A History of Agriculture in India v2.c60.s7.3

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