Islam and the spread of technology

With the growth of international trade also came the spread of manufacturing technology and a more advanced urban culture. Local inventions and regional technologies became more easily globalized. This was of profound importance to those parts of the world that had lagged in terms of technological development. On the other hand, for a nation like India which had had a rich intellectual tradition of its own, and was already a relatively advanced civilization, this may have been of lesser import. Nevertheless, no country has a lock on technology, and to the extent that the arrival of Islam was concomitant with the adoption of new technologies it helped India too. The use of ceramic tiles in construction was inspired by architectural traditions prevalent in Iraq, Iran, and in Central Asia. Rajasthan's blue pottery was an adaptation of Chinese pottery which was imported in large quantities by the Mughal rulers. There is also the example of Sultan Abidin (1420-70) sending Kashmiri artisans to Samarqand to learn book-binding and paper making.
But regardless of whether the Islamic rulers introduced new technology or not, there is considerable evidence that many Islamic rulers developed Karkhanas - i.e. small factories during their reign. Of even greater significance is how new towns that specialized in a particular category of manufactured goods emerged throughout the country. Khurja and Siwan became renowned for pottery, Moradabad for brass ware, Mirzapur for carpets, Firozabad for glass wares, Farrukhabad for printing, Sahranpur and Nagina for wood-carving, Bidar and Lucknow for bidriware, Srinagar for papier-mache, Benaras for jewelry and textiles, and so on.
In part this came about because even Babar (who held India in great disdain) was compelled to acknowledge the great variety of artisan skills that were available in India.

Impact on the peasantry and urban citizenry

The impact on the peasantry varied from region to region, and from ruler to ruler. Even as new urbanization created opportunities for some, it also created new problems for the countryside and enormous suffering for those whose older urban centres were destroyed. This was because with every new invading dynasty, there was considerable destruction of previous urban settlements. Moroever, throughout Islamic rule, there was constant resistance from several local communities who resented the imposition of alien Islamic rule. By and large, such rebellions were put down with massive force and often led to the complete destruction of previously established urban settlements. This meant that many urban settlements were of transient character, and Indian urban life could never achieve the degree of stability and cultural life that eventually led to the sort of developments in urban planning, modern educational facilities (such as colleges and univerisities) and other urban infrastructural works that were gradually becoming visible in Europe or Korea, Japan and China.Furthermore, the growth of the new urban centres and the manufacture of luxury goods that were popular in the lavish courts of some of the Islamic rulers often came at a heavy cost on large sections of the peasantry. While trading communities and certain categories of skilled artisans may have been able to take advantage of new avenues for social mobility, other sections suffered a setback.
The invading rulers, particularly during the Delhi Sultanate (or even the Mughal) period had a fairly narrow local support base - (especially if they were not born and raised in India, and were driven to enforcing their particular idea of Islamic law on a resistant population). This meant that they had to rely on greater violence to sustain their rule. It appears that military campaigns became more frequent and more brutal. Punishments became more severe and torture and the death penalty were used with little restraint.
During the early period of Islamic conquest, many Islamic rulers resorted to the hated jaziya, or poll tax levied on non-believers - i.e. non-Muslims. In some instances, this pushed the poorest sections of the peasantry into slavery. In other instances this may have coerced some of the peasantry into converting, or else led to local uprisings and tax rebellions. But the consequences of failed rebellions were just as disastrous.

Growth of Slavery

During the period of the Delhi Sultanate, the practice of slavery grew to levels previously unseen in Indian history. S.A.A. Rizvi reports that Delhi's 14th C. ruler Firuz Shah Tughlaq kept 180,000 slaves. Impoverished peasants were often forced into selling their children, both boys and girls into slavery. According to Ibn Batuta, captive girls were very cheap, and even skilled girls were relatively inexpensive. Slaves acquired through wars and armed raids against Hindu chiefs were sold in local markets. Noblemen kept an enormous number of slaves and feudal lords maintained entire armies of slaves. A significant number were captured and sent to the slave markets of Central Asia. However, slaves utilized in the military often fought their way to the top and took their revenge on the ruling clans. This occurred not only in Delhi but also in Aurangabad and Ahmednagar in the Deccan, and in Bengal. As a result, the Sultanate period was a period of great instability with rulers being deposed in quick succession. It is quite likely that the Rajput practice of Jauhar emerged as a means of fending off such degradation in the face of impending military defeat.

During famines, both Hindus and Muslims sold their children into slavery thus forcing the clergy to speak out against the practice. In 1562, Akbar abolished the practice of taking the wives and children of defeated rebels as captives and from then on, it appears that the practice of slavery may have gone into decline but was not entirely discontinued. The special tax on non-Muslims, the jaziya was also abolished. Nevertheless, taxes on the peasantry went up from a sixth or a fourth of the produce to a third under the Mughals. While some of these increased taxes may have been made possible through improved irrigation methods - at some point these taxes far exceeded any gains in productivity and came to be viewed as unbearable, and eventually led to the Sikh and Maratha revolts that permanently fractured Mughal rule.
But not all Islamic rulers bled the peasantry. Shah Mir who became king of Kashmir in 1339 fixed the land tax at 17%. Later rulers like Tipu Sultan of Mysore were also not viewed as unreasonable taxers and became especially popular. Even more profligate rulers like the Awadh Nawabs managed to juggle the interests of the peasantry with the interests of urban-dwellers thus maintaining a certain amount of popular support.