Impact of immigrants on Indian culture during 13-14th century

When the Arabs, the Turks, the Afghans, the Iranians and other central Asian foreigners had conquered and settled down in our country and came into close contact with the indigenous population they influenced our society and culture.

Although India has been subject to invasions by foreign people throughout history, the Turks were only invaders who become the ruling elite and settled in India for a long time. The start of first millennium saw the Turks repaid rise to international power of the Turks. The term Turks serves as the common name of the people descended from the nomadic warrior tribes of the steppes of central Asia. Since the Turks are ethnically end culturally related to each other, it is reasonable and accurate to use the same designation to refer to all of them.

The present paper will examin the impact of immigrants and their cultural in the Indian society. The influence of Turkish culture in Hindustan lasted during the Turko-Afghan period of India's history from the late 12th century to the early l6th century and continued during the Mughal period. When Turkish rulers entered India; they introduced their own customs while accepting Indian customs, such as the class system. The art and architecture of the Delhi Sultanate epoch was not similar to the purely Indian style. An Indo-Islamic style of architecture developed as a mixture of the Indian and Turkish styles.

By the thirteenth century there could be no doubt in anybody's mind that the Muslims, immigrant and indigenous, had become a permanent Socio-political entity in India. With them appeared new clothes, new fashion, new languages, medicine, science and technology. This influence would be so interesting to study but for the fact that the history of these early Muslims in India is told by chroniclers primarily with a motive to glorify the achievements of Arab and Turkish conquerors in capturing kingdoms and spreading Islam.