Cause of the Failure of Muhammad-bin-Tughluq

Cause of the Failure of Muhammad-bin-Tughluq

Muhammad-bin-Tughluq is an intricate character of the history of pre-Mughal period. His life and reign is a symbol of failures. In spite of all his virtues, ability, wisdom and caring for the welfare of the people, he failed completely. His failures are responsible partly due to his uncertain character and personality and partly due to adverse circumstances then prevailing. Although the personality of the Sultan was quite attractive and he had many virtues, yet there were some shortcomings which led to his decline.

Muhammad-bin-Tughluq was a man of very hot temperament, and he soon got annoyed on trivial matters. He often lost mental equilibrium due to anger and treated the people very harshly. Hence the people began to oppose him and feelings of discontentment began to rise rapidly among the people.

He was an inefficient judge of human qualities, nor could he understand the time of actor. He did not appoint efficient persons in the empire. He was often deceived by those he trusted. He could not adjust himself with the passage of time. Perhaps he was such ahead of his time.

The liberal and secular policy of Muhammad-bin-Tughluq also led to his downfall. He discarded the privileges of the Ulema and reduced their influence. Hence the Ulema became his staunch opponents and they poured venom in the ears of Muslims against his secular policy.

It was the bad luck of the sultan that people failed to understand his schemes properly. Although his aim was to do good to the people, yet most of his schemes failed for want of the support and cooperation of the people. His scheme of token currency was much ahead of the time and people could not understand it.

The sultan also lacked a band of competent and influential officers. Most of his officials were corrupt and greedy. Hence the success of his schemes was doubtful from the very outset due to lack of efficient officials.

Muhammad-bin-Tughluq got the support of foreign Amirs in order to curb the power of local Turkish nobles. They were called Amiran-i-Sadah. Unfortunately the Amirn-i-Sadah proved selfish, greedy and ungrateful. They not only deceived the Sultan but also raised standards of revolt in the country all round and they moved heaven and earth to bring about the failure of the Sultan.

The empire of Muhammad-bin-Tughluq was quite extensive. It was very difficult to control the entire empire from Delhi due to the lack of means of transport and communication. Once the revolts started, they could not be crushed in spite of the best efforts of the Sultan and at last he failed in his objective of establishing peace.

It seems that Muhammad-bin-Tughluq had a strange fate. Besides men, nature was also against him several famines, droughts and epidemics broke out during the reign. The natural calamities destroyed the economic prosperity of the entire Sultanate and discontentment went on rising the empire which ultimately not only added to the decline of Muhammad-bin-Tughluq but also led to the downfall of the Tughluq empire.

Milan Tomic

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