Administration of Sur Dynasty

• Sher Shah Suri established a sound and strong administrative system. His reign lasted only for five years, but even within this brief period, he evolved a system of administration which remained substantially unchanged till the advent of the British in India.
  • Sher Shah Suri was assisted by important ministers:
    • Diwan –i- Wizarat, also called as Wazir – in charge of Revenue and Finance.
    • Diwan-i-Ariz – in charge of Army.
    • Diwan-i-Rasalat – Foreign Minister.
    • Diwan-i-Insha – Minister for Communications.
  • Akbar’s system of government was fundamentally based on that of Sher Shah.
• Sher Shah’s empire was divided into forty seven sarkars. Each sarkar was divided into several parganas. A number of sarkars were clubbed into provinces.
  • Chief Shiqdar (law and order) and Chief Munsif (judge) were the two officers in charge of the administration in each sarkar.
  • Shiqdar (military officer), Amin (land revenue), Fotedar (treasurer) Karkuns (accountants) were in charge of the administration of each pargana.
• The Paragana was under the charge of the shiqdar, who maintained law and order and general administration.
• The Munsif or Amil looked after the collection of land revenue. Above the Pargana was the Shiq or Sarkar under the charge of the Siqdar-i-shiqdaran and a Munsif-i-Munsifan.
• He took special care for organizing the revenue administration of his kingdom. Land was surveyed on a uniform system with each holding being separately measured. The lands were divided into good, bad and middling. The assessment was liberal but the collections were strict, as one-third of the gross produce of land was taken as revenue. People could pay the taxes directly either in kind or cash.
• He took special care to protect the interest of the peasants. The rights of the peasants were duly recognized and the liabilities of each were clearly defined in the kabuliyat (deed of agreement), which the State took from him, and the patta (title-deed), which it gave him in return. It minimised the scope for confusion and oppression.
• The military administration was also efficiently reorganized and Sher Shah borrowed many ideas like the branding (dagh) of horses with imperial signs from Alauddin Khalji. Each soldier had his descriptive roll (chehra) recorded.
• Malik Muhammad Jayasi wrote the famous Hindi work Padmavat during his reign.

Religion

• Sher Shah was the first, among the Muslim rulers to recognize the fact that India was the land of the Hindus and the Muslims alike and he tried his best to reconcile the two elements as far as possible.
  • He extended equal treatment to all sections of his subjects irrespective of the faith they professed.
• Some of the most responsible officials, civil and military, were recruited from among the Hindus. He administered justice with strict impartiality and kept effective vigilance on the conduct of the judicial officers.
• Sher Shah did not, however, initiate any new liberal policies. Jizya continued to be collected from the Hindus, while his nobility was drawn almost exclusively from the Afghans.

Economy

• He introduced a reformed system of currency and struck fine coins of gold, silver and copper of uniform standard in place of the debased coins of mixed metals. His silver coin was known as Rupiya and copper coin was known as Daam.
• His silver rupee remained a standard coin for centuries after him. He is credited with the introduction of custom duty. He also considerably improved the means of communication.
• He restored the famous Grand Trunk Road running from Bengal to Punjab, and planted trees and established resting places (Sarai) along the roads to facilitate movement of the troops and to give boost to trade and commerce.
  • He extended the Grand Trunk Road from Chittagong in the frontiers of the province of Bengal in northeast India to Kabul in Afghanistan in the far northwest of the country.
  • Sher Shah had also improved the communications by laying four important highway They were:
    1. Sonargaon to Sind
    2. Agra to Burhampur
    3. Jodhpur to Chittor and
    4. Lahore to Multan.
• He also linked places like Chittor to the seaports of Gujarat.
• Moreover, he ensured law and order with very severe penalty for harming the traders and directed his governors to treat merchants and travellers well in every way.
• Also, Sher Shah introduced a system of horse-posts or mail service carried by the horses and was very solicitous for the welfare of the peasantry.