It was a Sunday morning and I was laying down lazily on the sofa watching the highlights of football World Cup match. My mother who came back from market was very upset and angry. “The vegetable prices are going up!” she said with raised eyebrows. Following her through the door, my father said: “Petrol prices are going up too!” Both of them were visibly upset as this would dent their monthly budget. All through this, I lay there on the couch nonchalantly, flipping TV channels. I stopped at one of the popular songs, ‘ghoomar’ from the movie Padmavat. It reminded me of Alauddin Khalji.
Market control
Alauddin Khalji, who was one of the greatest rulers of the Delhi Sultanate, ruled between 1296 and 1316 A.D. He is known to have taken up many reforms during his era. Of those, one thing, which stands out, is the market control policy. Alauddin successfully employed a policy of market control in which the price of every single item was fixed. Starting from necessities such as rice, wheat and coarse grains to luxury items such as silk cloth, muslin cloth, gold and so on, all prices were fixed. Even the price of horses was fixed. The prices were pretty low too. For example, one tanka, the equivalent of today’s rupee, could fetch nearly 190 kg of rice or wheat.
There were designated markets where all the traders were supposed to bring their goods and sell them at the prices fixed by the sultan. There were special officers employed to monitor the prices in the market, who reported to sultan directly. Strict punishment was given to traders who violated the price norms. Many historians consider this policy a ‘wonder’. There was no ‘inflation’ or ‘price rise’ during the complete age.
The reasons for this experiment are many, and modern-day historians still debate its intention. However, the market control policy of Alauddin Khalji was no doubt a huge success.
Problems of the age
Today the words ‘inflation’ or ‘price rise’ send shivers down the spines of many families of India. Various reasons cause severe anxiety among people viz., When Rupee falls in comparison with dollar due to American monetary policy, when there is rainfall deficit in a particular year, when government announces increase in MSP, when OPEC countries decide to control crude oil output, when America and China indulge in a trade war, when people like Vijay Mallya give interviews from London, when it is known that Nirav Modi has multiple passports, and finally when the monetary policy committee headed by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India decides to increase the repo rate. When any of these or all of these happen (Incidentally, all of these are happening together), People know that they are up for shelling out more from their pockets! This severely upsets budgets of many families in India who plan their budget books meticulously.
Can he come back?
So in the present age, do we need Alauddin Khalji to check the price rise and Inflation? With distinguished economic pundits advocating free market mechanism and the world moving more and more towards capitalistic economy can anyone who thinks or acts like Alauddin even be born? Any such thought or even such theory would be brushed aside by modern day economists as absurd! They would bombard you with theories of Demand supply curves, explain law of diminishing marginal utility, explain how the invisible hand in market works, how inflation is good for economy as it projects the aggregate demand and will keep firms happy. In short, they would tell you everything except things you understand. Anyone who talks of ‘price control’ will be termed an idiot who does not understand the basics of economics.
While Alauddin Khalji faced only the Mongol challenge, the challenges we face today are many. To dream of market control similar to that of Alauddin’s era may be utopian and improbable today. Globalisation has significantly united all the
economies and made them inter-dependent. Anything happening anywhere in the world is going to impact Indian markets and Indian goods. Even foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow or outflow levels can impact your vegetable prices.
So, for now, bye bye, Alauddin Khalji. We have no place for people like you. We will only talk about your fiction stories like Padmavat and not about your market control, which actually happened.
I will definitely remember you next time when my mother complains of price increase in toor dal or wheat. I will introduce you to her and convince her that this will keep happening in your absence and ask her to be cautious. But from the bottom of my heart I only wish someone in our generation meets your distant relative at least.
nishanthpm@gmail.com
