Manjeet Singh
Department of History
Panjab University,
Chandigarh
When it comes to the writing of economic
history of early medieval northern India, it is inevitable to come across word
‘peasant’, a thousand times, if not more, to do justice with the attributes,
constituting a firm foundation upon which rests the massive structure of
acquainted past, that we more precisely identify with history. History in
itself is a drab discipline, which otherwise, appealing to not more a dozen of
scholars, draws the attention of million
when served in a savoury platter. Early medieval Indian economy was necessarily
agrarian in nature, therefore making the role of peasantry fundamental to the
theme of our research. The article would discuss at length the other aspects of
peasantry, but what concerns us the most is the study of impact that early
medieval trends of donating lands to the different kind of donees had on the
peasantry. Attempts shall be made to discover the all aspects of peasantry
reflected in the land grants. Defining Peasantry, peasant in particular as the
pivotal role player in peasantry, is more than challenging a risky affair which
involves the sentiments of millions even today.
This article on peasantry has precisely been
directed at the empirical study of early medieval northern Indian peasantry
where goal is to explore new theoretical explanations, alternative approaches,
and perceptions of reality founded on fresh insight. The article will cross
examine the various socio-economic events that led to the emergence of early
medieval peasantry in its distinct form, as differentiated from the traditional
peasantry. This transformation is best manifested in the numerous land-grant
charters forming the subject matter of our study. The study, despite being
focused at the formulation of valid hypotheses from scrutinising the available research
work has been supplemented by the survey of literary traditions shedding light
on the social and economic development of early medieval northern India.
Early medieval Indian literary and epigraphic
traditions comprise the most important phenomenon responsible for the
socio-economic formation of early India. This tradition of land grant, though
not new to the given time was inherently effecting the change in the ways of
land administration. This change was not limited to the ways on how land and
its rights could be managed but went to the extent of changing the
socio-politico model representing the new age of feudal subjugation. Feudalism
once again might be an age old phenomenon, but the quantum of exploitation this
effected in early medieval period is one of the points that we consider to
ponder upon. Exploitation can be associated with peasantry as is the privilege
with the landlordism. For centuries together, peasants have suffered at the
cost of their overlords, taking into account the financial or other aspects.
Their hardship has been a continuous phenomenon and it has gone unbridled for a
considerable period. In this chapter it will be clear how the level of
exploitation becomes the basis of differentiation of the peasantry.
The precise definition of peasantry is
practically not feasible as the terminology varies in its essence with the
variation in geographical boundaries. But most of the scholars and reference
books around the world would primarily relate it with the land in one way or
the other.
Chambers Twentieth
Century Dictionary[1] defines peasant as a countryman: a rustic; one whose
occupation is rural labour; and peasantry as a body of peasants or tillers of
soil, rustic and labourer. On the other hand Webster International Dictionary
recognises peasant as a class that tills the soil as free landowners or hired
labourers. Surely, these reference books have not recognised the worth of words
they used to define the peasantry. Their purview, especially in defining the
peasantry has been quiet modern if not certainly inclined towards the western
approach; precisely aimed at expressing the common meaning to a next man.
Certainly, such references are meant for a general outlook and not for formulating
scholarly debates and discussions.
This
is quite clear when the dictionary freely uses the two apparent contrasts in
its description; one a class of free landowner and the others, hired
labourers. This difference in this
context for a historian is a major change that could effect a social or
economic change which if neglected could convince us in believing that there
stands no parity between the landowner and landless peasants. Citing the definition of peasant from any
dictionary would not be a rational practice given the theme of our chapter in
particular. But comparative analysis of the definition from some of the reputed
dictionaries and the reference sources would provide us with a comprehensive
element to which our topic could relate.
While attempting to define the peasants or
peasantry, most of the scholars or the reference sources have strayed away from
the central idea of the peasantry. Many of them just considering their
attachment to land, an important aspect and ignoring the way of attachment.
International Encyclopaedia of Social Science’s[2]
interpretation is not so exception. It designates the peasant to be an
agriculturist, who lives in a village or small town in rural area and the term
peasantry, to the people and communities who are peasants. It would be unjust
if we would treat peasantry in such a simple manner, by not giving its due, or
simply overlooking its economic contribution of carrying the burden of
sustenance of societies for generations together. Instruments of our theoretical
judgement of peasantry still fall short of the impeccable mechanism that we
could rely upon to help us in reaching somewhere near to the conceptual meaning
of peasant. That could be just because we have not supplemented it with the
pragmatic analysis and considerations.
Thus it becomes clear that the definitions of
dictionaries or the reference books cannot be taken for granted if we want to
reach somewhere concluding the subject matter of peasantry discussions. Any
limitation could not save us from the responsibility of finding out a rational
way out. While considering the interpretations and ideas of some reputed
authors in peasantry and economic histories as regards peasantry might well be
in aide, at such point of discussion. There are innumerable scholars and
historians who have attempted their hands at working on the peasantry. This has
resulted in making the peasantry a multifaceted discipline. While some people
have blatantly applied the term peasant to characterize entire societies, the
others just consider it to be the part of any society.
