Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c11.s2: 7.2. Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India

Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c11.s2

Language: English

7.2. Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India

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At the 39th Annual Session of the Indian History Congress held at Hyderabad in December, 1978, Professor Irfan Habib presented a forty-page cyclostyled paper entitled "Economic History of the Delhi Sultanate - An Essay in Interpretation".

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One half of the paper deals with the topic, the other consists of charges against me, Professor K.A. Nizami, and Professor Lallanji Gopal. However, the main thrust of his paper is an adverse criticism of my book. I presented a rejoinder to his paper at the 1979 session of the Indian History Culture Society, New Delhi. It was published in the Proceedings of the Society. The volume was entitled *Bias in Indian Historiography* and was edited by the late Dr. Devahuti. My rejoinder to Habib's criticism of my book as published in the Proceedings volume is being reproduced here with slight changes here and there.

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Professor Irfan Habib starts with: "Professor Lallanji Gopal ... has discovered that poverty in India began with the coming of the Muslims", and "...Professor K.S. Lal has made the equally startling discovery that the sultans reduced the population of the country by over a third". This is followed by a stereotyped attack on Elliot for writing about "the murders and massacres" perpetrated by the "Mohamedans" (pp. 2, 2940 of his cyclostyled paper).

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Professor Habib betrays a rather unscholarly strain by encompassing in the one sentence quoted above the entire impact of 130 pages of my study (pp. 26 to 156) *Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India*. As I have said in the Preface of the book: "Any study of the population of the precensus times can be based only on estimates, and estimates by their very nature tend to be tentative" (p. vi). I claim no finality about my assessments of demographic quantification nor, I beg to submit, can Professor Habib. But he does not make any assessment at all; he merely challenges and criticises my conclusions - a very easy task! In my computation, however, sufficient historical evidence has been set forth for any demographic behaviour and on that basis I have arrived at the conclusion that the population of India in A.D. 1000 was about 200 million and in the year 1500 it was 170 million. However, Irfan Habib gives a twist to my observation on the decline of population by saying that "the sultans reduced the population of the country by over a third" (p. 2) which would mean that I have stated that the sultans deliberately killed people to reduce the population of India. I have shown in my book under reference that the population of India in the ancient period was large and prosperous, citing the authority of Greek writers, Chinese travellers and Arab geographers together with the conclusions arrived at by many modern writers (pp. 25-32). What happened to this huge population? It was decimated by Muslim invaders and invaders like Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud Ghaznavi, Muhammad Ghauri and Qutbuddin Aibak, some of whom took pride in claiming that they had killed people by lakhs (hundreds of thousands). Their chroniclers have also credited them with tremendous achievements in this regard.¹⁸

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Irfan Habib is all praise for Professor Mohammad Habib who was "so conscious of the negative aspects of the medieval Islamic civilization or so sensitive to the devastation that the wars and campaigns of the sultans wrought on the inhabitants" (page 3) while he attacks Professor Nizami for writing "without that critical view of Islamic society and the destruction accompanying the invasions" (p. 5). On the other hand, when I refer to this devastation and destruction resulting in the decline of Indian population, Irfan Habib finds it unpalatable. I should have thought that a dispute was out of the question as Habib has used the same sources in computing the number of slaves captured in some campaigns of the sultans as I have for the assessment of demographic decline. This is what Irfan Habib has to say about the acquisition of slaves by the sultans: "The evidence for such enslavement is there for all to see. So economically important was it that the success of military campaigns was often judged by the number of captives (*burdas*) obtained for enslavement. Qutbuddin Aibak's campaign in Gujarat in 1195 netted him 20,000 slaves, seven years later a campaign against Kalinjar yielded 50,000. In 1253 Balban obtained countless 'horses and slaves' from an expedition in Kalinjar. In the instructions that Alauddin Khalji is said to have issued to Malik Kafur before his campaigns in the Deccan it is assumed that 'horses and slaves' would form a large part of the booty. As the Sultanate began to be consolidated, the suppression of *mawas* or rebellious villages within its limits yielded a continuously rich harvest of slaves. Balban's successful expedition in the Doab made slaves cheap in the capital. How people of the village could be made slaves for nonpayment of revenue is described in the 14th century sources; and women so enslaved are mentioned in different contexts in two others" (pp. 16-17). This statement of Irfan reflects the imperialist style, in total disregard of the feeling of the slaves taken. When I write from the view of the victims, Jackson regards it as "propaganda, and rather crude propaganda at that". But of this a little more later on.

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Does not the netting of captives presuppose desperate struggle? Surely people did not come rushing to the invading armies to be made slaves. They were captured and enslaved during invasions only after bitter fighting in which many more were killed. As I have shown in my book, the extent of the loss of population through killings in wars was enormous. The loss of Indian population during Mahmud of Ghaznavi's invasions was about 2 million as studied in some detail in Appendix A of the *Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India* (pp. 211-17). Thereafter, with the establishment of Turkish rule, India suffered badly so far as its population was concerned. But Habib not only overlooks this fact, he also challenges it.

