A History of Agriculture in India v2.c59.s2: Urban Social Revolution
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c59.s2
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Urban Social Revolution
v2.c59.s2.1
According to Mohammad Habib, though Islam was not planned as a city-creed throughout its history it has found it easier to operate in urban areas. The Arabs inherited the concept of city-state from the Greeks and Romans. Culture flourished only in the cities of Arabia and not in the peripheral desert. The Arabic language has the same root word for city and civilization, viz. madina, tamaddan. Besides, the leaders of early Islam were merchants and traders.
v2.c59.s2.2
India of the eleventh century was a country of fortified cities and towns, and fortified villages (mawas). The caste groups, the Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, and the Vaishyas lived within the city-walls and the fortified villages, while the Shudras and non-caste groups, e.g. weavers, cobblers, oil-men, butchers, dyers, jugglers, basket-makers, sailors, elephant drivers and the hunters of wild animals and birds, all lived outside the city-wall. It was these castes, the under-privileged and despised, who welcomed Islam. As Mohammad Habib observes, ‘Face to face with the social and economic provision of the Shariat and the Hindu Smritis as practical alternatives, the Indian city-worker preferred the Shariat.’³ The Ghorian Turkish officers permitted them to live inside city-walls. They got converted to Islam en masse. They helped to stabilize the new regime and were its main supporters. The cities developed into thriving centres of cottage industries and commerce. By the middle of the thirteenth century there were large number of Moslem workers of Indian origin in every city and town of northern India. Even now there is a large concentration of Moslem workers in the towns of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
v2.c59.s2.3
³ Mohammad Habib, *Introduction to Elliot and Dowson’s History of India*, Vol. II, pp. 4, 52
v2.c59.s2.4
The urban working classes were given various monetary incentives by the rulers. Apart from the fact that they were not liable to pay jizya, there were tax remissions on some of their trades and products. ‘Firoz Shah in his Futuhat says that he had remitted taxes on the following: vegetables; brokerage; butchers; amusements; flowers, betel-leaves; octroi on grain and cereals; scribes; indigo; fish; cotton-carding; soap-making; sale of ropes; oil-making; parched grain; taxes from shopkeepers for the use of public lands; cloth-printing; gambling-houses; suits and petitions; police dues; qassabi (slaughtering animals); butter-making; grazing-tax; fines of various kinds; danganah (an impost in addition to the octroi); ground-rent of houses and shops; duri (forced requisition of cattle); roasted mince-meat; fruits; marriages; and brick-kilns.’ This list also indicates the variety of professions in the cities.
v2.c59.s2.5
It is often stated that large number of Hindus were converted to Islam by Moslem Sufis and Saints. ‘No document proving any organized religious propaganda by the Mussalmans during this period has yet been unearthed,’ states Mohammad Habib. ‘The wholesale conversions attributed to the Muslim mystics of this period are found in later-day fabrications only and these works must be totally discarded.’⁴
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⁴ Mohammad Habib. *Introduction to Elliot and Dowson's History of India*, Vol. II, pp. 56, 57