Tughlaq by Girish Karnad

Tughlaq by  Girish Karnad

Introduction
 
Tughlaq is Girish Karnad  first successful experiment with historical novel.
First written in Kannada in 1964 & later translated into English Depicts the struggle and spectacular failure of a personality who dreams of becoming an ideal ruler and establishing a utopia A strong parallelism between the reign of Tughlaq and Nehru era in post-independent India.

Karnad presented Tughlaq with aesthetic & artistic depth ness. He presented perfect political atmosphere of contemporary India. In Tughlaq a historical may find many changes or loopholes. But Karnad Molded the character of sultan according to his theme, Karnad wanted to convince a message to us that an idealist ruler can nor remain idealist if he is ambitious of applying his own power every now & then.his purpose is to show that in true history faces change but forces don't.Karnad's own Tughlaq should be studied to find parallelism between the realities of the 14th century India ruled by a prime minister & his colleagues in the cabinet.Karnad's own statement which is quoted by UR Ananthamurty by in this Introduction to Tughlaq should not be talent with a pincle of salt.



Themes of Novel 

Ethics
Not a worthy ruler.Not able to provide enough food for the people in the kingdom
Introduced copper coins which had same value as silver coins Shifted capital from Delhi to Daulatabad
Unethical behavior
Tricking Sheikh Imam- ud -Din during the public meeting
Murder of Sheikh Imam- ud -Din Tughlaq killed his brother and father to win the throne Aziz and Azam didn't help a woman whose child was ill.
Equality in Justice
Giving land back to the Brahmin
Stoning of his Step Mother
Releasing Ain-ul-Mulk
Releasing Aziz
Theory of EgoismDefinition: An action is morally right if the decision-maker freely decides in order to pursue either their (short-term) desires or their (long-term) interests
Supporting example: He forgave Aziz and let him free thinking he was the only person who understood him. Aziz should have been given some punishment due to his poor deeds.