Formative Stage (1774-1919):
The first studies: According to L.P. Vidyarthi the beginning of anthropological studies in India corresponded with the establishment of Asiatic society of Bengal by Sr. William Jones in 1774. However, it was only after almost 90 years, the first studies of Indian villages have made their appearance. Sir Henry Maine (1861) initiated the studies when he examined the ancient law, land system and extended families in India. This was followed by the land tenure system in Indian village community by Baden Powel (1885). The next studies: The next studies have examined the peasant life in a holistic way. Lal Bihari Dey studied Bengal peasant life, whereas George Grierson analysed the Bihar peasant life. Thus, ended the formative phase in peasant studies in the Indian sub-continent.
Constructive Stage (1920-1949)
The first empirical studies: The constructive phase was signalled by a number of empirical studied made by Indian and foreign scholars. Mann (1927) studies land and labour in Malabar. Slater examined South Indian Village (1928). Aiyappan examined village life in Kerala. Lucas, A.T. (1930) studied the life in Karimpur, a village in Punjab. The Viswa Bharati University (1946) conducted a survey of villages in Bengal. Hindu Jajmani System: Some scholars conducted he village studies on Hindu Jajmani system. In this connection, Wiser (1989) portrayed the Jajmani system in a North Indian village. Studies on various aspects of village life: There was a marked departure from the description to analysis. Several anthropologists undertook studies pertaining to specific aspects of village life in India. Srinivas studied (1942) marriage and family in a Mysore village. Madras university (1946) surveyed the socio-economic conditions of villages in South India. Numerous scholars studied one aspect or another of the village life in India.
Iravati Karve (1946) studied Hindu Kinship and Social Organisation in the North and South India. Majumdar, D.N (1945) founded the Ethnographic and Folk Culture Society in 1945 and started the publication of the quarterly journal, the Eastern Anthropologist in 1947. The journals provided plenty of opportunities for the publication of results pertaining to the researches on the village life in India. In his book “Peasant Life in India: A study in Indian Unity and Diversity,
Bose (1946) proposes a pyramidal imagery of the unity of Indian civilization. According to him, if the regionalisation is in evidence to a certain extent in
relation to the material arts of life, it is apparent already that the degree of differentiation is less in respect of the country’s social organisation. What is more reassuring being that if one rises to higher reaches of life confined to ideals, or faith or arts, the differences which one noticed at the material level of life gradually became feebler and feebler? They are eventually replaced by a unity of beliefs and aspirations, which gives to Indian civilization, a character of its own. The structure of Indian unity can be compared to a pyramid. There is more differentiation at the material base of life and progressively less as one
mounts higher and higher.
Analytical Phase (1949 onwards):
Interaction between Indian and American Anthropologists: The analytical phase started with the beginning of interaction between Indian and American
anthropologists. This interaction generated an interest in the study of villages and castes of India with the help of systematic field studies. The field data were not only collected and described but they were also analysed to develop earliest theories. Morris Opler, Oscar Lewis, David G. Mandelbaum, Harold Gould and many of their students in a team came to India and enacted an atmosphere of village study with certain hypotheses and methodological framework and to assist the community development programmes in India. Indian anthropologists like D.N. Majumdar, M.N. Srinivas, S.C. Dube, and some others also devoted their attention to the study of Indian villages. As a result, there appeared a number of village studies. Model study for village studies: Among these studies, the first to appear are the “Indian Village” written by Dube, (1955) “Village India” edited by McKim Marriott (1935) and “India’s Villages” edited by Srinivas (1955). Dube’s Indian Village, an outcome of the study of Shamirpet near Hyderabad, is the first complete village study. It served as a model for future studies
Model concepts for the study of Indian villages: Marriott’s “Village India” and Srinivas’ “Indian’s Villages”, introduced several concepts for the first time to describe and analyse the village life in India’s Complex Civilization. In this context, Opler’s concept of “Unity and Extension” was meant for analysing the features that constitute the unity and inter-linkage of Indian villages. Oscar Lewis’ concept of “rural cosmopolitanism” provides a framework for analysing
the extended relationship in Indian village system. McKim Marriott contributed two concepts “Universalisation and Parochialisation” to analyse the continuity
in socio-religious system of Indian villages. Srinivas propounded the concept of “Sanskritization” to study the processes of social change taking place in Indian
villages, the concept of “dominant caste” to analyse the leadership as a feature of rural life in many part of India; the concepts of “vertical unity” and “horizontal unity” to analyse the solidarity of caste system in village India. Thus, each one of these concepts is thus helpful to apply a holistic analysis to the village in India.
