Medieval india from sultanat to the mughals

In general, the sultans in India, while paying deference to the ulema, did not feel bound to consult them or accede to their views where matters of state were concerned. Thus, Iltutmish did not consult the theologians before he declared Razia as his successor. Balban introduced pre-Islamic ceremonials in his court, including sijda and pabos which were considered un-Islamic by the ulema. In Alauddin Khalji's time, Qazi Mughis declared that the treasures looted by him from Deogir were bait-ul-mal, or part of the public treasury, and that as sultan, he was entitled to take from the treasury only as much as was allowed to a common trooper. Alauddin rejected the advice of the Qazi, and declared:

"Although I have not studied the Book (the Quran), nor am I learned (in religious sciences), I am a Muslim of a Muslim stock. To prevent rebellions in which thousands perish, I issue such orders as I conceive to be for the good of the state, and the benefit of the people. Men are heedless, disresectful, and disobey my commands. I am then compelled to be severe and bring them to obedience. I do not know whether this is according to the shara, or against the shara; whatever I think for the good of the state or suitable for the emergency, that I decree."

Since Barani wrote more than fifty years after Alauddin Khalji, these may not have been the words of Alauddin, but views attributed to him by Barani. Also, they refer to a particular situation, a

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situation in which Alauddin had to give harsh punishments to prevent rebellions, and to ensure compliance of his orders. They do not imply that Alauddin Khalji regularly or wilfully disregarded the shara. Barani makes the position clear by saying that "when he (Alauddin) attained to kingship, he was quite convinced that government and administration were quite independent of the rules and orders of the shariat; and that while the former appertained to kings, the latter had been assigned to qazis and muftis."

This divergence in the perceived values of the ruler and the ulema was not peculiar to Alauddin. Muhammad bin Tughlaq issued many secular decrees (zawabits) to supplement the shariat. Even an orthodox ruler, Firuz, forbade cutting the hands, feet, noses etc. of criminals even though it had been sanctioned by the sharia.

Taking all these factors into account, Barani came to the conclusion that a truely Islamic state based on faith (din-dari) was not feasible in India. All that was feasible was an Islamic State based on worldly considerations (dunya-dari). In such a state, the head of the state, the sultan, had to be a God fearing Muslim; Saiyyids, religious scholars, shaikhs etc. were to be honoured and given employment; holy wars (jihad) and holy campaigns were to be waged against the neighbouring rajas and chiefs; and Muslims not allowed to flout the holy law in their public behaviour so that sins and impurity, wickedness and wrong doing sink low. Barani makes it clear, however, that 'what the sultan did in private, or a citizen in his house was not the concern of the state'.

Thus, the state was not a theocracy. Nor can it be called "ethnocentric" because shara as defined by the clergy was hardly the core concern of the sultans. It was formally Islamic in character, but was based not on social equality, but on hierarchy. In practice, there was little distinction between the lives of the ordinary people, Hindu or Muslim. The clergy were to be honoured but the state was run not on their advise, but on political considerations and the interests of the ruling elite. As we shall see, this was not always an easy enterprise, and sometimes, there was a sharp difference of opinion between the orthodox clergy and the sultans, especially regarding the extent of religious freedom to be accorded to the Hindus, and their role in the working of the state.

iii. Position of the Hindus

The state as we have described above, postulated considerable but defined religious freedom to those Hindus who had accepted

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the overlordship of the Muslim ruler, and agreed to abide by the rules and regulations enforced by him. Such people were called zimmis or protected persons. The zimmis had the right to worship according to their rites, and to maintain and repair temples "since buildings cannot stand for ever". They were, however, not allowed to build new temples "in opposition to Islam". This clause was vague; it implied that Hindus could build new temples in their houses, or in villages where there were no Muslims. It could also mean that in case of opposition by the Hindus, even old temples could be destroyed. As we have seen, in times of war even temples of long standing were sacked and destroyed. In the early phase, some of them were converted into mosques, or the plundered material from their ruins used for building mosques. But this stopped once the Turks were in a position to erect their own buildings. However, in case of wars with local chiefs or neighbouring rulers, the destruction of their temples became acts of religious merit. Even this came to a stop when Turkish rule had been spread all over the country.