Though the question of defining the peasant
and peasantry has for long been the bone of contention between historians,
sociologists, anthropologists and thinkers still the need for such definition
arise or is created for better social control, colloquial descriptions and
collective control by some human agencies. It facilitates to identify a group
or community of people with some common traits or practices. But it is for us
to decide whether peasants in particular do exist in groups or communities or
even caste as some of the scholars are led to conclude.
Historically, the roots of word peasant can
be traced back to medieval Europe, where it was used to refer to rural poor,
rural residents, serfs, agricultural labourers and the common people as a whole
which at times involved the rural inhabitants whether or not involved in
agriculture and the literal meaning of ‘peasant’ in the form of a verb was to
subjugate some common man.[3]
Edelman Marc draws a parallel between term ‘peasant’ and French word ‘paysan’
implying connotations such as rustic, crass or rude. Similar trend followed in
thirteenth century Germany where again the ‘peasant’ did not mean anything more
than the connotations mentioned before; it could at times refer to the words
manifesting criminality such as villain , rustic, devil or robber.[4]
Following the western trends barring some
exceptions has long been tradition in Indian scholar. This has in fact done us
more harm than any good. Applying the prefixed moulds to Indian countryman
would have been more than a natural selection an ease, or rather a reluctance
to look for some suitable words which could better describe the Indian
agriculturists or labourers associated with it. The biggest challenge is thus
not even the definition but the question to decide as to who should be included
in the peasantry, which has invited a lot of debate and criticism. Where on the
one hand, the derogatory terms like rustic, rude, robber, crass, used as the
synonyms of peasant in west could reflect badly on the condition of peasants
prevailed in those times, leading us to believe in the extreme subordination
and subjugation of peasants, the theory could not apply uniformly to all social
and physical and social boundaries. Even if the exploitation or subordination
are to be taken as the variable of
feudalism which was hence to be blamed for pre-discussed conditions, the kind of feudalism that existed in India could
in no way be compared to Western feudalism.
In general peasants are the people who depend
on agriculture for subsistence directly or indirectly. Teodor Shanin
necessitates the presence of four elements to be the indispensable peasantry;
family farm as the basic multifunctional unit of social organization, land
husbandry and usually animal rearing as the main means of livelihood, a
specific traditional culture closely linked with the way of life of small rural
communities and multi directional subjection by powerful outsiders.[5] Shanin further acknowledges the presence of
other marginal groups which do not much resemble in the characteristics the
peasantry; landless labourers, rural craftsmen, pastoralists and tribal like
people sustaining on frontier zones, who have for long kept them free from any
political submission that comprise such groups.
Thus it becomes clear that peasantries in no
way form the homogenous mass but are marked by internal differentiations along
many lines. Shanin attempts to trace the roots of term peasant and finds a
concrete resolution by postulating certain traits as to which the peasantry
could relate. Many would agree with Shanin idea as he to some extent succeeds
in identifying closely the characteristics peculiar to the kind of peasantry
that might have existed in Europe in particular and the whole world in general.
The subject matter of defining the peasantry
has been complicated even more given the multifarious suggestions being made by
the historians World around. Where some
scholars like Eric Wolf would even identify the peasant with an active economic
agent, who shoulders the responsibility of his home and consumer who directly
or indirectly depend upon the surplus produced by him, willingly or unwillingly[6],
the others like Daniel Thorner are of the view that in any peasant economy,
more than half of the working population must compulsorily be engaged in
agriculture, so as to fit in the fundamental of it being the carrier of
production, the basis of material sustenance of society.[7]
Wolf specifically enumerates the peasant to be an agricultural producer but
distinctively makes exclusion to craftsmen and fishermen. As for wolf, the
peasant of the day differs from the traditional primitive man who farmed to
satisfy his hunger, in the matter that the lives of peasants now is
characterised by the powers dictating terms in lieu of so called protection
provided by them against the any external intruder agencies. The peasant has
since been subjected to the illegitimate demands and sanctions of such
power-holders belonging to altogether a different stratus of the society,
indicating the idea of rise of State, making the societal relationship even
more complex.[8]
Evidently, such an interdependence has though turned out to be depressing for
peasant societies but always a blessing in disguise for those, the privileged
ones for such exploitations usually catalysed the process of agrarian
expansion; though at what cost, this will be taken up later.
The question of identification of peasants is
the most striking and crucial in the study of peasantry. It is important to
know as to what the word, ‘peasant’ implies. The question has repeatedly been
taken up in recent past many historians by raising yet another query into the
question; does it imply the tenants, petty commodity producers, part time
farmers or the big estate holders? [9]
Indispensable howsoever it might for the studies in peasantries; surely this
question is misleading as to clearly demarcate the frontiers of toiling of the
peasants is next to impossible.
