The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s12: Kāśmīr
The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s12
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Kāśmīr
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We have now to mention the Kingdom of Kāśmīr in the extreme North (c. 650-1339), which was ruled by Hindu kings till about the middle of the fourteenth century.³⁸
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³⁸ H. C. Ray : *The Dynastic History of Northern India* (Calcutta) Vol. I. (1933) Chapter III.
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Historians as a rule have a peculiar weakness for large states or the expansion of states. Sociologically, however, a large state or an enlarged state is not necessarily something to enthuse over. In the present author's way of envisaging human history or world-culture disruptions such as imply the multiplicity or prevalence of small states are not matters of shame to mankind. In the history of *Geopolitik* and international relations, objectively considered, the forces that work for concentration or expansion are no more permanent or abiding than are the forces that work for decentralization or dismemberment. Every realistic student of world-history and human civilization should rather be used to treat the nuclei of small and warring groups as the normal phenomena in political morphology or socio-cultural *Gestalt*.³⁹
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³⁹ *cf.* the doctrine of *Naturprozess* in L. Gumplowicz: *Rassenkampf* (Innsbruck 1883) ch. IV. See also H. Barnes: "The Struggle of Races and Social Groups" in the *Journal of Race Development* (Clark University U.S.A.) April, 1919.
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Gabriel Tarde's "*l'opposition universelle*" must be taken to be as fundamental a society-making force as Gumplowicz's "race-struggle." An undue emphasis on the "Pan"-ideas from the "ideals" of Pan-Hellenism and Pan-Indianism (Pax Sārvabhaumica) to the "ideals" of Pan-Asianism and Pan-Europa can but shunt off the scientific studies in sociology and historical topics along misleading lines.⁴⁰ The metabolistic processes of political disunion and statal pluralism are as positive data of ancient, medieval and modern India as of Europe today, yesterday and day before yesterday.
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⁴⁰ The "geo-political" and "pan" categories may be seen analyzed in Karl Haushofer: *Geopolitik der Pan-Ideen* (Berlin 1931), and *Raumüberwindende Mächte* (Leipzig 1934); also R. Hennig: *Geopolitik: Die Lehre vom Staat als Lebewesen* (Leipzig 1931). See also B. K. Sarkar: "Haushofer's Cult of Geopolitik" in the *Calcutta Review*, April 1934.
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Corresponding to the Kingdom of Kāśmīr and synchronous with it should therefore be mentioned in the same breath several other kingdoms of equal importance in Indian evolution. The Kingdom of Kāmrūp (Assam) in the extreme East, the Kingdom of Kerala in the extreme South, the Kingdom of Orissa, and so forth are statal organisms which cannot be ignored by any means in a survey of this period.⁴¹ It is, however, to be observed that it cannot be the scope of the present study to enumerate all the states of Indian history.
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⁴¹ R. D. Banerji: *History of Orissa* (Calcutta 1931), R. G. Basak: *History of North-Eastern India* (Calcutta 1934), chs. on Assam and Orissa. N. N. Vasu: *Social History of Kamrup* (Calcutta 1926), 2 vols. K. P. P. Menon: *History of Kerala* (Ernakulam 1933), 3 vols., preface by T. K. K. Menon. Some of the dynasties of medieval Hindu India may be seen in H. C. Ray, *Dynastic History*, Vol. II. (Calcutta 1935).
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To appreciate the tenacity of small states and societal pluralism one has only to note the statistics of population in the diverse states of Europe today.⁴² The absence of alleged "nationality" principles also is a dominant feature in the demographic make-up of many European states at the present moment.
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⁴² *Annuaire Statistique de la Société des Nations* (Geneva 1932) p. 22; Woytinsky: *Die Welt in Zahlen* (Berlin) Vol. I. (1927) pp. 41-52.