In addition to loyalty and service to the ruler, the Hindus are also required to pay jizyah. The origins of jizyah are not clear; some trace it to poll-tax on individuals levied in Greece, and pre-Islamic Iran from which it was taken over, others consider it to be a tax in lieu of military service, and still others equate it to land-tax or kharaj. This confusion was sought to be resolved by the various schools of shariat, which arose towards the end of the 9th century and at the beginning of the 10th century. While some of them, tracing the example of the Prophet towards idol-worshippers in Arabia, argued that idol-worshippers had only the option of Islam or death, a few others gave jizyah as the third option. The Hanafi school of sharia which was generally followed in India used the formula "Islam or death, or payment of jizyah'. We do not know how precisely jizyah was assessed or collected during the Sultanat period. In some passages of Barani, the peasants are to pay kharaj or jizyah, that is, they were considered one and the same and assessed as a lump sum in the villages. Thus, among the cesses collected by Alauddin Khalji, or even Firuz, there is no reference to jizyah. How it was collected in the towns we do not know. According to the shara, women, children, people who were lunatics, and the indigent were exempt from jizyah. This left the artisans and the merchants. Till the time of Firuz Tughlaq, Brahmans too, were exempt.

Thus, during the sultanat period, jizyah as a separate tax effected only a small section in the towns. As such, it could hardly be considered a devise for forcing conversion to Islam. For a section

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of the orthodox ulema, however, jizyah was a means of harassing and humiliating and insulting the Hindus. Thus, Qazi Mughis went so far as to say that if the collector of the jizyah should want to spit on the face of the Hindu, he should open his mouth. This was on lines of Manu's injunction that if a shudra heard the Vedas, molten lead should be poured in his ears. Both were impractical, but showed a state of the mind.

Some theologians argued that as idolaters, and not having a revealed book like the Quran, the Hindus were ineligible for jizyah, and should be given the option of only Islam or death. If Barani is to be believed, such an argument was put forward before Iltutmish by a group of theologians. On behalf of the Sultan, his wazir, Nizamul Mulk Junaidi, replied that such a policy was contrary to tradition, not having been enforced by Mahmud, the hero of Islam, and impractical because the Muslims were too few in numbers, "like salt in a dish (of food)."

Barani perhaps did not know that the Turkish sultans were only following the example of the Arab rulers of Sindh who had granted the Hindus there the option of paying jizyah, and employed many of them in civil administration.

It is also necessary to remember that in the Delhi Sultanat, the Hindus formed a predominant section of the population, even in the heart of the empire, Delhi. They continued to dominate the country-side as khuts, muqaddams, chaudhuri, rana, thakur, etc., as also trade and finance in the towns, as well as the transport trade (as banjaras). As Alauddin told Qazi Mughis, even within 100 kos of the capital, "the khuts and muqaddams ride upon fine horses, wear fine clothes, shoot with Persian bows, make war upon each other, and go out hunting...give parties and drink wine." In his Fatawa-i-Jahandari, Barani referring to them sadly notes:

"....out of consideration for the fact that the infidels and polytheists are payers of tributes and protected persons (zimmis), these infidels are honoured, distinguished, favoured and made eminent; the kings bestow drums, banners, ornaments, cloaks of brocade and caprisoned horses upon them, and appoint them to governorships, high posts and offices."

There is, no doubt, an element of exaggeration in this statement because hardly any Hindus were appointed to high offices, except during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. But there is little doubt about the financial affluence of a section of the Hindus because we are told by Barani that the sahs (bankers), mehtas (administrators) and pandits "build houses like palaces...live in delights and

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comfort. They take Musalmans in their service and make them run before their horses, even in the capital of Islam."

Of course, the affluence affected only a small section of the Hindus. The mass of the people, both Hindus and Muslim, continued to be poor, and exploited by the ruling classes.

