Foreign Invasion of Medieval India - Part 12

 

Continued From: The Forgotten Empires Of India: Foreign Invasion of Medieval India - Part 11

As he himself was an usurper who had become the Sultan after killing his uncle, he started suspecting that others may make an attempt on his life too. He understood the power of money since he had used wealth to attain his goal. He protected himself by confiscating the wealth of his nobles to prevent any uprisings against him. According to both Barani and Firishta, he issued orders that marriage alliances between his nobles shall not take place without his approval. He started confiscating property of both Muslims and Hindus alike. He often stated that “religion had no connection with the civil government , but was only the business , or rather amusement of private life; the will of a wise prince was better than the variable opinions of bodies of men”. Soon his personal treasury overflowed with the money of his nobles and the common people. He overtaxed his people that they were reduced to a deplorable state.  Fearing that his nobles may conspire against him over a glass of wine, he banned alcohol from the kingdom.

According to Firishta , in the year 1303 Allaudin Khilji sent a huge force under the command of his favourite slave Malik Kafur to once again plunder the Deccan Kingdoms of India. At that time when the army was absent from Delhi, the Mughals retaliated against Delhi. Allaudin scrambled to collect army to ward of the invasion. After a lengthy struggle he managed to make them retreat from Delhi. Fearing a third invasion from the Mughals, he frantically started to increase his military power. He had increased his forces so greatly that he realised that he would become bankrupt in six years. He needed his army to plunder Hindu Kingdoms and yet paying their salary would deplete his treasury. He decided to reduce the pay of his army , but in order to prevent a revolt, he lowered the price of every commodity.

In the year 1310, Allaudin once again sent an army under Malik Kafur to plunder Dwara Samudram and the Malabar Coast. It was during this invasion that the Srirangam temple was plundered. The loot from the first invasion paled next to that of the second invasion. Malik Kafur returned to Delhi with 312 elephants, 20,000 horses, 3,580,800 Kg of gold, several hundred kilograms of precious gems. Silver is not listed as one of the plundered items because during the time of the invasion, the people of South India were very wealthy and it is said that even their dinner plates and utensils were made of gold!

Only the citizens of Devagiri and Lasur had felt the evil effects of the first invasion. The second invasion terrorized the entire Deccan .The sultan had in his army some soldiers who were of Mughal origin. All of a sudden he started mistrusting these soldiers and discharged every one of them from his army. He not only dismissed them , but fearing an uprising had 15,000 Mughal soldiers who were all Muslims put to death. One day the streets of Delhi were filled with the bodies of these 15,000 soldiers and the women and children of these soldiers were enslaved.

He pillaged and plundered all of North India and faced problems in maintaining a large army. In order to maintain his soldiers, he started levying heavy taxes on all Hindus who lived in his kingdom. The tax rate was 50% for Hindus and if they were farmers or merchants, they had to give 50% of the goods produced to the tax collector on top of the 50% tax they paid. He arranged to drag the women and children of anyone who was unable to pay the taxes and sold them as slaves in the market. Often, these women and children were shipped outside of India to countries like Oman as slaves. The Hindu farmers and merchants lost everything they owned and were left with the agonizing screams of their wives and children ringing constantly in their ears.  This heavy taxation too eventually stopped generating revenue as farmers stopped farming their lands and the country faced a severe famine.

Allaudin Khalji rule was doted with many internal revolts. Notable amongst these revolts was the revolt in Gujarat started by those who had recently converted to Islam. To quell the revolt, Allaudin Khalji ordered all those people who had recently converted to Islam to be slaughtered outside his palace. It is reported that around 30,000 people were slaughtered each day outside his palace and the streets of Delhi were covered with blood. He gave orders to his officers to show utmost cruelty towards his people and to plunder them to such an extent that they should be left with nothing. He impoverished his people so that they would lack the funds to start any revolts.