In the history of medieval India, Sher Shah's reign is famous for his excellent administration. Sher Shah was the first ruler who abandoned the policy of discrimination among his people on the basis of religion and gave them equal opportunity to live happily and peacefully. His administration was based on some principles such as protecting the people from atrocities, establishing peace and order, increasing the economic prosperity of the state, organizing the empire through the development of means of communication and encouraging trade and justice as the highest. To give place through these principles, he tried to establish a welfare state.
Central Administration
The head of the administration was Sher Shah and his power was autocratic but he also took care of the Afghan traditions to get the loyalty and services of the Afghan nobles. All the powers of administration were concentrated in his hands. Although there were four ministers in his central administration in the same way as during the reign of the former Sultans in the Sultanate period, but there was a difference in the work system of Sher Shah. Sher Shah personally looked after the works of all the departments. All the important decisions were taken by Sher Shah himself and the ministers and Amirs followed them. In fact, the status of his ministers was similar to that of secretaries.
There were four ministers during the reign of Sher Shah-
(1) Diwan-i-Wizarat—The Wazir was the head of this department. His main work was related to finance. He kept account of the income and expenditure of the state. He also had the right to inspect the works of ministers of other departments. His position was similar to that of the Prime Minister. In order to fix the revenue system, Sher Shah took special interest in this department and he himself looked after the account of daily income and expenditure.
(2) Diwan-i-Ariz - The head of this department was Ariz who was the army minister. He was not a commander. Rather his work was related to the recruitment, logistics and organization of the army. He also looked after the discipline and salary of the army. Sher Shah himself looked after the work of recruiting soldiers and fixing their salaries. Due to this the efficiency of this department was maintained.
(3) Diwan-i-Rasalat—The head of this department used to work like a foreign minister. He used to welcome foreign ambassadors and correspond with other states. Sometimes the work of charity department was also entrusted to him.
(4) Diwan-i-Insha—The head of this department was called Dabir-i-Khas. He used to send all kinds of correspondence, orders inside the empire. He used to receive letters from subedars and other officers which were sent for the emperor.
Apart from these four ministers, there were two other prominent officers in the central government whose respect and authority were equal to those of the ministers. One of these was the Diwan-i-Qaza whose chief officer was the Chief Qazi. He was second only to the emperor in the administration of justice. The second department was that of Barid-i-mumalik who was the head of the intelligence department of the empire. His job was to receive the reports of spies from different parts of the empire who were appointed in cities, towns and major markets. The postal department also used to manage here. Probably there was another chief officer who looked after the palace.
Provincial Administration
Very little information is received about Sher Shah's provincial administration. So it is difficult to say anything for sure about it. The opinion of Dr. Kanungo is that there was no higher administrative unit than 'Sarkar' in Sher Shah's administration. Probably he wanted to keep only 'Sarkar' between the Parganas and the Center and wanted to end the provincial administration. The opinion of Dr. Paramatma sharan is that there was a practice of military governors during the reign of Sher Shah and provinces existed before Akbar. The opinion of Dr. A. L. Srivastava is that there is partial truth in both the establishments. He says that during the reign of Sher Shah, administrative units similar to the provinces were present but their form and size were not the same. These units were called 'Iqta' instead of Suba. The chief officer of the Iqta was the Chief Army officer or Amir. Each province was divided into 'Sarkars' and the Sarkars were divided into 'Parganas'.
Sarkar administration-
Detailed information about government and pargana administration is found in Sher Shahi, a composition of Abbas Khan. There were two principal officers in each Sarkar—the first, the Shiqdar-i-Shikdaran, and the second, the Munsif-i-Munsifan. The chief shiqdar was a military officer of the government. His work was to maintain peace in the Sarkar or district, to supervise the work of pargana-shiqdars and to help in the recovery of revenue and other taxes. He also heard appeals against the decisions of the Shiqdars. Sher Shah himself used to appoint prominent nobles to this post. The work of the Chief Munsif was related to justice and he also used to supervise the work of Pargana-Munsifs and Amins. There were other employees to help them.
