Question 1(c) · 10 marks · 215 words written
Opening
Charles Metcalfe portrayed Indian villages as 'little Republics'. He was a British Colonial officer and offered a book view of Indian villages.
Body · points and prose
Relevance of his views
Agriculture and allied activities dominate rural economies, & to an extent are self reliant.
Some rural areas remain physically isolated eg. tribal regions in Chattisgarh & therefore maintain a semblance of isolation.
However, his view is not supported by empirical studies done by Sociologists and ethnographers.
- Andre Beteille observed through his work that as far as memory goes, there is no point when villages were self sufficient.
• Dipankar Gupta notes that Indian village is shrinking as a sociological reality. Village as a social unit is so well connected with outside world that colonial notion seems to be redundant.
• Durkheim's theory of organic solidarity emphasises interdependence of Indian society. This expands to economic integration of agricultural output to global markets.
• AM Shah and MN Srinivas in 'The Myth of Self Sufficiency of villages' explained -
- interactions during haats
- village endogamy - prove integration of villages and refute myth of isolation & self sufficiency
Close
While AR Desai argued that Indian villages were self sufficient - at least economically. Works of sociologists like Béteille highlight interconnectedness of villages with urban areas, politics & culture.