Explore the consolidation of the Delhi Sultanate under Alauddin Khalji, including market systems, agrarian reforms, and land revenue strategies.

Consolidation of the Delhi Sultanate under Alauddin Khalji

Overview:

• By the time Alauddin Khalji's came to the throne, the position of the Delhi Sultanat was fairly well consolidated in the central portion of the empire, i.e., the portion comprising the upper Ganga valley and eastern Rajasthan.
• This emboldened the sultans to undertake a series of internal reforms and experiments, aimed at improving the administration, strengthening the army, gearing up the machinery of land revenue administration, taking steps to expand and improve cultivation, and providing for the welfare of the citizens in the rapidly expanding towns.
• Not all the measures were successful, but they mark important new departures.

Market Control and Agrarian Policy of Alauddin Khalji: A Historical Insight

Details:

• For contemporaries, Alauddin’s measures to control the markets was one of the great wonders of the world.
• In a series of orders after his return from the Chittor campaign, Alauddin sought to fix the cost of all commodities from foodgrains, sugar, and cooking oil to a needle, and from costly imported cloth to horses, cattle, and slave boys and girls.
• For the purpose, he set up three markets at Delhi—one market for foodgrains, the second for costly cloth, and the third for horses, slaves, and cattle.
• Each market was under the control of a high officer called shahna who maintained a register of the merchants, and strictly controlled the shopkeepers and the prices.
• Regulation of prices, especially foodgrains, was a constant concern of medieval rulers because without the supply of cheap foodgrains to the towns, they could not hope to enjoy the support of the citizens and the army stationed there.
• To realize his objectives, Alauddin proceeded in a characteristically thorough way.
• In order to ensure a regular supply of cheap foodgrains, he declared that the land revenue in the doab region, that is, the area extending from Meerut near the Yamuna to the border of Kara near Allahabad, would be paid directly to the state, i.e., the villages in the area would not be assigned in iqta to anyone.
• Further, the land revenue was raised to half of the produce.
• This was a heavy charge and Alauddin adopted a number of measures, which we shall note later, to cope with the situation.
• By raising the state demand, and generally obliging the peasants to pay it in cash, the peasants were forced to sell their foodgrains at a low price to banjaras who were to carry them to the towns, and to sell them at prices fixed by the state.
• To ensure that there was no hoarding, all the banjaras were registered, and their agents and their family were held collectively responsible for any violations.
• As a further check, the state itself set up warehouses and stocked them with foodgrains which were released whenever there was a famine or a threat of a shortfall in supply.
• Alauddin kept himself constantly informed of everything and very harsh punishment was given if any shopkeeper charged a higher price, or tried to cheat by using false weights and measures.
• Barani tells us that prices were not allowed to be increased by a dam or a paisa even during the time of famine, thus, wheat sold at 7 jitals a man, barley at 4 jitals, good quality rice at 5 jitals.
• Barani says: ‘The permanence of prices in the grain market was a wonder of the age’.
• Control of the prices of horses was important for the sultan because without the supply of good horses at reasonable prices to the army, the efficiency of the army could not be maintained.
• The position of the supply of horses had improved as a result of the conquest of Gujarat.
• Good quality horses could be sold only to the state.
• The price of a first-grade horse fixed by Alauddin was 100 to 120 tankas, while a taint (pony) not fit for the army cost 10 to 25 tankas.
• The prices of cattle as well as of slaves were strictly regulated, and Barani gives us their prices in detail.
• The prices of cattle and slaves are mentioned side by side by Barani.
• This shows that slavery was accepted in medieval India as a normal feature.
• Control of the prices of other goods, especially of costly cloth, perfumes, etc., was not vital for the sultan.
• However, their prices were also fixed, probably because it was felt that high prices in this sector would affect prices in general.
• Or, it might have been done in order to please the nobility.
• We are told that large sums of money were advanced to the Multani traders for bringing fine quality cloth to Delhi from various parts of the country.
• As a result, Delhi became the biggest market for fine cloth, the price of which was fixed and traders from all places flocked to Delhi in order to buy it and sell it at a higher price elsewhere.

