This is going to be painful. But I will head out to the wiki & get back to you in a bit.
Harappa/Indus Valley was a bronze age civilization (3000-1200 BC)
Ref:
Indus Valley Civilization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Look at the section titled Religion.
In view of the large number of figurines[50] found in the Indus valley, it has been widely suggested that the Harappan people worshipped a Mother goddess symbolizing fertility. However, this view has been disputed by S. Clark.[51] Some Indus valley seals show swastikas which are found in later religions and mythologies, especially in Indian religions such as Hinduism and Jainism. The earliest evidence for elements of Hinduism are present before and during the early Harappan period[52][53]. Phallic symbols resembling the Hindu Siva lingam have been found in the Harappan remains.[54][55]
Many Indus valley seals show animals. One famous seal shows a figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position and surrounded by animals was named after Pashupati (lord of cattle), an epithet of Shiva and Rudra.[56][57].[58]
In the earlier phases of their culture, the Harappans buried their dead; however, later, especially in the Cemetery H culture of the late Harrapan period, they also cremated their dead and buried the ashes in burial urns, a transition notably also alluded to in the Rigveda, where the forefathers "both cremated (agnidagdhá-) and uncremated (ánagnidagdha-)" are invoked (RV 10.15.14).
My 2 cents: Indus valley started out as Hindu, obviously why Sindh and India got its name from Indus.
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The Persian/Achaemenid Empire, ca 550-330 BC
Lecture Notes: Ancient Civilizations
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Achaemenid Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Persians adopted Mesopotamian culture and became peaceful farmers. Nonetheless, by the 5th century BC the Achaemenid kings ruled over territories roughly encompassing today's Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Bulgaria, many parts of Greece, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Caucasia, parts of Central Asia, Libya, and northern parts of Arabia.
My 2 cents: This is the largest ancient empire there was, but what trace of their Zoroastrian religion is there in modern day Pakistan? Was modern day Pakistan anything more than a colony to this empire at its peak ie Hinduism probably continued under the Persians as is?
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Alexander the Great 327/326 BC
Alexander the Great - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
My 2 cents: If you read through the article he came, fought Hindu kings, Indian clans, his army mutinied at the prospect of more bloodshed against the Nandas and Gangaridai empires. So his contribution to local culture was minimal (where Kings acquiesced/else he has razed down entire cities). He was only fighting. And he went back with his Army leaving dead men along the way. As a neutral observer, you could say he was just a war monger.
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Ghaznavid Empire/Mahmud of Ghazni 971-1030
Campaigns in the Indian Subcontinent
Following the defeat of the Rajput Confederacy, after deciding to teach them all a lesson for combining against him, discovering that they were rich, and that their temples were great repositories of wealth, Mahmud then set out on regular expeditions against them, leaving the conquered kingdoms in the hands of Hindu vassals annexing only the Punjab region.[1] He also vowed to raid India every year.
Mahmud had already had relationships with the leadership in Balkh through marriage. Its local Emir Abu Nasr Mohammad, offered his services to the Sultan and his daughter to Mahmud's son, Muhammad. After Nasr's death Mahmud brought Balkh under his leadership. This alliance greatly helped him during his expeditions into Northern India.
The Indian kingdoms of Nagarkot, Thanesar, Kannauj, Gwalior, and Ujjain were all conquered and left in the hands of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist Kings as vassal states and he was pragmatic enough not to shirk making alliances and enlisting local peoples into his armies at all ranks.
The later invasions of Mahmud were specifically directed to temple towns as Indian temples were depositories of great wealth and the Economic and Ideological Centers of Gravity for the Hindus, Destroying them would destroy the will power of the Hindus attacking the Empire since Mahmud never kept a permanent prescience in the Subcontinent; Nagarkot, Thanesar, Mathura, Kanauj, Kalinjar and Somnath were all thus raided. Mahmud's armies stripped the temples of their wealth and then destroyed them at Varanasi, Ujjain, Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi, Narunkot and Dwarka. During the period of Mahmud invasion, the Sindhi Swarankar Community and other Hindus who escaped conversion fled from Sindh to escape sectarian violence, and settled in various villages in the district of Kutch, in modern-day Gujarat, India.
Selective Battle Timeline
* 1001: Gandhara: Sultan Mahmud defeats Jayapala at Peshawar and Jayapala abdicates and commits suicide.
