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Why did the spread of Islam in India have a Northwest to Northeast orientation, rather than Northwest to South orientation?
Why was Bengal so much more Muslim than Tamil Nadu? Why wasn't the Deccan even more Muslim?
Did the rivers of the North facilitate spread?
Why was Bengal so much more Muslim than Tamil Nadu? Why wasn't the Deccan even more Muslim?
Did the rivers of the North facilitate spread?
To clarify, I'm not asking about the presence of Islamic dynasties, but the percentage of Muslims in the population pre-partition.
Why did Islam spread so much more to the Northeast than the South?
Why did Islam spread so much more to the Northeast than the South?
I'm also trying to understand why purdah spread to these parts of India, but no further?
This far exceeds Muslim-majority districts.
This far exceeds Muslim-majority districts.
One possibility is that southern & north-east India always had higher female labour force participation - given rice culivation & a much later neolithic revolution.
So northerners adopted purdah to be like the ruling elites.
Southerns did not, partly because it was inconvenient
So northerners adopted purdah to be like the ruling elites.
Southerns did not, partly because it was inconvenient
Did difficult geography prevent purdah from spreading south, so female labour force participation remained relatively high?
Or did relatively high female labour force participation deter the adoption of purdah?
Or did relatively high female labour force participation deter the adoption of purdah?
I'm not saying I'm a geographical determinist, but...
