The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c14.1.3

c14.1.3

The grant of extraordinary power was the recognition of an exceptional situation involving peculiar difficulties or it was an attempt to save the legal vestige of authority. Such grants were naturally more frequently made by weak or preoccupied sultans, and they often paved the way to the establishment of independent provincial dynasties. Numerous governorships of this nature arose in the troubled days of the later Tughluqids, and facilitated the growth of minor kingdoms on the ruins of the empire. It would, however, be wrong to think that the bestowal of unlimited power always implied weakness on the part of the central government; sometimes it was a useful device to keep a distant possession under control by entrusting it to a good and reliable administrator. When there was anarchy at the centre, it mattered little whether a governor possessed limited or unlimited powers if he had the will and the resources to rebel; it needed great vigilance and effort to combat the centrifugal tendencies. The internal administration of a province was everywhere the same in structure, except, of course, in Hindu tributary states which mostly maintained their traditional institutions. The difference between the provincial governments did not lie in their organization but in the sources of control and supervision. There can be little doubt that there was a natural desire on the part of the sultans to increase their power even in the outlying provinces;