It is evident that social and economic
anthropologists agree upon the peasants being primarily self-sufficient
agriculturalists and further, the scopes of the definition are extended to the
miners, loggers, artisans and other wagers in the peasantry as long as they are
part of the same social group as agriculturalists, which they usually are
because they are members of the same family or because agriculturalists often
engage in these activities for additional seasonal employment. All these
activities have certain common characteristics; be it the standard of living,
labour demand which is not capital based but primarily on the natural
resources. They view the peasantry as a marginal, deprived and subjugated
section of the society which to a great extent is the truth.[10]
The problem with the sociologists and the anthropologists is the tools
formulated basically in the training of lone sociological perspective. Some
very significant aspects associated with peasantry such as economic and
politico-economic can holus bolus be ignored by the sociologists and the
anthropologists, which in no way means any offence as the scope of sociological
studies might be limited given the historic perspective.
The historical dimension ignored by other
social scientists has been included in the Marxist definition but with some
limitations. The Marxist definition of peasants as semi-feudal or feudal tenant
removes this category altogether from areas in the twentieth century.[11]
The Marxist definition does not include within itself, for example, landless
agricultural labourers whose presence in the countryside; they prefer to treat
as a product of capitalist penetration rather than an inherent feature of
peasantry itself.[12]
But the landless wage labourers have been an integral part of Indian village
for a long historical period. One of the Marxist scholars, Irfan Habib defines
a peasant as a person who undertakes agriculture on his own, working with his
own implements and using the labour of the family.[13]
Irfan’s definition of the peasantry is acceptable to Marxist scholars in India.
He classifies the peasants such as, the rich peasant (with extensive use of
hired labour), the middle peasant (mainly using family labour) and the poor
peasant (with land insufficient to absorb the whole of the family of the
labourer).[14]
He identifies another type of peasant, based on property relations, and
recognizes die peasant proprietor, the peasant with some claim to permanent or
long-term occupancy, and the seasonal share-cropper, as separate categories.
But in his views the landless labourers are not peasants they form with peasants
the working agricultural population, and their history too remains for him a
part of peasant history.[15]
He ignores the factor of land control and thus implies that a peasant may be an
owner, a tenant or in a broader sense, even a labourer without any right of
ownership, or occupancy. Such a definition makes the peasant a vague category
limiting him by some only to the owner-cultivator and stretching him by other
to include even the landless labourers.
Whether
peasantries arise from tribal societies, or from the less privileged section of
the society or from the specialised group of agriculturists being assigned the
task of a universal producer for generations together, the one feature of the
nature of their work makes them identical to one another. Such workers, unstill
not ascribed any position in the social or economic hierarchy, might form
analytically marginal section that share with the hardcore of peasants most of
their characteristics. Hetukar Jha argues that the peasant has to maintain his
household along with the various social, cultural and political obligations and
therefore the rationale of production that he adopts is entirely different from
that of the capitalist mode of production. Jha further acknowledges the peasant
household as a representative unit of production in any peasant economy; the
peasant family household being a socioeconomic unit which grows crops primarily
by the physical efforts of the members of the family. [16]
Thorner in this regard hurried in claiming India still to be a peasant economy.
Shedding futher light on the statement made by him, he categorised the peasants
in three principal groups composing the Indian agrarian structure namely: mālik
the proprietor, kisān ,the working peasant and mazdur , the
labourer which also includes the share croppers or the tenants-at -will.[17] Throner seems familiar with the problem of
identification of the peasants in India as is B.N. Ganguly. Where Thorner
questions the inadequacy of the terms like landlords, tenants and labourers to
canvas a clear picture of the peasantry, Ganguly observes that the mixed status
of Indian peasants worsens the problem of identification and makes it even more
complicated to find out whether he is a cultivating owner or a not cultivating
owner. Thorner by ascribing the Indian terminology as mālik, kisān, mazdur to the
identification of peasants though facilitated to identify the hierarchical
division at local level but this in no way made the task of identification any
easier as his theory failed to make it clear if the all three were the parts of
peasantry, or the kisān alone
formed peasantry, or could mazdur
(labourers) be included in the peasantry; because technically the mālik can not be identified with peasantry if they
do not serve actively in production and so cannot be mazdur absorbed
into the peasantry if the direct association with land is taken to be the sole
criterion of qualification. V.K. Srivastava makes it clear that absentee
landlords cannot be designated as peasants for the peasants effectively controlled
the lands on which he worked and his production is mainly aimed at subsistence
targeting mainly the household consumption, but he produces surplus to get his
other needs.[18]
This analogue if applied to early medieval Indian context, it could create a
chaotic situation as the clause of land
control would ruin the very base of definition of the peasants let alone strive
for other means of luxury than getting food to the fill. The land control, the central tool of
defining peasantry by Srivastava in early medieval period slipped even from the
most privileged hands to the class of newly created landed aristocracy by
virtue of a phenomenon peculiar to early medieval context, known as feudalism.
Our period of study, the element of land control was lost to the mists of
perplexity effected by this phenomenon which now became a frequent fashion
until its saturation.
