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A Tribute to Dharma
Kumar
(1928-2001)
Thebookestablished,quitesimply,that
"itwas notthecase thata classof landless
labourerswas whollycreated
agricultural
duringthe Britishperiodby the impoverishmentof the peasantproprietorand
thevillagecraftsmen".
Theconclusionwas
furthermore
posed as an explicitcritique
of a numberof "GoldenAge descriptions"
of the agrariansituationbefore colonial
rule,whetherfromthe pensof A R Desai
and Rajni Palme Dutt, or (most to the
point) that of SurendraJ Patel in his
rT
back on the work of one of 20thcenturyIndia's majoreconomic historians, DharmaKumar,who died in New
Delhi on October 19, 2001 at the age of
73, after an extended illness. It is written
from the perspective of someone who was
a student, then a doctoral student, and
finally a colleague of Dharma Kumar,and
who had the privilege of participating in
a number of activities with her, whether
in the Delhi School of Economics or elsewhere. It does not claim to be objective,
for the degree of proximity that existed
between the two of us does not facilitate
objectivity. I hence hope readers will
forgive the personal tone that will creep
into even the relatively academic discussion of the lines that follow; a far more
detailed personal reflection has been
publishedby RamachandraGuha,to which
I refer interested readers ('The Last Liberal', The Hindu, Magazine Section,
November 4, 2001).
DharmaKumarwas trainedas an economist in Bombay and Cambridge in the
1940s and early 1950s, and after a short
career in the Reserve Bank of India and
othergovernment agencies, decided in her
mid-thirtiesto pursue an academic career
in economic history. This move from
economics to economic history was less
unusual in the 1960s and 1970s than it has
become subsequently, and the fact of
having a training in economics decidedly
influenced the manner in which Dharma
conceived of economic history. Her approach was very problem-oriented, with
each exercise being conceived of as an
attemptto solve a problem that was posed
(rightly or wrongly) in the historiography.
in thefootnote),establishedDharmaas an
alternativevoicein a debatethat
important
was largely dominatedat that point by
Marxistandnationalisthistorians.Inview
of the fact thatit literallydemolishedthe
canonicalposition that S J Patel represented,LandandCastewasnaturally
badly
receivedin manycircles,andits position
often misrepresentedas statingthat"the
class of agriculturallabourerswas not
affectedbycolonialrule".Besidesitsmajor
conclusion,I stillfindthebookinvaluable
todayfor its carefulworkingthrougha set
of official dataon emigration,wages and
- above all - for its pioneering use of pre-
Censusstatisticaldata.Of laterhistorians
of earlycolonialsouthIndiarelativelyfew
scholarshave followed this lead, distinguished exceptions including David
Luddenand TsukasaMizushima.
It is ironic,but not entirelysurprising,
that the most thoroughgoingcritiqueof
Land and Caste may be found not from
anotherauthor,butfromDharmaherself,
in her 30-pageintroductionto the reprint
(which appearedin 1992 from Manohar
Publishersin New Delhi).Here,reflecting
on the book after a gap of a quartercentury, she noted a numberof weaknesses in its construction:"its complete
relianceon official records",the neglect
of theprocessof "theconversionof tribals
intountouchablesandbondedlabourers",
an excessivelystrongassociationof caste
and occupation, and so on. Still, she
concluded(and this view seems to me
perfectlydefensible),thatthe "mainconclusions of the work still held". These
were as follows: "Membersof certain
castes were by and large agricultural
labourersat the outsetof Britishrule;this
connection enables us to estimate the
minimumstrengthof agricultural
labourers
then,andtheestimateshowsthatthegroup
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sentenceto the introductionin the reprint the groundwas less remarkable.In some
respects,thismaybebecausesheremained
the agriculturallabourerawaits its histo- trueto herinitialtrainingas aneconomist.
rian,withsensitivity,imagination,andfar Thisgave hera numberof articlesof faith,
betterlinguisticskills than I possess".
including a strongly positive view of
This problemis also visible in an essay (thoughnot a blindbelief in) the market,
which Dharmawrote and discussed at and of the logic of individualrationality.
intheearly1980s, I can recallseveraldebateson this in the
severaloralpresentations
namely, on propertyrights in medieval early 1980s, with RaajSah and our own
southIndia(the essay appearedin Com- colleague at the Delhi School, Kaushik
parative Studies in Society and History, Basu; Dharmamay also have discussed
1985).Dharma'sattemptto cut througha these issues with George Akerlof, with
Gordianknotby propos- whom she was personally acquainted.
historiographical
the
of full privateproperty Reviewingthelastcollectionof Dharma's
existence
ing
in medievalsouth Indiaraised far more essays, DavidLuddenspokeof "theecoproblemsthanshe had anticipated.What nomist's analyticalbite,marketorientation
andto thiswe
was the largercontext, whetherlegal or andempiricalcommitment",
withinwhich such prop- mayaddadistrustforverbiage,anda sense
communitarian,
ertycouldhave existed?While her sharp that a no-nonsense approachincluded
semanticcritiqueof those who used the paringdown a text to a bareminimumof
catch-allterm'landcontroller'was on the words. Again, this was the economist's
mark,thealternativethatwasproposedleft aestheticratherthanthatof the historian;
manyreaderssceptical.Here,as in another Dharmaliked to recounthow her superof herlateressays, on servicesin Madras visor Jack Gallagherin Cambridgehad
Presidency,one could see that Dharma criticisedherthesisforits'Tamilterseness".
was at herbest arguingagainsta position
The readerof the precedingparagraphs
diverse
her
cahave understood(even if he or she
would
evidence;
by marshalling
pacityto constructa positivepicturefrom did notknowDharmaKumar),thatwe are
of Land and Caste: "The mental world of
4254