Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c5.s4.t4.22

c5.s4.t4.22

Under these conditions it is difficult to apply the modern definitions of industrial slavery to the institution of that age.⁴ The slave of those days, for instance, was not on a lower level than the mass of the people. As has been pointed out, he was decidedly in a better social position if he had originally belonged to a low Hindu caste. Again, if a slave found his way into the household of a monarch (as quite a number of them did) though he was nominally a slave, his condition of servitude was shared by the majority of courtiers and other royal employees. In fact, when the liberty of an alleged free man may sometimes have been conspicuously displayed in the doubtful privilege of being allowed to starve, the slave was provided with a secure and fairly comfortable livelihood. A slave in the service of the Sultan was usually manumitted after some time, and was provided with an honourable position, even with rank and an elevated social status.¹ The political conditions and the general instability of life at times helped to raise a talented and enterprising slave to such heights of social eminence as were not ordinarily within reach of the highest and the noblest in the kingdom.²