A
stark distinction is visible in all three groups but their association with
land in different ways for unilateral aimed function justifies their relation
with the identical division that is peasantry hence professed by Thakur that
the element of land control which remains a key hierarchy determinant requires
a qualified inclusion of landless groups into the peasant category.[19]
Nonetheless,
Srivastava raised a very relevant question regarding peasantry that if one
could equate rural or village with peasantry; could all the village dwellers be
peasants or is it that this place is legitimately reserved for the agricultural
producers of the village; if all villagers are not actively engaged in
agriculture, what term could be used to describe them.[20]
Subhadra Channa counter the application of European concept of peasantry to
India, especially early medieval period for peasantry in India is not undifferentiated
and peasants do not belong to particular caste rather come from different
strata of the society.[21]
It is but obvious that if any definition of peasant is derived primarily on
European manner, this would only reflect the European reality and applying such
definitions to Indian history undoubtedly a biggest folly.
What
is more relevant in this scenario is the broader understanding of the term
peasant. The limitation of man-land relationship and that of agricultural
domain pose a biggest hurdle in understanding of peasantry. And in this
direction, the approach of R. Firth[22]
seems to be little relevant who broadly view the peasants as small scale
producers. Evidently, the broader analysis of Indian peasant would depend upon
the inclusion of rural masses irrespective of their particular occupation and
without taking into account cultural or economic homogeneity. Going by this approach, rural inhabitants,
then be it rich land-owners, landless labourers, artisans or craftsmen, all may
be classified as peasants. It implies that term peasant is not reserved for
distinct class of people in a village or society as a whole. Peasantry might be
an economic in its function but agricultural alone should not be mandated for
it.
One
thing is quite noticeable that the identification of peasants particularly in
early medieval period in India is the most vulnerable and sensitive issue, much
for its exposure to the new social formation occurring as a result of
frequented tradition of land grants resulting in even bigger bang when such a
trend is at its high. It really makes us think if any such definition
formulated by any criteria of social or economic sort would uniformly apply to
early medieval Indian peasantry. The alienation of land control either from the
superior hands of elites or from the petty farmer who until now had at least
virtual rights over land with the compulsory obligation of rent to overlord, is
conspicuous by its absence in early medieval north India. R.S. Sharma in his
lucid style puts forth that the kind of social structure that existed in early
medieval India with a class of landlords claiming the rights to collect the
rent on the ground of their self proclaimed ownership or sanctioned by the even
bigger sovereign, with a class of peasantry working as producers and paying the
fair share of their production as rent third and the vicious object of the
promoting production or economic growth not for the welfare of society as a
whole but to quench their obsession for profit.
Two
most important determinants of the identification of the peasantry according to
V.K. Thakur[23]
are: the element of land control and the pattern of exploitative relationship
shaped by the nature of structured peasant formation. The element of land
control is the most crucial in the context of agricultural operations. Thakur
suggest that peasant is the one who owns land and engages himself in
agriculture either in the capacity of direct supervisors or cultivators.
References has been put forth by Thakur as testimonial to his perception from
ancient Indian literature where terms such a gahapati, kuṭumbin/ kuṭumbika
occur in contrast of kinaṣa, kriṣivala, kriṣika, karṣaka and the like
having the hierarchical as well as functional seperations. The yet another
problem is added by words such as pamara, holauahakā, dāsakammakāra in
the context of land control as these were landless groups whose labour was
indispensable for agrarian economic production. Yajanvalkya throws some light
upon the terms karṣaka and kṣetravāmi; citing a reference from his works
it becomes clear that land was to be assigned to the cultivator, karṣaka directly
by the landowner, the kṣetravāmi.
Here two thing worth noticing; one that the term karṣaka is associated
with the cultivator and other that the ownership of land in some manner was the
feature of agrarian economy in fourth century C.E. [24]
Yajanvalkya further distinguishes the landlord or kṣetravāmi from the
king whom he identifies with term māhipati. Conclusively, he identifies
three stages in such economic order which were later corroborated by Brhaspati
in sixth and seventh centuries. Here again karṣaka occurs as a peasant
who has certain obligation to his overlord but the utter exploitation and
subjection in not testified by Yajanvalkya. Considering the terminological
operations in the light of references from early India, the relation of peasant
to the land can safely be presumed. English term peasant, meaning countrymen be
literally translated into which means inhabitant of countryside.[25]
Transformation the regular feature of history was quite frequent in early India
when term jana came to mean a dependent, a servile peasant who was
valued and acquired for his labour power. Testimonial to such a change of
peasant’s relation to land is borne by the medieval texts and Inscriptions. In
the literary sourcs, gahapati is referred to the head of the household
and implied the landowning peasant in early Pāli texts having substantial
autonomy in his unit of production. The term has been omitted in land grant
inscriptions and appears only in later texts in the sense village headman.[26]
Clear demarcation between the landless and landowning farmer is not drawn early
India for until then control of land by the cultivator would have been an
obvious phenomenon so as to produce the best therefore helping the state in
enhanced revenue. The trend of the dramatic shift in their role might have been
the later stage development. We are assured of such assessments because clear
term for peasant kṣetrika or kṣetrin, occurs repeatedly in the texts
which derive various meaning as controller of land, agriculturist or the
cultivator. It might sometime hint even to a cultivator who necessarily is not
the owner of the land; kṣetrika as mere cultivator or husbandman seen as
the derivation from the Assamese word khetiyaka and the word kṣetrakāra
again implying a peasant used in many land grants especially of eastern
India is a case in point.[27]
So is the term shetkāri in Marathi derived from kṣetreakara which
does not unquestionably imply the owner of land, rather simple cultivator of
soil.
