Chapter 4
Religious Persecution
Documented discriminatory policies, Jizya taxation, the "Ghazi" title, and institutional oppression that Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq imposed on Hindu subjects â all recorded by his own court chroniclers.
Documented discriminatory policies, Jizya taxation, the "Ghazi" title, and institutional oppression that Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq imposed on Hindu subjects â all recorded by his own court chroniclers.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq was known as Ghazi Malik before ascending the throne. The title "Ghazi" (ØēØ§Ø˛Û) literally means "one who wages war against infidels" â a warrior of Islamic holy war. This was not a ceremonial or honorary title. It was earned through documented military campaigns against non-Muslim populations on the northwestern frontier.
In the Islamic political framework of the Delhi Sultanate, the title "Ghazi" carried specific religious significance â it designated the bearer as a champion of Islam against kafirs (non-believers). Ghiyasuddin carried this title proudly, and Amir Khusrau's Tughlaq Nama consistently refers to him as "Ghazi Malik."
Indian textbooks either omit the title "Ghazi" entirely or present it without explaining its religious significance. The title tells you everything about the religious motivation behind Ghiyasuddin's military career â yet it is systematically stripped of context in educational materials.
The most damning evidence of religious persecution under Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq comes from his own court historian, Ziauddin Barani. In his Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, Barani explicitly documents that:
This passage reveals several critical facts:
The Jizya was a poll tax levied exclusively on non-Muslims in Islamic states. Under the Delhi Sultanate, it was a form of institutionalized religious discrimination that marked Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains as second-class subjects.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq continued the Jizya system throughout his reign. Every non-Muslim male was required to pay this tax simply for the "privilege" of being allowed to practice their religion under Sultanate rule. Non-payment could result in imprisonment, forced conversion, or death.
The Jizya was more than just a financial burden â it was a statement of civilizational subjugation. It told millions of Hindus that they existed in their own land only by the Sultan's permission, and that their continued practice of their ancestral religion was something they had to pay for.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq's successor Firoz Shah Tughlaq would take the Jizya to unprecedented levels â imposing it on Brahmins for the first time in Delhi Sultanate history. Previously, Brahmins had been exempt. This escalation was a direct continuation and expansion of the discriminatory framework that Ghiyasuddin had maintained.
Amir Khusrau's Tughlaq Nama provides direct evidence that religious discrimination extended to the military. After battles, Hindu soldiers who were captured lost everything â their possessions, their freedom, and often their lives. Muslim soldiers, by contrast, were guaranteed their lives.
This was not a one-time occurrence but a systematic policy that treated soldiers differently based solely on their religion. It sends a clear signal about the nature of the Sultanate's military operations â they were not merely territorial conquests but also religiously motivated campaigns.
Under Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, the Delhi Sultanate operated under Islamic law (Sharia), which created a fundamental inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims:
To understand the ideological framework within which Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq operated, it is instructive to read the political philosophy of his court historian, Ziauddin Barani. In his Fatwa-i-Jahandari, Barani writes:
This was not a fringe view â this was the official political philosophy of the Delhi Sultanate's court. Barani was Ghiyasuddin's own chronicler, and his ideology reflects the environment in which the Sultan's policies were conceived and implemented.