A. Change of capital (1326-27 AD)
Sultan
Qutbuddin Mubarak Khalji named Devagiri Qutbabad and Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq
named it Daulatabad, Devagiri was also called 'Qubatul Islam'. Muhammad Tughlaq
tried to make Devagiri the capital instead of Delhi.
Reason
1. According to Barani, Devagiri was made the capital
because it was in the centre of the empire.
2. According to Ibn Battuta, the citizens of Delhi used
to write disrespectful letters to the Sultan, so to punish them he decided to
make Devagiri the capital.
3. Isami has written that he wanted to take the citizens
of Delhi to South India to break their power.
4. Prof. Habibullah has written that he wanted to make
Devagiri the capital in view of the development of Muslim culture in South
India and the prosperity of the South and the convenience of governance.
5. Dr. Mehdi Hussain says that he wanted to make
Daulatabad the capital to make it the center of Muslim culture.
6. According to Dr. Mehdi Hussain and Dr. K. A. Nizami,
Muhammad Tughlaq's aim was to make two capitals, Delhi and Daulatabad, but most
historians do not agree with this idea.
7. According to Dr. A. L. Srivastava, security from
Mongol invasions, need for a strong system in South India and prosperity of
South India were the reasons for this change of capital.
According
to the historians of that time, all the people of Delhi were ordered to go to
Daulatabad and Delhi became desolate.
Result
1. Barani has written that "Everything was
destroyed. The devastation was so terrible that not even a cat or dog could be
seen in the buildings of the city, its palaces and its surrounding areas."
2. Ibn Battuta has written: "On searching on the
orders of the Sultan, his slaves found a lame and a blind man. The lame was
killed and the blind was dragged to Daulatabad where only one of his legs could
reach."
3. Isami has written: "He (Muhammad Tughlaq) ordered
to burn the city (Delhi) and drive out all the people from it."
4. Dr. Mehdi Hussain says: "It has never been that
delhi was not capital and hence it has never been depopulated or
uninhabited."
5. Dr. K. A. Nizami also says that "The entire
public was not ordered to go, but only Umra, Sheikhs, Ulemas and upper-class
people were ordered to go to Daulatabad."
Most
of the historians of modern times say that the contemporary historians may have exaggerated this point but
there is no doubt that the people of Delhi were ordered to go to Daulatabad. On
the way, the Sultan did every possible work for the convenience of the public.
Shady trees were planted on the 700 mile long road from Delhi to Daulatabad,
arrangements were made for people to stay and eat after every two miles,
transportation was made accessible to all, everyone was given compensation for
their left property and Free accommodation and food arrangements were made for
everyone in Daulatabad, but despite all the facilities, there can be no doubt
that the forty-day journey from Delhi to Daulatabad would have been extremely
painful for the citizens of Delhi. This plan of Muhammad Tughlaq failed.
According to Isami, Delhi was settled after 14 years but probably in 1335 AD,
the Sultan had given permission to the people to return to Delhi as per their
wish.
Reasons
for failure
1. The Sultan should have taken only his courtiers to
Daulatabad and not the public.
2. Ordinary citizens were not ready to leave their homes
and go to the unknown and remote Daulatabad, nor was there any need to take
them there.
3. It was a mistake for the Sultan to think that
Daulatabad would be a suitable capital.
4. Delhi was a more suitable place for protection from
Mongol attacks and for the security and organization of a fully organized state
of North India.
5. Organized North India was more important for the Delhi
Sultanate than the disorganized South India.
B. Token currency (1329-30 AD)
During
the time of Muhammad Tughlaq, one of his Plan was the introduction of token
currency.
Reason
1.
According to
Barani, due to lack of money in the treasury and implementing the policy of
empire expansion, Muhammad Tughlaq had to use token currency.
2.
Symbolic currency
was introduced in Iran during the time of Kairavat Khan, although this
experiment was unsuccessful there. But token currency was used successfully in
China during the time of Kublai Khan. Probably Muhammad Tughlaq, who
experimented with new innovations, took inspiration from those countries.
3.
Modern historians
also say that during his time there was a shortage of silver in the entire
world and there was a severe shortage in India. For this reason, he used
symbolic currency.
According
to Barani, the Sultan issued copper coins and according to Farishta, these
coins were made of brass. Probably, coins of both the metals were minted. The
Sultan reduced their value to that of a silver 'tanka'. Earlier the copper coin
was called 'Jital' , now 'Tanka' also
started being made of copper or brass.
These
coins lasted a maximum of three or four years. Seeing the failure of this
scheme, the Sultan withdrew all the token currency issued by the government
mint and gave silver and gold coins to individuals in their place. This was a
great generosity of the Sultan. Piles of copper and brass coins were piled up
in front of government mints. The Sultan got all the coins replaced except the
counterfeit ones. This weakened the economic condition of the state.
Reasons
for failure
1. According to Dr. Mehdi Hussain, "This plan was
completely appropriate and diplomatic. But in practice he did not take all the
precautions that were necessary for such an experiment."
2. Prof. According to Muhammad Habib, the blame for the
failure of this scheme lay on the citizens who could not differentiate between
real and fake coins.
3. But other historians place the main blame for this on
Muhammad Tughlaq. According to him, it was the Sultan's mistake that he did not
make these coins which were not possible to copy.
4. According to Barani, "The house of every Hindu
became a mint." But not only Hindus but also Muslims would not have been
deprived of this greed and whoever could make fake coins did so.