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Habib gives some figures of slaves made during the time of Qutbuddin Aibak to Alauddin Khalji. Here are some figures of the loss of lives during the same period. Qutbuddin Aibak's conquests (c. 1200-10) included Gwalior, parts of Bundelkhand, Ajmer, Ranthambhor, Anhilwara as well as parts of U.P. and Malwa. In Naharwala alone 50,000 persons were killed during Aibak's campaign. No wonder that besides earning the honorific of *lakhbakhsh* (giver of Lakhs) he also earned the nickname of *killer of lakhs*. Bakhtiyar Khalji marched through Bihar into Bengal and massacred people in both the regions. During his expedition to Gwalior, Iltutmish (1210-36) massacred 7000 persons besides those killed in the battle on both sides. His attacks on Malwa (Vidisha and Ujjain) were met with stiff resistance and were accompanied by great loss of life. He is also credited with killing 12,000 Khokhars (Ghakkars) during Aibak's reign. The successors of Iltutmish (Raziyah, Bahram etc.) too fought and killed zealously. During the' reign of Nasiruddin and Balban (1246-86) warfare for consolidation and expansion of Turkish dominions went on apace. Trailokyavarman, who ruled over Southern U.P., Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand, and is called Dalaki va Malaki by Persian chroniclers, was defeated after great slaughter (1248). In 1251, Gwalior, Chanderi, Narwar and Malwa were attacked. The Raja of Malwa had 5,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry and would have been defeated only after great slaughter. The inhabitants of Kaithal were given such severe punishment (1254) that "they might not forget the lesson for the rest of their lives". In 1256 Ulugh Khan Balban carried on devastating warfare in Saimur, and "so many of the rebellious Hindus were killed that numbers cannot be computed or described". Ranthambhor was attacked in 1259 and many of its valiant fighting men were killed. In the punitive expedition to Mewat (1260) "numberless Hindus perished. In the same year 12,000 men, women and children were put to the sword in Hariyana." When Balban became the sultan "large sections of the male population were massacred in Katehar and, according to Barani, in villages and jungles heaps of human corpses were left rotting". During the expedition to Bengal, "on either side of the principal bazar (of Lakhnauti), in a street two miles in length, a row of stakes was set up and the adherents of Tughril were impaled upon them".

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"Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq (c. 1296-1350) were great warriors and killers. Alauddin's conquest of Gujarat (1299) and the massacres by his generals in Anhilwara, Cambay, Asvalli, Vanmanthali etc. earned him, according to the *Rasmala*, the nickname of *khuni*. His contemporary chronicler proclaims that Alauddin shed more blood than the Pharaos did. He captured Ranthambhor after very heavy casualties. Chittor's capture was followed by a massacre of 30,000 people, after Jauhar had been performed and the Rajputs had died fighting in large numbers. When Malwa was attacked (1305) its Raja is said to have possessed 40,000 horse and 100,000 foot. After the battle, "so far as human eye could see, the ground was muddy with blood". Many cities of Malwa like Mandu, Ujjain, Dharanagri and Chanderi were captured after great resistance. The capitulation of Sevana and Jalor (1308, 1311) were accompanied by massacres after years of prolonged warfare. In Alauddin's wars in the South, similar killings took place, especially in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the latter campaign Malik Kafur went from place to place, and to some places many times over, and in his rage at not finding the fleeing prince Vira Pandya, he killed the people mercilessly. His successor Mubarak Khalji once again sacked Gujarat and Devagiri.

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In short, the Turkish rulers were ruthless in war and merciless towards rebels with the result that their killings were heavy. Hence the extirpating campaigns of Balban and the repeated attacks on regions already devastated but not completely subjugated. Bengal was attacked by Bakhtiyar, by Balban, by Alauddin, and by the three Tughlaqs - Ghiyas, Muhammad and Firoz. Malwa and Gujarat were repeatedly attacked and sacked. Almost every Muslim ruler invaded Ranthambhor until it was subjugated by Alauddin Khalji (1301), again temporarily. Gwalior, Katehar and Avadh regions were also repeatedly attacked. Rajputana, Sindh and Punjab knew no peace. In the first decade of the fourteenth century Turkish invaders penetrated into the South, and its population too suffered heavy losses.¹⁹ During campaigns and wars, the disorganized flight of the panic-stricken people must have killed large numbers through exposure, starvation and epidemic. Nor should the ravages of famines on populations be ignored. Drought, pestilence, and famines in the medieval times find repeated mention in contemporary chronicles.²⁰ Add to this the demographic decline occasioned by the recurring Mongol invasions for almost a whole century.

