From Farid to Sher Shah

“Half of history is made up of unexpected events that will force the stream into a different course.” Zulfiqar Ali Khan of undivided India starts the biography of Sher Shah Suri with this quote from Doudan. Sher Shah Suri was born in a relatively obscure family Farid Khan. Neither through his birth nor through his family, was he expected to turn the tides of time in his favour. As normal jagirdars, they were living, enjoying all the facilities that rulers allowed for jagirdars.

Farid Khan: Image Source: News9live

It was his grandfather Ibrahim Khan Sur who first became the jagirdar from his family. He was a horse trader at first. Then Sikandar Lodhi appointed him as jagirdar (landlord) of Narnaul, situated in today’s Punjab. The ruler also appointed his father Farid Khan as the leader of the Afghan freebooters in Sasaram. Even though there is a debate about his birthplace, it is mostly regarded as Sarasam.

Hasan, the father of Farid had a lot of wives and eight children but Nizam Khan was the only brother that Farid had from his mother. As usual in any polygamous family, the things at home were not good for Farid. Due to the malice of one of the stepmothers who was close to his father, Farid was driven out of his home. When he had an inkling that his father was of the same opinion as his stepmother, he went to the king of Jaunpur Jamal Khan who was the patron of his father. Farid was extremely interested in learning and Jaunpur was a fertile land for education. He quickly mastered history, literature, and poetry.

After some time, when Hasan started missing Farid, he wrote to Jamal Khan “Faríd Khán, being annoyed with me, has gone to you without sufficient cause. I trust in your kindness to appease him, and send him back; but if refusing to listen to you, he will not return, I trust you will keep him with you, for I wish him to be instructed in religious and polite learning”

Jamal Khan requested Farid to go home. But he refused and wrote a reply to his father “ If my father wants me back to instruct me in learning, there are in this city many learned men: I will study here”

Along with poetry and literature, Farid also began to learn religious texts and ethics. This helped Farid later in his life as a ruler. Later, Hasan visited Jamal Khan and offered young Farid the ownership of a territory. Farid accepted the offer and said “I shall devote myself to increasing the prosperity of the district and that depends on a just administration”

When the father understood that his son is going to make a revolution, he gathered every official like the chief (Muqaddam), cultivators (Muzarin), and accountants (patwaris) and informed them about the intention of his son and he commanded them to treat people fairly as Farid considered the welfare of his subjects just like his reputation. He warned them against corruption and harming the people of the territory.

One of the best things he had done in his father’s estate was the land revenue system. He fixed land revenue and made it more objective and then warned the official to take more than the fixed amount as revenue. He said “I shall myself audit the accounts and debit the excess to you”

This system really worked well as the peasants were the primary beneficiaries of such professionalism. They had to only pay as per the condition of their field as he had categorized the territories into different parts according to their fertility. Sher Shah Suri became famous beyond the boundaries, but the intrigues of his stepmother keep haunting him.