Villages in Mughal Time

There was individual ownership of land at the same time they belonged to a collective village community.

The Village Community: There were three constituents of this community

1. The cultivators

2. The panchayat,

3. The village headman (muqaddam or mandal).

1. The Cultivators

   1. Village society was divided by caste and other distinctions making village cultivators a highly heterogeneous group.There was a sizeable number who worked as menials or agricultural labourers (majur). Certain caste groups were assigned menial tasks and thus reduced to poverty. Such groups comprised a large section of the village population and they had the least resources and were constrained by their position in the caste hierarchy, much like the Dalits of modern India.

   2. Such distinctions were present in Muslim communities too. The halalkhoran (scavengers) were housed outside the boundaries of the village; the mallahzadas (literally, sons of boatmen) in Bihar were comparable to slaves.

   3. here was a direct correlation between caste, poverty and social status at the lower strata of society. Such correlations were not so marked at intermediate levels. At intermediate level the vertical social mobility was more fluidic.

   4. In a manual from Marwar (17th Century) Rajput are mentioned as peasants, sharing the same space with Jats, who were accorded a lower status in the caste hierarchy. The Gauravas, who cultivated land around Vrindavan (Uttar Pradesh), sought Rajput status in the seventeenth century.

   5. Castes such as the Ahirs, Gujars and Malis rose in the hierarchy because of the profitability of cattle rearing and horticulture. In the eastern regions, intermediate pastoral and fishing castes like the Sadgops and Kaivartas acquired the status of peasants.