د شېر شاه او د بهلول خبرې اؤرم
خلک وائي چه په هند به پښتانه ؤو باچاهان
I hear the stories of Sher Shah Suri and Behlol Lodhi
People say that India used to be ruled by Pashtun Kings)
- Khushal Khan Khattak;
Ahmad Shah Abdali writes in a Pashtu couplet:
د حميد او د فريد داوار به بيا شي
چه په تورو پښتانه کړه غوزارونه
The reign of Farid Khan and Hameed Lodhi will come back
Once the Pakhtuns start showing their skills of sword again
1- Few people know that fictional English characters like Kipling’s Shere Khan of the Indian Jungle (later adapted in Disney’s animated Jungle Book) were named after Sher Shah Suri. His original name was Farid Khan but he earned the title of Sher Khan when he killed a fully grown tiger during his service with the rulers of Bihar.
2-His most trusted talented minister and accountant general who revolutionised the revenue administration system of India was a Hindu named Tudar Maal who was later appointed by Mughal Emperor Akbar to continue his great work.
3- Haibat Khan Niazi was his most senior commander who encouraged thousands of Niazi Pashtun immigrants from Afghanistan to settle in South West Punjab (Mianwali) on Sher Shah’s instruction to strengthen the population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Muslim tribes of Punjab against the rebellious and turbulent Hindu Gakkars who were opposing an organised government and were causing law and order situations
4- Khawas Khan, his successful operational commander, was originally a poor fox hunter but Sher Shah had an eye for talent so spotted his potentials and elevated him to the position of a general.
5-According the Mr. Keene, a British historian, “No government-not even the British has shown so much wisdom as this Pathan (sher shah suri).”
6- According to Dr. Ishwari Prasad, He was “head and shoulders” above Akbar and Aurangzeb as Akbar alienated orthodox Muslims (or majority of Muslims) due to his ultra liberal un-Islamic religious views and heterodoxy beyond the fundamentals of Islam and that resulted in reactionary policies of successive Muslim rulers and eventually India ended up with a non-tolerant emperor Aurangzeb who persecuted non-Muslims for the “defence of Islam”
7-The visionary Khan built the famous GT Road, the first highway of its kind connecting Peshawar in North West Pakistan to Kolkata in South East India (2600 km later extended to Kabul Afghanistan). The road was constructed for good governance and smooth and efficient administration. The GT Road along with its connecting roads facilitated communication, helped trade and commerce to flourish and made swift dispatch of soldiers from one place to another. The road also helped the Sher Shah Suri in introducing the first organized postal system in the Indian sub continent and best in the World that time. To facilitate the postal runners and the travellers, small inns, called “sarai” were constructed after every 20 miles with separate places of worship for Hindus and Muslims. These inns acted as halting places of government officials moving from one place to another. Each inn had a water pond by its side for drinking water for the animals / horses. Big canopy trees were also planted so as to provide shade lest the water dried up in scorching summers. Remains of these inns, specially the old trees and ponds can still be seen along the modern GT Road.
8- He established an excellent system of local authorities in 47 provinces (or Sarkars) with separation of criminal judiciary from civil executive under Islamic system of social justice. Hindus were exempted from any religious tax levied on Muslims.
9-He also minted the first Rupiya that was the precursor of the modern rupee. The same name and system is still used for the national currency in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mauritius, Maldives, and Seychelles among other countries and even British rulers borrowed some its characteristics.
10-He organised the first professional non-tribal army based on strict disciplinary code of conduct and well defined salary structure.
11-The symbol of excellence of the great Moghal’s taste of construction is Taj Mehal and the manifestation of Sher Shah’s thinking is Ruhtas Fort-a great fort built for maintaining order and security in North Punjab. This shows the sharp contrast in attitude
12-“Such was the state of safety of the highway,” observes Nizam-ud-din (Akbar’s Mir Bakhshi), who had no reason to be partial towards Sher Shah, “that if any one carried a purse full of gold (pieces) and slept in the desert (deserted places) for nights, there was no need for keeping watch.”
13- Mirza Aziz Koka, son of Ataga Khan, and probably Akbar’s closest friend and one of the most important mansabdar’s of the Mughal Empire (Sher Shah’s arch rivals), wrote this to Emperor Jahangir in one of his personal letters to him: “Specially Sher Khan was not an angel (malak) but a king (malik). In six years he gave such stability to the structure (of the empire) that its foundations still survive. He had made India flourish in such a way that the king of Persia and Turan appreciate it, and have a desire to look at it. Hazrat Arsh Ashiyani (Akbar the great) followed his administrative manual (zawabit) for fifty years and did not discontinue them. In the same India due to able administration of the well wishers of the court, nothing is left except rabble and jungles…”
