Bharat Ek Khoj 29: Feudalism in India

Bharat Ek Khoj—The Discovery of India
A Production of Doordarshan, the Government of India’s Public Service Broadcaster
Episode 29: Feudalism in India

With Salim Ghouse as Ramaraya, Ila Arun as Heggaditi, Pallavi Joshi as Mallige, Siraj Khan as Saguna, Ajay Kumar as Achyutadevaraya, Vijayan Nair as Pedda Tirumala, Vijay Rani Nair as Varadamba, Sudhir Kulkarni as Selappa, and Bhupendra Sandhu as Javara.

Nehru recounts that while India had widespread monarchy, the hold of its power differed from that of European feudalism where the king had the authority over all persons and things within his domain. In a hierarchy of authority, both the land and the people belonged to the feudal lord. In India, in contrast, the king had the right only to collect taxes from the land and the revenue-collecting power was all he could delegate to others. Thus, the individual peasant paid his due to the aristocrat revenue-collector who, in turn, paid it to the king.

The scenario opens with a bullock-cart race, which the common man is hugely enjoying. Enacting episodes from Masti’s Kannada novel Mallige, the landless labourer, Saguna, and his fiancee are accosted by the revenue-collector’s wife who lords over them, having fixed Mallige’s marriage somewhere else. The Iovelorn couple takes recourse to a holy Swamiji who advises prudence and declines to intervene. Undeterred, they pursue Swamiji to his urban ashram and he now advises them not to go against the lady for six months. The lady still insists on getting Mallige settled after five months, when the desperate couple catches hold of the Naik, the higher intermediary and seeks his intervention, which finally comes.

The scene shifts to the declining Vijaynagar Empire and its decadent feudalism. Rama Raya, Krishna’s powerful son-in-law, thwarts Achyuta Deva Raya, royal treasurer and the nominated successor of Krishna Deva Raya, in his aspiration for the throne. Trouble is brewing in Chudamandal under Udaya Varman and needs to be subjugated. In the ensuing battle under Achyuta Raya, the ace rebel Shilappa is taken prisoner. Achyuta dies in 1542.

Nehru notes that amidst all these internecine feuds, the peasant is unaffected, as there is no advantage in dispossessing him. The twin concepts of landlord system as well as full ownership by the individual peasant of his patch of land were both introduced much later by the British and had disastrous results.

Видео Bharat Ek Khoj 29: Feudalism in India канала PublicResourceOrg