In
Amarkosa , a sixth century literary work, we find mention of five term for
peasants and agriculture workers- kṣetrajiva, karṣaka, krṣika, krṣivala and
kinaṣa;kuṭumbi was later added to it by Halayudha.[28]
Some other related terms too occur in some other Sanskrit works as
Abhidhanaratnamāla of Halayudha like halika, krṣikara, krṣaka krṣajivi etc. Quite
interestingly, in Aṣtadhyayi of Panini the term halika appears to
have connoted an ox utilized for ploughing.[29]The
ancient Indian literary sources do not present king and peasant in a bilateral
relation, which is defined more precisely as, firstly, to raise produce, and
secondly, to pay a share of his produce to the king. By performing these
obligations or duties, he can expect the king’s protection, and he can enjoy
the balance of his produce.[30]
Kṣetrapati, kṣetraswāmi, occur in ancient Indian literary tradition as well as
epigraphical sources time and again which would either interpret as the
cultivator of the soil or the agricultural labourer.[31]
Kuṭumba-kṣetra refers to the field in the land-grants which
cultivator owned absolutely.[32]
But the evidence of Medhātithi suggests that kuṭumba was a share-cropper as
well. However, we observe that there were a large number of peasant proprietors
who “tilled their own land and the task of tilling the land was done by almost
all segments of Indian society. The Kṣatriyas and Brāhmaṇas along with Vaiśyas
and Śūdras are found to be engaged in agricultural activities; the bulk goes to
the Śūdras who worked agricultural operations.[33]
G.C. Chauhan[34]
includes the following categories as peasants; rich land- owners,
share-croppers, tenants, landless labourers, artisans, craftsmen and other who
were engaged in any kind of agricultural activities in ancient India. The
broader perspective of the peasantry has been paid heed by Chauhan.
In
early medieval India with the significant and noticeable events taking place,
coming under the watchful eye of scholars, other seemingly not so important
were in the offing. These were the social and cultural transformations within
the framework of predominant four Varṇa, giving rise to a series of events
altogether different to projected trends had such changes not effected ever in
the history. The literary sources like Dharmaśāstras and others like
Inscription bear testimony to these. In
traditional Varṇa set up, the Śūdra were flunged to the lowest rung of society
preceded by vaisya, ksatriya and brāhamaṇa consecutively. But quite apparently, in the middle of first
millennium, the period coinciding with the maximum frequency in land grants, a
considerable section of Śūdra s were rising in social and economic status after
being associated with the agriculture and a section of vaisyas, particularly the
ones economically less sound, were descending to the level of Śūdras. From the
age Buddha to the advent of Gupta period, the taxpaying vaisyas mostly
comprised peasants but by the early medieval times, they were reduced to the
position of Śūdra s who, in spite of having acquired peasant hood continued to
bear the hallmark of servitude. There was a definite change in the relative
position of lower two varṇas. Śūdras were no longer slaves or servants rather
emerged as cultivators, more specifically the peasants in new progression era.
Even law books of sixth and seventh century ascribe the position of tiller of
soil or the agriculturist to Śūdra. This development could not escape the eyes
of foreign travellers either who briefly mentioned about the Śūdra as cultivator
of land; Chinese traveller Hieun-Tsang is one of those who described
agriculture as the duty of Śūdras. Other than this, a sizeable proportion of
tribals were being absorbed into this complex social structure, considering
them belonging to Śūdra category, but to the advantage of those yielding
considerable power.
It
is not that the Śūdra were assigned the vocation of agriculture for the first
time, but such direct induction into agriculture had never taken place. R.S.
Sharma speak of Śūdra engaging into agriculture, citing reference from the
Dharmasūtra rules; those Śūdra s who worked as craftsmen and artisans are
independent people, for these occupations are prescribed for them in case they
fail to maintain themselves by service which would imply domestic or
agricultural work.[35]Even
though in ancient past might not directly be inducted into agriculture, the
allied services they provided helped the economy to boost with a surplus
production. Artisans for example provided the peasantry with the improved
implements of agriculture such as ploughshare, spades and others which had
direct bearing upon the production agrarian activities. The agrarian expansion would be a myth
without large labour pushing it beyond the limiting boundaries. But the question
then is; which class could provide such considerable manpower to mobilize large
scale agrarian production of which the bringing of large barren territories
under plough was a prerequisite. Was it brāhamaṇa, ksatriya, or the vaisya or
the Śūdra itself.
