A History of Agriculture in India v2.c60.s7: Ruin of the Peasantry of the Gangetic Doab
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c60.s7
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Ruin of the Peasantry of the Gangetic Doab
v2.c60.s7.1
'A project of the Sultan which operated to the ruin of the country and the decay of the people,' states Barni, 'was that he thought he ought to get ten or five per cent more tribute from the lands in the doab. To accomplish this he invented some oppressive *abwabs* (cesses), and made stoppages from the land-revenues until the backs of the *raiyats* were broken. The cesses were collected so rigorously that the *raiyats* were impoverished and reduced to beggary. Those who were rich and had property became rebels; the lands were ruined, and cultivation was entirely arrested. When the *raiyats* in distant countries heard of the distress and ruin of the *raiyats* in the doab, through fear of the same evil befalling them, they threw off their allegiance and betook themselves to the jungles. The decline of cultivation, and the distress of the *raiyats* in the doab, and the failure of convoys of corn from Hindustan, produced a fatal famine in Delhi and its environs, and throughout the doab. Grain became dear. There was a deficiency of rain, so the famine became general. It continued for some years, and thousands upon thousands of people perished of want. Communities were reduced to distress, and families were broken up. The glory of the State, and the power of the government of Sultan Muhammad, from this time withered and decayed.’⁵
v2.c60.s7.2
⁵ Zia-ud-din Barni, *Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India...*, Vol. III, p. 238
v2.c60.s7.3
Sheikh-Nuru-l-Hakk gives further details of the ruin of the peasantry of the Gangetic doab. He states, ‘The whole of the doab became unable any longer to bear up against the grievous rack-renting and oppressive taxes. The people in despair set fire to their barns and stacks, and, carrying away their cattle, became wanderers in the wide world. Upon this, the Sultan gave orders that every such peasant who might be seized should be put to death, and that the whole country should be ravaged and given up to indiscriminate plunder. He even himself marched out of the city for that purpose, as if he had been doing on a hunting expedition, put to the sword all the remaining population, and ordered their heads to be displayed from the battlements of the fort. In this way he utterly depopulated whole tracts of his kingdom, and inflicted such rigorous punishment that the whole world stood aghast.’⁶
v2.c60.s7.4
⁶ Sheikh Nuru-l-Hakk, *Zubdatu-t Tawarikh*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India...*, Vol. VI, pp. 184, 185
Linked texts (1)
- Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf