The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c11.s5.1

c11.s5.1

Those who took to the jungle, stayed there, eating wild fruits, tree-roots, and the coarsest grain if and when available,⁸⁸ but surely preserving their freedom. But with the passing of time, a peasant became a tribal and from tribal a beast. William Finch, writing at Agra about 1610 C.E., describes how Jahangir and his nobles treated them - during *Shikar*. A favourite form of sport in Mughal India was the *Kamargha*, which consisted in enclosing a tract of country by a line of guards, and then gradually contracting the enclosure until a large quantity of game was encircled in a space of convenient size. Whatever is taken in this enclosure (*Kamargha* or human circle), writes Finch, is called the kings *shikar* or game, whether men or beasts The beasts taken, if mans meat, are sold if men they remain the Kings slaves, which he sends yearly to Kabul to barter for horses and dogs: these being poor, miserable, thievish people, that live in woods and deserts, little differing from beasts.⁸⁹ W.H. Moreland adds: Other writer (also) tell it besides Finch.⁹⁰ Even Babur, always a keen observer, had not failed to notice that peasants in India were often reduced to the position of tribals. In our countries, writes he in his *Memoirs*, dwellers in the wilds (i.e. nomads) get tribal names; here (i.e. Hindustan) the settled people of the cultivated lands and villages get tribal names.⁹¹