To what extent the Sultanat affected the daily life of an average Hindu is a matter of debate. According to one view, he was hardly affected because the state did not interfere with his life as long as he paid his taxes which, in the villages, continued to be collected by the khuts and muqaddams, or mis and thakurs. He got into trouble only when there was a local war, or famine, or when the village officials or the local chief delayed or withheld land revenue. In matters of personal and civil laws, the Hindus continued to be governed by caste panchayats, and by the village zamindar or chief. The qazis dealt with Muslim law, or only when a Hindu and a Muslim were involved.

However, in a centralized state, the influence of the state tended to grow, as was shown by the agrarian policies of Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq. In matters of religion, considerable freedom was accorded. Jalaluddin Khalji's observation that the Hindu passed in procession, beating gongs and symbols, outside his palace, to immerse the images in the Jamuna exemplifies it. Muhammad bin Tughlaq even participated in Hindu festivals, such as, Holi, and held discussions with Jogis, and Jain saints. However, in a despotic state such freedom was often regarded as a matter of grace rather than a matter of right. Thus, local despots could always act in an arbitrary manner, particularly when a section of the ulema constantly advocated and justified a policy of sternly repressing the Hindus. Thus, they justified Firuz Tughlaq's publicly burning a brahman on charge of converting a Muslim, or his destroying a number of temples around Delhi on the charge that they were new, and that in the festivals held around them, Muslims also used to participate. Perhaps, the only occasion when the ulema intervened to prevent a ruler from acting in an arbitrary manner against the Hindus was when they dissuaded Sikandar Lodi from attacking the pilgrims and destroying and desecrating the old temple and tank at Kurukshetra on the ground that the temple was an ancient one, and previous Muslim sultans had allowed the Hindu to bathe there. It would seem that the traditions of broad religious toleration had become well established by then.

Despite some limitations, it must be conceded that during the sultanat period, the state allowed more religious freedom than was

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allowed to non-Christians, or even to rival sects of Christians in Europe till the 16th century. The state was, of course, formally an Islamic one in the sense explained by Barani. This implied that the Muslims were a privileged group, and that it was a special obligation on the state to look after their moral and material welfare. This was by no means new in India because earlier it were the Rajputs who had formed a privileged group, and their privileges, and the privileges of the brahman were accepted as a matter of course.

iv. Despotism, Benevolence and Development

In their thinking about the state, Muslim political thinkers raised questions about the nature and legitimate objectives of state power, and the basis of the moral authority of the state and the sultan. Political thinkers considered monarchy to be the only safeguard against social anarchy in which property and the honour of women could not be protected. In general, the political thinkers preferred the rule of one individual, the sultan, who had the necessary social and moral qualities, and who, in a sense, enjoyed the mandate of heaven over a oligarchy, or 'noblocracy'. The question of despotism or autocracy bothered many medieval Muslim thinkers. Ziauddin Barani considered despotism to be basically un-Islamic, and considered that religion was the only check against despotism or abuse of personal power by a monarch. However, they did not give the right of rebellion against an unjust ruler, except in some special circumstances, such as open and blatant violation of the shara. Barani compromised with despotism because giving of harsh punishments was inescapable in a situation such as India. Specifically, Barani believed that the mean and ignoble, whom he compares to "animals and beasts of prey" were "plentiful and abundant." Their punishment and stern repression by a despotic ruler was not only inescapable but desirable. Thus, Barani finds a social justification for despotism.

The question was: how to maintain the moral authority of the state in this situation? It was in this context that medieval political thinkers emphasized the concept of adl or justice. Justice implied making no distinction between rich and poor, relation and stranger, noble and ignoble. Nizamuddin, the author of Siyasat Nama, lays great emphasis on the concept of justice. Many thinkers, including Barani, give dispensing of justice even a higher position than discharging religious obligations. For a ruler, an act of justice was greater than seventy years of namaz, according to Barani. However, justice

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also implies the preservation of the existing social order which was organized on a rigid hierarchical order in which the mean and the ignoble which included the artisans and peasants were to be kept out of power, and in a position of dependence.

