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Number of words: 222 The autonomous village community and the caste system were thus two of the special features of the old Indian social structure. The third was the joint family where all the members were joint sharers in the common property and inheritance went by survivorship. The father or some other elder was the … Read more

Number of words: 796 It must be remembered that while the Indian social tendency was to subordinate the individual to the claims of the group and society, religious thought and spiritual seeking have always emphasized the individual. Salvation and knowledge of the ultimate truth were open to all, to the member of every caste, high … Read more

Number of words: 372 There is an old book of the tenth century which gives us some idea of Indian polity as it was conceived prior to the Turkish and Afghan invasions. This is the Nitisara, the Science of Polity, by Shukracharya. It deals with the organization of the central government as well as of … Read more

Number of words: 631 All over India this new ferment was working and new ideas were troubling people’s minds. As of old, India was sub-consciously reacting to the new situation, trying to absorb the foreign element and herself changing somewhat in the process. Out of this ferment arose new types of reformers who deliberately preached … Read more

Number of words: 371 Among the unfortunate developments that took place in India was the growth of purdah or the seclusion of women. Why this should have been so is not clear but somehow it did result from the inter-action of the new elements on the old. In India there had been previously some segregation … Read more

Number of words: 212 Babar’s success was probably due not only to the weakness of the Delhi Sultanate but to his possessing a new and improved type of artillery which was not in use in India then. From this period onwards India seems to lag behind in the developing science of warfare. It would be … Read more

Number of words: 168 Prithvi Raj is a popular hero, still famous in song and legend, for reckless lovers are always popular. He had carried away the girl he loved and who loved him from the very palace of her father, Jaichandra, King of Kanauj, defying an assembled host of prince- lings who had come … Read more

Number of words: 165 Mahmud’s raids are a big event in Indian history, though politically India as a whole was not greatly affected by them and the heart of India remained untouched. They demonstrated the weakness and decay of north India, and Alberuni’s accounts throw further light on the political disintegration of the north and … Read more

Number of words: 495 Nevertheless it is true that the Prophet of Islam vitalized his people and filled them with faith and enthusiasm. Considering themselves the standard-bearers of a new cause, they developed the zeal and self-confidence which sometimes fills a whole people and changes history. Their success was also undoubtedly due to the decay … Read more

Number of words: 991 The last of the major emigrations for colonial settlement took place from South India in the ninth century, but the Cholas in the south continued to be a great sea power till the eleventh century, when they defeated and conquered Srivijaya. We thus see that India was drying up and losing … Read more