The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c9.s3.20

c9.s3.20

All this points to the highly developed institutional sense and corporate consciousness among Hindus. And these principles of *samûha* (or public associations and corporations) were not the patents of Buddhist, Jaina or any other religious bodies but were held in solution in the general socio-economic and civic life of ancient and mediæval India. These quasi-political institutions were only drawing upon and contributing to the same stream of national experience as did the economic *śreṇîs* (gilds) and the political *gaṇas* (republics) or constitutional *sabhâs* and *samitis* (assemblies).¹