MYTH OF 1300 YEARS OF ISLAMIC RULE IN HINDUSTAN :

         First of all its myth that India was under Muslim rule for 700 years. the whole India rarely came under the direct rule of Islam. For most of the time sultanate rule was limited to Doab region only The southern most India never came under any stable Islamic rule. Even when north India was under chaos of Islamic Jihad, southern India survived it without much damage and as such the courts of southern India were able to give patronage to the scholars and Brahmins fleeing from Banares and Ujjayini. For eg Vallabhacharya's parents actually left the Banares during some Muslim invasion . Later on Vallabhacharya was given patronage by the Vijayanagar court where he established the pushti margh of Vaishnavism. In similar way Rajputana also never came under direct Islamic rule. Even under the Mughal rule Rajputana was pretty much an autonomous region. Odisa came under Islamic rule hardly for the 50 years. Same goes for Assam. So its wrong to say that whole India was under Muslim rule. In comparision persian didn't have any stronghold remained where they could take refuge against the Islamic Jihad.

        Second It was impossible to rule the India without the help of Hindu subjects and rulers. Look at the early Mughal rule of Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. They were easily accepted as rulers even by the fierce Rajputs because of the tolerance shown by them towards the Hindus. Besides they themselves were half Hindus by the virtue of their marriage in the Hindu royal families. As soon as Aurangzeb started his zealot policies Mughal empire crumbled within a generation!!!
          The Marathas played a huge role in the protection and resurgence of Hinduism. Mughal rule collapsed because of the long protracted warfare for 27 years in deccan. The temples of Odisha (including famous puri temple) were restored by them. Ahalyabai as I mentioned earlier was directly involved in the renovation of many Jyotirlinga temples and other religious places. Even during the later time period Sayajirao Gaekwad and Shauji maharaj greatly contributed towards the social reformations in hinduism. Sikh khalsa was also responsible in same manner as to the Marathas.