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State and Government in Ancient India c22.s4.t7: A Welfare State

State and Government in Ancient India c22.s4.t7

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A Welfare State

c22.s4.t7.1

A survey of the nature and scope of the activities of the Mauryan state will show that it was largely a welfare state. It regarded itself as the trustee of the population as a whole and tried to harmonise the conflicting interests of its different classes. It tried to keep the scales even between the employer and employee by laying down that the former should pay the agreed wages even when no work was done, if it had to be stopped for no fault of the employee. On the other hand the labourer was punished if he neglected the work or committed theft or destroyed the raw material (III. 14). It protected the consumer by preventing merchant prices from cornering commodities and raising their prices. It regulated the prices of articles in the interest of the general consumer (II. 16), but while doing so, gave full consideration to the cost of the raw material and manufacture, and the toll and transport expenditure. Fraud on the customers was sought to be minimised by making the use of standardised and stamped weights and measures compulsory; traders using unauthorised measures were punished (II. 19). Merchants selling adulterated goods were also severely dealt with (VI. 2). The state, however, tried its best to help the traders and industrialists also by laying out roads, by ensuring the safety of traffic, and by constructing emporiums. Merchants were compensated for articles lost through any thefts in transit (VI. 13. The state no doubt took land tax, but it also financed irrigation works to help agriculture. It helped community projects by granting tax-exemption for four or five years to those villagers who constructed or repaired village dams, canals and roads. Material like timber and stone was also supplied free to the villagers for their works of public utility.

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The Mauryan state recognised its responsibility to the destitute and diseased. It offered doles to the orphans, the aged and the infirm, as also to poor women in the family way (II. 1. It also supplied work to persons in temporary difficulty; its spinning department supplied cotton to women whose guardians were away and later collected the yarn after paying for it (II. 23). Persons were not allowed to embrace asceticism without providing for their dependants; they were fined if they failed to maintain their children or minor brothers or sisters, when they were capable enough to do so (II. 1).

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The welfare state of the Mauryan period paid full attention to public hygiene. Every house was to have a dunghill and an outlet for refuse water (III. 8); throwing of refuse or dirt or a carcass on the road was an offence (II. 36). It further safeguarded the health of the citizens by penalising adulteration of grains, oils, salts and medicines (IV. 2). It took adequate measures against epidemics. When a famine broke out, state granaries were utilised for providing relief and seeds; an extra taxation was imposed upon the rich in order to relieve the poor (IV. 3). Government agencies were alert against fires breaking out and tried to mitigate the damage of monsoon floods (IV. 3).

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The moral welfare of the subjects was also a concern for the state; gambling, drinking and prostitution were under rigorous control. Literature and education were encouraged; articles required for sacrifices and temples were exempted from customs duties.

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All these activities presupposed a full treasury. The state, therefore, was keen in increasing its resources by working mines, organising factories, developing forests and encouraging colonisation of waste lands. The state had, however, a mixed economy like the present Indian republic; for private enterprise was also allowed a large scope, of course, under the general regulations of the government.

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An impartial observer will have to admit that the Mauryan administration was not only a very efficient and successful one, but also much in advance of its time. During the ancient Indian period, India was perhaps most efficiently administered under the Mauryas.

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