New concepts for village studies in India: After the fifties there appeared a plethora of studies on villages in India. They too introduced some new concepts for studying the villages in India. Majumdar’s “Caste and Communication” in an (1958) Indian village, an extend of the study of Mohana village in UP, highlights the inter-caste relations, leadership, factionalism, economy, religion, recreation and other aspects and shows how a village is “a concept and a way of life”
Bailey’s (1957) study of Bisipara, a village in Orissa, appears in the form of “Caste and the Economic Frontier”. It analyses the changes that have taken place in the internal organization of the village as a result of the extension of its economic and administrative frontiers. It studies the changes in peasant economy, which has come into prolonged contact with traders, frontiers, which is caused by caste system, government policies and other extended factions. He shows how a low untouchable caste in spite of acquiring wealth could not become sanskritised.
Gould (1962) studied the Jajmani system in a village Sherpur in Western Uttar Pradesh and suggested that Indian village is “centripetal” because peasantry is self-contained and autonomous and “centrifugal” because the village depends on urban centres and on the numerous processes of national culture.
Mayer (1960) studied Ramkheri, a village located near Dewas on the plateau of Malwa and showed in his “Caste and Kinship in Central India,” how sub-caste is really endogamous and the caste has no mechanism in settling disputes for adjusting the status of members. He also made the analysis of the distinguished between “internal and external aspects of caste” to show the “vertical ties within a village settlement and horizontal ties between villages.” He shows how a “village is a unit though it cannot be studied” as a system on its own” for a village has its links with a region, hence a larger canvas. Diversity of themes of village studies: After the plethora of village studies providing conceptual framework for analysing the village life in India, numerous anthropologists have initiated studies on a number of themes concerned with the village in India. These may be divided into several categories.
- Socio-psychological studies.
- Power structure and leadership.
- Religion and society.
- Socio-linguistics.
- Jajmani system.
- Culture change.
- Development and change.
I. Socio-psychological studies: American anthropologists, studied the culture and society of peasants in India. In Gujarat, Gital P. Steed (1955) studied a village Kasandra in Ahmedabad District with the help of four American and three Indian collaborators. The study formulated an approach to the study of personality formation in a Hindu village. In Rajasthan, Carstairs (1955) undertook fieldwork in a village Deoli, near Udaipur in 1951-52. He attempted to formulate the personality patterns on the basis of historical, psychological, and ideological elements. His book “The Twice Born A Study of High Caste Hindus” shows that the upper castes are imbued with traditional rather than modern values, that they are convinced of their inherent superiority; and that their main concern is the fostering of traditional values such as enforcement of discipline and deferential behaviour among youngsters, upholding of joint family norms, maintenance of caste distance from others to avoid impurity. John T. Hitchcock (1960) studied Khalapur of Rajputs in Saharanpur District in UP and his findings reveal that the 2000 Rajputs of Khalapur have their descent from illustrious ancestors and hence believe in their innate capacity as warriors and rulers. Uma Choudhary and P.C. Roy (1963) studied the racial differences ad personality in some of the villages of West Bengal.
II. Socio-political studies: Oscar Lewis (1954) studied “Group Dynamics in a North Indian Village” namely Rampura in Delhi and showed how internal features of factions of a Jat village with 12 caste groups work. Ralph h. Retztaff (1962), in his book Village Government in India described the traditional Panchayat of various types and traced their extension in and around the village Khalapur. He also studied the functioning of statutory Gram Panchayat, which came into existence from July 1949. In Karnataka, Dhillon (1955) studied Haripura, a village in Mandya District. The results published under the title “Leadership and Groups of a Mysore Village attempts to delineate factions and leadership patterns in the village. Allen. R. Beals (1956) studied the village Namhali and Gopalpur in Karnataka and depicted leadership patterns, political institutions culture change and social conflicts in the two villages.
III. Socio-linguistic studies: Gumperz (1956) studied the sociolinguistics of the village Khalapur in Uttar Pradesh. He identified social stratification in terms of linguistic differentiation. He also devoted his attention to the study of mass communication and media of cultural transmission.
IV. Jajmani system: E.B. Harper, an American scholar, studied the village Totagadal in Karnataka and showed how the Jajmani system there involves two types of economic transactions: the Jajmani system of traditional nature and Malnad system, which occurs between the Jajmanis and artisans characterised by each payment. He says that the Jajmani system is disintegrating into the Malnad type of economic relations in Indian villages. K. Eswaran (1962) studied Shivapura in Karnataka and published his book, “Tradition and Economy in Village India.” He explores the exchange system of the village as Aya. According to him, the Aya is the unmeasured and unconditional gifts and reflects the motive of sharing one’s possessions with others. In the legal sphere, traditional Aya system recognizes rights of individuals, groups and of the community in the sphere of politics. The Jajmani, whether of street, village, or community, get leadership and headship
automatically. He finds a close correspondence of ‘Aya’ system with the potlatch institution of Kwakiutl Red Indians and Kula exchange of Trobriand Islanders.
