Compare Modi's demonetisation and tughlaqs token currency. HINTS: why did he/she take this decision, how far it was successful, when and why did he/she started, what type currency is banned. LESSON IS THE DELHI SULTANS.
Dear student,
Such kinds of questions are made for enhancing the creativity of students and therefore should be tried by students to do by their own
However the following points might help you if we get to compare the both scenarios:-
1- Tughlaq's token currency-
- What Tughlaq did with the currency was a radical move that could have had a long-term impact on India's economy. He was the first one in the Indian subcontinent to introduce representative or token money.
- In simple words, he introduced copper and brass coins that could be exchanged for fixed amounts of gold and silver. This representative money was called Tanka.
- This was a new idea and a drastic change that led to chaos. The token money that Tughlaq introduced was easy to forge as copper and brass had very little value and available easily, but could be exchanged for gold and silver which had a higher value.
- Therefore, it led huge forgery - more fake coins than real ones - and chaos. The Sultan had to withdraw the new currency within eight days. He was assassinated soon after.
Though the idea of representative money was a good one, ineffective implementation forced the sovereign to roll it back and cost him his life and also his kingdom.
The current scenario:
- The current government, with just an announcement, made the country realise that money is nothing more than paper whose value depends on the sovereign.
- One of the reasons emphasised by the government for taking this decision is to replace old currency with new ones having better security features to stop the forgery of high-value notes.
- However, since the state machinery was not ready for this sudden change, the new currency had to be issued without the planned enhanced security features - making it easy to replicate once again.
- This is what exactly what happened when Tughlaq launched the tankas, which also lacked security features.
In view of this important chapter in history, whether Modi government's move to ban old currency and introduce new ones will it lead to a fall of our economy or a renewal - only time will tell.
Regards