Islam is India's second-largest religion, with approx 20% of the country's population, approximately 200 million people identifying as adherents of Islam.
Islam spread in Indian communities along the Arab coastal trade routes in Gujarat and along the Malabar Coast shortly after the religion emerged in the Arabian Peninsula. Islam arrived in the inland of Indian subcontinent in the 7th century when the Arabs conquered Sindh and later arrived in Punjab and North India in the 12th century via the Ghaznavids and Ghurids conquest and has since become a part of India's religious and cultural heritage.