The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c16.3

c16.3

As with caste, the vogue of the village as a predominant focus of Indian sociology seems to be a product of the nineteenth century. It owes its rise to the pointed statements of influential and in many ways remarkable English administrators in the first decade of the last century. Here we encounter the romantic idealization of the village as a "little republic," all but completely self-sufficient, impervious to outside influence, and lasting "where nothing else lasts".⁴ The theme has been reiterated ever since to an extent that borders on ritual incantation. In due time, it even became an emblem of the nationalist movement—the true India that lives in its villages—and the starting point of legislation formalizing village autonomy (*pancāyatī rāj*). Ideologically, the notion of the "village community" with its suggestion of egalitarianism, primitive democracy, and pristine harmony has, of course, much to recommend itself, especially when set off against the hierarchic and undemocratic notions of caste. However, neither the vogue of village or caste seems to derive from any real Indian arrangement, but rather from the needs of the modern bureaucratic state as it was introduced at the beginning of the last century.