Colonialism influenced and shaped contemporary Indian society in both progressive and negative ways. The impact of colonial legacy spreads across our social fabrics and institutions both culturally and politically. our democratic and egalitarian ideologies have these influences. our cultural outlook, in many ways biased towards western style, especially in our dressing, food, social institutions like marriage and divorce etc. we often confused the meaning ''civilised'' with western ideologies.
During the period of colonisation British administrators and officials came into contact with these people of India. The purpose of administrators it became inseperative for him to study the people whom they ruled. The diversity of Indian society and culture.
The British administrators and scholars indeed various aspects of Indian society. The found that these Indian village community quite different from there own experience of the west. They found India to be a land of many languages, religious and diverse cultural traditions. The cast system, the family structure land ownership patterns, cultivation practices and scholars studied various aspect of Indian society.
Throughout these nineteenth century Indian villages atrigned the European scholars and British administrators. Charles Metcalf, Henry Maine, Baden Powell were some of the British scholars who held these view that Indian village was isolated and self-sufficient. It was described by Metcalf a little republic that remains unchanged for centuries.
Based on surveys, census data and other such sourced theory Maine wrote his frit book Ancient law in 1861 and his second book in 1871 village communities in the East and West. Maine studied the Indian village and attempted to reconstruct these histories of European village by making comparison with India.
In 1872 Bader Powell brought our marine there volume work the land systems of British India the wrote on these British experience of more than 100 years assessing and collecting reueaue of the maintained effort was to understand these land tenure system in Indian villages.
Risley published a book on the people of India. In 1936 William wiser wrote this classic work These Jayamani system. In this book he studied these economic relations in this village between the owners of land and these artisan castes who served them. In turn, they received again from these landbard at this time of harwest. This writing by British administrators and scholars on Indian society was based on concepts and theories drawn from these historical experiences of western European societies. These studies were not without bias as they were wroted in western ideology.
According to Bernard cof these British administrators and scholars contribution to studies on various aspects of Indian society, customs and traditions was wroted in western experience and theoretical orientations. They viewed tribe, caste, and village as segments that could be studied in isolation. This gave a view on Indian society as if there was no linkage between different social institutions. Secondly these ideological and orientalist approach gave a picture of Indian society state and unchanging. This colonical heritage had its impact on early sociological studies on Indian society.
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