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And yet Habib states that my "evidence for actual depopulation is nil" (p. 39). Has he passed judgement on pages 26 to 156 of my book without reading them? (Habib p. 2 n. 2). I do not consider him so naive as not to understand the importance of the influence of demographic decline on the economic activity of a country.²¹ But apparently he wants to shut his eyes to anything disagreeable to his susceptibilities, and seek refuge in all sorts of untenable interpretations and suppositions.

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This brings us to the 'revolutionary researches' of Habib about the economic history of the Delhi Sultanate. His first startling discovery is that the spinning wheel (charkha) came to India from Persia and that too in the 13th century. Habib writes that it had "come to Iran in the 12th century". He does not say what it looked like, how it was made, and wherefrom it came to Persia. In India, according to him, "this important mechanical device is referred to first of all, in Isami's Futuh-us-Salatin (1350), as an instrument to which women should apply themselves. It, therefore, seems practically certain that the spinning wheel came to India from Iran probably in the 13th century, so as to spread rapidly enough for the kind of statement made by Isami." Thus, according to Habib, it was a novel device introduced in India. But *charkha* or spinning wheel was known in India long before Isami. Amir Khusrau advised his daughter to sit with her back to the door while plying the *charkha*, and Habib himself confesses that "domestic maid-slaves were made to work at spinning" (p. 17), surely not, only after Isami's time. Good quality cloth was manufactured in India from times immemorial. "The skill of the Indian," says Professor Weber, "in the production of delicate woven fabrics ... in all manner of technical arts has from very early times enjoyed worldwide celebrity."²² It is a well known fact that Egyptian mummies dating back to 2000 B.C. have been found wrapped in Indian muslin. Throughout the ancient times, cotton cloth was produced for domestic use. Obviously, its yarn was produced on the spinning wheel device. And yet, according to Habib, India was unaware of the spinning wheel in the ancient times.²³ Therefore, it is wrong to conclude that a sizable expansion in the production of cotton cloths took place because of the immigration of artisans and the introduction of new technology from abroad in the 13th and 14th century. Irfan Habib also claims "it (introduction of spinning wheel) may well be responsible for that large scale use of cloth by ordinary people which the comparison of depictions in ancient Indian sculptures and painting and Mughal-period miniatures so markedly bring out" (p. 9). One may ask how much clothing Kabir, an ordinary man, and a weaver, himself put on after this "central innovation quickened immeasurably the process of spinning yarn".

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It is not surprising that for some communal historians suffering from extra- territorial chauvinism, the Persian wheel,²⁴ the spinning wheel, the dome and the arch all came from lands outside India and the highly developed ancient Indian civilization was unaware of these. It may be pointed out to such writers that the rudiments of the arch and the dome were both known to Ajantan and Buddhist India and one would do well to read E.B. Havell's works in this regard.

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The growth of industrial commerce under the sultans was not due to the immigration of a large number of artisans from abroad (for which only the fragile authority of Isami is quoted) and the Indian slave labour, as claimed by Habib. The instances he himself cites are of slaves working as domestic servants (p. 17). Slaves were mainly captured or purchased by rulers for menial services, help in hunting and sport, and service in the army.²⁵ Surely a few thousand out of the 180,000 slaves of Firoz Tughlaq worked in the royal karkhanas, but there is no evidence to show that the 50,000 slaves of Alauddin Khalji were so engaged. There is no evidence whatsoever of "a process of enslavement of very large numbers of people, so as to provide cheap reserves out of which new craftsmen could be created" (Habib, p .15). However, in spite of demographic decline, the spurt in industry and commerce was there because "the loot from temples and treasuries of Hindu kings, in other words, the wealth lying frozen for decades and centuries, was released into the market,"²⁶ for providing items of comfort and luxury for the new rulers while the technical know-how for producing such articles was already known in India.

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The coming of some scholars, physicians, hermits, unani doctors and assayers of jewels, artisans (*kasiban*) and embroiderers cannot be denied. But if good artisans and architects were available in such large numbers in Central Asia so as to migrate to Delhi "like insects around a lamp", it would not have been necessary for Timur to carry away artisans and architects from India to build his mausoleum at Samarkand.

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As Habib somehow manages to bring up the issue of the N.C.E.R.T. sponsored textbooks in his discussion of the economic conditions in medieval India we are constrained to express our opinion on this matter after quoting Habib (p. 34): "The time is surely not distant, when writers wishing to avoid the fate of the N.C.E.R.T. books, would busily exhibit these statistics (in my *Growth of Muslim Population*) to show what terrible straits Indian economy was reduced to by fire and sword under the Muslims rulers."

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We assert that the N.C.E.R.T. books are known for their studied bias and fantastic theories and interpretations of writers like Habib and his tribe, and their communal approach in deliberately glossing over the misdeeds of one section of medieval Indian society and repeatedly hammering on the failings of the other.

Cites (1)

Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf, Persian