Pragmatic
evaluation would reveal that without the direct involvement of Śūdra such a
transformation would never have been a major reckoning of the past. The
appraisal of the serving character of the Śūdra during the pre-Mauryan times
has hence been notably taken into account. R.S. Sharma quotes Gautama who lays
down that vaisya and Śūdra should make their gains by labour, making us believe
that Śūdra performed the function of primary producer alongwith vaisya peasants
to provide material foundation for the growth of society.[36]As
agricultural labourers, Śūdra helped to open to cultivation the thickly wooded
areas of Kosala and Magadha and this is for the reason that Kauṭilya advocates
the policy of employing Śūdra labour for breaking the virgin soil of new
settlements.
In
the context of early medieval India, G.C. Chauan cites the inevitability of
employing Śūdra s as agricultural labourers in a period when the economy is
primarily centred around the agriculture and the extraction of surplus is the
most vivid obsession of the overlord.[37]In
yet another paper on the socioeconomic position of artisans, he proposes that
the Śūdra s were regarded as the collective property of upper three varṇas and
they were at the mercy of their masters for the maximum exploitation of labour
was the popular slogan for such overlords.[38]
That
all peasants were not Śūdra but a considerable proportion of Śūdra comprised
peasantry becomes quite apparent and an established fact in early medieval
Indian context. Efforts were made in Dharmaśāstras to contain their
discontent by making laying down certain rules to absorb them into social
mainstream. If some powerful indigenous tribal families or foreign tribes
managed to capture power, they came to be recognised and legitimised as
ksatriyas and this theory was put forward by Sabarasvami in fourth century, who
wrote commentary on the Mimansa Sutra of Jamini. We come across the antyaja
meaning the last born and socially degraded and untouchable in early medieval
literature.[39]There
goes a myth that antyaja had its origin from the union of ksatriya
father and vaisya mother and he was considered as sat Śūdra who could
perfrom certain ceremonies and whose food could be accepted.
With
the propagation of the system of land grants, numerous tribals were annexed to
the brahamanical system and the new peasants came to be considered as Śūdras.
Śūdra s who had long served as slaves and domestic servants, artisans and
agricultural labourers and early period came to be recognised as peasants in
contemporary texts as well as in the accounts of foreigners. Attempts were even
made to give it a religious sanction to give it a permanent shape.
R.S.
Sharma states that what distinguished early medieval period was the
proliferation of caste system, particularly the Śūdra peasant castes proved to
be numerous and based on regions, clans and tribes, they were arranged in
ritualistic gradation and this phenomenon gave rise to the theory of mixed
castes which attributed the origin of numerous peasant castes to the union of
existing castes in the reverse order. This was popularised as pratilomā
order and it was advocated that each
mixed caste was either inferior or
superior to the other caste.
Sharma
argues that though the peasants were exploited more or less in the same manner,
they were the victims of the endless divisions caused by the castes based on
ritualistic distinctions. [40]
The solidarity against the dominant class of landlords was still a far cry for
the newly created class of peasants. To clear demarcate boundaries between the
Śūdra s and vaisya peasants, the idea of dvija was preached. The form of
servility of the Śūdra s underwent a considerable change right from third
century C.E. on account of social crisis but the elements of servitude continued.
The theory of origin of mixed caste, or the pratilomā order was clearly
used to create a hierarchy of degraded Śūdra castes, separated by idea of
purity and pollution from one another resultantly making difficult for them to
make it a common cause. Such a distinction was manifested in the two forms of
Śūdra coming to fore; sat and asat Śūdra, sat being the pure and
upper hirarchial class and asat the downgraded impure class of Śūdra.[41]
Thus the sanskritization of the social status of Śūdra was a transitory joy
which could not outlive few decades let alone the centuries of rigorous
subjection and exploitation.
B.N.S.Yadava[42]
opines that Śūdra s comprised the hardcore of peasantry from 600-1200 C.E.
though some of them opted for the allied vocations of artisans and
craftsmanship. In the light of advent of feudalism, the transformation of Śūdra
into peasant class was a very significant process which was accompanied by the
degradation of the status of vaisyas, who lost an important position in the
prevalent social structure.
Medhatithi
(9th C.E.) in the context of deriding Śūdra to the inferior position
to that of dvija, the twice born, commenting on text of Manusmriti
dictates the terms for the Śūdra miscasting inferiority upon the status of
Śūdra; he goes on that it is the duty of the Śūdra that he shold reside in the
locality of twice born and continue to obtain his living by serving him on whom
he is dependent.[43] This suggests the restriction on the
migration and movement Śūdra from the area ascribed to him mandated by some law
or religious sanction. Such a subjection of peasantry could only strengthen the
intermediaries who had every right to exploit their potential to the fullest.
Moreover a condition was created where manpower could be at their back and call
in the times when labour was an indispensable commodity.
