Experiments of Mohammad bin Tughlaq (1324-1351 CE)
Shifting of capital to Daulatabad
-> The first rebellion faced by Tughlaq was that of Bahauddin Gurhasp of Sagar. If he had not acted, entire southern peninsula would have slipped out of his hand. A little carelessness in dealing with this revolt would have led to a series of rebellions.
-> Plus, during the Warangal expedition of 1321-22, contact of Delhi was cut off which created confusion in the soldiers.
-> Thus, it was felt an effective control was needed on south. It would also give a chance to procure the fabulous gold and silver of the south for the Sultanat.
-> Delhi was frequently exposed to Mongol invasions due to their hold over Punjab region. The rich trade, flourishing agriculture and pleasant climate of Maharashtra was the ideal place for the new capital.
-> Both Barani and Farishta talk of Daulatabad as a central location. Ibn Batuta gives a different perspective that Tughlaq wanted to punish the people of Delhi for abuses. Isami also talks of Tughlaq not trusting the Awam-o-Khalq of Delhi and hence he wanted to uproot them. Farishta also records that the ministers had suggested Ujjain but Tughlaq brushed it aside.
Actual shifting-
-> 1326-28 - Barani says first royal ladies shifted.
-> Then the imperial court was shifted to Daulatabad. The upper cream of aristocracy consisting of nobles, Ulema, Sayyads and Sheikhs were forced to migrate which caused great discontent because they were forced to leave Delhi where they lived for almost 2 centuries.
-> Isami says six such caravans composed of people who were forced to move out of Delhi.
-> The common people were also forced to migrate to Daulatabad as it was the new capital and it was always safe to live near the Sultan in days where Mongol invasions took place. But the migration during summer killed many.
-> The sultan had built a Delhi-Daulatabad road with resting places. The houses were bought by Sultan for the people and many other concessions were given to settle in Daulatabad. But the people suffered and felt homesick in a new province. Sultan thus earned the displeasure of his people.
-> Delhi continued to be the most important city with coins being minted from both Daulatabad and Delhi. But Barani said Delhi appeared like a ghost city
-> He had to come back to Delhi by 1334-35. Ibn Batista in 1335 calls Delhi a bustling city.
Effects –
-> Tughlaq was cut off from northwest and Bengal which lead him to make whirlwind trips to Delhi continuously.
-> Mongol try to invade and Rajputs try to become independent
-> Shifting put tremendous strain on royal treasury and shifting the capital again to Delhi further created problems.
-> Plague in deccan affected new capital
-> revolts took place in Dwarsamudra and Maabar thus defeating very purpose of shifting capital
-> Ancient Indian kingdoms did have the concept of second capital. It was put to practice again by Tughlaq.
-> It established a renewed contact between north and south India and helped in spreading Muslim religious and cultural ideas in the south.
Issuing token currency
-> Token currency- no intrinsic value, works on sovereign guarantee and on people's confidence in the currency. Token currency also would help in accumulating capital, banking and ease of trade.
-> Token currencies were issued by Qublai Khan of China and some Mongol rulers of Iran.
-> Mohammad bin Tughlaq had issued bronze currency as a token equivalent to the value of silver tankas. He hoped that such a currency will help to absorb supply shocks of silver, silver being rarer than gold in those times.
-> But he forgot to make minting the monopoly of the state and also did not bring any rules to define a standard coin.
-> Barani says that soon, every Hindu's house was turned into a mint. They created extra money and paid their taxes from this. Every goldsmith struck copper coins and stored them. The corrupt officials of the state were also involved.
-> Merchants minted forget coins resulting in devaluation of currency. Foreign merchants bought goods in Indian currency but refused to sell their goods in return of this token currency because of no sovereign guarantee. No efforts were to sign an agreement with foreign kingdoms about the token currency.
-> In those times, dynasties were changing in quick succession. People felt that Tughlaq's successors might not accept these coins. So, there was no sovereign guarantee.
-> Barani says due to this confusion, people stopped using bronze coins and held back the gold and silver coins they had thus increasing its scarcity and creating inflation. Trade was disrupted.
-> Soon, it had to be chucked and silver had to be given in return of true coins. Barani says the forged coins were lying in the fort for many years. Ibn Batuta in 1333 has mentioned no such ill effects of the failed token currency pointing that the empire recovered fast.
Taxation in doab-
-> In his zeal to improve agriculture, Tughlaq established the department for agriculture or diwan-i-kohi. He invested 70 lakh tankas over a period of two years. The plan was to replenish the treasury by ensuring agriculture grows.
Ill-effects of policies
-> The corrupt officers in the department appropriated the money and the agriculturists did not apply their brains to increase productivity. He asked people to change cropping pattern from barley to wheat and sugarcane but it failed miserably.
-> Random taxes were applied on the people. The land revenue was so huge that Barani says the lower and poor Riyaya were wiped out and the richer sections rose in rebellions. He also says that the people, in order to escape from taxes, left their villages and resided in the jungles.
-> Dabir talks of the condition then – the tax collectors were brutal on peasants, the peasants killed them. Then the sultan sent men to kill the peasants. The peasants again took a chance and killed these men. This completely ruined the doab.
-> Apart from land revenue, different taxes like grazing tax, house tax, etc were also levied. The revenue officers were brutal in collecting taxes.
-> The combined effect was that the grains stopped being grown. Even the rains failed. No foodgrains were coming to Delhi that led to a deadly famine and drought, prices of grains increased a lot. The result was the death of millions of humans as per Barani.
-> Tughlaq shifted to a base called Swarga-Dwari in doab region due to famine in Delhi. Ibn-Batuta talks of his relief measures- he announced a compensation to each person daily, whether free or slave, big or small. He suspended the collection of land revenue and the peasants were advanced loans to buy bullocks, seeds and wells were dug for irrigation.
The Mongols were weak due to their internal strife. However they were a force to reckon with in Punjab. They were strong in the Indus region. In fact, during Mohammad bin Tughlaq time, Mongol Tarmashirin had attacked Sindh and came as near as Meerut. Tughlaq defeated him at the Battle and for some time, Delhi had regained control of Peshawar too. This shows that the empire was now in a good shape to launch an offensive. He even had recruited large
army after coming back from Daulatabad for expeditions at Khurasan. However, he suffered defeat in the Kangra expedition.
Upset nobles-
-> Another problem was of heterogeneous nature of nobility. Right from the times of Khalji, the Turk domination in nobility was broken.
-> This might have introduced many heterogeneous races into nobility but this also created problems in cohesion as well as resentment in Turkish nobles.
-> Although no rebellion took place in Alauddin's times, problems started building up in Tughlaq's times.
-> Plus, the hot temperament of Tughlaq created many enemies
-> Mohammad had promoted people from all backgrounds to important posts which led to the fluid situation.
-> His introduction of Wali and Amir in Iqtas infuriated the Iqatdars.
-> Tughlaq believed in rational approach towards religion and hence many Islamic theologians and Sufi saints were upset with him.
Last year's of Tughlaq were engaged in suppressing rebellion all over. One after another Awadh, Sindh, Gujarat, Bengal, Kampili and Warangal and Mabar in south rose in rebellion. Plus, plague hit the army and nearly two thirds of army perished. At these times, Harihar and Bukka declared independence and established the Vijayanagara empire. Some nobles foreign declared independence and established the Bahamani kingdom at Daulatabad. It was while returning from the campaign at Sindh that Mohammad bin Tughlaq died and was succeeded by his cousin Firuz Shah Tughlaq.
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