Realization of Land Revenue under Alauddin Khalji: Key Economic Reforms

Insight:

• Realization of land revenue in cash enabled Alauddin to pay his soldiers in cash.
• He was the first sultan in the Sultanat to do so.
• A war (cavalryman) in his time was paid 238 tankas a year, or about 20 tankas a month.
• It appears that he was expected to maintain himself and his horse and his equipment out of this amount.
• Even then, this was not a low salary, for during Akbar’s time, when prices were far higher, a Mughal cavalryman received a salary of about 20 rupees a month.
• Actually, a Turkish cavalryman during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was almost a gentleman, and expected a salary which would enable him to live as such.
• In view of this, the salary fixed by Alauddin was low, and the control of the market was, therefore, necessary.
• 1 48 jitals made a tanka.
• Alauddin’s man was about 15 kg of today.
• Thus, a citizen of Delhi could buy for a tanka (almost equivalent to a silver rupee) 96 kg wheat, 144 kg rice, and 180 kg barley.
• The historian Barani thought that a major objective of Alauddin’s control of markets was his desire to punish the Hindus since most of the traders were Hindus and it was they who resorted to profiteering in foodgrains and other goods.
• However, most of the overland trade to West and Central Asia was in the hands of Khurasanis who were Muslims, as also Multanis, many of whom were Muslims.
• Alauddin’s measures, therefore, affected these sections also, a fact which Barani does not mention.
• It is not clear whether the market regulations of Alauddin were applied only to Delhi, or also to other towns in the empire.
• Barani tells us that the regulations concerning Delhi always tended to be followed in other towns also.
• In any case, the army was stationed not sufficient information to be certain in the matter.
• It is clear that while the merchants—Hindus and Muslims—might have complained against the price control, not only the army but all citizens, irrespective of their religious beliefs, benefited from the cheapness of foodgrains and other articles.

Agrarian Reforms and Economic Policies under Alauddin Khalji

Key Points:

• Apart from the control of the market, Alauddin took important steps in the field of land revenue administration.
• He was the first monarch in the Sultanat who insisted that in the doab, land revenue would be assessed on the basis of measuring the land under cultivation.
• This implied that the rich and the powerful in the villages who had more land could not pass on their burden to the poor.
• Alauddin wanted that the landlords of the area—called khuts and muqaddams, should pay the same taxes as the others.
• Thus, they had to pay taxes on milch cattle and houses like the others, and forgo other illegal cesses which they were in the habit of realizing.
• In the picturesque language of Barani, 'the khuts and muqaddams could not afford to ride on rich caparisoned horses, or to chew betel leaves and they became so poor that their wives had to go and work in the houses of Muslims’.
• The policy of direct collection of land revenue by the state, based on measurement could only succeed if the amils and other local officials were honest.
• Although Alauddin had given these elements sufficient salaries to enable them to live in comfort, he insisted that their accounts should be audited strictly.
• We are told that for small defaults, they would be beaten and sent to prison.
• Barani says that their life had become so insecure for them that no one was willing to marry their daughters to them!
• No doubt this is an exaggeration because, then as now, government service was considered to be prestigious and those who held government offices, whether they were Hindus or Muslims, were eagerly sought as marriage partners.
• Although Barani writes as if all the measures mentioned above were directed solely against the Hindus, it is clear that they were, in the main, directed against the privileged sections in the countryside.
• But these can hardly be considered as socialistic measures.
• They were basically designed to meet an emergency situation, viz., the danger posed by the Mongols.
• Perhaps, it would have been better for Alauddin to have controlled only the price of essential commodities, such as food-grains, etc.
• But, as the contemporary writers, Barani, says, he tried to control the price of everything, from ‘caps to socks, from combs to needles, vegetables, soups, sweetmeats to chapatis'.
• These led to vexatious laws which were sought to be violated and led to drastic punishments and resentment.
• Alauddin’s agrarian policy was certainly harsh and must have affected the ordinary cultivators also.
• But it was not so burdensome as to drive them into rebellion, or flight.
• The market regulations of Alauddin came to an end with his death, but it did achieve a number of gains.
• We are told by Barani that the regulations enabled Alauddin to raise a large and efficient cavalry which enabled him to defeat the subsequent Mongol onslaughts, with great slaughter, and to drive them beyond the Indus.
• The land revenue reforms of Alauddin marked an important step towards closer relationship with the rural areas.
• Some of his measures were continued by his successors, and later provided a basis for the agrarian reforms of Sher Shah and Akbar.