V. Religion in Indian villages: Kolenda (1963) studied village Khalapur with special reference to sweepers to test the concept of Karma and Punarjanma. She found that the sweeper caste of Khalapur village observes simple, localized and parochialized form of religion. They believe that God and fate are not absolute, and supernatural events exist independent of them. K.S. Mathur (1964) conducted field work in a village called Potlad in Malwa and published his results in the form of “Caste and Ritual in a Malwa Village”. In the light of Potlad materials, Mathur established the fundamental feature of the Hindu social organization i.e. the caste and observes the entire caste system bound up with the notion of purity and pollution in the intra-caste and inter-caste relationship. Srinivas (1953) in his study of the “Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India” showed how social mobility in village occurs in terms of Sanskritization. On the other hand, L.P. Vidyarthi (1956), (1963) showed how the concept of sacred complex and nature-man-spirit complex can be successfully utilized in the study of religious aspects of Indian villages. Yogesh Atal (1961) studied Bheru cult in a Mewar village with reference to their specialised function and mode of worship. He showed that since Bheru cult has both Brahmin and non-Brahmin attributes of rituals, it is difficult to apprehend whether Bhairan of great tradition is universalised version of Bheru or parochialized version of Bheru. He considered it as a parochially universalised form and modes of worship one more significant than the universalised tribals.
VI. Socio-cultural change in villages: William Rowe (1960) and M.S. Luschinsky (1958) studied problems of culture change in an Indian village namely Senapur in UP. P.M. Mahar (1956) studied inter-group relationships with special reference to Harijans in Khalapur in UP. She brought out the dominant nature
of Rajput and pointed out changes in caste relationship, which have recurred due to internal factors of stress and strain and extended factors of modernization
such as education, political parties and government institutions. Scarlett Epstein (1962), a British economist as well as social anthropologist, studied economic development and social change in South India on the basis of field enquiry in two Karnataka villages namely Wangala, an irrigated village and Darnala, in unirrigated village. Henry Orenstein (1965) made a study of a village called Gaon in Poona District in Maharashtra and showed how the Dhangar, a shepherd caste claimed the status of Kshatriya and how, in general, the nature of caste system is undergoing change in India and particular castes and their customs are changing due to processes of Sanskritization, westernisation and secularisation. Rudolph and Rudolph (1962) studied caste in a Maharashtrian city and
showed how it retained its identity even though it under went some changes in the context of urban living. Hardgrave (1972) studied the Nadars in the villages of Tamilnadu and showed how this toddy-tapper caste underwent Sanskritization process in the past one century or earlier.
Brenda Beck (1975) examined the Sanskritization of left hand and righthand castes in Tamilnadu and revealed how the two castes imitated the culture
of Brahmin and Vellalar to sanskritize their ways of life.
VII. Development and change in villages: S.C. Dube (1958) studied two villages of Western UP: One is of Rajputs and the other of Tyagi, Muslim group. The study appeared under the title, India’s Changing Villages: Human Factors in community Development. The study attempts to discover the cultural change experienced by a technologically underdeveloped Indian village under the influence of externally induced community development programme. This has
become a model study for the researchers in India. Following this model, numerous anthropologists studied the dynamics in terms of development, democratic decentralization, adult education, family planning, mass communication, growth and nutrition, and public health in Indian villages. Anthropology in India today shows deep concern for the social and cultural problems of peasant societies in India.
VIII. Introduction of new concepts for studying the various aspects of Indian village life:
a. Structuralist- functionalist approach: Bailey and Epstein introduced structural-functional approach, to the study of social change in India. Both authors studied social change in villages. Both look at the structural change. Bailey looks at the caste system in a village in Orissa, under new economy. The new frontiers are economic, political and administrative. Transfer of land from the ex-land owners is a significant fact which makes land a market commodity and other occupations which were tried with landholding also became part of the situation. Epstein’s study emphasises social change. Epstein followed by and large Bailey’s line of research. The main argument is that a structural innovation (irrigation) consolidates village economy, but it restricts social change, namely, migration, contacts, education, and politicisation. Conversely a lack of such an innovation results into widespread social change without corresponding economic development. The study thus focused on the changes in the traditional social situations and hierarchy in the village community.
b. Structuralist approach: Louis Dumont applied Levi-Strauss structuralist principle of complementary or logical principle of opposition as a fundamental feature of human mind to the hierarchy and marriage alliances in Indian villages. Pure and impure, consanguinity and affinity are examples of their logical dualism.
c. Marxist approach: Yogendra Singh, Bose, Sinha and Klass studied differentiation, evolution change in caste and class over a period of time. They study agrarian stratification, and mode of products in agriculture vis-à-vis rural class structure. Further they analyse once again the origin and evolution of caste system in India. They say that continuation of caste system has been possible mainly due to the support of economic features and internalisation of the hierarchical norms among people. Some look at caste as an institution based on exploitation of the lower castes by the upper castes. Many sees a caste as form
of class. Many studies the conflict between castes in Indian villages. Gough says that the castes and classes are found in a mix in terms of state class, state servants, commodity produces, merchants, peasants, herders, fishermen and attached village servants, agricultural and mental slaves. The last can be called
Dalit labourers. The first four classes are seen as equivalent of four Varnas and the fifth are ex-untouchables.