Abstract

The question of religious conversion has conventionally been treated either as a product of force employed from the above or the process started from below. It has also been viewed in terms of individual search for spiritual salvation according to his own understanding. At the global level, two factors are important in the religious conversions, one the place where the religion originated and second the place where it diffused and dispersed whether by assimilation, persuasion or by force. Here all these assumptions have been sidelined, and an attempt has been made to see the Islamization of Kashmir while looking at the socio-economic order of pre 14th century which contributed to the process of Islamization in varying degrees.

Key words: Brahamans, invasions, Islam, conversion.