Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, who ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1325 to 1351, is one of the most controversial figures in Indian history. He was a man of exceptional intellect, with a deep knowledge of philosophy, logic, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. He was also a skilled linguist, fluent in Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Turkish. Despite his vast intellectual capacity, his reign was often associated with foolishness and disaster, leading to the epithet “the wisest fool.”
The reason for this paradox lies in the gap between his visionary ideas and their flawed implementation. His reign was marked by a series of ambitious but poorly executed policies that brought immense suffering and instability. For example, he decided to shift the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad to better administer his vast empire. However, he ordered the entire population of Delhi to move, causing a devastating and difficult journey that led to many deaths. Eventually, recognizing the impracticality of the move, he attempted to return the capital to Delhi, but the reversal caused further hardship and discontent.
Another famous blunder was the introduction of a token currency. Facing a global shortage of silver, he issued copper coins and declared them to be of equal value to silver coins. While the idea itself was innovative, he failed to control the minting process, leading to widespread counterfeiting. The economy was thrown into chaos as fake coins flooded the market, ultimately forcing him to withdraw the policy and exchange the worthless copper coins for gold and silver from the royal treasury.
Furthermore, his decision to increase taxes in the fertile Doab region coincided with a severe famine, causing farmers to abandon their land and rebel. These policies, though perhaps born from a desire for progress, were implemented without practical consideration for the well-being of his subjects, ultimately causing more harm than good. In the annals of history, he is remembered as a ruler whose intellect was ahead of his time but was destroyed by a lack of proper planning and execution.