Despite these, justice did provide a certain restraint on the exercise of arbitrary power, especially by the nobles and the lower officials. It should also be seen within the framework of the concept of benevolence, or serving the people. The saints, both Muslim and Hindu, constantly emphasised this point, both for themselves as for the rulers. Within limitations, they also criticized the hierarchical system of society, and upheld the concept of human equality. To that extent, they became a vehicle for postulating popular aspirations, and by their open-ended approach provide them a relief and a means of escape from a rigidly unequal order. However, as we have seen, at the political level, the concept of benevolence was, at best, given only lip service by the rulers. After Jalaluddin Khalji, Firuz Tughlaq was the first Turkish monarch who tried to espouse it, particularly in the context of the Muslims, though non-Muslims could not be completely excluded.

Could such a state, highly centralized and militaristic, with a ruling class which had a narrow social base, promote the economic and cultural development of the country? In the preceding pages we have seen how, despite all these limitations, there was growth of architecture, literature and music in the country in which both Muslims and Hindus contributed. The growth of sufism and the bhakti movements also tended to mitigate mutual hostility, and provide a platform for common interaction. In the economic fields, while only a few monarchs, such as Muhammad and Firuz Tughlaq were actively concerned with the expansion and improvement of cultivation, the centralized system of revenue administration made it possible for the state to intervene more effectively in village life. The centralization of a high proportion of the revenue surplus in the hands of the ruling class gave a fillip to artisanal production of a superior type, and promoted urbanization. The opening up of the frontiers of the country to trade, and wider cultural links with the Islamic world, the improvement of road communications, the provision of a stable currency, the silver tanka, and the active promotion of overseas trade with countries of south-east Asia and China led to the situation that, as modern research reveals, when the Portuguese entered the Indian Ocean towards the end of the 15th century, it was found that trade and prosperity in the region in which India played a key role was at an unprecedentedly high level. But

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which were the groups and elements which benefited from and participated in this prosperity and which were the ones left out is a question which needs to be tackled separately because, then as now, prosperity and stark poverty continued side by side.

Thus, the Sultanat, far from being a 'dark age' as postulated by some, saw the breaking of the rigid, narrow economic and social mould which had dominated the country between the 8th and 12th centuries, and created conditions for development, even though in a limited form.

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GLOSSARY

Amils—revenue officers

Amir-i-akhur—amir or officer commanding the horse

Amir-i-hajib—officer-in-charge of the royal court

Amirul Mominin—Commander of the Faithful; the Caliph

Arz-i-mamalik—minister in charge of the army of the whole country

Balahar—the lowest grade of the agricultural peasant

Banjara—a corn merchant

Barid—intelligence officer appointed by the state to collect information

Charai—a tax on cattle

Chatr—royal umbrella

Dagh—mark of branding

Dallals—brokers

Darogha—a minor officer in charge of a local office

Darul Adl—the market of Delhi or cloth and other commodities; literally, place of justice

Darul Mulk—capital

Doab—land between the Jumna and the Ganges

Farman—a royal order

Gazz-i-Sikandari—the yard of Sultan Sikandar Lodi

Gumashta—agent or representative

Hadis—acts or words of the Arabian Prophet

Imam—supreme commander, leader; also the person leading the congregational Muslim prayers

Inam—gift; reward

Iqta—a governorship; or grant of revenues of a piece of land

Iqtadar—governor or a person in whose charge an iqta has been placed

Jagir—a piece of land assigned to a government officer by the state

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Jama'at' Khana—a house of mystics

jitals—Copper coins of the Delhi sultanat

Jizya—has two meanings: (a) in the literature of the Delhi sultanat, any tax which is not kharaj or land tax; (b) in the shari'at: a personal and yearly tax on non-Muslims

Kafir—non-Muslim (literally, one who is ungrateful to God)

Karkhanas—royal factories or enterprises for producing or collecting commodities required by the state

Khalifa—Caliph, Commander of the Faithful, or successor of a sufi

Khalisa—income which went directly went to the king

Khanqahs—a house of mystics but more commoditous than the jama'at khana

Kharif—a winter crop in India

Khil'at—robe of honour

Khilafat—caliphate; commander of the faithful

Kharaj—land revenue; also tribute paid by a subordinate ruler

Khuts—class of village headmen

Kufr—disbelief

Madad-i-Maash—grant of land or pension to religious or deserving persons

Madrasa—an educational institution

Malikut-Tujjar—literally, chief of merchants; a title given to one of the highest officers of the state

