As an ambitious ruler with a fancy for innovations in policy matters both in foreign and domestic affairs, Muhammad Tughluq (full name- Muhammad Bin Tughluq) had a desire to conquer not only the entire Indian subcontinent but also Khurasan outside its boundary. And in the case of Indian subcontinent Muhammad Tughluq even desired to conquer its hilly region in the north.

Though Muhammad Tughluq tried certain innovations in administration domestic policy with best intentions, these affected the fortunes of his empire adversely. However, the most serious schemes of reforms Muhammad Tughluq introduced were taxation in the Doab, transfer of the capital to Daulatabad and introduction of token currency. It is important to note here that some writers have described these projects “mad schemes” of Muhammad Tughluq.

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Taxation in the Doab

Muhammad Tughluq in the beginning of his reign increased taxation in the Doab; on this measure of the Sultan Dr. AL Srivastava wrote that the Sultan desired to raise the revenue by five to ten percent only and that too not by house-tax and grazing tax. However, according to Barani, the taxation was raised by ten to twenty times more, while Gardner Brown said that the rise in taxation was normal.

Whatever might be the fact about the amount of percentage of raised taxes,it is quite certain that at a time when there had been a famine in Doab because of the failure of the rain, taxes were increased, due to which Pleasants instead of paying their taxes abandoned their lands and took to highway robbery.

Tax collectors, in order to extract taxes resorted to oppressive methods that resulted in widespread revolts. The Sultan suppressed the revolts with iron hands. On this episode Dr. Mahdi Hussain opined that disbanded soldiers of the army, which were earlier recruited for Khurasan expedition, had taken up cultivation as their occupation; however, when the taxes were increased they gave up cultivation and killed revenue officers. Therefore, the Sultan suppressed their rebellion severely.

However, in the context, the reason behind revolts hardly matters; the only thing of importance is that it is certain that the taxation was increased, the oppressive methods of collecting the taxes were the primary reasons of the revolts and the Sultan suppressed revolts rigorously.

According to Dr. A.L. Srivastava, the Sultan afterwards abolished the taxes, gave seed, bullocks, etc. to cultivators and arranged for the digging of wells for irrigation. But all these corrective measures bore no fruit because the ‘help’ was too late and the people utilized that help in filling up their empty bellies. In this way this policy of Sultan proved a perfect failure due to which even the usual revenue could not be collected from the Doab.

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Transfer of the Capital by Muhammad Tughluq

Muhammad Tughluq’s attempt to transfer the capital, in between AD 1326 and 1327, from Delhi to Devagiri that was renamed Daulatabad was one among the misunderstood measures. For this transfer different reasons have been given by different scholar writers. Writing on this particular initiative taken by the Sultan, Ibn Batuta and Isami said that the citizens of Delhi used to write letters to Sultan which contained abuses and scandals. So in order to punish the people he decided to lay Delhi Waste. Famous scholar writer Sir Woolserly Haig has accepted the version provided by Ibn Batuta. According to Professor Habibullah, the motive of the Sultan was to cater incentive to Muslim culture in the South. Moreover, the prosperity and the administrative convenience of the South were also the motives of Muhammad Tughluq. However, according to Dr. A.L. Srivastava, the desire of safeguarding the capital from Mongol invasions from the north-west, the necessity of consolidating the empire in the South and the temptation to utilize the rich resources the empire in the South and the temptation to utilize the rich resources of the South were primary considerations for the transfer of capital. According to the contemporary historians, the entire population was ordered to leave Delhi. Ibn Batuta writes, “A search was made and a blind man and a cripple were found. The cripple was put to death while the blind man was dragged to Daulatabad where only his one leg reached.” And not only this, Isami has written, “Muhammad Tughluq ordered that the city (Delhi) should be set on fire and all the populace should be turned out of it.” However, this view has not been accepted by some scholars; for instance, expressing his view on this particular episode Dr. K.A. Nizami has said, the entire population of Delhi was not asked to leave. Only the upper classes, consisting of nobles Ulema, Sheikhs and the elite of Delhi were shifted to Daulatabad. But historians of repute like Dr. R.C. Majumdar, Dr. A.L. Srivastava and Dr. Ishwari Prasad have described that there is no doubt in the fact that the Sultan had ordered all citizens of Delhi to vacate it.

Muhammad Tughluq took up all possible measures for providing comfort to people in the course of their journey from Delhi to Daulatabad. People were given free food and drinking water after every three kms of journey; shady trees were planted all along the roads, all were provided means of transport, all were compensated for the loss that they incurred in leaving their assets at Delhi, and all were given free residence and food at Daulatabad. Instead all these comforts no one can deny that the forty days journey from Delhi to Daulatabad would have been an extremely tormenting experience for the people of Delhi.

Realizing that his scheme had failed completely Muhammad Tughluq gave permission to people to return to Delhi in AD 1335. Several reasons have been given for the failure of the scheme.

