According to Dr. J.N. Chaudhry,
“Not only did he (Sher Shah) establish an empire by dint of his great military
skill, wonderful courage, ability and resourcefulness, but with his usual skill
and promptitude, he made necessary arrangements for its smooth and efficient
administration.” Sher Shah was, no doubt, one of the greatest administrators in
the contemporary world. He had “breathed a new spirit in the old institutions
and turned them into instruments of popular good.”
The administration of Sher Shah
was military in nature but on the same hand he undertook every possible step
for the welfare of his subjects. His was a Muslim State, but showed justice to
every community. That is why his State is known as the First Muslim Welfare
State.
Sher Shah discarded the theory of
the decentralization of powers. Although he had nominally to retain some
provinces, he dispensed with them altogether as far as administrative purposes
were concerned.
Centre:
Sher Shah was the pivot of the
Indian administration. He possessed all administrative powers in his own hands,
and was thus a despot, but benevolent. As it was unable for one man to look
after all the matters of administration, he had a Council of Ministers, who
were in charge of all the administrative routine, but possessed “no authority
to initiate policy or to propose radical changes in the mode of transacting
business or in the administrative set-up.” Sher Shah’s Council of Ministers
was:
(i)
Vakil was the Prime Minister. He looked
after the matters of other Departments and generally dealt with the problems
which were not directly assignment to others.
(ii)
Wazir was the Finance Minister. He was in
charge of the income and expenditure of the empire.
(iii)
Diwan-i-Ariz was the Army Minister, as
may be called. He was not the Commander-in-Chief of the army, but was in charge
of its recruitment, organization and discipline. He made arrangements for the
payment of salaries of the troops and officers, and looked after the
disposition of the army on the battle-field. The work of Diwan-i-Ariz was often
interfered by Sher Shah.
(iv)
Diwan-i-Risalat was the head of the
Foreign Department. He remained in close touch with the ambassadors and envoys
sent to and received from foreign States.
(v)
Diwan-i-Insha performed the duties to
draft Royal proclamations and dispatches. He was also in charge of government
records.
(vi)
Sadr was the highest officer of religion.
(vii)
Diwan-i-Qaza was the ‘chief qazi’ and
supervised the administration of justice either in first instance or appeals against
the decisions from the courts of provincial qazis.
(viii)
Barid-i-Mamalik was the head of the
Intelligence Department. He also made arrangements for the posting of news
carriers at various places to carry the royal dak.
The Chief Muhtsib was the religious censor on
one hand and supervisor of markets on the other. He must have supervised the
collection of jizya also.
However, these Ministers occupied the position of
secretaries as they had no power of initiative or final determination of any
policy or transacting matters of importance without the orders of the Emperor.
Sher Shah’s daily time-table shows him too busy with
his administrative business. But his routine was interrupted by the frequent
warfare. All his expeditions claimed his personal attention and he could not
devote much attention to the details of the administration. It may be possible
that Sher Shah succeeded in infusing his spirit in the routine work of the
administration which was carried on as usual by the Secretariat officials at
the headquarters.
Provinces:
There is a lot of controversy regarding the
administrative division of Sher Shah’s empire. Dr. Qanungo believes that the
highest division of his empire was the Sarkar. But Dr. P. Saran observes
that his empire was divided into regular provinces. Bengal was the only
Province which is said to have been split up into smaller governorships,
keeping in view minimizing the ‘chances of rebellion.’
There were military governorships in cases of Ajmer,
Malwa and the Punjab. Bengal was at first administered likewise, but the lesson
of a bitter experience in this distant province taught him to adopt a more
prudent measure and he abolished the post of the military-governor, dividing
the whole province into several Sarkars. Amin-i-Bangala or the Civilian Viceroy
was appointed at the top for the smooth running of the administration.
Sarkars:
The Provinces were divided into a number of Sarkars.
The chief officers of a Sarkar were:
(a)
Shiqdar-i-Shiqdaran was in charge of
law and order in the Sarkar and had a body of troops to assist him in his work.
He also tried criminal cases and supervised the work of the Shiqdars in his
jurisdiction.
(b)
Munsif-i-Munsifan tried civil cases,
specially arising out of revenue matters. He also supervised the work of the
Pargana Amins.
(c)
There was a Qazi for every Sarkar.
Parganas:
The Sarkars
were further divided into a number of Parganas. The main officers were:
(a)
Shiqdar was a military officer in
charge of a small contingent of troops. He was to maintain peace in his
jurisdiction and punish the rebels. He was also to assist the Amin.
(b)
Amin (Munsif) was to make the
arrangements for the settlement of the land-revenue.
(c)
Fotadar was the treasurer of the
Pargana.
(d)
Karkun kept the accounts of the
Pargana. There were two Karkuns in every Pargana. One kept the accounts in
Persian, while the other kept in Hindi.
Villages:
Sher Shah had
kept contact with the villages through the village officials – the Patwari and
the Chowkidar. The elders of the village constituted a Panchayat, which
maintained peace and order in their respective villages and worked for the
public welfare.
Military
Administration:
The military
administration of Sher Shah is note-worthy. The Afghans from all parts of the
country were invited and given posts according to their merit. Considering the
inefficiency of the feudal system, he followed the system of Ala-ud-Din Khalji
and established a permanent standing army, paying partly by grant of jagirs
and partly in cash from the royal treasury.
