Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c5.s1.29

c5.s1.29

The Indian village communities, once familiarized by Sir Henry Maine, have found a host of enthusiastic but somewhat uncritical admirers, who have not hesitated to compare them with any self-sufficient and self-governing political community, even with those of the Greek city-states. For a time they were believed to be a peculiar racial gift of the Aryans. However, it is being slowly realized now, that instead of being a peculiarity of a race or a country, the village communities only represent a distinct phase in the social development of mankind. The right of the commune appears in the indivisibility of the common waste and forest lands and the regulation of vacant shares. It was probably suffered to be independent in certain matters of internal concern, in making certain rules, in the choosing of the elders, in distributing among its members the direct taxes which the Government imposed.² If the available records of Indian village communities in the past can be any guide in the matter, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that their existence has helped rather than checked the despotic tendencies of Indian monarchs. The life of an Indian village community is too insular, its groups too isolated, and the whole of its outlook too occupational, to form a useful asset to the political life of the country. In times of exceptional danger, a commune organized some sort of defence and guarded the village from the inroads of an invader.¹ But such instances of concerted action are more or less on the same footing as their measures for protecting their crops from a pest of locusts, or their homes from a band of robbers. It does not show any wider political consciousness than what was absolutely necessary to preserve themselves and their home-lands. Even in such cases, the attitude of propertyless and segregated low castes dwelling on the skirts of the village may have been uncertain. For our immediate purpose, it may safely be concluded that the village communities of Hindustan, which comprised the vast majority of the population, did not present any serious administrative problem to the Sultans of Delhi.² We are not concerned here with their economic and social aspects.