M.

MOHAMM
EDZAHEER
31321112
M.A POLITICAL SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS, CHEUPAK

INDIAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

ZIAUDDIN BARANI:
Barani was born to a Muslim family in 1285 in which his father, uncle, and grandfather all
worked in high government posts under the Sultan of Delhi. His family was natives of Meerut
and Bulandsahar. His maternal grandfather Husamud-Din, was an important officer of Ghiyas
ud din Balban and his father Muwayyid-ul-Mulk held the post of naib of Arkali Khan, the son
of Jalaluddin Firuz Khalji. His uncle Qazi Ala-ul-Mulk was the Kotwal (police chief) of
Delhi during the reign of Ala-ud-Din Khalji. He wrote two pieces dealing with government,
religion, and history, Fatawa-I-Jahandari is one of the famous political theory of Khwaja
Ziauddin Barani.
THEORY OF KINGSHIP:
Ideal Sultan
 Sultan should be noble born- preferably belonging to the family of the monarch
 Sultan is an agent of god on earth to the welfare of the people (Divine Right Theory)
 Sultan should follow Shariath in personal life he may or may not follow it but in
public life he has to strictly follow it.
An ideal Sultan is one:
 Who has sense of justice
 Wise enough to understand deception and conspiracies
 Understand the importance of time and divide it wisely between his personal
and political life’s needs.
 Sultan must desist from five mean qualities- falsehood, changeability,
deception, wrathfulness and injustice.
NOBILITY:
 The nobility was the second component of the monarchy.
 The nobles were the sultan’s chosen individuals who were assigned the right to collect
taxes in particular territories / lands.
 Land was known as iqta and the one who in charge of land was known as iqtadar
 The surplus product by the peasants were distributed among the iqtadaars.
 Iqtadaars were also required to maintain their army and send same to sultan whenever
he asked for it.
 The iqtas (land) were frequently transferred from one person to another person which
made them non-hereditary
 The iqtadaars were also part of sultan’s royal council which advised the king on
policy matters
 That’s why barani advised sultan to be careful in their selections
 For this purpose, barani assigned main two qualifications:
 The iqtaadar should be noubleborn with loyalty (personal and political)
 They must possess the quality of sound political judgment
  To know second quality, he prescribes nine conditions
 Such as fear of god, knowledge of history, lack of greed, practical knowledge
of state affairs.
Ideal Polity
LAWS:
 Barani categories laws into two kinds, the Shariath and the Zawabit
 Shariat means the teaching and practice of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) and the
pious caliphs
 Zawabit were the state laws created by sultan according to circumstance where
Shariat was unable to implement
 The zawabit must be in spirit of the shariat and should follow four conditions:
 Zawabit should not negate the shariat
 It must increase the loyalty and hopes among the nobles and people towards sultan
 Its source and inspiration should be the shariat
 If it has to negate the shariat in certain conditions, it must follow charities and
compensation
 Thus, for him zawabit law was an ideal law which could cater the needs of state and
its people without offending any section of the nobility.
ARMY:
 After the Mauryas, the sultanate was the largest and most powerful state in India
 Army was based on Turkish-Mongol model.
 It was divided into four parts:
1. Infantry (foot soldiers)
2. Cavalry (horsemen)
3. War elephants
4. Auxiliary (engineers, transports, spices etc)
 The cavalry was further divided into three wings:
1. Mumattab (a soldier without horse)
2. Sawar (a soldier with single horse)
3. Do-aspab (a soldier with two horses)
 The rank of army was Khan, Malik, Amir, Sipashsalar etc. they were either paid in
cash or assigned revenues of different villages.
 The main function of the army was security and expansion of state, barai advised king
to take greater care of army.
 The sultan also maintained personal troops called qalb for his safety.
BUREAUCRACY:
 The basic function of bureaucracy was to measure the land and fix and collect taxes
 It operated at three levels i.e. Centre, Province and Village.
 The Diwan -I-Wazarat headed by a wazir (the head of revenue and finance, also
known as PM)
 He was assisted by a Naib, Mushafir-I-Mamalik, Mustawfi-I-Malik And Dabirs
 At the provincial level, the administration was headed by muqtis or walis.
 Below Muqtis or Walis was the Diwan (minister of revenue) i.e. provincial Wazir
 At the village level, the head was known as Muqaddam, Chudhari etc.
 JUSTICE:
 Justice for Barani was most important in the administration
 Because justice was required everywhere i.e. from remission of land tax to supply of
commodities to buyers at production cost and from dispensing civil and criminal cases
to granting monetary help to the needy.
 To justice at market, he advised king to set the price of commodities according to the
principle of production cost.
 He suggested the Diwani-I-Riyasat (the controller general of market) and the
Shahana-I-Mandi (the superintendent of the grain market) and other officials should
control irregularities in the market.
 To dispense justice the court were divided into civil and criminal categories and the
operated at central and provincial levels.
 The judges were to appointed by the king, with himself as highest court of appeal.
 Below him were Quazi-I-Quzat (chief judge), Sadr-Us-Sadur or Sadr-Ul-Mulk
(provincial judge)
 Amir-I-Dad Bek-I-Hazrat (central judicial officers), Qazi, Amir-Idad (judicial officer
at provincial level), Muhtasibs (municipal officers and moral censors)
 The king in dealing with religious cases were assisted by mufti and Sadur-Us-Sadur
while in secular cases he was assisted by Qazi-Ul-Quzat.
Views of Barani:
Taking all these factors into account, Barani came to the conclusion that a truly Islamic
state based on faith (din-dari) was not feasible in India. All that was feasible was an
Islamic state based worldly considerations (dunya-dari). In such a state, the head of the
state, the Sultan, had to be a God-fearing Muslims; Saiyyids religious scholars, sheikhs
etc were to be honored and given employment; holy wars (jihad) and holy campaigns
were be waged against the neighboring rajas and chiefs; and Muslims not allowed to flout
the holy law in their public behavior so that sins and impurity, wickedness and wrong
doing sink low. Barani makes it clear, however, what the sultan did in private, or a citizen
in his house was not the concern of the state.
Citations and Reference
The political theory of Delhi
sultanate-https://ia801603.us.archive.org/7/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.120819/2015.120819.The-Political-
Theory-Of-The-Delhi-Sultanate.pdf

Political Philosophy of Zia-ud-Din Barani Prof. Dr. Riaz Ahmad-

http://nihcr.edu.pk/Latest_English_Journal/Pjhc%2025-1%202004/2-Political%20Philosophy%20of
%20Zia.pdf

Azizuddin Husain (ed.): Ziauddin Barani, Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi (reviewed by Florian Saalfeld)-
https://www.recensio.net/rezensionen/zeitschriften/sehepunkte/17/07/ziauddin-barani-tarikh-i-firoz-shahi