Categories Anthropology II

II.5.1 Types of Village study

(a) Studies/Reports brought out by Administrators:

(i) W.F. Firminger’s “The Fifth Report from the select committee of the House of Commons on the Affairs of the East India Company” (1812).

(ii) Charles Metcalfe’s “Minutes on the village of Delhi” (1830).

(iii) H.S. Maine’s “Village Communities in the East and West” (1871).

(iv) B.H. Baden-Powell’s “The land system of British India” (1892) .

(b) Studies Conducted by the Economists:

(i) S.J. Patel (1952) has described the nature of agrarian crises almost all over India by the end of First World War.

(ii)G. Keatings and Harold Mann of Mumbai, Gilbert Slater in Madras and E.V. Lucas in Punjab initiated intensive studies of particular villages and general agricultural problems.

(iii) The Punjab Board of Economic Enquiry organised village surveys conducted by individual workers since 1920s. The Bengal Board of Economic Enquiry was setup in 1935 and it conducted village surveys.

(iv) J.C. Kumarappa, a Gandhian economist developed Gandhian economic perspective by conducting surveys in the villages. His book is “An Economic survey of Matar Taluka” (1931).

(c) Studies prepared by Sociologists and Anthro­pologists:

In “Caste in modern India and other Essays” has made an attempt to stress the importance of anthropological studies of Indian villages for others disciplines.

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