Author: Vaandu Mama
Translator: Vishard
Today our country is riddled with food shortages. But many centuries ago, an Indian had worked on land reforms, devising a system to measure land-tax and eradicated the suffering of the farmers.
His name was Raja Thodarmal. Famed as one of the 9 gems of Akbar’s court. He was not born into royalty. He was born in present day Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur District, in a village called Laharpur. During that time, the government officials used to exploit the poor farmers for too much land-tax. Thodarmal did not like this at all. He used to argue “To run the country, tax money is required. But to get this money the poor farmer’s should not suffer”. Although Thodarmal was a poor steward in his area, he used to advise his superiors on ways to gather land-tax without burdening the farmers.
As time went by Thodarmal’s ability reached the ears of Akbar. In the year 1573 Akbar successfully conquered Gujarat. Akbar left the responsibility of guarding his new territory and getting the land-tax in the hands of Thodarmal. Thodarmal measured the lands and graded them based on their produce. The land-tax would be gathered based on this assessment. In around two years, this system became very profitable. The farmers were ready to pay the tax, which was now fairly charged and the royal coffers filled with the tax money. Akbar was so impressed with Thodarmal that he handed the responsibility of collecting tax for the whole of the kingdom to him. Thodarmal was honoured with the title ‘Raja’.
Thodarmal divided Akbar’s huge nation into 182 zones. Every zone generated around 1 crore rupees in land revenue. Every zone was under the supervision of an official called ‘Karodi’. Earlier these ‘Karodi’s’ used to be very cruel and exploited the farmers. They used to demand tax as per their whims and fancies. Once Thodarmal was appointed in charge he saw to it that such Karodi’s were severely punished. Many Karodi’s were even imprisoned.
During Thodarmal’s time, the land was measured using Jute ropes. These ropes had a tendency to shrink when wet, and expand when dry, This proved a problem for accurate measurement. To solve this problem, Thodarmal came up with a system of using long bamboo sticks strengthened with iron to measure land. He ordered the village superintendents to measure the lands, and submit their records to the government. As the head of the revenue department, Thodarmal classified lands into 4 categories - Bolaj, Badthi, Saasar, Panjar. Bolaj was the type of ground which provided yield twice a year. It was the highest in the land ranking system. Badthi was the type of land that was uncultivated after one year harvest. Saasar was the land that has been left uncultivated for 3-4 years. This way, land revenue was fixed based on produce, on an area equivalent to modern day acre.
Thodarmal brought many improvements to the revenue system and helped the country’s economy grow. Traditionally, the tax was filed using food grains. Thodarmal introduced a reform here as well. Now, the tax could be filed through an equal amount of money as well, based on the average cost of the grains from the last 10 years. The farmers could also pay tax in the form of grain itself. The farmers were relieved from tax, or had to pay only a part of it during times of famine. This was called the ‘Dakkavi’ system. This way he was a god for the farmers, and reduced the earnings of the tax officials, proving to be an enemy for them.
Thodarmal wished that Hindus should hold positions of high esteem within the government, like Muslims. This is why he wrote a book about taxation in the Persian Language. The Hindus who read the book indirectly learned Persian, making it easier for them to get a job at Akbar’s court.
He convinced Akbar to remove the Jizya tax that was imposed on non-muslims, stating that it was unfair. Though he served in a high position at a muslim court, he never forgot that he was a Hindu. He would not do any work without completing his prayer. Only when he went to the court did he dress like the Mughals and spoke their language. Thodarmal believed that wearing the Turk’s attire and speaking his language would not convert him into a Turk. He did not accept Akbar’s new religion ‘Din-i-illahi’ and considered it best for a Hindu to remain Hindu.
Not only was Thodarmal a clever administrator, he was a brave warrior too. Akbar relied one Thodarmal during difficult situations. There was frequent rioting in Bengal, since it was very far from Delhi, To subdue Bengal Akbar sent Thodarmal there. In a span of just 4 years, Thodarmal restored peace in Bengal. Similarly, he helped subdue Sultan Jabbar of Gujarat.
During this period, the Mansabdari system was prevalent. Under this system, Mansabdars maintained foot soldiers and horse troops for the empire, and were paid a salary for that. The salary was for maintaining the troops, but the Mansabdars used it for their personal work and rented horses when the emperor checked on them. To prevent this from happening, Thodarmal introduced a system of branding horses. This way, Royal horses could be identified easily. This prevented counterfeiting. Thodarmal also instructed the Mansabdars to maintain a list of the names of all the foot-soldiers they maintained.
Thodarmal also made arrangements to ensure supply of food, clothing and weapons to soldiers of war. Akbar’s faith in Thodarmal was unshakable. When Akbar left for Kashmir in 1598, he left Thodarmal in charge of the kingdom. This was the amount of trust and respect he had for Thodarmal. Even Thodarmal’s enemies praised him for his honesty and clever administration.
Thodarmal had now aged. He wanted to spend his last leg of life at Haridwar. His request was accepted by Akbar. While he was leaving for Haridwar he received a message from Akbar, reading “Service to mankind is the highest form of prayer”. Thodarmal understood that the kingdom required a few more years of his service and came back to the capital.
14 days after this incident, Thodarmal was killed by an enemy. The person who killed him had been punished by Thodarmal for some crime earlier and wanted revenge. It is indeed sad that this wise and able administrator had a such disgraceful end to his life