The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c11.s2.9

c11.s2.9

Conditions could not always have been that bad. There were steps taken from time to time to help cultivation and ameliorate the condition of the agriculturists. Shamsuddin Iltutmish constructed a large tank called *Hauz-i-Shamsi*. Traces of Alauddin Khaljis *Hauz-i-Khas* and Firoz Tughlaqs irrigation canals still exist. Similar steps taken in Mughal times are also known. But such steps in aid of the development were taken because these could offer better means of increasing the revenue. Some steps which looked like helping the agriculturists, sometimes resulted in their perpetual penury. For example, a very common administrative measure of the medieval times was to advance loans to peasants to help them tide over their difficulties. But the important ideal entertained by rulers can be best summarized in the words of Sher Shahs instructions to his *Amils*: Be lenient at the time of assessment, but show no mercy at the time of collection. This was, on the face of it, a good principle. But even Sher Shah Suri, renowned for his concern for the wellbeing of cultivators, was much more keen about the benefits to be drawn by his Afghan clansmen from the lands they administered. He sent his good old loyal experienced servants to districts which yielded good profits and advantages and after two years or so transfered them and sent other servants like them that they may also prosper.⁴⁰ It was of course the peasant who paid for this prosperity.