The Village Community

The village community was the social framework within which individual peasant households operated. While peasants held their land in individual ownership, they were also part of a collective village community for many aspects of social life. This community had three main constituents: the cultivators, the panchayat, and the village headman (muqaddam or mandal).

Caste and the rural milieu

Cultivators were not a single, uniform group. Deep inequalities based on caste and caste-like distinctions made them highly heterogeneous.

• A sizeable number of people who tilled the land worked as menials or agricultural labourers (majur). Even though cultivable land was abundant, certain caste groups were assigned menial tasks and forced into poverty.
• These groups formed a large section of the village population, had the fewest resources, and were constrained by their position in the caste hierarchy — much like the Dalits of modern India.
• Similar distinctions existed in non-Hindu communities. Among Muslims, menials like the halalkhoran (scavengers) were housed outside the village boundary. In Bihar, the mallahzadas (sons of boatmen) were treated like slaves.
• There was a direct correlation between caste, poverty, and social status at the lower strata of society. This correlation was less marked at intermediate levels.
• Social mobility was possible. In seventeenth-century Marwar, Rajputs and Jats both worked as peasants, though Jats had a lower status. The Gauravas, who cultivated land around Vrindavan, sought Rajput status. Castes like the Ahirs, Gujars, and Malis rose in the hierarchy because cattle rearing and horticulture were profitable. In the eastern regions, pastoral and fishing castes like the Sadgops and Kaivartas acquired the status of peasants.

Panchayats and headmen

The village panchayat was an assembly of elders, usually important people with hereditary rights over their property. In mixed-caste villages, the panchayat was a heterogeneous body, but it was an oligarchy — the village menial or agricultural worker was unlikely to be represented. The panchayat's decisions were binding on all members.

The panchayat was headed by a headman called the muqaddam or mandal.

• The headman was chosen through the consensus of village elders, and this choice had to be ratified by the zamindar.
• Headmen held office as long as they enjoyed the confidence of the village elders, who could dismiss them.
• The headman's chief function was to supervise the preparation of village accounts, assisted by the accountant or patwari of the panchayat.

The panchayat derived its funds from individual contributions to a common pool. These funds were used for:

• Entertaining revenue officials who visited the village.
• Community welfare activities, such as tiding over natural calamities like floods.
• Construction of a bund or digging a canal, which individual peasants could not usually afford.

One important function of the panchayat was to uphold caste boundaries. In eastern India, all marriages were held in the presence of the mandal. The headman oversaw the conduct of villagers to prevent any offence against their caste. The panchayat had the authority to levy fines and inflict serious punishments, including expulsion from the community. Expulsion was a drastic step, usually for a limited period, and meant the person became an outcaste and lost the right to practise their profession. It was a deterrent against violating caste norms.

In addition to the village panchayat, each caste or jati had its own jati panchayat. These wielded considerable power. In Rajasthan, jati panchayats arbitrated civil disputes between members of different castes. They mediated in contested claims on land, decided whether marriages followed caste norms, and determined ritual precedence in village functions. Except in matters of criminal justice, the state respected the decisions of jati panchayats.

Archival records from western India contain petitions presented to the panchayat. These complained about extortionate taxation or the demand for unpaid labour (begar) imposed by superior castes or state officials. Petitions were made by individuals from the lowest rungs of society, or collectively by a caste group or community. They protested against what they saw as morally illegitimate demands by elite groups — especially excessive tax demands that endangered the peasants' subsistence during drought or other disasters. The petitioners believed the right to a basic minimum for survival was sanctioned by custom. They saw the village panchayat as a court of appeal that would ensure the state carried out its moral obligations and guaranteed justice.

The panchayat's decision in conflicts between lower-caste peasants and state officials or zamindars varied. In cases of excessive revenue demands, the panchayat often suggested a compromise. When reconciliation failed, peasants took more drastic action, such as deserting the village. The easy availability of uncultivated land and competition over labour made desertion an effective weapon for cultivators.

Village artisans

There was an elaborate relationship of exchange between different producers in the village. Marathi documents and early British village surveys show that artisans sometimes made up as much as 25 per cent of total households. However, the distinction between artisan and peasant was often fluid — many groups performed both tasks.

• Cultivators and their families participated in craft production — dyeing, textile printing, baking and firing pottery, and making and repairing agricultural implements.
• They did this during lulls in the agricultural calendar, such as between sowing and weeding, or between weeding and harvesting.

Village artisans — potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers, and even goldsmiths — provided specialised services. They were compensated in a variety of ways:

• The most common method was giving them a share of the harvest, or an allotment of land (often cultivable wastes), likely decided by the panchayat. In Maharashtra, such lands became the artisan's miras or watan — their hereditary holding. …