Q. Evaluate the major contributions of Sher Shah to the administrative system in Medieval India. [15 Marks]

मध्यकालीन भारत में प्रशासनिक व्यवस्था में शेरशाह के प्रमुख योगदान का मूल्यांकन करें। [15 अंक]

Ans:

• Sher Shah rose from the position of a petty leader of troops to being the ruler of one of the biggest empires in North India since the death of Muhammad bin Tughlaq due to his courage and determination.
• Main source:
  • Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi (History of Sher Shah):
  • It was in Persian and written by Abbas Khan Sarwani, a waqia-navis under later Mughal Emperor, Akbar around 1580, provides a detailed documentation about Sher Shah’s administration.

Law and Order:

• Although Sher Shah ruled only for about five years, he has many contributions to his credit.
• Sher Shah’s foremost contribution was the establishment of law and order over the length and breadth of the empire.
• Sher Shah laid great emphasis on making the roads safe, and took stern action against robbers and dacoits.
• He was convinced that the safety of the roads could only be ensured if the zamindars, some of whom were in league with the robbers, were kept under control.
  • Thus, he took stern action against Fath Khan Jat who had devastated the entire tract of Lakhi Jungle (in the modern Montgomery district, and the old sarkar of Dipalpur) and had caused confusion from Lahore to Delhi by his violent behaviour.
  • The governors of the sarkars Sambhal (near modern Moradabad) and of Lucknow suppressed the contumacious zamindars and rebels of the area thoroughly where they had found shelter, and sought deliverance after repenting for having committed theft and highway robbery.
  • Similarly, the governor of Kannauj dealt sternly with rebels and highway plunderers in the area under his control.
• Thus, establishment of law and order implied not only making the roads safe, but of bringing to book zamindars and the raiyat which were remiss in paying land revenue, or in carrying out imperial orders.

Roads:

• Sher Shah laid great emphasis on improving roads and the system of communications, both to help military movements and to foster trade and commerce.
• The roads also ensured greater control over the countryside. Thus, he restored the old imperial road from the river Indus in the west to Sonargaon in Bengal. (Shershah suri marg)
• He also built a road from Agra to Jodhpur and Chittor, which must have linked up with the roads leading to the sea-ports of Gujarat.
• He built a third road from Lahore to Multan which was the starting point for caravans to west and central Asia.
• He built a fourth road from Agra to Burhanpur, again linking it with the roads leading to the sea-ports of Gujarat.

Sarais and Dak Chauki (Post Office):

• For ensuring safety on the roads and for extending comforts to the travellers, he built sarais (kos minar) on the highway at a distance of two karohs (4 miles). Separate apartments were built for the Hindus and the Muslims where they could get beds and cooked food, and Muslim and Brahman cooks were appointed for the purpose.
• There also was provision for uncooked food-supplies being given to Hindus who had their own caste rules.
• According to Abbas Khan, Sher Shah made a rule to the effect that “whoever came to the sarai was to be served with food out of government money according to one’s rank and his pony was given grain and drink.”
• A custodian (shahna) was appointed in each sarai to safeguard the goods of the merchants, and rent-free lands were allotted in the neighbourhood for their expenses, and for the expenses of the imam and the muezzin for the mosque which was built in each sarai.
• Sher Shah built 1700 such sarais. They were really fortified inns, and were built strongly because some of them have survived even to-day.
  • Sher Shah caused markets to be set up in every sarai.
  • Many of the sarais became mandis where the peasants came to sell their produce, and were the nucleus for the growth of towns (qasbas) where trade and handicrafts developed.
• These sarais must have been popular because later, Islam Shah ordered a sarai to be built between every two sarais of Sher Shah.
• The sarais were also used for dak chowkis (postal service) for which two horses were kept at every sarai. By this means, by relays of horses news from a distance of 300 kos could reach in a day.

Trade and Commerce:

• Apart from above steps, Sher Shah adopted other measures, too, to promote trade and commerce.
• He struck fine coins of silver and copper of uniform standard in place of the debased coins of mixed metals of earlier times.
• His silver rupee remained a standard coin for a long time.

