Assertion (A) : At first the Turkish administration in India was essentially military. Reason (R) : The country was parcelled out as ‘Iqtas’ among leading military leaders.

Both A and R are true, and R correctly explains A. Early Turkish rule centered on the sultan as commander-in-chief and supreme political head, so military concerns dominated policy and governance [2]. The iqta was a system of territorial revenue assignments given to nobles (iqtadars/muqtis) who were expected to collect taxes and use them to maintain troops and meet military obligations, remitting surplus to the central treasury [1]. By parcelling the country into iqtas held by military leaders, fiscal resources and local authority were vested in commanders, institutionalizing military control over provinces and administration [1]. Contemporary summaries of the system likewise describe this linkage between military command and territorial grants.

Sources

1. [2] History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 10: Advent of Arabs and Turks > State and Society > p. 148
2. [1] Exploring Society:India and Beyond ,Social Science, Class VIII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 2: Reshaping India’s Political Map > Administration under the Delhi Sultanate > p. 53