The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.s1.t5.5

c10.s1.t5.5

² Majumdar’s Ch. II (esp. pp. 55—85), full as it is of long extracts from epigraphic volumes which evidently have not been exhausted, is in need of a thorough revision and a more critical handling from the angle of constitutional development. Altogether, the view of rural institutions set forth by the present author is fundamentally different from the conventional attitude represented by all recent writers. The prevailing fallacy arises from an incomplete comprehension of the stages of constitutional evolution in western Europe and an inadequate analysis of the relations between the local and central governments during the different periods. The attempt at interpreting ancient and mediaeval Hindu polity in terms of recent growths in Eur-America is equally unwarrantable. A scientific interpretation of the mass of facts such as are exhibited by Majumdar and Mookerji will require a special monograph which it is not sought in this volume to undertake.