Razia Sultan the first and only female Muslim ruler of medieval India (1236 – 1240), was also known as Raziya Al Din.
She was of Turkish Seljuks slave ancestry and was trained to lead armies and administer kingdoms.
Razia Sultana was the fifth Mamluk Sultan.
She appointed an Abyssinian slave, Malik Jamaluddin Yaqut, to the important office Amir-i-akhur, which was the Superintendent of royal horses.
Like some other Muslim princesses of the time, she was trained to lead armies and administer kingdoms if necessary.
Razia Sultan was the only woman ruler of both the Sultanate and the Mughal period, (1526–1761)
The Mughals were a Muslim dynasty who ruled over a majority of Hindu population.
By 1750, they had dominated much of South Asia for several centuries, although other women ruled from behind the scenes.
Note that this was quite some time before the rise of the famous Khalji Dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.
Alauddin Khalji had not even been born at this time.
He was born a few decades later in 1266–1267 AD.
Razia refused to be addressed as Sultana because it meant “wife or consort of a Sultan”.
She would answer only to the title “Sultan”
She succeeded her father Shams-ud-din Iltutmish to the Sultanate of Delhi in 1236.
Iltutmish became the first sultan to appoint a woman as his successor when he designated his daughter Razia as his heir apparent.
He discerned in her countenance the signs of power and bravery, and, although she (Razia Sultana) was a girl and lived in seclusion, … [the sultan] put her name in writing as the heir of the kingdom, and successor to the throne
He wrote in his imperial succession book:
“My sons are devoted to the pleasures of youth, and not one of them is qualified to be the king… After my death you will find that there is no one more competent to guide the state than my daughter.”
That was what Sultan Iltutmish wrote according to Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, the principal historian for the Mamluk Sultanate, in the Tabaqat-i Nasiri
According to one source, Iltumish’s eldest son had initially been groomed as his successor, but had died prematurely.
But the Muslim nobility had no intention of acceding to Iltutmish’s appointment of a woman as heir, and after the sultan died on Wednesday 30th April 1236, Razia’s brother, Rukn ud din Firuz, was elevated to the throne instead.
Ruknuddin’s reign was short.
He ruled with Iltumish’s widow Shah Turkaan for all practical purposes to run the government but Ruknuddin abandoned himself to the pursuit of personal pleasure and debauchery, to the outrage of the citizenry.
So his father was right all along??
Yes!
On November 9, 1236, both Ruknuddin and his mother Shah Turkaan were assassinated after only six months in power.
With reluctance, the nobility agreed to allow Razia to reign as Sultan of Delhi.
She “abandoned the veil and adopted masculine attire.”
She was an efficient ruler and possessed all the qualities of a monarch.
According to Minhaj-i-Siraj, she was “sagacious, just, beneficient, the patron of the learned, a dispenser of justice, the cherisher of her subjects, and of warlike talent, and endoweed with all the admirable attributes and qualifications necessary for a king.
She is also famous for her romantic involvement and legends with her lover and later turned husband, Malik Ikhtiar-ud-din Altunia”
The Turkish nobles now formed a plan of an organized resistance.
They wanted to weaken royalty permanently vis-a-vis the nobility.
The leader of this conspiracy was Malik Ikhtiar-ud-din Aitigin who had risen from the office of the governor of Badaun.
Aitigin felt that no large-scale rising was possible in Delhi as long as the queen was present there because of her precautionary measures.
The plans were therefore laid out with great care.
Malik Ikhtiar-ud-din Altunia the governor of Bhatinda and her childhood friend, first raised the standard of revolt.
Razia immediately proceeded against him at the head of an army.
Aitigin and his fellow-conspirators captured Yaqut and killed him and then made common cause with Altunia to defeat and capture Razia.
She was entrusted to the care of Altunia and the rest of the nobles returned to the capital.
Razia and Malik Ikhtiar-ud-din Altunia, the governor of Bhatinda were childhood friends, some recognize them as childhood sweethearts who were strongly in love with each other.
However when he was in Bhatinda the Turks spread rumors about Yaqut Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut, an Abyssinian Siddi (Habshi) slave having affair with her, which triggered the wrath and jealousy within Altunia and he led a rebellion against her, simply with the intention of getting her back.
Yaqut rose in the ranks of the Delhi court, and found favour with the first female monarch of the Mamluk dynasty, Razia Sultana.
