Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c3.26

c3.26

Similarly, fascinated by the largely intact and functioning *Bees Biswa* and *Sasana* village communities, he wished to know what it was that had kept these aspects of Indian civilisation so far alive and ticking (in contrast to some of the disintegrated and pauperised communities we encounter in the present). He assumed that if the basis of these hitherto vibrant communities were understood, it might assist Indian society—particularly its intellectuals and political leaders—to divest itself of its present state of depression and disinterest with its surroundings and perhaps become lively again. The inquiry had to focus on how India had functioned before the onset of the debilitating British and European dominance. When he began, he had no clear direction in which to look. Even after he had found what he was looking for, the utter significance of it would dawn on him only later.