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CC5 Mod 3D

During 700-1200 CE in India, there were significant social, cultural, political, and economic changes. The creation of a feudal system divided society into landholding and landless peasant classes. More land grants expanded agriculture, but Brahmanas who received the lands did not farm themselves and instead employed peasants. Tribal groups were incorporated into the varna-jati caste system by being hired as peasants on landlord's lands. As tribes settled and agriculture expanded, bringing forest lands into grants, tribes absorbed new identities and took up work like peasants, facing oppression in the lowest social ranks.

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17 views

CC5 Mod 3D

During 700-1200 CE in India, there were significant social, cultural, political, and economic changes. The creation of a feudal system divided society into landholding and landless peasant classes. More land grants expanded agriculture, but Brahmanas who received the lands did not farm themselves and instead employed peasants. Tribal groups were incorporated into the varna-jati caste system by being hired as peasants on landlord's lands. As tribes settled and agriculture expanded, bringing forest lands into grants, tribes absorbed new identities and took up work like peasants, facing oppression in the lowest social ranks.

Uploaded by

ravinderpalsingh04184
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CC-5: HISTORY OF INDIA(CE 750-1206)

III. AGRARIAN STUCTURE AND SOCIAL CHANGE:


(D). TRIBES AS PEASANTS AND THEIR PLACE IN THE
VARNA ORDER
The India society during the Early Medieval period i.e., the period between 700
to 1200 CE witnessed a lot of changes take place in the social, cultural,
political, and economic aspects of the life of the people. There were political
fragmentation which brought about some crisis in the socio-cultural life of the
people. Trading of commodities also faced some serious set back during this
time. Changes in the economic life of the people forced a majority of them to
turn to agriculture for subsistence. The creation of feudal society created land
rights and power bases. There was a sharp distinction between the landholding
class and the landless class of peasants who tilted the lands granted to the
Brahmanas as a part of the land grants in the feudal social system. More and
more land grants contributed to the expansion of agriculture in this period. The
Brahmana donees did not cultivate then lands themselves, rather they employed
people to do the cultivation works on their land. This system created the
separate classes of landlords and peasants who were both dependent on each
other but it was the peasants who had face the oppression at the hand of the
landlords. Another noteworthy feature of this period was the proliferation of
caste, division of the people based on the system of varna-jati which was
decided based on both birth and profession. In this social system the Brahmanas
enjoyed the most prestigious position in the society and at the lowest level of
the social order we find the sudras, and the untouchables.

Along with the Sudras and the untouchables the people belonging to the tribal
groups or communities were also placed in the lowest social order. In order to
include the tribal people in the varna –jati system of the society they were hired
by the land owing class of people as peasants to work on their lands. Thus there
was peasantization of the tribes for them to be included in the varna-jati
framework.

The tribal peoples followed pastoralism as the method of subsistence. There was
a subtle movement of the tribe towards the settled way of life. Expansion of
agriculture and increase in the number of land grants and moreover including
forest lands in the land grants brought about certain changes in their life. In
areas where Brahmadeya villages were situated close to tribal communities the
latter was introduced to plough agriculture. The tribal communities who got
incorporated in the agrarian society have to absorb their tribal identity in to
some sort of caste in the then prevalent varna-jati caste system. This new
assimilation of the tribal groups of people into the social structure made the
position of the tribal communities very fragile . As a result of this inclusion, the
tribal people had to take up certain works for their livelihood. Whatever work
they decided to do or rather was allowed to do in a society where the lowest
rank of people faced the maximum amount of oppression, decided what caste
they will belong to. Mostly these tribal communities were given the work and
status of the peasants in the Early Medieval agrarian society.

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