Who founded a separate department called ‘Diwan-i-amir-i-kohi’ to improve agriculture?
- (a)Alauddin Khalji
- (b)Muhammad Tughlaq
- (c)Firoz Tughlaq
- (d)Sher Shah Suri
Correct — B, Muhammad Tughlaq.
Diwan-i-amir-i-kohi was a separate department of agriculture created in the reign of Muhammad Tughlaq (Muhammad bin Tughlaq, 1325–1351). The officer in charge was styled amir-i-kohi.
Its brief was practical: bring waste and uncultivated land under the plough and move cultivators towards more valuable crops. The state advanced agricultural loans, called sondhar, for seed, wells and the cost of ploughing.
The experiment was confined to a selected tract and was given up within a few years. Ziauddin Barani, writing in the next reign, records that the land chosen was poor and much of the money never reached cultivation.
Carry away: the 'kohi' department is Muhammad bin Tughlaq's agriculture experiment, and it is remembered alongside his other administrative experiments rather than with later irrigation work.
- (a)Alauddin Khalji — Alauddin Khalji's intervention in the countryside was fiscal rather than developmental. He assessed revenue on measured land (masahat), pitched the kharaj at half the produce, and ran price and supply controls in Delhi through the Diwan-i-Riyasat and the shahna-i-mandi.
He is the right answer to Diwan-i-Mustakhraj, the department set up to enquire into and realise revenue arrears. Its business was recovering what the treasury was owed, which is collection rather than cultivation.
- (c)Firoz Tughlaq — This is the closest rival, because Firoz Shah Tughlaq genuinely did work on the land — canals drawn from the Yamuna and the Sutlej, new towns, orchards, and a water cess (haqq-i-sharb) on fields watered by state canals.
But his contribution took the form of irrigation and public works, not the department named in the stem. He is the right answer to Diwan-i-Khairat, the charity department that helped poor families meet marriage expenses, and to the department of slaves, Diwan-i-Bandagan.
- (d)Sher Shah Suri — Sher Shah Suri ruled 1540–1545, well after the Tughlaq period in which this department belongs. His agrarian work rests on measurement: survey by the sikandari gaz and the jarib, and the ray schedule of crop rates.
He is the right answer to the patta-and-qabuliyat settlement, which gave each peasant a written statement of holding and dues. That is a revenue-assessment reform, a different instrument from a department created to extend cultivation.
The central administration of the Delhi Sultanate was organised into diwans — departments each named for its function, usually in Persian. Diwan-i-wizarat handled finance, diwan-i-arz the army, diwan-i-insha correspondence, diwan-i-risalat religious and charitable matters.
Rulers added departments for whatever they wanted pushed. So a diwan's name is a compressed statement of one ruler's priority, and the examinable skill is joining the name to the ruler who created it.
Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign is studied as a set of administrative experiments — the shift of the capital to Daulatabad, the token currency, the Khurasan project. The agriculture department belongs on that list.
Where the coinage and capital measures reorganised money and the seat of government, this one aimed at what the land produced.
It also sits on the wider theme of how the Sultanate treated the peasantry: extract more, or invest first and collect later.
- Diwan-i-amir-i-kohi (also written Diwan-i-Kohi) was a department of agriculture created under Muhammad bin Tughlaq, who reigned from 1325 to 1351.
- The officer heading the department was styled amir-i-kohi.
- Its purpose was to extend the area under cultivation and to shift land towards more valuable crops.
- Agricultural loans advanced by the state to cultivators in this period are referred to as sondhar.
- The scheme was tried on a selected tract of land and was abandoned within a few years.
- Ziauddin Barani's Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi is a principal contemporary account of the scheme and its failure.
- Alauddin Khalji created Diwan-i-Mustakhraj for revenue arrears; Firoz Shah Tughlaq created Diwan-i-Khairat for charity.
The stem asks for a department founded to improve agriculture. The highlighted row is that department; the other three rows are the fiscal, irrigation and welfare instruments those rulers are known for.
- Both Tughlaqs did agrarian work. Firoz Shah's canals make him sound like the agriculture ruler, but the department named 'kohi' was created under Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
- The prefix 'Diwan-i-' is shared by many departments; the mark rides entirely on the second element — kohi, khairat, mustakhraj, arz, riyasat, bandagan.