* 1002: Seistan: Imprisoned Khuluf
* 1004: Bhatia annexed after it fails to pay its yearly tribute.
* 1005: Multan revolts under Abul Fatah Dawood who enlists the aid of Anandapala. Defeated at Peshawar and pursued to Sodra (Wazirabad). Ghur captured. Appoints Sewakpal to administer the region. Anandapala flees to Kashmir, takes refuge in the Lohara[citation needed] fort in the hills on the western border of Kashmir.
* 1008: Mahmud defeats the Rajput Confederacy (Ujjain, Gwalior, Kalinjar, Kannauj, Delhi, and Ajmer) in battle between Und and Peshawar, and captures the Shahi treasury at Kangra in modern-day Himachal Pradesh.
* 1010: Ghur; against Mohammad ibn Sur
* 1010: Multan revolts. Abul Fatah Dawood imprisoned for life at Ghazni.
* 1011: Thanesar
* 1013: Bulnat: Defeats Trilochanpala.
* 1015: Ghaznis expedition to Kashmir fails. Fails to take the Lohara[citation needed] fort at Lokote in the hills leading up to the valley from the west.
* 1017: Kannauj, Meerut, and Muhavun on the Yamuna, Mathura and various other regions along the route. While moving through Kashmir, he levies troops from the vassal prince for his onward march. Kannauj and Meerut submit without a fight.
* 1021: Kalinjar attacks Kannauj: he marches to their aid and finds the last Shahi King Trilochanpala encamped as well. No battle, the opponents leave their baggage trains and withdraw from the field. Also fails to take the fort of Lokote again. Takes Lahore on his return. Trilochanpala flees to Ajmer. First Muslim governors appointed east of the Indus River.
* 1023: Lahore, Kalinjar, Gwalior: No battles, exacts tribute. Trilochanpala, the grandson of Jayapala is assassinated by his own troops. Official annexation of Punjab by Ghazni. Also fails to take the Lohara fort on the western border of Kashmir for the second time.
* 1024: Ajmer, Nehrwala, Kathiawar: This raid was his last major campaign. The concentration of wealth at Somnath was renowned, and consequently it became an attractive target for Mahmud, as it had previously deterred most invaders. The temple and citadel were sacked, and most of its defenders massacred.
* 1024: Somnath: Mahmud sacked the temple and is reported to have personally hammered the temple's gilded Lingam to pieces and the stone fragments were carted back to Ghazni, where they were incorporated into the steps of the city's new Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque) in 1026. He placed a new king on the throne in Gujarat as a tributary and took the old one to Ghazni as a prisoner. His return detoured across the Thar Desert to avoid the armies of Ajmer and other allies on his return.
* 1025: Marched against the Jats of the Jood mountains who harried his army on its return from the sack of Somnath.
My 2 cents: Ghazni is in present day Afghanistan. So he was an outsider for people of present day Pakistan/India. Do you have any evidence of any buildings of any magnitude he built in Pakistan, or ever thought of it as home? Or his intent there too was only marauding? Also since he was ruthless it is easy to conclude that people converted to Islam under duress/at sword point.
Also, up until this point Raja Jayapala of the Hindu Shahi Dynasty was ruling over Lahore and Kashmir. His son Anandapala succeeded him and continued the struggle, assembling a powerful confederacy which was defeated once more at Lahore in 1008 bringing Mahmud control of the Hindu Shahi dominions of Updhanpura.
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Ghorid Empire/Muhammad of Ghor 1162-1206
Beginning in the mid 1100s, Ghor expressed its independence from the Ghaznavid Empire.