The Sultan shouldn’t have asked the people and even the elite of Delhi first to go Daulatabad en masse because common people were neither prepared to shift to an unknown distant place nor was there any necessity of it. The Sultan at first, should have shifted only his ‘court’ and the rest would have followed themselves.

Even the theory that the Sultan wanted to shield the empire from the invasion of Mongols do not seem appropriate because Daulatabad, being a distant city from the north-west frontier, was no good choice to be the capital of the empire. From Daulatabad it was very difficult to resist invasions of Mongols. Thus the Sultan made a wrong choice of the place and took to wrong methods to transfer his capital. So, his scheme failed completely.

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Introduction of Token currency

The introduction of token currency and issuance of copper and brass coins was the most notable feature of the coinage system of Muhammad Tughluq. According to Barani, the Sultan introduced token currency because treasury was empty, while he needed money to fulfill his schemes of conquests. Most probably, Muhammad Tughluq was inspired by the examples of Iran and China where the policy of introducing token currency was implemented; but it is imperative to mention here that in both the countries it failed.

However, modern historians differed with these theories and were of the view that there was a worldwide shortage of silver at that time and India too faced its serious shortage; therefore, the Sultan was forced to issue token currency.

Both copper and brass coins were issued by Muhammad Tughluq, the Sultan made these token coins legal tenders and kept their value at par with gold and silver coins. Prior to this, the copper coin was Jital, i.e., Paisa. Now, the Sultan issued Tanka of copper for the Rupee of silver.

According to Prof. Habib, the people were responsible for the failure of this scheme because they failed to discriminate between genuine and imitated false coins.

But the rest of historians have put the blame on the Sultan for the failure of the scheme. According to them, it was a blunder on the part of the Sultan that he did not take proper precautions to check imitation of coins issued by the royal mint.

The token currency was kept in the market only for three to four years. Realizing the sheer failure of his scheme, Muhammad Tughluq, in all good faith, withdrew the entire token currency; the people were asked to return token coins for which they were paid back gold and silver coins by the royal treasury.

Although, Muhammad Tughluq failed in successfully implementing any of his schemes, it has been expressed in favour of the Sultan that his measures were way ahead of his time, and his officials and subjects failed to understand the worth of his schemes and, therefore,  did not cooperate with him to bring those measures to success.

However, the responsibility of the Sultan for the failure of his schemes cannot be ruled out. In fact Muhammad Tughluq himself was responsible to a large extend for the failure of his schemes. The Sultan it can be said politely, possessed on imaginative mind but did not have practical wisdom. He lacked patience also; he desired quick success. All these weaknesses contributed to the failure of his schemes.

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Dayanand Saraswati is well known as the founder of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement of the Vedic tradition. He was a profound scholar of the Vedic lore and Sanskrit language. He was the first to give the call for Swarajya as “India for Indians” – in 1876, later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak. Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship prevalent in Hinduism at the time, he worked towards reviving Vedic ideologies. Subsequently the philosopher and President of India, S. Radhakrishnan, called him one of the “makers of Modern India,” as did Sri Aurobindo.

Swami Dayanand was born on February 12, 1824 in Tankara in the western Indian state of Gujarat. At a time when Hinduism was divided between the various schools of philosophy and theology, Swami Dayanand went straight back to the Vedas as he considered them the most authoritative repository of knowledge and truth spoken in the “Words of God.” In order to re-energize Vedic knowledge and reawaken our awareness of the four Vedas – Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda – Swami Dayanand wrote and published a number of religious books, primary among them being Satyartha Prakash, Rig-Vedaadi, Bhasya-Bhoomika, and Sanskar Vidhi.

Swami Dayanand founded the Hindu reform organization called Arya Samaj on April 7, 1875 in Mumbai. His aim was not to found a new religion, but to re-establish the teachings of the ancient Vedas. As he said in Satyarth Prakash, he wanted to true development of human kind by the acceptance of the Supreme truth and rejection of falsehood by through analytical thinking. He was a sanyasi (ascetic) from boyhood, and a scholar, who believed in the infallible authority of theVedas.

Maharshi Dayananda advocated the doctrine of Karma and Reincarnation. He emphasized the Vedic ideals of brahmacharya (celibacy) and devotion to God. The Theosophical Society and the Arya Samaj were united from 1878 to 1882, becoming the Theosophical Society of the Arya Samaj. Among Maharshi Dayananda’s contributions are his promoting of the equal rights for women, such as the right to education and reading of Indian scriptures, and his intuitive commentary on the Vedas from Vedic Sanskrit in Sanskrit as well as Hindi so that the common man might be able to read them. Dayanand was the first to give the word of Swadeshi and Harijan to the dalits and Pariahs(Outcastes) long before Mahatma Gandhi.                               