Yaqut soon became a close advisor and was widely rumoured in the court and amongst the nobles to be the queen’s lover.
Contemporary historians were also conflicted in their assessment ” many including Ibn Battuta record that their relationship was illicit and too intimate in public, but others assert that Yaqut was just a close advisor and friend.
And that was true because it was very dangerous and tempting for an elevated alave to have affair with a royal highness.
A particular incident that provoked the rumors was when Yaqut was observed sliding his arms under the queen’s armpits to hoist her onto a horse, which was seen as a flagrant act of intimacy.
This charge too was proven to be false later as historians argued that Razia always rode an elephant in public and not a horse.
His power and influence grew through his close relationship with Razia Sultana, who appointed him to the important post of superintendent of the royal stables, giving a loyalist an important post and challenging the power of the Muslim nobles and orthodox leaders.
She awarded him the honorific title Amir-al-Khayl (Amir of Horses) and later the much higher Amir al-Umara (Amir of Amirs), much to the anger and outrage of the Turkish nobility.
Already resented for being a woman ruler by the Muslim nobles and clerics, Razia’s proximity to an Abyssinian slave (considered racially inferior to the Turkish nobles who ruled the Sultanate) alienated the nobility and clerics and soon provoked open rebellion and conspiracy.
Another account refers to the slave putting his hands around Razia’s waist as he helped her climb onto a horse.
It is argued that the rumors spread by the nobles about her affair with Yaqut were false and was done to smirk her rule and to provoke her childhood sweetheart, Malik Ikhtiar-ud-din Altunia to lead the rebel against her.
A rebellion led by Malik Ikhtiar-ud-din Altunia, the governor of Bhatinda (Punjab) broke out against Razia and Yaqut; fearing a siege, Razia and Yaqut chose to go out of Delhi to engage the rebels.
Forces loyal to Razia and Yaqut were routed by Altunia; Yaqut was killed and Razia was captured and imprisoned.
She was incarcerated in April, 1240 at Qila Mubarak at Bathinda.
While in prison, Razia Sultan was allowed to go to Hajirattan mosque to offer prayers on Fridays in a special palki
She was kept in royalty and Altunia visited her regularly, it was then that their love triumphed and finally she was released in August 1240.
To gain her freedom she was asked to marry Altunia.
She and Altunia, who were long known lovers, later got married.
However, both Razia and Altunia were subsequently killed in battle against Razia’s brother Bahram Shah, who had usurped the throne of Delhi in Razia’s absence.
What Happened?
After Altunia and Razia undertook to take back the sultanate from Bahram through battle, both Razia and her husband were defeated on the 24th of Rabi’ al-awwal A.H. 638 (October 1240).
They fled Delhi and reached Kaithal the next day, where their remaining forces abandoned them (looked like a sabotage).
They both fell into the hands of Jats and were robbed and killed on the 25th of Rabi’ al-awwal A.H. 638 which corresponds to October 13, 1240.
Bahram, for his part, reigned from 1240 to 1242, but was dethroned for incompetence.
Deep Caste System in India
The Hindu belief says that the people are classified into 4 castes, and these castes define what jobs they can do, what duties and what privileges they have.
The four main castes are the Brahmins (priests, teachers), Kshatriyas (rulers, warriors), Vaishyas (landowners, merchants) and Sudras (servants), and the 5th group is the group of the untouchables, called Dalits.
South Asia’s caste system has been around for several millennia and, until the second half of the 20th century, has changed very little during all of that time.
In ancient India, the ranked occupational groups were referred to as varnas, and the hereditary occupational groups within the varnas were known as jatis.
Many have immediately assumed that ascribed social groups and rules prohibiting intermarriage among the groups signify the existence of a racist culture.
But this assumption is false.
Varnas are not racial groups but rather classes.
Four varna categories were constructed to organize society along economic and occupational lines.
Spiritual leaders and teachers were called Brahmins. Warriors and nobility were called Kshatriyas. Merchants and producers were called Vaishyas. Laborers were called Sudras.
The Untouchables
In addition to the varnas, there is a fifth class in Hinduism.
It encompassed outcasts who, literally, did all the dirty work.
They were referred to as “untouchables” because they carried out the miserable tasks associated with disease and pollution, such as cleaning up after funerals, dealing with sewage, and working with animal skin.