Ghurids were a Persianate and Sunni Muslim dynasty in Khorasan, (modern day Afghanistan) most likely of Eastern Iranian Tajik[1][2] origin. The Ghurid empire was based in the region of Ghor (now a province of modern Afghanistan), and stretched over a vast area that included the whole of Afghanistan, parts of modern Iran and South Asia (India and Pakistan). They were bounded to Ghaznavids and Seljuks almost 150 years before 1148. Between 1175 and 1192, under the leadership of Muhammad of Ghor the Ghurids put an end to Ghaznavid rule in India. They also captured their base in Lahore and founded the second Islamic state in India called the Ghurid state
After defeating Prithvīrāj Chauhān, Muḥammad Ghorī quickly established Ghorid control in northern and central India. Muḥammad Ghorī returned west to Ghaznā to deal with the threat to his western frontiers from the unrest in Iran, but he appointed Qutb-ud-din Aybak as his regional governor for northern India. His armies, mostly under Turkish generals, continued to advance through northern India, raiding as far east as Bengal. Aybak sacked Ayodhya in 1193, followed by his conquest of Delhi. In 1204, after becoming sultan, Muhammad Ghori defeated the advance of Muḥammad II of Khwārezm. Qutb-ud-din Aybak's protégé Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji had been appointed as a general by Muhammad of Ghor in 1203, and in 1204 he helped defeat the army of Lakshman Sen of the Sena Dynasty,[citation needed] but Ghori failed to conquer Bengal. In 1206, a rebellion rose in Punjab. Muḥammad Ghorī returned to India and crushed the rebels, but was assassinated on his way back to Ghaznā.[9]
The most profound effect of Ghorī's victory was the establishment of Muslim rule in India which would last for centuries and have great impact on life and culture of South Asia for centuries. Muḥammad Ghorī further expressed his intentions of promoting Islam in India; however, he died before he could extend his conquests further.
Upon his death, Quṭbuddīn Aybak, a capable general who had become Muḥammad Ghorī's closest advisor, kept control of the Indian conquests and declared himself the first Sultan of Delhi thus establishing the Sultanate of Delhi in 1206.
My 2 cents: Malabar (present day Kerala) is where Islam first took hold in the entire subcontinent, not by blade but by trade. Arab-Mallu trade. Arab traders used to visit the Malabar region, which was a link between them and ports of South East Asia, to trade even before Islam had been established in Arabia.
Islam in India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So ethnically there is nothing to show that people of present day Pakistan are any different from the rest.
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Delhi Sultanate 1206-1527
The Mamluk dynasty (1206-90), the Khilji dynasty (1290-1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320-1413), the Sayyid dynasty (1414-51), and the Lodhi dynasty (1451-1526).
The Sultanate ushered in a period of Indian cultural renaissance. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion.
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Mughals 1526-1707
The last Lodhi ruler, Ibrahim Lodhi was greatly disliked in his court and subjects alike. He was overly ambitious. Thus, governor of Punjab- Daulat Khan and his uncle, Alam Khan sent an invitation to Babur, the ruler of Kabul, to conquer Delhi.
The first Battle of Panipat(April 1526) was fought between the forces of Babur and Delhi Sultanate. Ibrahim Lodhi was killed in the battleground. By way of superior generalship, vast experience in warfare, effective strategy and appropriate use of artillery, Babur won the First battle of Panipat and occupied Agra and Delhi. He set the foundation of the Mughal dynasty which was to rule India for another 300 years.
The Mughal Emperors were descendants of the Timurids, and at the height of their power around 1700, they controlled most of the Indian Subcontinent — extending from Bengal in the east to Balochistan in the west, Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri basin in the south
The "classic period" of the Empire started with the accession of Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar, better known as Akbar the Great, in 1556. It ended with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707,
My 2 cents: Islam spread forcibly to a large extent under Aurangzeb (other Mughals were more into arts, Akbar was trying out his own new experiment in religion with Din-e-Ilahi & before him there were too many battles to get busy converting). His religious zeal for conversion gave rise to fighting Marathas and the Sikhs before British arrived on the subcontinent.
There are clearly different types of Muslims in the subcontinent. Ones that converted under sword, ones that converted to avoid jaziya and those that were the paraphernalia (soldiers & servants) of Afghani/Mongol Kings.
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So how am I wrong in concluding that your contention is just eye wash? There were periods of Hindu rule over present day Pakistan too, which is why you had the mess at partition. Hindus must have been rich all through to have survived so many Muslim rulers by paying their taxes, until 1947 that is.
I think it boils down to defending your faith of the day & looking up to contemporary luminaries in the Muslim world like Allama Iqbal.
If Jinnah & Nehru had been amicable and Iqbal not felt compelled by a revivalistic sentiment, he may not have coined the idea of Pakistan.
Also given this gloated sense of history I am curious, how do you treat Mohajirs in Pakistan?