Caste in India: The Facts and the System c8.s6.16

c8.s6.16

The Hindu village has an autonomous life of its own. In several regions it is a real community and its territory common property, an organization which has afforded frequent parallels with the Slavonic village-communities. We have been led to consider the village as the equivalent of the primitive clan; but in the village the community of blood, of possessions, and of jurisdiction was probably established on a more definite basis. I cannot determine whether the village-communities in India are everywhere of ancient origin, or whether they have not, in a great many cases and under the influence of special conditions, accidentally reconstituted a primitive social type. They bear witness, at any rate, to a powerful tradition of corporate life. At the same time there exists over a vast area that system of family-communities (joint families) where several generations are grouped in joint possession under a patriarchal authority. This system shows a spirit of obstinate conservatism with regard to old institutions.