Sher Shah, as a
matter of fact, took personal interest in the army and recruited troops and
fixed the salaries of individual soldiers.
In order to
prevent the troops from selling away the government horses and exchanging them
with worthless ponies, he promulgated the practice of branding horses --- a
fine system of Ala-ud-Din. The practice of recording the descriptive roll of
every soldier was instituted, so as to do away with the practice of sending
proxies at the time of military review. Prof. Qanungo writes that the credit of
organizing the Indian army on a new model goes to Ala-ud-Din, and it was Sher
Shah, who following his foot-steps, established a well-organized army of his
times. Promotion of the soldiers depended on their merit. Sher Shah had, in
fact, not abolished the jagir system completely.
Sher Shah’s
army chiefly consisted of cavalry, but he had also infantry armed with muskets.
It is recorded that he had always 1,50,000 horses and 25,000 infantry armed
with either matchlocks or bows, present with him. In his elephant-sheds, he had
5,000 elephants. Besides this, he had kept contingents of troops posted at
strategic places all over his kingdom. The army was divided into divisions,
each under a veteran commander. He allowed his troops to come into close
contact with him.
Revenue
System:
The revenue of
the Sher Shah empire can be divided into two parts:
(a)
Central Revenue: Its sources were
heirless property, commerce, mint, presents, inheritance, salt, jizya, khams,
and land revenue. The vassals and nobles, officials and visitors made presents
to the ruler. Jizya was collected from the non-Muslims. Khams was the 20% of
the plunder taken during the war.
(b)
Local Revenue: It was taken from abwabs
levied on production and consumption of various trader professions and
transport.
The Land revenue was the most important source of
income. Dr. J.N. Chaudhry states that it was his land-revenue administration
which has given undying fame to him. The land revenue was realized 1/3 of the
total production. The view of Moreland is, “The historical importance of Sher
Shah’s methods lies in the fact that they formed that starting point of the
series of experiments in administration which marked the first half of Akbar’s
reign.” Sher Shah classified all cultivable land and fixed the revenue. Patta
and Qabuliyat were also introduced.
Justice:
“Justice is the most excellent of religious rites and
it is approved alike by the Kings of infidels and of the faithful,” was the
observation of Sher Shah. Therefore, he established a very efficient judicial
system. Sher Shah himself held court in the evening of every Wednesday. Next to
him was the Chief Qazi, head of the justice administration, while the Chief
Munsif administered civil justice in the district. The Munsifs administered the
same in the Parganas.
Sher Shah was deeply furnished with his administration
of justice. In justice, he saw no kith and kin and saw everybody with the same
eye. He did not hesitate punishing even his nephew, who threw a betel leaf at
the wife of a goldsmith who was taking her bath inside her house. He
compensated the peasants when their crops were destroyed during the marches of
the royal troops. Nizam-ud-Din Ahmed records that during the reign of Sher
Shah, a merchant could travel or sleep in the desert, without any fear of being
robbed of his merchandise. So great was his fear and his love of justice.
Sher Shah inflicted very severe punishments on the
convicts, and was an ‘Angel of Death’ to the robbers, thieves and dacoits.
Police:
In the period of Sher Shah, the duty of the police was
rendered by the army. In the Sarkar, the Chief Shiqdar maintained peace and
order. The Shiqdar performed the same duty in the Parganas. They had to keep an
eye on the disturbers of peace and order and punish them. Sher Shah made a
headman of every village and similar services were to be performed by these
persons. If they failed in their service, the punishment due to the convicts
was given to them. The result was that these officers took every step possible
to maintain peace and order in their respective jurisdictions. Dr. A.L.
Srivastava comments, “The system was based on the correct knowledge of the
rural psychology and the condition of the people of medieval times.” Abbas Khan
Sarwani also narrates, “In the time of Shar Shah’s rule a decrepit old woman
might place a basket full of gold ornaments on her head and go on a journey and
no theif or robber would come near her for fear of punishment which Sher Shah inflicted.”
Intelligence Department:
Sher Shah appointed an officer known as Darogha-i-Dak
Chauki for his Intelligence Department. A number of news-writers and
news-carriers were kept under him to give him accounts of daily happenings in
their regions. This Department worked so well that Dr. A.L. Srivastava writes, “Much
of the success of Sher Shah’s administration was due to the efficiency of his
spy system.”
Sher Shah was “undoubtedly one of the greatest
statesmen among the Sultans of Delhi.” But as Dr. R.P. Tripathi writes, “Although
he ruled well and justly, he was primarily the ruler of the Afghans. His
reforms were certainly calculated to bring uniformity in administration and
unity in the empire, establish closer contacts between the provinces and
encourage tolerance to some extent. But he did nothing positive which could
create enthusiasm among or inspire his non-Muslim subjects to honour him as
their ruler.”
Be as it may, it cannot be denied that Sher Shah had
brought law and order in the country by his efficient administrative machinery.
Since the reign of Feroz Tughlaq, Sher Shah was the first ruler who established
internal peace to a great extent. His reorganization of administration and
settlement of land revenue mark him as one of the greatest rulers of the
medieval India. Dr. A.L. Srivastava finds the secret of his greatness as a
ruler in the spirit he brought to his administration. Even V.A. Smith observed,
“If Sher Shah had been spared he would have established his dynasty, and the ‘Great
Mughals’ would not have appeared on the stage of history.”
