The Social Structure of a Mysore Village M
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THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY October 30, 1951 The Social Structure of a Mysore Village M. N. Srinivas, Professor of Sociology, M. S. University of Baroda The author spent the greater part of 1948 making a field-study of Kodagahalli, a village about 22 mites from Mysore. The study was possible owing to the generosity of the University of Oxford which permitted him to spend the first year of his appointment as University Lecturer in Indian Sociology in making such a study. The following outline of an Indian village community is intended for the general reader.—Ed. HERE are about 560 thousand of Permanent Settlement in 1793. lage. A distant pilgrimage or a T villages in what is now Indian The ' joint' type may further be journey to a cattle fair, were prob Union, and the bulk of the popu sub-divided into the pattidari and ably the only occasions when an lation of 357 millions live in these the zamindari sub-types, in both of individual ventured beyond the villages where the traditional mode which the village, lands constitute range of his normal contacts. of life still continues. But the villages the joint property of an organised Even then, he was often accom have begun to change rapidly now proprietary body. But while in the panied by his friends and relatives, adays, and the pace of the change pattidari system the joint families Groups, of relatives and friends is likely to increase rather than de constituting the proprietary body moved a considerable distance only crease in the near future. This own separate, shares in the culti when there were compelling reasons makes the field study of typical vil vable land and hold the waste and like a famine, war, or religious per lages in the different linguistic areas pasture lands in common, in the secution by a prince professing a of our country an urgent necessity. zamindari system all land is held different faith. Either we collect the facts now, or and managed in common, and not The overall political authority they are lost forever. divided. In the latter sub-type, the does not seem to have been much The Indian village community tenants, if any, are. the tenants of more than a tax-collecting body in has figured rather prominently in the whole body of proprietors, their its relations to these villages. As early sociological literature. rents and other receipts are paid long as a village paid its taxes and Sir Henry Maine brought the into a common fund from which no great crime was committed in Indian village community into the common expenses are met; and it, it was allowed to go its own way. prominence by making it the basis the annual profits are divided among II we exclude for a moment the of his theory of primitive commun the co-sharers according to their hereditary headman of the village ism of property. Basing his theories respective shares. In a ' joint ' vil and the hereditary accountant who on a certain type of village com lage, there are two classes of men, are primarily members of the village munity existing in parts of North one with proprietary rights, the community discharging certain India, he argued that originally other without them, power resting duties for the government, officials land, that is property, was owned exclusively with the former. of the government rarely visited jointly by kin-groups, and that In the 'severalty' or ryotwari the village. The elders in Kodaga- individual ownership of land was a village, a type which prevailed over halli told me that even as recently later phenomenon in the history of the greater part of India, the unit as fifty years ago a policeman was human societies. Attempts to re for land revenue is not the village, a rare sight in their village, only construct the history of social insti but the holding of each cultivator, 22. miles from the capita! of the tutions were, fashionable in the which is separately assessed, and State of Mysore. f Formerly every latter half of the 19th century. each cultivator is individually res village had its own watch and Social anthropology or comparative ponsible for its payment. There is ward, and this continues in certain sociology is a more mature sub no waste land held in common villages even today, ) ject today, and consequently so which can be divided if required Nobody can fail to he impressed cial anthropologists are m o r e for cultivation, though there may be by the isolation and stability of modest than t h e i Victorian common rights of use in the waste, these village communities. Some of predecessors. They either attempt e.g., for grazing and collecting fuel. the early British administrator to describe the structural features A feature of the village com have left us their impressions of the of a small society which they have munity all over India is the pan- village community. Sir Charles studied intensively for two or three chayat or council of elders which Metcalfe wrote in 1832 : years, or compare similar institu decides disputes between villagers, tions in a few neighbouring and discusses matters of common " The village communities air societies. interest like holding a festival, little republics, having nearly We may note briefly one or two building a temple or road, etc. everything they want within general points about village com The nature of the village com themselves, and almost independ munities all over India, before pro munity is much better realised if ent of any foreign relations. ceeding to give an outline of this we disregard for a moment the They seem to last where nothing village community in Mysore. development of communications and else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty Earlier writers like Maine distin the increase of administrative tumbles down; revolution suc guished between two types of vil centralisation the revenue, police, ceeds revolution . , but the vil lages in India—the ' joint ' and the law courts, etc. of the last 150 lage community remains the' " severalty '. The first type prevails years or more. Before this. the same. This union of village in the N.W.F.P., the Punjab, and village communities were far more communities, each one forming a the UP, and the second in Penin isolated than they are today. A separate little state in itself, has, sular ' and Central India. The man's effective contacts and rela I conceive, contributed more latter type existed in Bengal tions, one imagines, normally stop than any other cause to the pre and Bihar before the introduction ped a few miles from his natal vil servation of the people of India, THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY October 30, 1951 The disease was ritually driven out haili, and every year, in the month in certain contexts. There are 16 of the village—the village bound of Kartik (October-November) sub-castes in Kodagahalli. Each of ary had a certain ritual significance. there is a festival in honour of this these sub-castes has a distinctive This ritual unity of the village deity. People from within a radius tradition with strong ties with the is important. During the early of about twenty miles come to this same sub-caste in villages nearby. part of the summer of 1948 there festival. Parties of devotees from That is, the village is a vertical was a long drought and this ad surrounding villages come and unity of many castes whereas caste versely affected the summer crops, carry an image of the deity round is a horizontal unity, its alliances horse gram, black gram, given gram, the temple. It is customary to going beyond the village. etc. The villagers felt that allow each party to carry the image There is one aspect of the caste they were being punished by God. three times round the temple. In system winch does not receive suffi Some attributed the drought to the 1947 a party from Arakere was cient emphasis. All the various fact that the priest of the Basava intercepted by a party from Sihalli castes in a village are interdepend temple, an old widower, was living soon alter the former had complet ent. This is seen in day-to-day with two women to whom he was ed the second round. Arakere matters, and is prominent on ritual not married. The rains are liable people said they wanted to complete and other important occasions. to fail for other reasons too: burial the three rounds. Sihalli people Any villager will tell, for instance, of a leper's corpse leads to defile replied that a great many people that at the wedding of a peasant. ment of Mother Earth (Bhumitai) were waiting, and there was no time all the castes have to co-operate. and this results in a drought. A for the customary three rounds. A The Brahmin is priest, the carpen leper's corpse has to be cremated or fight ensued, in which an Arakere ter puts up the pandal, the gold floated down a river. youth was injured. Soon Arakere smith makes the ornaments, the There was a striking demonstra people massed up for a fight, and potter makes the pots, the washer tion of village unity during my started moving towards Kodaga man supplies clean cloths for the stay. The government suddenly haili. The police then intervened, bridal pair to walk on, the barber shaves the groom, the oil-presser passed an order that fishing rights fired a few rounds in the air, and 1 in tanks all over the state should were able to prevent the fight from supplies the oil for the lamps and he sold by auction.