulers, rural India was not touched by some of these developments

Thus we can see that the interaction of these three forces ensured that India remained a predominantly Hindu country.

First written here : http://www.quora.com/History-of-India/Why-is-India-still-a-Hindu-majority-nation-even-after-800-years-of-Muslim-rule/answer/Vishal-Kale-2?srid=3d5N&share=1

As regards the British non-attempts to convert, that is a myth. It is a documented fact that the British had a) full intentions to go on a massive conversion drive and b) populate India with Europeans. A note to this effect was known to have been raised in the late 1840s. This is a matter of documented record. That this did not happen is largely due to The First War Of Independence 1857 - 1859.

The longest attempted conversion was the Goa Inquisition, for a continuous period of 200 years in full brutality. Despite this, a large segment of Goanese remained Hindu - nearly 40 - 50%.

Time and again India has seen some reformers who revolutionize the thoughts of the masses. When Buddhism was in full force in India, Adi Shankara was born to revive Hinduism. During the Mughal Period, Tulsidas, Surdas and others deeply imposed the faith of Hindus in God. Tulsidas wrote Ram Charitra Manas whereas Surdas composed many devotional songs about Lord Krishna. During the British administration of India, Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra VidyaSagar deeply influenced the religious sentiments of the Hindus. So, this trend continued and as a result, India despite being the birth place of Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism is still dominated by Hindus.

It's because Hindusim is not a religion at all.Even if it is now considered as a major religion in India, it is having features of a culture more than a religion.

The term "Hinduism" was coined recently. The culture in India is known as "Sanathana Dharama", which means "eternal dharma" or "eternal order". Actually it is a culture passed on by ancient rishis and yogis in India over many years.

In order to equate Hinduism to a culture, we need to define the culture. Culture can be defined as a way of life. It includes various traditions and customs to be followed by its followers. Mainly it includes

1. Customs and traditions
2. Religion
3. Arts
4. Literature
5. Science
6. Government
7. Festivals
8. Language

- Hinduism instructs people to follow certain customs and traditions which are generated years before. Basically, there are two kinds of texts in Hinduism which are "Smrithies" and "Sruthis".

• Smrithies contains the code of conducts to be followed by people following a culture. Each Smrithi is followed in a region for a particular period according to its nature and weather conditions. Smrithies are allowed to be edited whenever needed. If some 1000 years old books are saying that, you should follow some rule which were followed 1000 years ago, nobody is going to obey that rule. That means, the ancestors were aware there would be changes in the future and they clearly defined this in texts. So the rituals and habits to be followed can be changed according to Hindu culture. That's why so many states in India have different rituals and festivals related to Hinduism at different times and it is the secret of diversity in India.

• Most of the rituals in Hinduism are related to nature and weather conditions of India. The major Hindu festivals in each states are closely related to agriculture seasons. For example, Onam in Kerala and Pongal in TamilNadu.

• Religion is definitely a part of Hinduism and unfortunately people only see this part as the prominent one. Vedas act as the base of the spirituality in India.

• Arts have a crucial role in this culture. It has a Goddess named 'Saraswathi' to look after arts and education. There are various art forms such as Kathakali which is a part of temples in India. Hinduism also has a long tradition in various music forms. For example, Carnatic music. The Dance of Shiva (Thandava) is very famous and he is also known as 'Nataraja' (means king of dance). In ancient texts called puranas we have so many instances of these art forms.

• Literature : It's a very important point. Hinduism has various ancient texts including Vedas, Mahabharatha, Ramayana and numerous other texts known as 'Puranas'. They include stories, poems and teachings from ancient people. Even with this amount of literature, Hinduism has no Holy book.

• Science : Many of the rituals in Hinduism are based on nature and weather conditions. Ancient rishis knew about the science of the human body. They have their system of medicine which is Ayurveda. 'Sushruta Samhita' is believed to be a part of Atharva veda. 'Sushruta Samhita'(Sushruta's compendium), which describes the ancient tradition of surgery in Indian medicine, is considered as one of the most brilliant gems in Indian medical literature. Astronomical knowledge of these culture was very vast. In various ancient texts, it is clearly stated that the earth was more like a sphere than flat and they also mention the various planetary movements and the solar system.

• Together with physical health the practices in Hinduism also concentrated on mental health too. Yoga is now practiced around the world and we have a Yoga day on June 21st. Meditation is helping people to strengthen their minds. Refer Patanjali's Yoga Sutra

  • With many invasions, the ruling system in India was changed. Earlier, there were various kingdoms in India. For clear reasons of invasion, this element of culture is not seen in Hinduism.

  • Language : The Vedic language is Sanskrit and puranas are written in this language.

So what's the point of religious conversions here? How can Semetic religions replace all these features in Hinduism? Religious conversions do not have a major role here as it is a vast culture with abundant features.

Here are some additional questions proving that Hindusim is not a religion.

1. Who is the founder of Hindusim? As for christianity - Jesus, Buddhism -Buddha, Muslim - Muhammad Nabi, Jainism -Jinan.
2. Which is the holy book of hinduism? As for Christian -Bible, Muslim -Quran, Buddhism - Thripitaka, etc.

Even if you try to convert a culture to a Semitic religion like Christianity or Islam, it does not have a meaning at all. Compared to religion, which mainly includes spiritual practices, it is hard to change cultural practices. Still there were conversions to Islam and Christianity in India on a small scale, but those were not capable of installing a new culture.

Hinduism is teaching how to live a perfect life. It does have a lot of teachings and inventions in a vast collections of books like Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharatha, Sreemad Bhagavatha, etc. which can be applied in our daily life.

Also Hindus are not compelled to go to temples to pray. They can if they want to, but no one insists they follow these practices. Also they have no restrictions on going to other religious places like churches or mosques.

It is vast enough to accept any religion. That's why there are many Christians and Muslims living in India with all their freedom.

An example of Hindu custom is here (see here explanation of one of the practice in this culture, it about the cremation of bodies). There are many such practices which prove that it is a culture.

So my conclusion is, the major reason of no mass conversion in India to any religion is culture. It is hard to convert cultures compared to religion. Even if British people wanted to convert India to a Christian nation, that would have been an impossible task. British people might not have time to grab wealth and rule if they tried this.

Same with the case of Islam. Core Islam is considered to be against music, art forms and various cultural features installed in Indian society through many years, so how can they expect to change people's taste with a few centuries of ruling?