Who set up the separate department called, 'diwan-i-amir-i-kohi' ?

Question

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Correct — option (2), Muhammad bin Tughlaq. He established the diwan-i-amir-i-kohi as a dedicated department of agriculture — the first such attempt by a Delhi Sultan to treat cultivation as a matter of separate state administration rather than leaving it purely to the general revenue machinery. Its declared purpose was to extend the area under cultivation, particularly in the Doab, by advancing takkavi loans to peasants for seed and implements and by encouraging superior crops and better methods, including a large state-run model farm. The scheme is remembered as an ambitious but poorly executed experiment: it coincided with, and was undermined by, the same sultan's Doab tax increases and a run of famine years, so the department's good intentions did not translate into the agrarian recovery it was meant to produce. It sits alongside his token-currency experiment and the transfer of the capital to Daulatabad as one of the three projects historians point to when discussing Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reputation as a ruler of bold ideas and disastrous execution.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Alauddin Khalji's administrative reputation rests on a different set of institutions — market-control regulations to fix the prices of grain and other goods, and an agrarian settlement that raised the state's share of produce and measured land more systematically (masahat) to fund his standing army. He did not establish the diwan-i-amir-i-kohi; that department belongs to Muhammad bin Tughlaq, roughly two decades later.  (c) Balban's administration is remembered for centralising royal authority — the 'blood and iron' policy of crushing the Chahalgani nobility, insisting on rigid court ceremonial, and running an effective network of intelligence-gatherers (barids) to keep watch over his officers. Agricultural administration through a dedicated diwan was not part of his programme, and the diwan-i-amir-i-kohi postdates his reign.  (d) Firoz Shah Tughlaq is genuinely associated with agrarian welfare — most famously the network of canals he dug, including one feeding the Yamuna, to extend irrigation — which makes him a tempting answer here. But that irrigation programme is distinct from, and later than, the diwan-i-amir-i-kohi, which was Muhammad bin Tughlaq's department; Firoz Shah is separately credited with departments such as the diwan-i-khairat (charity) and diwan-i-bandagan (slaves), not this one.

Concept: The diwan-i-amir-i-kohi was Muhammad bin Tughlaq's attempt to make agricultural expansion a direct object of state policy rather than an incidental effect of revenue collection — advancing capital (takkavi loans) to cultivators and running a model farm to demonstrate improved methods, aimed particularly at bringing the Doab's uncultivated land under the plough.

State PCS 2025 Q15 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q15 — History PYQ with Answer