Question

“Mohammed Bin Tughlaq's administrative measures were a failure”. Explain with examples.

Answer 1

Hint: Coinage system, plan to attack Khurasan , increasing tax rate and the famous capital shift made his administrative outlook a great failure.

Complete answer:
Mohammed Bin tuglak is ranked among the important rulers of the Delhi sultanate. He ruled from 1352 -1351 AD.
He took noteworthy steps to streamline the administration and adopted the policy of liberality and religious tolerance. He was a mixture of opposites. His administrative policies were good on theory but lacked practicality. Some of the policies are:-
1. Transfer of Capital: Tughlaq decided to shift his capital from Delhi to Devagiri located in South of Vindhyachal mountains in 1327. The Sultan tried to make Daulatabad a suitable City for his people. However when the people of Delhi refused to shift to Daulatabad, Sultan got annoyed and ordered all the people of Delhi to March towards Daulatabad with their belongings. This resulted in chaos and an administrative failure.
2. Creation of a new Agriculture department: Tughlaq established a new department called Diwan-i-kohi.it aimed at making the Barren land fit for cultivation. This field due to many reasons firstly the land for experiment was absolutely barren,secondly ,the Sultan did not give personal attention to the plan, thirdly, since she was rash he gave up the plan after the short period of three years , fourthly, the corrupt officers pocketed a large amount of wealth year marked for this purpose.
3. Issue of copper and brass coinage: He got influence from the rulers of China and Iran who had successfully used paper currency in that country hence he wanted to use copper and brass coinage system in India but it failed miserably due to counterfeit currency being used.

Note: Although a great learned man and a generous and liberal king ,his administrative policies were a great failure which made his public suffer and hence public dissatisfaction grew against him.Muhammad bin Tughluq died in 1351 on his way to Thatta, Sindh while he was campaigning in Sindh against Taghi, a Turkish slave tribe. It was during his reign that the Sultanate of Delhi collapsed by twofold resistance.