Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c5.s4.t2.45

c5.s4.t2.45

been tried and found wanting. He, therefore, hit upon the idea (in the earlier part of his reign) of recruiting foreigners from the Muslim lands outside India. The claims of Indians and those of Turkish origin domiciled in Hindustan were systematically ignored and the monarch showed extreme anxiety in getting outsiders at any price. The Sultan went to the extent of offering the most responsible and distinguished offices of the kingdom—for instance those of a Wazir, a Dabir, a military commander, a judge, a professor of theology or a Shaikh-ul-Islam to almost any foreigner of some learning. The foreigners coming into Hindustan were collectively known as ‘The Honourables’ (A‘izza).¹ If the foreigners did not make any use of these opportunities, the fault lay entirely with them. They came to Hindustan avowedly to make their fortunes and to return to their own country as soon as they could. They did not care to accept remunerative employment in the State which necessitated a prolonged stay in Hindustan. Even when some of them did choose to stay in Hindustan, they were more anxious to amass wealth by whatever means they could than to carry out the administrative measures of the Sultan for raising agricultural production, or for the greater efficiency of the State machinery.² After some experience of these foreigners, Muhammad Tughluq felt bitterly disappointed and reviewed his whole policy again.³ He had nothing to expect now from foreigners, or even from those of foreign extraction; the previous monarchs had tried the Turkish nobility and the Indians; he had tried the foreign Muslims; all had failed the Sultanate. The only course left was to try the common people of Hindustan irrespective of creed and religion. So, in the latter part of his reign, we find him introducing principles of extreme democratisation in administration, which provoked the wrath of the contemporary historian Barani and other Muslim writers whose interests were exposed to danger. The highest civil and military offices of the kingdom were thrown open to all classes of Indians, and the only qualification for recruitment was efficiency and talent.¹ Only perhaps the lowest were excluded from rising to the highest distinctions in the kingdom. Under his successor we come across the appointment of the first Indian Wazir—the famous Khan-i-Jahan. This was the highest office in the gift of a Sultan. The power and position of a Wazir was only second to that of the Sultan after the establishment of a strong administration. The rulers who succeeded to the throne of the Tughluqs after the brief interval of the invasion of Timur and the reign of the Sayyids, came from an essentially Indian stock.