The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c16.9

c16.9

All this, of course, does not mean that village and caste do not exist in reality. But if we want to obtain a clear view of Indian society, we will have to free ourselves from the dominant hold of the modern official definition of village and caste. One way of doing this is to look at the society before the introduction of the modern state. Although research on this point is still in the beginning stages, sufficient is known for us to try to discern some of the principles of Indian society undistorted by the overlay of the modern official view.⁶ Here, then, we do find the village as the nucleus of agrarian production and taxation—the starting point of the Anglo-Indian notion of the all but autonomous and self-sufficient “little republic.” But what is immediately apparent is precisely the lack of autonomy and proud self-sufficiency. The village appears embedded in a complicated and wide-stretched network of personal rights, holdings, and prestations that passes far beyond the village boundaries and makes the notion of village autarchy untenable.