A History of Agriculture in India v2.c57.s2.1

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