Sher Shah’s Administration through Persian Sources

The aim of this thesis is to present an authentic record of the life and activities, in general, and the administrative ability and military genius, in particular, of Sher Shah, also known as the Lion King, one of the greatest administrator and military geniuses among the Afghan rulers in India. Hitherto the historians, by and large, have been quite content to a few passing references, even the few accounts of him which are extant are quite prejudicial since they refer mainly to his enemies, the Mughals, for whom he was always Sher Khan, the Afghan rebel. There has been a lot of controversy with regard to the real nature of the system of administration of Sher Shah Sur. To begin with it was maintained that Sher Shah was merely a soldier who possessed an average administrative capacity. Dr. K.R. Qanungo put forward a new thesis. According to him, “Sher Shah was a greater constructive genius than Akbar himself.” However, according to Dr. R.P. Tripathi and Dr. Saran, Sher Shah was merely a reformer and not an innovator and that in many ways he merely revived the system of Ala ud-Din Khilji, otherwise there was nothing original in what he did. No doubt Sher Shah’s administration was based on old institutions but in a new spirit and in this he attained much success. He almost transformed the medieval Indian administration and made it serve the interest of the people.