5. The subjects paid taxes and revenue in brass and
copper coins and started collecting silver and gold coins in their homes. “Gresham's
law”
6. Even in business, people wanted to take silver and
gold coins and wanted to give copper and brass coins. Due to this, trade and
mainly foreign trade started getting destroyed.
C. Khorasan conquest plan
After
the withdrawal of the Mongols, the Sultan planned to conquer Khorasan and Iraq
and for this he gathered a large army of about 3,70,000 soldiers and also gave
him one year's advance salary. The chaotic conditions of Central Asia and Iran
(Persia) and the encouragement of the rich people who had fled from Iraq and
Khorasan in the Sultan's court became the reason for the formulation of this
plan. But this plan could not be implemented and the Sultan disbanded the army.
This weakened the Sultan's financial condition and the soldiers expelled from
the army created an atmosphere of dissatisfaction.
Reason
for failure
1.
The circumstances
in Central Asia changed and the Sultan could not afford to maintain such a
large army for a long time. Due to this the scheme suffered loss.
2.
The plan was also
fundamentally flawed. It was not possible to conquer such a remote region and
even if it was conquered, it would be difficult to keep it under control.
D. Attack on Karachil (1337-38 AD)
'Kurachil'
was in the modern Kumaon district located in the foothills of the state
Himachal. An attempt was made to conquer it.
Reason
1.
According to
Farishta, the Sultan's goal was not to conquer Karachil but to conquer China.
2.
According to
Barani, this was the first phase of conquering Iraq and Khorasan.
3.
But according to
modern historians, the aim of Muhammad Tughlaq was to bring under his control
those hill states where most of the rebels used to get shelter. With this his
northern borders also became secure.
According
to Ibn Battuta, a huge army of one lakh horsemen and a large number of infantries
were sent there to attack. Khusro Malik was given the leadership of this army.
This army conquered the city of Jidaya. According to Dr. K. A. Nizami, when
Khusro Malik moved towards Tibet by disobeying the orders of the Sultan, he too
had to be disappointed like Bakhtiyar Khalji. His army was destroyed. According
to Ibn Battuta, only three officers of the army could return alive. But in the
plains, the people of the hills practiced agriculture. For this reason, he made
a treaty with the Sultan and accepted to pay him tribute. But this attack
weakened the military power of the Sultan.
E. Tax hike in Doab
At
the beginning of his reign the Sultan increased taxes in the Doab. According to
Barani, it was increased ten or twenty times. According to Farishta, this tax
was increased three or four times. According to Gardner Brown, this tax
increase was very simple. According to Dr. A. L. Srivastava, the Sultan wanted
to increase his income by 5% to 10% and he did not increase the land tax but
imposed tax on houses and pastures etc. Whatever may be the reality, there is
no doubt that taxes were increased. That's why people revolted.
Reason
for failure
1.
At the time when
taxes were increased in Doab, there was drought and famine there. Therefore,
farmers left agriculture and took up the profession of theft and robbery.
2.
Revenue officers
collected taxes very harshly which resulted in rebellions at various places.
The Sultan suppressed the rebellions with great severity and in the words of
Barani, "Thousands of persons were killed and when they tried to escape,
the Sultan attacked various places and hunted them down like wild
animals."
3.
Gardner Brown does
not agree with this statement of Barani. According to him, the reason for the
suffering of the citizens was not the increase in taxes but the famine caused
by lack of rain.
4.
Dr. Mehdi Hussain
has presented a new idea. According to him, the soldiers expelled from the
Sultan's army stopped farming and killed the revenue officers. For this reason,
the Sultan suppressed their rebellion harshly.
Whatever
may have been the reason, it is clear that the increase in taxes and harsh
collection of taxes in the situation of famine was the main reason for the
rebellion and the Sultan suppressed that rebellion with utmost harshness.
However, when he realized his mistake, he also took some relief and corrective
measures.
Immediate
relief measures
1.
Six months' ration
was provided to farmers
2.
Farmers were given
advance loan called Sondhar
Efforts
for the advancement of agriculture
1.
Muhammad Tughlaq
opened a new department for the advancement of agriculture and appointed a new
minister 'Amir-i-Kohi'. The main objective of this department was to expand the
land suitable for agriculture by providing direct financial assistance from the
state.
2.
A land area of
sixty square miles was selected where farmers were asked to do farming under
the supervision of government employees. Various crops were sown there
gradually and approximately 70 lakh tankas (rupees) were spent in three years.
In a way, it was like a government agricultural farm. However, this too was
unsuccessful.
Thus,
Muhammad Tughlaq failed in all his plans. It can be said that his reforms were
ahead of their time, his subjects and his officials neither understood his
plans nor did they cooperate with him. The failure of the Sultan's plans was
largely his own fault.
1.
Sultan had
imagination but lacked practicality. He could make new plans and they were
probably correct in principle, but the Sultan was not able to fulfill the
requirements of converting them into action.
2.
He was very
violent and intemperate. Even the slightest failure would enrage him and if he
did not get quick success, he would abandon his plans.
3.
He did not know
how to benefit from the abilities and capabilities of his citizens and
officials and get their cooperation. The vision of a Sultan in him. He lacked
the ability to judge situations and the character of people. Thus he lacked the
quality of being a leader of a group of people.
These
were the main reasons for the failures of Muhammad Tughlaq. Because of this,
the Sultan himself and his lack of character became the reason for the failure
of him and his plans.
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