Professional Documents
Culture Documents
lages. The field is much bigger in of b u y i n g and selling at the festival canopies, carpets and cotton tape,
n o r t h I n d i a where relatives are not is as strong an attraction as the re- w h i c h were manufactured mostly by
preferred for marriage. I n addi- ligious one. There are fairs w h i c h u r b a n artisans but the raw materials;
t i o n , there is village exogamy and are famous for the sale of cattle, for w h i c h were supplied by v i l l a g -
occasionally, village hypergamy. and nowadays, cattle are moved by ers; secondly; goods such as preci-
That is. a man may not m a r r y a l o r r y a distance of two or three ous stones w h i c h were manufactured
g i r l of his own village, and he is hundred miles to reach a fair. Such by urban artisans f r o m indigenous
not permitted to give his sister or fairs occur all over the country and minerals; and t h i r d l y , goods such
daughter in marriage to the village they reveal the fact that the peas- as silk cloth and objects of metal
f r o m w h i c h he has obtained a wife. ant s social and economic universe and i v o r y w h i c h were manufactured
The marriage circle in the north i n - is very much wider than his village. by urban artisans f r o m i m p o r t e d
cludes two or three hundred vil- raw materials."
PATTERN OF LAND OWNERSHIP
lages.
INTER-REGIONAL TRADE
The members of an agnatic clan The pattern of land-ownership,
are often found dispersed in several tenancy and labour frequently cuts The inter-regional trade of the
villages. T h i s is specially true of across the village. The land w h i c h country also included the exchange
some" parts of north I n d i a where is included w i t h i n the boundary of of a g r i c u l t u r a l and forest produce.
members of the locally dominant an official or administrative village Gujarat, for instance, received a
caste residing in several neighbour- is not always owned by those resid- considerable quantity of wheat and
i n g villages are agnatieally related ent in it. Some of the land is usu- o p i u m f r o m M a l w a , rice and coco-
to each other. Close ties exist be- a l l y owned by people in neighbour- nuts from the K o n k a n , sugar f r o m
i n g villages or towns. D u r i n g the Bengal, and groceries and drugs
tween such groups. S i m i l a r l y , dose
ties also exist between those memb-
last hundred years or more, there f r o m the H i m a l a y a n regions. 6 W i t h i n
has come into existence a class of Gujarat itself there was local spe-
ers of a caste who live in towns and
absentee landowners, of people who cialisation in the matter of crops,
others who live in villages. This
reside in towns but own land in and there was m u c h exchange of
is specially true of the 'twice born
villages. a g r i c u l t u r a l produce between differ-
castes.
Again, members of a village are ent areas. W h i l e indigo and tobac-
The fact that villages are usually co were grown in central Gujarat,
multicaste in composition is point c o m m o n l y found to own some land
in n e i g h b o u r i n g villages. Even ten- sugarcane was g r o w n in south Guja-
ed out as evidence of self-suflieienev rat. The local produce was trans-
of villages. But even big villages, ants and labourers are occasionally
found c u l t i v a t i n g land l y i n g in ano- ported over land as well as water.
villages w i t h over a thousand peo- There was a great deal of trade
ple, do not contain all the necessary ther village. fn some i r r i g a t e d
areas where the density of popula- along the coast of Gujarat. Saurash-
castes whereas nearly two thirds of tra and K u l c h . 7 Finally, even in the
India's villages have a strength of tion is high, it is not unknown for a
tenant to cultivate land l y i n g six same locality villages supplied seve-
less than five hundred each. raI consumption goods to towns.
or seven miles from where he is
WEEKLY MARKETS staying. In brief, most villages in Plains
There are also single-caste M i - Gujarat sent out some c o m m o d i t y or
lages. Where these villages are of EXTERNAL TRADE
other to the wider market. They
artisans, they sell their goods in It is often assumed that trade and received in return various goods
nearby towns, or more frequently, commerce d i d not touch villages in such as salt, spices, groceries, cer-
in the weekly markets. The latter I n d i a . This assumption was per- tain kinds of cloth, metals, metab
are an eloquent testimony to the haps true only of villages in the objects, household goods, and orna-
Indian village's lack of self-suffici- t r i b a l areas. In the non-tribal areas, ments. The dependence of the v i l -
ency. They also i m p ly a certain however, village economy has for a lager on the outside w o r l d was visi-
amount of monetizalion of the eco- long time been integrated in vary- ble p a r t i c u l a r l y d u r i n g the rites des
nomy which in t u r n means that the i n g degree w i t h regional, national passage, the periodical festivals and
village was part of a wider politico- and even international trade and other ritual occasions. The villager
economic system. commerce, in certain regions, such purchased the goods he wanted f r o m
as Gujarat, and the Kerala and the village shopkeeper, f r o m the
Weekly markets again vary in Coromandel coasts, there was a h i g h
their range. Some are patronised peripatetic trader or artisan, and at
degree of integration of village eco- fairs and weekly markets. Accord-
by people l i v i n g in a few neighbour- nomy w i t h the economy of the wider
ing villages while others are patro- ing to available records there was
world. These coastal areas had at least one shopkeeper in every
nised by people spread over a wide m a r i t i m e commerce w i th overseas
area. Occasionally, there is also a village w i t h a population of 500 or
countries since at least the begin- more in central Gujarat at the be-
certain amount of specialisation in n i n g of the Christian' era.
weekly markets: one market is g i n n i n g of the nineteenth century.'
famous for trade in cattle, another The exports of Gujarat included,
DEPENDENCE ON TOWNS
in sheep and p o u l t r y , a t h i r d in for instance, a g r i c u l t u r a l and forest
woollen blankets, and so on. P i l g r i - produce as well as finished goods. The villagers also depended upon
mages also take the villager beyond In the former category may be men- towns for certain specialized servi-
the village, and occasionally into a tioned indigo, cotton, wheat, rice, ces. Whenever they wanted to b u i l d
different language area. The perio- tobacco, edible o i l , ghee, honev, lac. a brick-and-mortar structure, whe-
dical festival of a deity attracts de- hides, dried ginger and myrobalan. ther it was a d w e l l i n g house, a well
votee.- and others from nearby v il In the latter category there were a hospice (dharmasala). a village
lages, and a bazaar springs up goods of three k i n d s : firstly, goods meeting house ( chavadi). or a
around the temples. The prospect such as cotton cloth, yarn, cushions. pigeon-tower ( c h a b u t u r i ) . they had
1376
THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY
September 10, 1960
1378