RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES AND MILITARY FEUDALISMThe Hindu text and Muslim practice show striking similarities. Ala-ud-din
is said to have stated:
The Hindus will never become submissive and obedient till they
are reduced to poverty. I have, therefore, given orders, that just
sufficient shall be left to them from year to year, of corn, milk, and
curds, but they shall not be allowed to accumulate hoards and
property.Although Ala-ud-din had the indisputable merit of having saved India from
being overrun by the Mongols, the Hindus naturally disliked him because
he oppressed them intentionally. Hindu historians have, therefore,
criticised him just as they criticised Aurangzeb. But they tend to forget that
Ala-ud-din was rather impartial in his oppression, his measures being
aimed at Muslim courtiers just as much as against Hindu notables and
middlemen. If we can rely on Barani’s account, we can even state that the
poor Hindus in the rural areas were explicitly exempted from some of the
sultan’s stern measures. The complaint that Ala-ud-din, by demanding
revenue amounting to 50 per cent of the standing crop, asked for much
more than any Hindu ruler had done before him is also not entirely
correct. We should not forget that, in addition to the usual one-sixth which
was supposed to be the king’s share according to the ancient code of
Manu, kings, princes, middlemen and headmen collected a great deal of
additional taxes or subjected the peasants to irregular exactions. Ala-ud-
din explicitly prohibited all such additional collections, imposed a direct
assessment and limited it to the above-mentioned amount.
Whether Ala-ud-din was really successful in implementing these
measures is difficult to ascertain. Barani reported several decades later that
the fact that Delhi was fully supplied with food was regarded as one of the
great miracles of that time. Other measures were less successful. Barani
described at length how illicit alcohol was produced and sold in Delhi, a
report which reminds one of Chicago in the days of Prohibition. The fixed
prices which Ala-ud-din decreed were circumvented by many traders who
used smaller weights and measures. At any rate, all these decrees were
probably implemented only in the capital and extended only as far as
places within a radius of 100 miles around the capital, as Ala-ud-din
himself had indicated. Beyond that core area of his realm, no Indian
ruler—whether Hindu or Muslim—could hope to exercise direct influence.
Ala-ud-din died in 1316. He was succeeded by two of his sons and by a
converted outcaste Hindu, Khusru Khan. None of them died a natural
death. In 1320 the courtiers made Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq the new sultan.
His father was a Turkish slave who had served Balban; his mother was a
Jat woman from India. Ghiyas-ud-din became the founder of the Tughluq
dynasty. He had to conduct campaigns against Warangal, which had