Muhammad Bin Tughlaq was called Wise Fool
The Indian History is well enriched, and there are a lot of
interesting characters in it. As India has forever been a country with
fertile land and a favorable climate, many rulers have ruled here since
ancient times. As a result, this country has witnessed one of the oldest
civilizations, the Indus Valley Civilization, and the British Raj
too. However, one of the prominent eras of Indian History is that of the
Delhi Sultanate. It was the time when Islamic rulers dominated the country,
and India was in the strong hands of brave and responsible emperors. One of
the emperors of the Delhi Sultanate was Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, and he is
popularly known as the wise fool in Indian History. Muhammad Bin Tughlaq
founded the Tughlaq Dynasty, which persisted for a very short period just
because of his foolishness. Here, you will be able to know some interesting
facts about Muhammad Bin Tughlaq and why he is considered a wise fool in
Indian History. Birth and origin of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq Ghiyasuddin
Tughlaq, a Turkic slave of the Delhi Sultanate, was the father of Muhammad
Bin Tughlaq. As per History, his mother was an Indian Hindu. He was quite
brave and could easily take control of the Delhi Sultanate within a short
period. (Image will be uploaded soon)After Muhammad Bin Tughlaq became the
Sultan, his mother became a philanthropist and built several hospitals.
Though Muhammad Bin Tughlaq was a brave king, he was considered the wise
fool in Indian History. Do you know why Muhammad Bin Tughlaq was called
Wise Fool in Indian History? Well, the foolish decisions of Muhammad Bin
Tughlaq as a king are given below. You can actually see that all the
decisions made by him as a king are unplanned, leading to the countrymen's
clumsy conditions. The main reason why the people had to suffer even with
the toll of their lives was the lack of judgment. Burden of Taxes: As a
king, Tughlaq always wanted to expand the borders of his territory. This is
the only reason he aimed to have a decent attack and defense mechanism. The
army of Tughlaq was huge, and the maintenance needed a huge amount of
money. Tughlaq, without any planning, made his subjects pay increased
amounts of taxes. The majority of people were unable to pay it. Mostly, the
farmers were all left in a huge crisis which made them shift the job. This
led to the scarcity of food in the whole territory ruled by Tughlaq. Common
people, on the other hand, had to face corruption to get food. The Increase
in Doab Taxes: The middle areas of rivers Ganga and Yamuna are known as
Doab. This place is rich in alluvial soil and very fertile. So, during
Tughlaq's reign, this area fell in the Delhi Sultanate. But, without proper
planning and predictions regarding the aftermath, Tughlaq increased the
taxes for this region. Again, the farmers who had farmlands in this area
had to switch their occupations. Unemployment at a humongous level gave
rise to robbery and theft all over the territory. The lives of people
turned into hell due to this administrative reform. Apart from several
famines, many people lost their lives due to the harsh measures taken by
Tughlaq himself as punishment. However, he understood the ill-reform he had
made and later tried to fix the matter by providing loans to the people.
But, it was too late. The anger of common people remained with Muhammad Bin
Tughlaq as long as he remained in power. Introduction of Token Currency:
Tughlaq was the one who was also clumsy about the financial structure of
his state. It becomes prominent as we find that introduced token currency.
Tughlaq introduced copper coins at the exact cost of silver. The weightage
of both silver coins and copper coins is the same. This is called the token
currency system. This system led to an imbalance in the economy. Common
people were unable to get the coins in hand. Gradually, every house became
a mint, and the normal money flow came in a fix. All this nuisance occurred
because, in the 14th century, there was a global scarcity of silver. Quite
unfortunate for the people of India because Muhammad Bin Tughlaq was ruling
over the Delhi Sultanate at that time. Transferring Capital: As the wise
fool in Indian History, Muhammad Bin Tughlaq's historic mistake was to
transfer his capital from Delhi to Deogiri. Deogiri was an ancient place in
the Indian state of Maharashtra. Tughlaq named it Daulatabad. He took a
hasty decision of transferring his capital in order to rule the entire
Indian landmass. Now, geographically, Daulatabad was a place located nearly
at the centre of the country. As Tughlaq decided against shifting the
capital, he ordered all his men and knights to travel this huge distance
between Delhi and Daulatabad. As the people started the journey, most of
them died on-road. Many of the knights turned frail, and some were even not
in the condition of travelling any further. This stuck in the mind of
Tughlaq as he decided to go back to Delhi, even after being very near to
Daulatabad.According to the notes of many historians, Tughlaq initially
decided to shift his capital to safeguard the people from the probable
Mongol invasion. However, there was hardly any planning, and no sense of
responsibility ever was seen in Muhammad Bin Tughlaq being the Sultan of
Delhi. Wise and Foolish: Why? Till now, you have seen Muhammad Bin Tughlaq
termed as a wise fool in Indian History. The main reasons are given below
in detail. However, these are not facts related to the life of the Sultan,
and we can only deduce the thoughts of the emperor. So here, the facts are
shown, like how every foolish decision of Tughlaq had a bit of wisdom in
it. Need of a Huge Army: No doubt, it is foolish to increase the commons'
taxes to maintain a huge army. However, it was the need for that time. Not
only a huge army could ensure that Tughlaq expanded his territory easily
while providing the required defense. All-round defense for the Delhi
Sultanate was a need back then as repeated Mongol invasions were coming
from the north. Only a huge army could have restricted the vandals
properly. Necessity of the Token Currency: The token currency system was
introduced by Tughlaq during the scarcity of silver globally. Copper was
still available, and it was easy to make coins out of it. So, it can be
termed as a wise decision. However, Tughlaq foolishly failed to plan things
up properly. It initially led the common people into confusion and then
pushed them into the trap of corruption. Need to Shift the Capital: It was
necessary to shift the capital due to the danger of the Mongols. However,
Tughlaq was the one to do it without proper planning and reasoning.
Moreover, with poor transportation ailments, it was really a tough job for
the people to move to the new capital and retreat back as per the decision
of the Sultan.
NB: People may wonder why suddenly? But we have MBT in India, TN and
abroad and world bear all of them
K Rajaram IRS 15525
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