A History of Agriculture in India v2.c71.s1: Sher Shah’s Regrets
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c71.s1
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Sher Shah’s Regrets
v2.c71.s1.1
As a military strategist Sher Shah very much wished to destroy Lahore and to depopulate northern Punjab. Nimatu-lla, the author of *Tarikh-i Khan-Jahan Lodi*, states, ‘On being remonstrated with for giving way to low spirits, when he had done so much for the good of the people during his short reign, after urgent solicitation, he said, “I have had three or four desires in my heart, which still remain without accomplishment, and cannot be eradicated except by death. One is, I wished to have depopulated the country of Roh, and to have transferred its inhabitants to the tract between the Nilab and Lahore, including the hills below Ninduna, as far as the Siwalik; that they might have been constantly on the alert for the arrival of the Mughals, and not allow any one to pass from Kabul to Hind, and that they might also keep the *zamindars* of the hills under control and subjection. Another is to have entirely destroyed Lahore, that so large a city might not exist on the very road of an invader, where, immediately after capturing it on his arrival, he could collect his supplies and organize his resources.”’² It was fortunate that Sher Shah died before he could carry out this scheme.
v2.c71.s1.2
² Niamatu-lla, *Tarikh-i Khan-Jahan Lodi*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India*..., Vol. V, pp. 107, 108