The essentials
The village community had three constituents: the cultivators, the panchayat, and the village headman (muqaddam or mandal). Caste and similar distinctions shaped the community: there were large numbers of agricultural labourers (majur) from groups that faced discrimination, and they were often among the poorest.
The village panchayat was an assembly of elders, usually important people of the village with hereditary rights over property. In mixed-caste villages, the panchayat was usually a heterogeneous body. Its decisions were binding on members. It was headed by the muqaddam, chosen through consensus of the village elders, whose choice had to be ratified by the zamindar. The headman held office as long as he enjoyed the confidence of the elders. He supervised the preparation of village accounts, assisted by the accountant or patwari.
Key points
- The panchayat derived funds from contributions to a common financial pool, used for entertaining revenue officials, community welfare such as relief during natural calamities, and construction of bunds and canals.
- It ensured caste boundaries were upheld; it could levy fines and inflict punishments such as expulsion from the community.
- Each caste or jati also had its own jati panchayat, which settled civil disputes, mediated in land claims and checked whether marriages followed the norms.
- Village artisans such as potters, blacksmiths, carpenters and barbers provided services and were paid with a share of the harvest, land, or sometimes cash. In eighteenth-century Bengal, zamindars paid artisans such as blacksmiths and carpenters a small daily allowance and diet money; such arrangements were later described as the jajmani system.
- Nineteenth-century British officials described the village as a "little republic", but this ignored inequalities of caste, gender and wealth.
Common mistakes
- The muqaddam was not appointed directly by the emperor.
- Villages were not purely self-sufficient: they were connected to towns through trade and cash.