"The policy of creating heterogeneous nobility by Muhammad Tughluq started the process of disintegration of Delhi Sultanate". Explain.

Answer:

Muhammad bin Tughlaq broke with the tradition of a narrow Turkish racial aristocracy and recruited his nobility from a wide range of origins. The policy was rational in intention but, combined with his severity and his failed projects, it provoked the rebellions that began the Sultanate's disintegration.

The old and the new nobility

• Balban had confined high office to men of Turkish birth, the so-called chahalgani tradition.
• Muhammad Tughlaq threw offices open to Indian Muslims, Afghans, Persians and converts.
• Barani complains bitterly that men of low birth, including a barber, a cook and a weaver's son, were elevated.
• Foreigners (aizza) were welcomed and given high rank and iqtas.
• Merit and personal loyalty replaced descent as the criterion of advancement.

Why the policy was adopted

• It widened the pool of talent available to an expanding empire.
• It reduced dependence on an old aristocracy that had repeatedly challenged the throne.
• Men raised from obscurity were expected to be more loyal to their patron.
• It suited the Sultan's rationalist and experimental temper.

Why it contributed to disintegration

• The old nobility was alienated and its resentment turned to conspiracy.
• The new men often lacked administrative experience and provincial standing.
• A nobility without common origin or tradition lacked cohesion and esprit de corps.
• Governors appointed from these varied groups rebelled repeatedly across the empire.
• The Sultan's severe punishments deepened fear and disloyalty.

The wider context

• The transfer of the capital to Daulatabad and the token currency had already shaken confidence.
• The Deccan revolt produced the Bahmani kingdom in 1347 and Vijayanagara soon after.
• Bengal and other provinces broke away in the same period.
• Barani's hostility must be discounted, since he wrote as a spokesman of the displaced aristocracy.

The statement therefore has real force, though it needs qualification. As historians such as Satish Chandra observe, a heterogeneous nobility was a defensible response to the needs of a vast empire, but pursued abruptly and alongside unpopular experiments it destroyed the cohesion of the ruling class, and the provincial rebellions that followed began the Sultanate's long decline.