First Finance Minister Of India: Raja Todar Mal

An excellent warrior, a clever and much-loved courtier, an amazing administrator, and an unbelievably foresighted person. He made his name from all the hardships and is remembered to date. A man who left his legacy in his administrative work.

Diwan-e-aam, the court of people; Image Source: Shivaji Raje- WordPress.com

Diwan-e-aam, just like every other day, is in its full spirit. All the ministers are settled, including the navratnas, and are waiting for their king. Outside the diwan-e-aam, the civilian people are waiting to get justice from their beloved emperor. That's when Emperor Akbar enters with the sounds of shehnaais, which marks his coming to the court, and the guard shouts at the top of his lungs, "Emperor Akbar is approaching."

Just like every other day at the diwan-e-aam. The emperor, with all his courtiers, was present when a group of people came to ask for Akbar’s aid. One of them was crying with agony and expressed his problem.

"Badshaah salamat rahe. Oh, Lord, my agricultural produce this year was poor, and your officers are asking me to provide revenue that is greater than what I produced. How could a poor farmer give this much and the soldiers beat the farmers who failed to give the required amount? "

Akbar was in deep thought. "It is true that sometimes with a lack of rain, the farmer faces a crisis, but how to solve this? The revenue has to be collected. If not, then everyone would ask for relief. "

After giving it a thought, he said, "Do not worry my people, there is a person who could have a solution to your problems" and directed it towards Raja Todarmal, "Todarmal sa, why don't you give a solution to this?"

"Ji jahanpanah, but give me 2 days' time."

A boy born around the 1500s in the Laharpur district with the name Al Tandon, who knew he would be the one leaving his legacy when he had no means of livelihood. Losing your father at a very young age is no less than losing a shed in heavy rain. It's as if you've lost a piece of yourself when the one to look after you is no longer there.

That didn't stop the boy from living for his mother. Living in a society where being a widow is no less than a sin committed. She brought her son up very well and made him capable enough to make a living for himself.

Moving to Delhi from Laharpur, leaving his mother behind, would have been heartbreaking when the mother and son duo were living for each other only. Yet the mother made herself strong and bid her son a good farewell with all the best wishes to make a name in the huge city of Delhi.

Todar Mal started his career as a mere writer and, with his intellect, he moved to higher ranks under Sher Shah Suri’s rule. The toll tax that we are paying in this modern era was actually started under Sher Shah Suri’s rule. To define a finance minister in the present definition from the past, then it would not be wrong to address Todar Mal as the first finance minister of India.

He kept working in silence, and it was one such day when the turning point in his life came. He was entrusted with the work of the longest road at that time, from Peshawar to Calcutta. Impressed with his work, Suri honoured him by making him the Raja of Pratishthanpuri. And that's how Todar Mal became Raja Todar Mal. After the fall of the Sur dynasty, Todarmal made quite a good living for himself.

On a very fine day, Akbar was going through the revenues and finances of the empire at the court when he found that they were not getting enough revenues for the court nor from their military campaigns. That's when Raja Todarmal intervened. He was invited by Akbar to become a guest at his court because he was highly impressed by Sher Shah Suri's financial rule, and the person behind that was Raja Todar Mal. He showed the flaws in Khwaja Malik Imtiad's calculations. If Imtiad’s strategies were pushed a little bit more, the collection of revenues would decline drastically.

After this, Akbar elected Raja Todar Mal as his finance minister, and he, with his amazing skills in policymaking, remodelled the entire revenue system. He introduced the new revenue system and taxation system, zabt, and the latter part is dashala. He surveyed the past 10 years' crop yields and the price of taxes, after which he fixed taxes on each crop with regard to the yield they had. He was the first one to start the collection of revenue in rupees before it was collected in kind. This system is known as Todar Mal’s bandobast, which made him a legend in Indian history by leaving his legacy. This system was later adopted by the British, and it is still in use in modern India.

The case was resumed after two days, and Todarmal presented a solution to the problem.

"Shenshaah, if they are not able to give the fixed price, then how about during a time of crisis, the farmers can pay one-third of whatever they grew to the empire, and this will not affect the royal treasury either." said Raja Todar Mal.

Listening to the solution, the emperor and the farmer were very satisfied. Akbar gave him a present for his skills, due to which they would not be at any loss.

It was not his only contribution while serving under Akbar, but a number of them, including establishing Persian as the official language and translating Bhagad Puraan into Persian. Though he worked under the Islamic emperors, he dutifully performed his duties towards his own religion. It included the remodifying work of the Kashi Vishwanath temple.

And everyone and everything had to end somewhere. Raja Todarmal died of natural death in the year 1589, and the city of Lahore saw one of the largest funerals on the banks of the river Ravi outside Morigate. With this, the life of Todarmal ended, but his name made a place in history.

Painting of Raja Todar Mal; Image Source: Wikipedia