• The system of tri-metalism which came to characterize Mughal coinage was introduced by Sher Shah.
  • While the term rupya had previously been used as a generic term for any silver coin, during his rule the term rupiya came to be used as the name for a silver coin of a standard weight of 178 grains, which was the precursor of the modern rupee.
• He also made some effort to standardize weights and measures.
• In Sher Shah’s empire, goods paid customs duty only two times—at the place of entry and at the time of sale.
• For the safety and tranquility of the roads Sher Shah made it a rule to make the muqaddams (headmen of villages) and zamindars responsible for apprehending the culprits if the theft took place within their charge, or to make good the loss if they were unable to do so.
• If murder had been carried out, and the murderer not traced, the muqaddams themselves were to be put to death.
• It was a barbrous rule to club the innocent with the guilty, but it was based on the principle that theft and highway robbery were committed either at the instance of the muqaddams or that the muqaddams at least had full information about them.
• Sher Shah also urged the local and other officials not to injure the travellers and the merchants, and not to lay their hands on the property of the merchants if any one of them should die by accident and without heirs.
• Also, officials were to purchase goods from the merchants only at their market price. Though these injunctions were not always followed in practice as shown by similar regulations being made later on by Jahangir, and Bernier’s complaint of the mistreatment of the merchants by high nobles under Shah Jahan.

Revenue Reform:

• It has been said that the most striking contribution of Sher Shah was his reform of the revenue system.
  •  He was well qualified to do so because he was fully acquainted with the prevailing revenue system as incharge of his father’s jagir, and as the virtual ruler of Bihar for ten years after 1530.
• Sher Shah wanted that the assessment of land-revenue should not be based on crop sharing or estimation.
  • Nor should the village head-men and zamindars be allowed to pass their burden on to the shoulders of the weaker sections.
• Hence, as a ruler, he insisted upon the system of measurement (zabt).
  • Although a system of measurement of the sown area was very old in India, and had been instituted or revived by Alauddin Khalji, the system of measurement introduced by Sher Shah was different from the traditional system.
• In the traditional system, the crop-yield was estimated on the basis of sample cuttings in the sown area. Under Sher Shah, lands were divided into three categories — good, bad and middling, and the average yield computed.
  • One-third of the average yield was the share of the state.
  • On this basis, a crop-rate (ray) was drawn up, so that as soon as the sown field was measured, the share of the state could be determined.
  • This could then be converted into rupees on the basis of local rates.
  • The peasants were given the option of paying in cash or kind, though Sher Khan preferred cash.
• Only Multan was excluded from measurement on account of special circumstances, the old system continuing there, with the state share being only one-fourth.
  • He also laid down the charges to be paid to the measuring parties.
• The measurement of fields was to be carried out every year.
  • As a safeguard against famine which was a recurrent feature, a cess at the rate of two and a half seers per bigha was also levied.
• There has been a good deal of controversy as to the extent to which these reforms were applied to different parts of the empire under Sher Shah and Islam Shah, and whether the settlement was made with each individual cultivator, or with the village headmen (muqaddams) and zamindars.
  • Although Abul Fazl says that under Sher Shah and Islam Shah, Hindustan passed from crop-sharing and estimation to measurement, but even under Akbar the system of measurement was prevalent only in the settled parts of the empire in the doab, Punjab and Malwa, and that even there it is probable that it did not cover the whole land in any province.
  • However, the starting of the zabt system was undoubtedly a significant development.
• The amount each peasant had to pay was written down on a paper called patta, and each one was informed of it.
  • No one was allowed to charge anything extra.
  • This has led some to compare it to the ryotwari system of the British whereby the state established direct relations with the peasants.
  • However, modern research does not support this. While an attempt was made to assess the obligations of individual cultivators, the local head-men and zamindars were involved both in the process of assessment and collection of the land-revenue, and received remuneration for their services.
  • No attempt was made by the medieval state to do away with the muqaddams and the zamindars because it was in no position to do so.
  • All that it could do was to limit their exactions.

