Project of The History Of Medieval India

Project title –Social and economic conditions during Delhi

sultanate
Submitted by - Anushka Singh

Enrollment No.- A172123719009

Semester- 3rd
Submitted to- Mrs. Salma Alam

Submission date- August 31, 2020

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to start my project on history by expressing gratitude to

my teachers for giving me the opportunity to present my findings on
my assigned topics in front of the whole class.

I would also like to thank my family and my friends for constantly

encouraging me during the course of this project, which I could not
have completed without their support and continuous
encouragements
CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Agriculture
 Industries
 Trade and Commerce
 Tax System
 Transport and communication
 Social and Cultural Life
 Conditions of Women
 Food Habits and Clothing
 Rise of Sufism
 Bhakti Movement
 Introduction
According to Ibn Batuta, a traveller who came from North Africa in
India during the fourteenth century, agriculture was in a state of great
progress. The soil was so fertile that it produced two crops every year;
rice being sown three times a year. There are many beautiful
mosques, palaces, forts and monuments which were built during this
period speak volumes about the grandeur of this period. During these
times, The Sultans, the rulers of the independent provincial kingdoms
and the nobles possessed vast wealth and lived a life of luxury and
pleasure.

Agriculture 
 Agriculture was a major source of occupation.
 Land was the source of production. Produce was generally
sufficient.
 The man took to the tilling and harvesting of crops,
 The women folk lend their hands in taking care of the animals;

 The other section of agricultural society was:

 Carpenters who made implements;

 Blacksmiths supplied the iron parts.
 Potters who made the household utensils
 Cobblers mended or made the shoes
 Priest performed marriage and other ceremonies.
 There were subsidiary functions which included the
moneylender, the washer man, the sweeper, the cowherd and the
barber.
 Land was the pivot of the whole village life.
 The chief crops were pulses, wheat, rice, sugarcane, jute and
cotton.
 Medicinal herbs, spices were also grown and exported,
 Production was for local consumption.
 The towns served as centres of distribution of agricultural
products and industrial goods.
 The state took a large share of the produce in kind. 

Industries 
 There were village and cottage industries.
 The labour employed were the family members;
 The technique used then was conservative.
 Weaving and spinning of cotton were the cottage industries
during that period.
 The Sultans took a hand in building up big enterprises known as
the 'Karkhanas.'
 Craftsmen were employed under the direct supervision of
officials
 Textile industry was one of the biggest industry at that time

Trade and Commerce

  Inland and foreign trade flourished under the Sultans.

 As for the internal trade we had the various classes of merchants
and shopkeepers.
 The main being The Gujaratis of the North, the Chettis of the
South, Banjaras of Rajputana were the main traders.        
 Bigger deals of commodities were made in the 'Mandis.'
 The native bankers or the Baniks used to give loans and receive
deposits.
 The chief articles of import were silks, velvets, embroidered
stuff, horses, guns, gunpowder, and some precious metals.
 The chief items of export were grain, cotton, precious stones,
indigo, hides, opium, spices and sugar.
 The countries affected by India in commerce were Iraq, Persia,
Egypt, East Africa, Malaya, Java, Sumatra, China, Central Asia and
Afghanistan.
 Boat traffic on waterways and coastal trade along the seashore
was more highly developed than now. Bengal exported sugar and rice
as well as delicate muslin and silk. The coast of Coromandel had
become a centre of textile
 Gujarat was now the entry point of foreign goods.
European Trade
 Between the middle of the 16th century and the middle of the
18th century India’s overseas trade steadily expanded.
 This was mainly due to the trading activities of the various
European companies which came to India during this period.
 But from the 7th century A.D. her seaborne trade passed into the
hands of the Arabs, who dominated the Indian Ocean and the Red sea.
 This monopoly of Indian trade by the Arabs, and the Venetians
was sought to be broken by direct trade with India by the Portuguese.
 The arrival of the Portuguese in India was followed by the
advent of other European communities and soon India’s coastal and
maritime trade was monopolised by the Europeans.
Tax Systems:
The Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate collected five categories of taxes
which fall under the economic system of the empire.
 These taxes are:
1. Ushr,
2. Kharaj,      
3. Khams,
4. Jizya and
5. Zakat.
 The main items of expenditure were expenses on the
maintenance of the army, salaries of the civil officers and the personal
expenditure of the Sultan

Transport and Communication:

 Means of transport were cheap and adequate

 Safety on the roads was satisfactory and could be covered by
insurance.
 The means of travel with Sarais at the distance of 5 kos on the
principal highways was as good as in Europe at the time. This gave
the people a sense of security.
 The Mughals paid keen attention to the quality of roads and
sarais which made communication easier.
 A uniform tax was levied on goods at the point of their entry
into the empire.
 Road cases or Rahdari was declared illegal, though it continued
to be collected by some of the local rajas. This was used to maintain
good roads.
 The Sultanate Period was in all a Golden Period which
capitalized well on both land and people of India. 
Social Life
 There was little change in the structure of the Hindu society
during this period. Traditional caste system with the Brahmins
on the upper strata of the society was prevalent. The
subservient position of women also continued and the practice
of sati was widely prevalent. The seclusion of women and the
wearing of purdah became common among the upper class
women. The Arabs and Turks brought the purdah system into
India and it became widespread among the Hindu women in
the upper classes of north India.
 
During the Sultanate period, the Muslim society remained
divided into several ethnic and racial groups. The Turks,
Iranians, Afghans and Indian Muslims developed exclusively
and there were no intermarriages between these groups. Hindu
converts from lower castes were also not given equal respect.
The Muslim nobles occupied high offices and very rarely the
Hindu nobles were given high position in the government.
The Hindus were considered zimmis or protected people for
which they were forced to pay a tax called jiziya. In the
beginning jiziya was collected as part of land tax. Firoz
Tughlaq separated it from the land revenue and
collected jiziya as a separate tax. Sometimes Brahmins were
exempted from paying jiziya.

Conditions of Women
 Women were treated unequal to men
 Occasionally they received education and many of them
had acquired scholarly fame.
 Widow remarriage was prohibited, and the widows either
became SATI in the pyre of their husbands of passed their
lives as women-hermits.
 System of Jauhar became another way to subjugate
women
 PURAH system and child marriages were imposed.
 DEVDASI system was in practice
 POLYGAMY was extensively prevalent among both the
religion
Food habits and Clothing
 Most of Hindus were vegetarians and the Muslims
consumed meat.
 Sufis of Muslims who were under their influence of
Sufism avoided eating meat.
 All sorts of clothes made of Silk, Cotton and Wool used
by both males and females.
 Ornaments were made not only of gold and silver, pearls,
diamonds, and precious stones.
Rise Of Sufism
  Mazars (tombs) and Takias ( resting place of muslim
saints) also became the centres for the propagation of
Islamic ideas.
 They were patronized by oth aristrocracy and common
people.
 Sufism were organized into religious orders of
SILSILAS.
Bhakti Movement
 The teachings of Bhakti saints were similar to those of
sufis
 They believed being united/liberated with god.
 They laid stress on love and devotions to base their
relationship with god.
 The bhakti saints attacked the rigidity in caste system in
religion and its rituals.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Shodhganaga (https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/ )
 NCERT BOOKS (https://ncert.nic.in/ )

 Satish Chandra,Medieval India : From Sultanate to Mughals, Vol.

I – II