Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c22.56

v2.c22.56

Corporate activities manifested themselves in trade and industry, in popular assemblies from the village council upwards, in religious bodies, and in the manifold development of caste. Mr. Majumdar deals with all these subjects under the heads of economic, political, religious and social life...... basing his treatment on materials, drawn from Sanskrit and Buddhist literature and inscriptions. ......Mr. Majumdar seeks to explain his subjects as Indian problems without bringing them into too close comparison with their English counterparts. Dr. Mookerji’s treatment is less satisfactory. ......Mr. Majumdar on the whole treats his subjects chronologically tracing their nature and modifications as far as possible with regard to historical sequence. But Dr. Mookerji throws historical consistency aside.....Both authors speak of the *popular* assemblies or councils as “democratic,” but the constitutions do not warrant that description. It is highly improbable that the lower classes ever had elective power along with the upper classes, especially after the Brahmans established their theories about the degradation of the lower castes. Even supposing, however, that the people generally did elect the members of those assemblies, the rules that defined the qualifications of members required a knowledge of sacred and legal books that could rarely have been found outside the Brahmans, and so must have given the Brahmans an assured preponderance in those assemblies. Brahmanic claims and real democracy would have been a strange couple.