System of government:

• Under Sher Shah Suri the experiment in the formation of a bureaucracy under a centralised despotism had taken place. Akbar gave it a definite shape. Thus. we can say that Sher Shah anticipated Akbar.
• Village (head = muqaddam)< pargana <shiqq (= Mughal sarkar).
• Sher Shah had four ministers after the model of the Sultanate period. They were

• Diwan-i-Wazarat: The department was related with financial matters such as collecting taxes and maintaining accounts of the state exchequer.
• Diwan-i-Ariz: Headed by ariz-i-mamalik, it was a military department.
• Diwan-i-Risalat: Headed by sadr, this department dealt with the religious and foreign affair matters. Diwan­i-Kaza, headed by qazi, worked under this department. The qazi looked after judicial administration.
• Diwan-i-Insha: Working as a secretariat, it issued royal orders. The head of this department was called dabir.

Besides them there were minor officers, two of whom (the chief qazi and the head of the news department) enjoyed fairly high rank and are placed by some writers in the category of minister.

• At the sarkar level:
  • (i) shiqdar-i-shiqadaran to maintain law and order; and
  • (ii) munshife-i-munshifan to supervise the revenue collection.
• Three important officials at the paragana level were:
  • (i) shikdar to maintain law and order;
  • (ii) amin to collect revenue; and
  • (iii) munsif to look after judicial matters.

• Provincial organisation:
  • Sultanat there was no provincial organization as such but sometimes a number of shiqs were grouped together, and called khitta or vilayat.
  • Provincial governments evolved only under the Mughals.
  • Sher Shah’s contribution was to stabilize and further consolidate the boundaries and structure of the shiqs or sarkars which remained the real unit of administration even under the Mughals.
• Sher Shah did not like the Mughal system of government in which large powers were left in the hands of the ministers who were corrupt.
  • Hence, he looked into everything himself, and devoted himself to work unremittingly, and constantly toured the country.
  • This type of personal administration is supposed to be typified by his army organization.
• He introduced the branding system (dagh) of the horses and descriptive-rolls (chehra) which had fallen into disuse.
  • He imposed it very harshly.
  • Descriptive rolls of even sweepers and female slaves in the palace were recorded.
  • He used to personally interview every soldier and fixed his pay before he was inducted into the army, and had the horses branded in his own presence.
• Sher Shah himself fixed the monthly stipends of newly recruited soldiers.
  • It seems that both the nobles and the soldiers were paid by means of land-assignments or iqtas.
• The chiefs were under strict instructions not to take anything out of the iqtas reserved for the soldiers. Thus, the question of Sher Shah wanting to do away with the iqta or jagir system does not arise.
• However, howsoever hard an individual might work, it was impossible for him to personally supervise the administration of a vast country such as Hindustan.
  • It seems that there was a revenue department and a department of the ariz which looked after the army.
• There also was a sadr who looked after the revenue-free grants made to religious people, scholars, etc., the sadr being asked to review all the grants made earlier.
• Thus, the traditional departments must have continued, but those at their head were perhaps allowed little power or authority.
  • Such over-centralization proved harmful once a masterful man like Sher Shah had been removed from the scene.

Justice System:

• Sher Shah gave great emphasis on justice.
• Justice implied making no distinction between men of his own tribe and near relations and others in awarding punishment, and to prevent oppression by those in power.
• It is difficult to say how effective he was in practice in this sphere, despite the presence of a large number of spies who reported on everything.
• Civil cases of the Muslims were taken care of by the qazi.
• Criminal cases were tried by the shiqqdar.
• Panchayats and caste bodies must have continued to provide civil law to the Hindus, while zamindars and shiqdars were also involved in providing criminal justice.
• The largest responsibility for detecting crimes rested upon muqaddams.
  • If the muqaddam of the village, where the crime was committed, failed to capture the culprit, he was liable to severe punishment.

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