The economic measures of Alauddin Khalji were aimed at greater political control. Discuss.

Answer:

Alauddin Khalji's celebrated market regulations and revenue measures were not primarily welfare policies. They formed part of an integrated design to concentrate resources in the Sultan's hands, sustain a large standing army and subordinate every rival centre of power to the throne.

Market control and the army

• Prices of grain, cloth, horses, cattle and slaves were fixed, with separate markets and the shahna-i-mandi to supervise them.
• Hoarding and profiteering were punished severely, and grain was stored in state granaries.
• Low prices allowed a huge standing army to be maintained on modest cash salaries.
• That army met the Mongol threat and enabled expansion into the Deccan.

Revenue measures and the rural elite

• Land revenue in the Doab was raised to half the produce and assessed by measurement (masahat).
• The privileges of khuts, muqaddams and chaudharis were withdrawn and they were taxed like peasants.
• This broke the autonomy of the rural intermediaries who stood between state and cultivator.

Control over the nobility

• Nobles were forbidden to hold social gatherings, intermarry or drink without permission.
• Wealth was confiscated and a spy network (barid) watched them closely.
• Economic regulation thus prevented rivals from building independent bases of power.

The statement is therefore well-founded: Alauddin's economic measures were instruments of political centralisation. As Barani's account and Irfan Habib's analysis both indicate, they strengthened the army, impoverished potential rivals and made the Sultan's authority more absolute than at any earlier point in the Delhi Sultanate.