Brahmins were considered the embodiment of purity, and untouchables the embodiment of pollution.
Physical contact between the two groups was absolutely prohibited.
Brahmins adhered so strongly to this rule that they felt obliged to bathe if even the shadow of an untouchable fell across them.
Although the political and social force of the caste system has not disappeared completely, the Indian government has officially outlawed caste discrimination and made widespread reforms.
Particularly through the efforts of Indian nationalists such as Mohandas Gandhi, rules preventing social mobility and cross-caste mingling have been loosened.
Gandhi renamed the untouchables Harijans, which means “the people of God.” Adopted in 1949, the Indian Constitution provided a legal framework for the emancipation of untouchables and for the equality of all citizens.
In recent years, the Untouchables have become a politically active group and have adopted for themselves the name Dalits, which means “those who have been broken.”
According to recent research, the caste system originated 1,582 years ago, during the Gupta dynasty, possibly during the reign of Chandragupta the Second or Kumaragupta the First.
Before the caste system came into being, they were all free to mix and mate with each other, creating widely differentiated gene pools.
But once arigid caste system was imposed, rules of endogamy — marrying within one’s caste — fell in place, constricting cross-category genetic flows.
In their words, “The reign of the ardent Hindu Gupta rulers, known as the age of Vedic Brahminism, was marked by strictures laid down in Dharmasastra… enforced through the powerful state machinery.
These strictures and enforcements resulted in a shift to endogamy.”
In other words, caste was born.
The upper and lower castes almost always lived in segregated colonies, the water wells were not shared, Brahmins would not accept food or drink from the Shudras, and one could marry only within one’s caste.
Dalits (untouchables) are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls.
The Dalits perform the most menial and degrading jobs.
Sometimes Dalits perform important jobs, but this is mostly not socially recognised. Dalits are seen as polluting for higher caste people.
If a higher caste Hindu is touched by an untouchable or even had a Dalit’s shadow across them, they consider themselves to be polluted and have to go through a rigorous series of rituals to be cleansed.
In India there are approximately 240 million Dalits.
This means that nearly 25% of the population is Dalit.
It also means that in a country, where everybody is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, 1 out of 5 persons is condemned to be untouchable.
In general one can say that being a Brahmin means that you are more privileged.
This can imply having a good education and, accordingly, a more powerful position in the society.
Being born as a Dalit you will be less off and because of less education you will have a less good job. In daily life it has a lot of consequences of being a Dalit.
Dalits are poor, deprived and socially backward. Poor means that they do not have access to enough food, health care, housing and/or clothing (which means that their physiological and safety needs are not fulfilled).
They also do not have access to education and employment. With deprived we would like to underline the injustice they face in every days life. Officially, everybody in India has the same rights and duties, but the practice is different.
Social backwardness, lack of access to food, education and health care keeps them in bondage of the upper castes.
Tribes in India
The most commonly known tribes of India are Gonds, Bhils (or Bheels), Santhal, Munda, Khasi, Garo, Angami, Bhutia, Chenchu, Kodaba, and the Great Andamanese Tribes.
There is also the Punjabi of the Indo-Aryan people.
The Punjabis are an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan peoples, originating from the Punjab region, found in Pakistan and northern India.
Of all these tribes, the Bhil tribal group, as per the 2011 census, is the largest tribe in India. It constitutes a staggering 38% of the country’s total scheduled tribal population.
The Bhils have their own language named after them, but most members also speak Marathi and Gujarati, and the official state language where they are based.
The tribe has its roots in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and even some parts of Tripura, making it the biggest tribe in India.
Additionally, Bhil is one of the very few scheduled tribes in India that is famous for its art form called the Bhil Art.
The purpose of these artworks is to portray the everyday life of the tribe members.
They make various items using twigs and branches of the Neem tree as brushes and natural colour pigments derived from different leaves and flowers.
Bhil Art is also unique in its way of depicting their deities and ancestors in the form of dots painted over the background of the painting in various colours and patterns, giving it a unique look. Questions on Bhil Art and its purpose frequently come in the IAS exam papers.
The Gond Tribe
The Gond tribe is second only to the Bhils in terms of population size. Called the second-largest tribe of India, the tribe of Gond is spread across states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Orissa.
Standing at a massive population of over four million tribal members, the Gond constitutes a major percentage (35.6%) of the country’s total tribal population.