The 10 principles of Arya Samaj

• God is the efficient cause of all true knowledge and all that is known through knowledge.
• God is existent, intelligent and blissful. He is formless, omniscient, just, merciful, unborn, endless, unchangeable, beginning-less, unequalled, the support of all, the master of all, omnipresent, immanent, un-aging, immortal, fearless, eternal and holy, and the maker of all. He alone is worthy of being worshiped.
• The Vedas are the scriptures of all true knowledge. It is the paramount duty of all Aryas to read them, teach them , recite them and to hear them being read.
• One should always be ready to accept truth and to renounce untruth.
• All acts should be performed in accordance with Dharma that is, after deliberating what is right and wrong.
• The prime object of the Arya Samaj is to do good to the world, that is, to promote physical, spiritual and social good of everyone.
• Our conduct towards all should be guided by love, righteousness and justice.
• We should dispel Avidya (ignorance) and promote Vidya (knowledge).
• No one should be content with promoting his/her good only; on the contrary, one should look for his/her good in promoting the good of all.
• One should regard oneself under restriction to follow the rules of society calculated to promote the well being of all, while in following the rules of individual welfare all should be free.

Dayanand Saraswati undertook a tour of the entire county, made fiery speeches condemning the caste system, idolatry, and child marriages. He advocated the ideal age for a girl to be between 16 and 24, and for men between 25 and 40. Dayanand Saraswati was the first leader in the field of theology who welcomed the advances of sciences and technology. To him, the Vedas as the source book contain the seed of science, and to him, the Vedas advocate the philosophy of dynamic realism.

Swamiji has been teaching Vedanta in India for more than four decades, and around the world since 1976. In his public talks abroad, Swamiji has spoken at many of the most prestigious American universities, and has addressed international conventions, UNESCO and the United Nations, where he participated in the Millennium Peace Summit.

Due to his radical thinking and approach to the social issues and beliefs Dayanand Saraswati had created many enemies around him. One such enemy of the saint was the Maharaja of Jodhpur. On the occasion of Diwali, the King invited Dayanand Saraswati to Jodhpur and killed him by offering food mixed with poison, in 1883. The king was believed to be against the principles of Dayanand Saraswati.

East India Company (EIC), originally chartered as the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies, and more properly called the Honourable East India Company, was an English, and later (from 1707).

The company rose to account for half of the world’s trade, particularly trade in basic commodities that included cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.

The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth in 1600, making it the oldest among several similarly formed European East India Companies. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own private armies, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown to assume direct control of India in the new British Raj.

The East India Company has had a long lasting impact on the Indian Subcontinent. Although dissolved following the rebellion of 1857, it stimulated the growth of the British Empire. Its armies after 1857 were to become the armies of British India and it played a key role in introducing English as an official language in India.

The arrival of tax-exempt Company tea, undercutting the local merchants, triggered the Boston Tea Party in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, one of the major events leading up to the American Revolution.

The East India Company was the first company to record the Chinese usage of orange – flavoured tea which led to the development of Earl Grey tea.

The East India Company introduced a system of merit-based appointments that provided a model for the British and Indian civil service.

At the time of the American Revolution the East India Company flag was identical to the Grand Union Flag. Sir Charles Fawcett argued that the East India Company Flag inspired the Stars and Stripes.

The East India Company’s original coat of arms was granted in 1600.

The East India Club in London was formed in 1849 for officers of the Company. The Club still exists today as a private gentlemen’s club with its club house situated at 16 St. James’s Square, London.

The company was dissolved in 1874 as a result of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act passed one year earlier, as the Government of India Act had by then rendered it vestigial, powerless, and obsolete. The official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its presidency armies.

Annie Besant was a prominent Theosophist, social reformer, political leader, women’s rights activist, writer, and orator. She was of Irish origin and made India her second home. She fought for the rights of Indian and was the first woman president of Indian National Congress.

Annie Besant was born as Annie Wood on October 1, 1847, in a middle-class family in London. She was of Irish origin. Her father died when she was only five. Annie’s mother supported the family by running a boarding house for boys at Harrow. As a young woman, she traveled widely in Europe and this widened her outlook.

Annie Besant was married in 1867 to a clergyman called Frank Besant. But the marriage did not last long. They legally separated in 1873. Annie Besant had two children from the marriage. After her separation, Annie began to question not only her long-held religious beliefs but the whole of conventional thinking. She began to write attacks on the Churches and the way they controlled people’s lives. In particular, she attacked the status of the Church of England as a state-sponsored faith.

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Annie Besant fought for the causes she thought were right, such as women’s rights, secularism, birth control, Fabian socialism and workers’ rights. She became interested in Theosophy as a way of knowing God. Theosophical Society was against discrimination of race, color, gender and preached Universal brotherhood. To serve humanity at large was its supreme goal. It was a member of Theosophical Society of India that she arrived in India in 1893.