Pargana Administration—
Sher Shah had made important reforms in the pargana administration. He made the judicial system effective at the pargana level, the welfare of the public was taken care of, by appointing two equally empowered officers, the possibility of local rebellions was eliminated. These two officers used to control each other. Sher Shah himself used to appoint the pargana officers, due to which the central control over the parganas increased. Each pargana had a shiqdar (military officer) and an amin or munsif (civil officer). Besides these, there was a fotdar (treasurer) and two karkuns (writers in Persian and Hindi). There was also a semi-official Kanungo. Shiqdar's job was to maintain peace and Amin's job was to measure the land and collect revenue.
Village Administration—
Sher Shah left the village administration in the hands of the local people. Each village had headmen, panchayats and patwaris who managed the local administration. It is not known what were the rights and duties of the headman of the village during the time of Sher Shah. It is important that Sher Shah's policy was to have direct relations with the farmers. Therefore, it appears that the rights of the chiefs would have diminished in determining and collecting the land revenue of the farmers. But the importance of Patwari remained unchanged as he kept the accounts of the village and was the paid officer of the village itself.
Military administration
The army was the basis of the power and security of the state. That's why Sher Shah paid special attention to military administration. He created a standing army which was stationed at various important security centers and forts. There were four parts in his army-cavalry soldiers whose number was 1,50,000, foot soldiers whose number was 25,000, Elephant army which according to Abbas Khan had 5,000 elephants, the number of guns is said to be 50,000. Sher Shah paid more attention to the cavalry and the artillery does not seem to have been very powerful. The main features of his military administration were as follows - (1) Sher Shah arranged for a permanent central army. The soldiers were paid in cash and were stationed in different parts of the state. (2) Sher Shah re-introduced the practice of keeping 'Huliya' of the soldiers and branding the horses. (3) Sher Shah himself used to recruit soldiers. He kept strict discipline among the soldiers.
Financial Administration—
Sher Shah is famous for his financial reforms. In fact, the administration of revenue is a permanent monument of his genius. Sher Shah fixed the land revenue on the basis of measurement of fields. Sher Shah gave land patta to the farmers in which the area, condition, type and revenue of the land were recorded. He also obtained the acceptance of revenue from the farmers. His principle was that farmers should be treated liberally while fixing land revenue but not liberally in collection. Fees were fixed to end the corruption of revenue officials. The farmer had to pay 'Jaribana' land measurement fee and 'Mahasilana' tax collector's fee which ranged from 2.5% to 5% of the total produce.
Administration of Justice
Sher Shah established a fair judicial system. He used to say that, "Justice is the best in religious acts" and the kings of both infidels and Muslims accept this. He always took the side of the oppressed and took action against the oppressors. He used to carefully investigate the cases of justice-seekers and he never made any discrimination between high-ranking or weak people even in giving justice. Every Wednesday he used to hear cases in the open court and did not hesitate to punish even relatives. Sher Shah had implemented the principle of local responsibility in cases of crimes. It was the responsibility of the local authorities to establish peace and order. If the culprit was not found, the muqaddams of the village were arrested and forced to pay compensation.
Currency Reform
Sher Shah had paid special attention to the development of trade, commerce, communication means. For this he did currency reform which was necessary for economic development. He removed the old and false currencies from circulation and replaced them with new gold, silver and copper coins. His two types of coins were main-silver rupee whose weight was 178 grains and copper price whose weight was 380 grains. Sher Shah's currency reform proved to be permanent. Vincent Smith writes that, "The basis of the present British currency system is the rupee." Edward Thomas also wrote praising that, "The Mughals also adopted his currency reform."
Construction of roads and inns(SARAI)
A great achievement of Sher Shah's administration was the construction of roads and inns. He built roads connecting the capital and the main cities. Due to this, apart from the strengthening of the empire, trade and traffic also progressed. He mainly constructed and repaired four roads—1. From Sonargaon to the Indus River, 2. From Agra to Jodhpur and Chittor which were along the coast of Gujarat, 3. From Agra to Burhanpur, 4. From Lahore to Multan. The revenue of the nearby villages was given to them for the expenditure of the inns. A watchman, a postman and two horses were always ready in every inn. These inns were also used as post posts. These roads and inns of Sher Shah have been called 'the arteries of the empire'. Sher Shah is said to have built 1,700 inns.
Thus Sher Shah was a great administrator. His achievements in military and civilian fields were great. Although he did not build the new administration on the original principles, yet he gave a new purpose and inspiration to the previous administration. He got only about five years for administration, but due to the success of his works in this limited time, he is considered a great administrator. According to Keen, no government, not even the British, showed as much intelligence as this Pathan showed.
