how beggars and magta caste was created in muslim rule in india

 

Beggars

LEGACY OF MUSLIM RULE IN INDIA  BY  K S Lal page 265

The story of the exploitation of the poor, both rural and urban, is unending. And the guiding principle of this pernicious practice was to leave the people with bare subsistence. No foreign traveller fails to notice it with disapproval if not actual disgust. It would appear that the lords and the upper classes in Turco-Mughal India derived a cynical pleasure in oppressing the poor. The result was as expected. Artisans, workers and labourers became lazy. Scarcely any one made an effort to climb the ladder to better prospects,166 so that for a job which one man would do in Holland, here passes through four mens hands before it is finished.167 Such exploitation in the Mughal period provided droves of khidmatgars to British officers and men when they established and ran their Raj in this country. Poorest of the poor Before closing, a word may be said about the exploitation of the poorest of the poor, the beggars and the handicapped. Muslim law decrees mutilation as punishment for certain crimes and a large number of healthy people were blinded, mutilated and made physically handicapped under Muslim rule. The punishments of sultans like Balban and Muhammad bin Tughlaq were terribly severe. Alauddin Khalji had ordered that if any shopkeeper sold any article short-weight, a quantity of flesh equal to the deficiency in weight was to be cut off from his haunches.168 Firoz Tughlaq lists some of the punishments for common offences, which were prevalent before his time. These comprised of cutting of hands and feet, noses and ears, putting out eyes, pulverizing the bones with mallets, burning parts of the body, nailing the hands and feet, hamstringing etc., etc.169 As seen earlier, many cultivators and labourers were also reduced to the position of beggars from the Sultanate through Mughal times because of high rate and severity of collection of Kharaj. All such unfortunate people could only resort to begging for a living. They were sometimes given doles and meals by kind-hearted people: free feeding (langar) was common for the poor beggars. But sometimes even such helpless people were exploited by the rich who extracted their pound of flesh even from them. An Amir by the name of Saiyyad-ul-Hijab was very close to Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq. He used to help all and sundry, but for a consideration. It is narrated, says Shams Siraj Afif, that one day a helpless faqir (beggar) approached him for assisting him get some help from the Sultan. The nobleman gave him necessary guidance for achieving his purpose. The faqir did as advised, and the Sultan ordered that the suppliant be given one tankah per day from the Zakat fund. But the help rendered was not gratuitous. The said Amir, continues Afif, after rendering help to the needy used to extract something by way of shukrana. 170 No further comment is necessary.