The
Skanda Purana, a significant literary work of eighth century C.E., provides
interesting sidelightsof a legendry grant of a number of villages along with
36000 vaisyas as well as Śūdra s four times that number made in times of yore
by king Rama to 18000 brāhmaṇas after the performance of certain religious
rites. The vaisyas and Śūdra s were evidently intended to serve the donees, who
later divided the villages amongst themselves. The services of peasants hence
transferred by Rama had previously been enjoyed by him. Associating the
obligation of service to the core character of Śūdra, he further declared that
a Śūdra serving them with humility would become prosperous and attain
heaven and failure in doing his duty would ensure his seat in hell.
What distinguished the early medieval period
was the proliferation of the caste system; particularly the Śūdra peasant
castes proved to be numerous. Based on regions, clans and tribes, they were
arranged in some ritualistic gradation. The theory of the origin of these Śūdra
castes was known as the theory of mixed castes, which attributed the origins of
numerous peasant castes to the union of the existing castes in the reverse
order, i.e. in the pratilomā order. This theory was conceived in such a manner
that almost every mixed caste was either inferior or superior to the other
caste. Thus although the peasants were exploited more or less in the same
manner, they were the victims of endless division caused by the castes based on
ritualistic distinctions of inferiority or superiority. The element of
ritualism tended to distort the reality of exploitation to which the peasants
were subjected. Therefore the solidarity of the peasants against the landlords
could not be achieved easily.
Stratification in the peasantry of early
medieval India was an inevitable phenomenon aided by the various social and
economic changes crafting the permanent passage for it. Once we are done with
the issue of identification of peasants, to know as to who we are referring to,
we must next move on to clearly identify the divisions further occurring within
it. Supposedly, if the peasantry is not considered to be a homogenous complex,
it is irrelevant to expect homogeneity in its framework. The economic, social
or even political parity was never the principal feature of peasantry right
from the beginning, even before Śūdra being initiated into this social order.
The margins occurred as a matter of fact resulting from the capability of setting
themselves free from the shackles of either ideological or ritualistic
dominance. If this inhibition could be overcome, with some monastic discipline
being readied for such sanctions, even the most degraded sections of brāhamaṇical
or non brāhamaṇical society could be absorbed into predominant social order.
Hence making us believe that stratification was more a result of yielding to
the ideological or religious dominance than being the subject of exploitation
in strict sense of terms; at least in the cases when subjects were aware of
their inhibitions and had the courage of conviction to shed it off. The
literary and other sources have innumerable stances to suggest that such a
process was the deliberate attempt of the power wielding authorities to control
both the natural and human resources to satisfy their unending want of surplus
which resulted in the absolute subjection and control of the peasantry. Thus it
becomes important for us to know as to how such process effected transition
into another economic phase characterized by stratification, subjugation and
subjection of peasantry.
The basis of classification of peasantry is
not singular; there are various perspectives following which the peasants can
be recognised as various social groups, though identical in function yet
discrete in identification. If economic dependence was to be taken as a tool to
differentiate peasantries, we would mainly find two distinctions; the once
which is dependent and the other that is independent variable of agrarian economy.
The autonomous or independent peasant would obvious imply to the class of
landowning peasants whereas there are multiple dimensions of the dependent
peasant; they could be landless labourers, sharecroppers, or partial
agriculturists or even the bonded labourers attached to a specific plot of
land.
If classical Indian literature is anything to
go by, the agriculture in India has been the pivotal vocation ensuring the
participation, directly or indirectly of all sections of the society since the
very beginning. Buddhist texts refer to brāhmaṇas and ksatriyas taking up
cultivation as a means of livelihood or the prime mode of susistence[44]
and the Ramayana goes to the extent of depicting a king, Janaka ploughing the
fields with an ease of accustomed ploughman.[45]
The later texts, like the Vrddhaharita (II,
172), show that agriculture was the common profession of all castes and even
the brāhmaṇas could adopt it at their convenience.[46]
We are referring to the time when agriculture was still regarded as a noble
profession and agriculturists in no way meant the socially and economically
degraded individual and in such a situation majority of the peasants seemingly
belong to vaishya and Śūdra social order; exception being made to brāhamaṇa and
ksatriya for their engagement with other vocations associated with their social
positions; discretion of taking up agriculture being the matter of will or as a
last resort to earn a living; Śūdra of course not being maltreated either as
commodity or as something that could be donated by a king.
The peasants who owned their land were free
from any kind of subordination and subjection. The terms for such self-reliant
peasants occur more frequently in literature and less frequently in the
Inscriptions. Their economic self reliance was their warrant against any kind
of oppression that otherwise hacked the docile peasantry. The term such as Kuṭumba
ksetra was associated with such fields which were owned by theses
autonomous peasants. We have repeated reference to terms which might imply the
free peasant of early medieval India as kuṭumbi, gahapati and kṣetravāmi.
