(a) Discuss the various proponents of Indian feudalism. (10 marks) (b) Examine the defects in Alberuni's assessment of the Indian…

(a) Proponents of Indian feudalism

The idea of Indian feudalism has two phases. Colonial writers such as James Tod saw a feudal order among the Rajputs. The modern debate, largely Marxist, took form in the 1950s and 60s.

(i) D. D. Kosambi proposed "feudalism from above", in which kings create landed intermediaries by grants, and "feudalism from below", in which village leaders rise as local lords.

(ii) R. S. Sharma (Indian Feudalism, 1965) argued that land grants to Brahmins and officials from the Gupta age onwards, with their administrative and judicial rights, produced a decentralised order with serfs and a decline of trade and towns.

(iii) B. N. S. Yadava applied the model to northern India of the twelfth century, D. N. Jha and K. M. Shrimali developed it, and R. N. Nandi studied its religious side and its form in the south.

Critics include Harbans Mukhia, who asks whether Indian conditions, with free peasants and no demesne farming, match feudalism, and B. D. Chattopadhyaya and Burton Stein, who offer instead an "integrative polity" and the "segmentary state" of the Cholas.

(b) Defects in Alberuni's assessment of Indian society

Alberuni (c. 1030 CE), who wrote the Kitab-ul-Hind, learned Sanskrit and was a careful observer, but the work has defects.

(i) Textual bias. He relied on Brahmanical Sanskrit works, such as the Puranas, the Gita and Manu, so his picture is of the priestly ideal and not of the lived society.

(ii) Narrow contact. He stayed in the north-west, in Punjab and with pandits of Kashmir, and did not travel widely, so the south and east, and peasants, artisans and women, are little seen.

(iii) Rigid view of caste. He presents varna and the outcaste groups as fixed, and overlooks jati and local variation.

(iv) Outsider's and conqueror's shadow. He wrote under Mahmud of Ghazni, whose raids made Indians hostile to foreigners, and some of his judgments of idolatry and Hindu "insularity" reflect his own religious viewpoint.

(v) Gaps. Economy, law and politics are treated thinly.

It remains valuable for science, religion and philosophy.

(c) Importance of Sufic literature as a historical source

Sufi literature shows the religious and social life that court chronicles omit.

(i) Malfuzat, records of a saint's conversations, such as Fawaid-ul-Fuad (Amir Hasan Sijzi, on Nizamuddin Auliya) and Khair-ul-Majalis (on Nasiruddin Chiragh-i-Dilli).

(ii) Tazkiras and letters, such as Siyar-ul-Auliya (Amir Khurd), Akhbar-ul-Akhyar (Abdul Haq Dehlavi) and the letters of Sharafuddin Maneri.

(iii) Poetry, including Hindavi Sufi romances such as Jayasi's Padmavat.

They show the working of the silsilas and khanqahs, relations with the sultans, urban life and prices, the exchange of ideas with bhakti, and the spread of the vernacular.

Cautions. They are hagiographic, exaggerate miracles, and come from the saints' point of view.

(d) Factors in the decline of the Delhi Sultanate

(i) Muhammad bin Tughlaq's schemes (capital shift, token currency, Doab tax) and revolts, which broke up the sultanate, with the Vijayanagara and Bahmani kingdoms appearing by 1347.

(ii) Firuz Shah Tughlaq's concessions: hereditary iqtas, a large slave corps and a weakened army.

(iii) Weak successors and noble factions, with the nobles independent.

(iv) Regional kingdoms: Bengal, Jaunpur, Malwa and Gujarat.

(v) Timur's invasion of 1398, which ruined Delhi and its prestige.

(vi) Weak Sayyid and Lodi rule, with Afghan chiefs as rivals of the Sultan, until Babur beat Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat in 1526.

(e) Alauddin Khalji's agrarian policy and its measures

The intermediaries, the khuts, muqaddams and chaudhuris, collected revenue from the peasants while paying the state little, and lived in comfort. Alauddin cut them down.

(i) Measurement (paimaish) of land and revenue fixed at half the produce (kharaj), paid by all alike.

(ii) Loss of privileges. The khuts and muqaddams lost their special share and exemptions, and paid the same taxes as others, including on houses and pasture (ghari and charai).

(iii) Direct collection by royal officials, with audit of accounts by the Diwan-i-Mustakhraj.

(iv) Resumption of land grants, such as inam, milk and waqf lands.

Barani records that the headmen could no longer ride horses or live in comfort. The aims were to fund the army and strengthen the centre, but the policy was harsh on the peasants, and did not long survive him.