The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c21.127

c21.127

on the tax-payer—on the poor peasant, artisan or labourer. The Hindu state sanctioned too many tolls and petty dues and too much forced labour. It failed signally to reclaim the tribes on the frontiers or in the centre of India. It fell a victim to caste and deliberately refused to bring the lower classes into line with the rest of Hindu society or to encourage their higher life. It allied itself with priestcraft and conservatism and helped perpetuate the distinctions between man and man. Lastly, the Hindu state, parochial, short-sighted and isolated from the rest of the world, failed to keep abreast of the times and to organise the resources of the country against successive foreign invasions. At last in the thirteenth century it shipwrecked in the storms it was incapable of weathering.