It has been previously discussed that whether gahapati[47]
denoted as head of the household, landowning peasant or as the village
headman in later texts, he wielded some considerable authority as regards the
matter of land control. The connotations of village headmen or head of the
household though do not directly suggest his relation to the land but it is
conspicuous that any authority in early medieval period was primarily based on
land control; hence it can be inferred that he was in real sense a landowner
peasant who could be endowed upon with other titles. Uma Chakaravarti[48]has
contributed a whole chapter in inquiry whether gahapati was a peasant
producer. She makes it clear how there has been a shift in the way we look at
the literal meaning of term gahapati in early medieval India from a
simple meaning of householder; gahapati is associated by her with the
seven treasures of a king as the symbol of sovereignty , hence inherent to
kingship. She goes on that the reflections from Pāli texts make it evident that
the essential aspect of gahapati was the possession of property and
fundamental association with land.[49]Gahapati
by Uma is seen as the person in
control of business and control and the one who pays the taxes to king hence
being most crucial to him. Such interpretation could raise questions over the gahapati
being the hardcore landowning
peasant but there should not be any problems in including him into the
absentee landlord in the stance of his not being directly associated with
agrarian production.
As a result, from the long survey of literary
as well as secondary sources of early medieval northern India we can believe that
there was a large number of peasants who owned land and cultivated its work of
number of peasants who owned land and cultivated its work of tilling-land was
done by almost all sections of the Indian society: the brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas
along with the vaiśyas and Śūdras. Largest segment of Śūdras population was engaged
in agrarian operations in early medieval northern India, worked as agricultural
labourer paid or otherwise. The large number of peasant worked on the fields of
big landlords. These peasants had contributed a lot to the prosperity of the
country through the ages. It appears that there were a large number of
temporary peasants to whom the land was leased out by the owners. It shows that
the landless peasants were assigned a subordinate status and seems to be attached
to the soil and required to work as per the wishes of the landlords.
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[1] Beteille Andre, Six Essays in
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[2] International Encyclopaedia of Social
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[3] Marc Edelman, “What is peasant? What
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first session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on a United Nations
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[4] Jacques Le Goff and Edmund King, “The
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[5] Teodor Shanin, “The Nature and Logic of
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[6] Jha, Hetukar, “Understing Peasant and Its
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[7] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p.10.
[8] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p.8.
[9] Llambi, Luis, “Latin American Peasantries and Regimes of Accumulation,” European Review of Latin American and
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[10] Vogeler, Ingolf, “American
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[11] Chanana, Subhadra,
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[13] Habib, Irfan, “The
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session, Kurukshetra, 1982, p.4; idem, “The
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[14] Daniel Thornier, International
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[15] Firth, Raymond, “Malayan
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[16] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p.8.
[17] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p.12.
[18] Srivastava, V.K, “On the Concept of
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[19] Thakur,
V.K. “The Peasant in Early India:
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[20] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, pp. 22-23.
[21] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p.52.
[22] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p.52.
[23] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p.131.
[24] Sharma,R.S., D.N. Jha, “Economic
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[25] Sharma, R.S., “How feudal was Indian Feudalism”,
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[26] Sharma, R.S., HFWIF, p.22.
[27] Turner, R.L., A Comparative Dictionary of Indo-Aryan Languages, , Oxford,1973, no.
3736
[28] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p. 200.
[29] Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p.201.
[30]Manusmrti, XXV;
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[31] Kanta Surya, Sanskrit-Hindi- English Dictionary, New
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[32] Mirashi, V.V., Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum
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[33] Habaib, Irfan,
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[34] Chauhan, G.C., Feudal Society and Its Culture,
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[35] Sharma, R.S., Śūdra in
Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order Down to Circa A.D. 600,
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Ancient India).
[36] Sharma, R.S., Śūdra
in Ancient India, p. 114.
[37] Chauhan, Economic History of Early Medieval Northern India, Atlantic Publishers,
Delhi, 2003, p. 85.
[38] Chauhan, G.C., “The Artisan”, Journal
of Oriental Institute, Baroda, Vol. 46, no 3-4.
[39] Sharma, R.S., “The Problem of Peasant Protest
in Early Medieval India”, in Social
Scientist, Vol. 16, 1988, pp. 10-11.
(hereinafter cited as PPPEI).
[40] Sharma, R.S., PPPEI, p. 14.
[41] R.S. Sharma, Śūdra in Ancient India, p.324
[42] Yadava, B.N.S., “Immobility and
Subjection of Indian Peasantry” Edt., in B P Sahu, Land system and Rural Society, Delhi, 1997, pp.330-331.
(hereinafter cited as LSRS).
[43] Yadava, B.N.S., in Edt., in B P Sahu, LSRS, pp. 331-332.
[44] Suttanipata, I, 4.
[45] Rāmāyaṇa, I,66,13-14.
[46] Vrddharita II,
162. Brahmanastu Krsim Kurvan Vahayedicchiya dharan.
[47] Sharma, R.S., HFWIF, p. 22.
[48] Chakravarti, Uma, “ In Search of the
Peasant in Early India: Was the Gahapati a Peasant Producer?”, Edt., Thakur, V.K. and A. Aounshuman, PIH, p. 150.
