A History of Agriculture in India v2.c57.s2: Encouragement of Agriculture
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c57.s2
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Encouragement of Agriculture
v2.c57.s2.1
The chief concern of Ghias-ud-din Tughlak, however, was the encouragement and extension of agriculture. He had understood that only a monetary incentive could motivate the cultivators to improve their agriculture, and he reduced the atrocious demand for land revenue fixed by Ala-ud-din Khalji. Zia-ud-din Barni thus narrates, in his *Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi*, the measures taken by the Sultan. 'In the generosity of his nature, he ordered that the land revenues of the country should be settled upon just principles with reference to the produce. The officers of the Exchequer were ordered not to assess more than one in ten, or one in eleven upon the *ikta's*, and other lands, either by guess or computation, whether upon the reports of informers or the statements of valuers. They were to be careful that cultivation increased year by year. Something was to be left over and above the tribute, so that the country might not be ruined by the weight of taxation and the way to improvement be barred. The revenue was to be collected in such a way that the *raiyats* should increase their cultivation; that the lands already in cultivation might be kept so, and some little be added to them every year. So much was not to be exacted at once that the cultivation should fall off, and no increase be made in future. Countries are ruined and are kept in poverty by excessive taxation and the exhorbitant demands of kings. The Hindus were to be taxed so that they might not be blinded with wealth, and so become discontented and rebellious; nor, on the other hand, be so reduced to poverty and destitution as to be unable to pursue their husbandry.¹
v2.c57.s2.2
¹ Zia-ud-din Barni, *Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India*..., Vol. III, pp. 230, 231
v2.c57.s2.3
In regard to the Chiefs and headmen, the so-called intermediaries, Ghias-ud-din rejected Ala-ud-din’s view that they should be reduced to the economic level of peasants. They had responsibilities, and were entitled to remuneration accordingly; their perquisites were to be left to them without assessment, and their income from grazing was not to be taxed; but the Governors were to take measures to prevent them from levying any additional revenue from the peasants. In this way it was hoped to enable the Chiefs to live in comfort, but not in such affluence as might lead to rebellion.
Linked texts (1)
- Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf