Consider the following statements about Sher Shah’s administration : 1. He divided his empire into Sarkars, which were further subdivided into Parganas. 2. The Sarkars and the Parganas were directly administered by Sher Shah without the help of any other officials. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Sher Shah Suri's administration was highly organized and served as a precursor to the Mughal system. He divided his empire into 47 administrative units called 'Sarkars' [1]. These Sarkars were further subdivided into smaller units known as 'Parganas', which consisted of a group of villages [1]. While Sher Shah maintained a centralized form of administration, he did not govern these units directly without assistance. Each Sarkar was managed by officials such as the Shiqdar-i-Shiqdaran (responsible for law and order) and the Munsif-i-Munsifan (responsible for local justice and revenue). Similarly, each Pargana was administered by a Shiqdar, an Amil (revenue collector), a Fotadar (treasurer), and a Qanungo (record keeper) [2]. Sher Shah also introduced a system of transferring these officials every two to three years to prevent corruption and local entrenchment. Therefore, statement 1 is correct, while statement 2 is incorrect.

Sources

1. [1] https://cbc.gov.in/cbcdev/sur-dynasty/sur-dynasty.html
2. [2] https://cbc.gov.in/cbcdev/sur-dynasty/sur-story-dynasty.html