She toured the entire country of India. It gave her first-hand information about India and middle-class Indians who were affected more by British rule and its system of education. Her long-time interest in education resulted in the founding of the Central Hindu College at Benares (1898).

She also became involved in Indian freedom movement. Along with the Lokmanya Tilak in 1916, she founded Home Rule League which advocated self-rule by Indians. She became the President of Indian National Congress in 1917. She was the first woman to hold that post. She started a newspaper, “New India”, criticized British rule and was jailed for sedition. She worked hard on the campaign for India’s independence and has created various letters and articles demanding the independence of India. After the arrival of Gandhiji on Indian national scene, differences arose between Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant. Gradually, she withdrew from active politics.

Annie Besant died on September 20, 1933, at Adyar (Madras). As per her wish, her ashes were immersed in Ganga in Benares.

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Annie Besant Achievements

• She became a well-known speaker at National Secular Society (NSS), a member of Theosophical Society, a most famous lecturer, and a writer.
• She worked with various union actions, Bloody Sunday demonstration and London match girls strike in 1888.
• She became a foremost speaker for Fabian Society as well as Marxist Social Democratic Federation.
• She was selected for the Tower Hamlets at London School Board.
• She helped in establishing the Central Hindu College at Varanasi in 1898.
• She also helped in establishing the Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board, Mumbai, India in 1922.
• She became the president of Theosophical Society in 1907, headquartered in Adyar, Madras (Chennai).
• She joined the Indian National Congress to get involved in the Indian politics and became the president of Indian National Congress in 1917.
• She helped in launching Home Rule League for promoting the Indian democracy after broke out of the World War I in 1914.

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Helen Keller

The British Cabinet Mission of 1946 to India aimed to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Government to Indian leadership, providing India with independence. Formulated at the initiative of Clement Attlee, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the mission consisted of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, theSecretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, and A. V. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India, did not participate.

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The Mission’s purpose

• Hold preparatory discussions with elected representatives of British India and the Indian states in order to secure agreement as to the method of framing the constitution.
• Set up a constitution body.
• Set up an Executive Council with the support of the main Indian parties.

The Mission held talks with the representatives of the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League, the two largest political parties in the Constituent Assembly of India. The two parties planned to determine a power-sharing arrangement between Hindus and Muslims to prevent a communal dispute, and to determine whether British India would be better-off unified or divided. The Congress party under Gandhi-Nehru nexus wanted to obtain a strong central government with more powers compared to state governments.

The All India Muslim League under Jinnah wanted to keep India united but with political safeguards provided to Muslims such as ‘guarantee’ of ‘parity’ in the legislatures. This stance of the League was backed up by the wide belief of Muslims that the British Raj was simply going to be turned into a ‘Hindu Raj’ once the British departed; and since the Muslim League regarded itself as the sole spokesman party of Indian Muslims, it was incumbent up on it to take the matter up with the Crown.

The Cabinet Mission arrived in India on 23 March 1946 and in Delhi on 2 April 1946. The announcement of the Plan on 16 May 1946 was preceded by the Simla Conference of 1945 in the first week of May. The focal point of the plan was the preservation of the ‘single state’. It provided for a Union of India comprising both British India and the states. The Union was to deal with the subjects of foreign affairs, defence and communications. It envisaged the formation of three groups of provinces: Section A to comprise the six Hindu majority provinces of Madras, Bombay, U.P., Orissa, C.P., Bihar; Section B, the provinces of the Punjab, NWFP, Sind, and Baluchistan; while the provinces of Bengal and Assam were to form Section C.

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The plan also promised that the provinces and the states will be the basic units and all subjects other than the Union subjects and all residuary powers would vest in the provinces. Para 8 of the 16 June statement of the Cabinet Delegation and the Viceroy stated that: ‘In the event of the two major parties or either of them unwilling to join in the setting up of a coalition government on the above lines, it is the intention of the Viceroy to proceed with the formation of an interim government which will be as representative as possible of those willing to accept the statement of May 16.’ Jinnah interpreted it thus: ‘To me that if the Congress refuses to join an interim government composed as proposed in that statement while the League agreed to do so, then the Viceroy would go ahead and form the government as proposed but without the Congress representatives.’

The Mission and the Viceroy interpreted it differently. They considered that since both parties had now accepted the statement of 16 May, paragraph 8 required that fresh efforts should be made to form an interim government. Jinnah protested that this interpretation had been dishonestly concocted by the legalistic talents of the Cabinet Mission.’ Consequent upon this ‘breach of faith’ the All India Muslim League Council passed a resolution to withdraw its acceptance (6 June 1946) of the Cabinet Plan on 28 July 1946. The Viceroy later unilaterally invited Congress to form the government on 6 August 1946. The Muslim League later joined the government on 25 October 1946.

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