21 - Genocidal Massacres in Medieval India

Summary

This chapter looks at specific evidence of political violence and massacres during the medieval Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526), for most of which period roughly the whole of the Indian Subcontinent was ruled from Delhi by powerful Sultans with Turkish antecedents and exposure to Persianate political culture of Central Asia and Iran. In view of the abundant material in contemporary sources, the focus is on genocidal massacres under three most despotic rulers who brooked no criticism, resistance or protest against their rule, which tended to be arbitrary and in complete disregard of existing conventions of politics and governance. They were Sultan Ghiyas-ud-Din Balban (ruled 1266-86), Sultan Ala-ud-Din Khalji (ruled 1296-1316), and Sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq (ruled 1325-51). Historian Ziya-ud-Din Barani’s mid-14th century discussion of their reigns show not only that opponents resisting their conquests or regimes were brutally killed in large numbers during armed combat, but also that many of those captured alive were later massacred in cold blood. The women and children of soldiers from the other camp were not only imprisoned and enslaved, but also bodily harmed, often killed; women were also raped as punishment for alleged crimes of their male relatives.