Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c12.39

c12.39

The imperial camp employed between 2000 and 3000 servants in addition to a guard of cavalry; there was one tent in particular which required 1000 men for a week for its erection.⁶⁹ As I have said elsewhere, in Akbars time each camp establishment required for its transport 100 elephants, 500 camels, 400 carts and a hundred bearers. It was escorted by 500 troopers. Besides, there were 100 *farrashes*, 500 pioneers, 100 water carriers, 50 carpenters, tent makers, and torch bearers, 30 workers in leather, and 150 sweepers.⁷⁰ Akbars *zanana* contained more than 5000 ladies, each of whom had separate apartments; they were attended by an adequate staff of servants, and watched in successive circles by female guards, eunuchs and porters.⁷¹ The Emperor set the standard in such matters, and everyone who occupied or aspired to a position at Court followed that example so far as his means allowed. Ten to twelve servants were attached to every lady of importance. Some princesses had as many slave-girls as a hundred.⁷² Supplies for the Royal Household were obtained from distant sources, apparently regardless of the amount of labour expended. Wherever the Emperor might be, water for his use was brought from the river Ganga, a practice prevailing from the time of Muhammad Tughlaq if not earlier. Ice came daily by post carriages and by runners from snowy mountains. Fruit was supplied regularly from Kashmir and Kabul, and even from more distant places, such as Badakshan and Samarqand. Relay service on all these and many other such items required hundreds and thousands of slaves. The Emperors personal officers modelled their establishments on similar lines, one employing 500 torch-bearers, another having a daily service of thousand rich dishes, and so on.⁷³ Each fighting man of any consequence in the Turki and Mughal army had in the field an average of two or three servants. That the fashion was not confined to the entourage of the Emperor is shown by della Valles statement that at Surat servants and slaves were so numerous and so cheap that everybody, even of mean fortune, keeps a great family, and is splendidly attended. Pyrard says that the Zamorin of Calicut travelled with about 3000 men in his train, and that on the coast generally the prominent men had always a large following. He tells of the state maintained at Goa by the Bijapur envoy, who was accompanied about the town by a crowd of servants, pages, bearers, grooms, and musicians, and adds that all the great men of the Deccan indulged in similar display. Thevenot, writing of a later period (C. 1667) gives a corresponding description of the life in Golkunda. About North India in Jahangirs time, Pelsaert writes, Peons or servants, are exceedingly numerous in this country, for everyone - be he mounted soldier, merchant or Kings official - keeps as many as position and circumstances permit. Outside the house, they serve for display, running continually before their masters horse; inside, they do the work of the house, like the *bailwan*, the *farrash*, the *masalchi*, the *mahawat* etc.⁷⁴ it will be understood, writes W.H. Moreland, that the profusion of servants, which attracts attention in India at the present day (early twentieth century), is no modern phenomenon, but is in fact an attenuated survival of the fashions prevailing in the time of Akbar and doubtless dating from a much earlier period,⁷⁵ indeed from the time of Qutbuddin Aibak when every Muslim householder or soldier began to possess a number of slaves.⁷⁶ Such exploitation in the Mughal period provided droves of *khidmatgars* to British officers and men when they established and ran their Raj in this country.⁷⁷ They found its impoverished people, ready to be used as Coolies to be sent abroad and exploited this nation as smartly as the Turks and Mughals had done in the medieval period.