- Reducing Muhammad bin Tughlaq's experiments to the capital shift and the token currency leaves the agriculture department outside the cluster, after which it is free to attach itself to the wrong ruler.
- 'Improve agriculture' can pull the mind towards revenue reform. Assessment reforms such as Sher Shah's measurement fixed what the peasant paid; this department was meant to change what he grew and how much land he ploughed.
- Alauddin Khalji's price controls touched grain, which reads as an agricultural measure. They regulated the Delhi market, not cultivation.
This idea appears as a direct attribution — a department, office or reform is named and you supply the ruler, or the ruler is named and you supply the institution.
It also appears as match-the-pairs, with three or four Persian office titles against their functions, and as statement-based items where one statement gives the department's purpose and another gives its outcome.
A harder version places the department inside Muhammad bin Tughlaq's cluster of experiments and asks which of them concerned agriculture.
RPSC_2018_PRE_Prelims2018_Q1452018Same device: a named diwan of the Delhi Sultanate is given and the sultan behind it has to be supplied. What differs is the department and the period covered — that item turns on Diwan-i-Arz, the military department, with options ranging from the Ilbari sultans to Firoz Tughlaq, while ours fixes on a department created for agriculture in the Tughlaq period.
HPSC_2023_PRE_GSII_Q602023Same vocabulary: Persian office titles of the Sultanate — amir-i-dad, barid-i-mamalik, turkan-i-chahalgani — joined to their functions, which is the skill our stem tests on amir-i-kohi. What differs is the format and the demand: that item is a match-pairs question checking three titles against their duties, while ours asks which ruler founded one named department.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following departments was created by Muhammad bin Tughlaq to bring uncultivated land under the plough?
- (a)Diwan-i-Mustakhraj
- (b)Diwan-i-amir-i-kohi
- (c)Diwan-i-Khairat
- (d)Diwan-i-Bandagan
Answerb — Diwan-i-amir-i-kohi was the department of agriculture of Muhammad bin Tughlaq's reign, headed by the amir-i-kohi, and charged with extending cultivation.Diwan-i-Mustakhraj was Alauddin Khalji's department for recovering revenue arrears. Diwan-i-Khairat (charity) and Diwan-i-Bandagan (slaves) belong to Firoz Shah Tughlaq's reign, and their subjects were relief payments and the royal slave establishment.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Diwan-i-Khairat, a department that assisted poor families with the expenses of marriage, was established by:
- (a)Iltutmish
- (b)Alauddin Khalji
- (c)Firoz Shah Tughlaq
- (d)Sher Shah Suri
Answerc — Diwan-i-Khairat was part of Firoz Shah Tughlaq's welfare programme, which also included the free hospital, Dar-ul-Shafa.Iltutmish is remembered for organising the iqta system and for the silver tanka and copper jital. Alauddin Khalji's departments served revenue and market control. Sher Shah Suri ruled 1540–1545, and his public provision took the form of sarais built along the highways.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Diwan-i-Mustakhraj, set up to enquire into and realise arrears of revenue, is associated with the reign of:
- (a)Balban
- (b)Alauddin Khalji
- (c)Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq
- (d)Firoz Shah Tughlaq
Answerb — Diwan-i-Mustakhraj belongs to Alauddin Khalji's revenue machinery, working alongside measurement-based assessment and a demand pitched at half the produce.Balban is remembered for tightening the military department and for his theory of kingship, with sijda and paibos at court. Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq is remembered for a more moderate revenue demand. Firoz Shah Tughlaq remitted a number of cesses and levied a water cess on canal-irrigated land.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following statements about the Diwan-i-amir-i-kohi: 1. It was created to extend the area under cultivation. 2. Under the same ruler's agrarian scheme, the state advanced loans to cultivators. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Answerc — Both statements are correct. The department's stated object was to bring waste land under the plough and improve the crops grown on it.The same scheme advanced state loans, known as sondhar, to cultivators for seed, wells and ploughing. Options (a) and (b) each discard one true statement, and (d) denies both.