Mameluks—slave-officers

Mohalla—a section or part of a town; quarter of a city

Muhtasib—an officer appointed to maintain regulations in a municipality

Mullahs—persons claiming to be religious leaders of the Musalmans

Muqaddam—village headman; literally the first or senior man

Mushrif-i-mamalik—accountant for all provinces

Naib—deputy, assistant, agent, representative

Nawisandas—clerks

Nabuwat—prophethood

Paibos—kissing the feet, a ceremony generally reserved for God

Pir—spiritual guide

Qalandars—a class of Muslim mendicants, generally uneducated, who did not believe in private property and wandered about from place to place and lived by persistent begging

Qasbas—towns

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Qazi—a Muslim judge

Rabi'—the winter crop in India, as opposed to the kharif or rainy season crop

Rai—a Hindu chief, usually one having his own territory and army

Rai Rayan—the Rai of Rais; the title given by Alauddin Khalji to Rama Deo of Deogir

Ra'iyyat—subjects

Sadah—literally, one hundred; the term sadah amirs meant officers controlling territory containing about a hundred villages

Sadr-i jahan—title of the central officer of the Delhi sultanat, who was in charge of religious and charitable endowments

Sama—an audition party of the mystics

Sarrafs—money-changers, bankers

Sarai—inn

Sarai-Adl—name given to Alauddin Khalji's market in Delhi for the sale of cloth and other specified commodities

Shahr—city, used for the capital, Delhi

Shari'at—Muslim religious law

Shiqdar—an officer-in-charge of an area of land described as a shiq

Shuhna—head of the police, mayor, provost

Shuhna-i mandi—officer-in-charge of the grain-market

Sufis—mystics

Tanka—silver coin of the Delhi sultanat

Tauhid—unity of God

Ulema—Muslims of religious learning; plural of alim

Umara—Plural of amir; amir means ruler or commander

Usar—saline land

Wajh—money, salary

Wajhdar—a salaried officer

Wali—governor

Wali-'ahad—heir-presumptive

Wazir-i mutlaq—wazir with full powers, who could administer without interference by the king

Zawabits—state laws

Zimmis—protected non-Muslims

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INDEX

Abbas Sarwani, 224

Abbasid Caliphate, 14, 111, 129, 228, 235, 264, 265

Abdul Hasan Ibadi of Iraq, 161

Abdul Wahid Bilgrami, 257

Abdur Razzak, 181, 183

Abu Yusuf Yaqubi, 263

Abul Fazl, 227

Admiral Cheng Ho, 198

Afghanistan, 17

Ahmad Ayaz Rawat-i-Arz, 136

Ainul Mulk Multani, 90, 109

Akbar, 81, 123, 142, 210

Al-Biruni, 33

Alauddin Husain Shah, 22, 177

Alauddin Khalji, 96, 99, 264, 267, 269, 270, 271 272, 274

and Jalaluddin's approaches to State, 75

Market reforms, 78, 81

Amir Hasan Sijzi, 162

Amir Khan, 63

Amir Khusrau, 89, 90, 92, 153, 162, 163, 165, 168, 259, 262

Amiv (rivers), 13

Aqat khan, 77

Arab sea, 13, 202

Aram Shah, 39

Architecture, 230

Arthashastra of kautilya, 263

Ashraf, K.M., 156

Asian Oceanic trade, 194

Assam, 212

Aurangzeb, 125, 268

Awadh, 52

Aziz khammar, 110

Baba Fariduddin Ganj-i-Shakhar, 240

Bahlul Lodi's, 224

Bahmanid rule (1350-1565), 175

Bahadur Shah, 201, 219

Bahauddin Zakariya, 243

Bahram Shah, 22, 50, 51, 177

Balbam, age of (1246-87), 51 ruler (1266-87), 53

Barka khan, 67

Bayazid Bayat, 236

Beas river, 66

Bengal relations with Delhi, 43