The research for this paper has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

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³ Wiser, W. H., The Hindu Jajmani System (Lucknow, 1936).Google Scholar One should point out that jajmani is by no means exclusive to Hindus, as in Masauli, dominated by the Kidwais, or in parts of Rajasthan. See P. C. Aggarwal, ‘Castle Hierarchy in a Meo Village of Rajasthan’; Bhatty, Zarina, ‘Status and Power in a Muslim Dominated Village of Uttar Pradesh’, both in Ahmed, I., (ed.), Caste and Social Stratification among Muslims in India (Delhi, 1978), pp. 151–2, 213.Google Scholar

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⁸ Wiser, , Hindu Jajmani System, p. 8.Google Scholar For a subjective evaluation of such utility, see Barnabas, A. P., Social Change in a North Indian Village (Delhi, 1969), pp. 88–9.Google Scholar

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⁴² Traditional economic functions when transposed to an urban setting have more often than not been maintained on a non-jajmani basis. See Lynch, O. M., ‘The Politics of Untouchability: A Case from Agra’, in Singer, M. (ed.), Structure and Change in Indian Society (Chicago, 1968), pp. 214–15.Google Scholar

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⁴⁴ Grain rents remained more pronounced in the area now known as Haryana, as also in the prosperous Upper Doab and in Rohilkhand. Part of this may have been a function of the dominance of bhaiachara tenure forms, as also, in Karnal and other districts, to the relative insecurity of production. Here, too, it was only comparatively late that rent, as a separate category, began to emerge from beneath the State revenue demand. For additional argument on these points, see Simon Commander, ‘The Agrarian Economy of Northern India, 1800–1880: Aspects of Growth and Stagnation in the Doab (Cambridge University, Ph.D., 1980).

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⁵⁷ The model of equity and reciprocity appears to be echoed in Leach, E. R., Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon and North West Pakistan (Cambridge, 1960), Introduction.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ This is similar to the conclusion generated by Beidelman, , Comparative Analysis, p. 78Google Scholar, where he links this control over land to a general theory of power. By concentrating only on the relations of dominance he has, necessarily, to characterize the system as feudalistic. As we shall see, this is an inapt characterization and neglects to examine the real sense of the transactions initiated within the jajmani context. Of course, one should add that the main thrust of Beidelman's argument was to counter the imputed equality and reciprocal nature of jajmani. This, however, resulted in a rather narrow focus of argument.

⁵⁹ Crooke, , Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P. and Oudh, Vol. 3, pp. 372–3.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Such a configuration appears also to have existed in Western India. See Coats, T., ‘Account of the Present State of the Township of Lony’, Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, Vol. 3 (1823), p. 182;Google Scholar Kolenda, , ‘Family Structure in Village Lonikhand’, pp. 50–72;Google Scholar Sykes, W. H., ‘Report on the Statistics of the Dukhun’, Seventh Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1837 (London, 1838), pp. 291–2.Google Scholar In the Deccan it appears that the comparable jajmani structure had a far more formalized basis, being known as the ‘Bara Bullooteh’ tenure. Sumit Guha has pointed out this reference to me.

⁶¹ D. C. Ibbetson to Secretary to Govt., Punjab, 21 October, 1878: Review of Report of Settlement Officer, Karnal. Haryana Archives, Delhi Division, Series I, Misc. Basta 41.

⁶² In Punjab this system of redistribution was sometimes termed ‘sepidari’. See Gazetteer of Lahore District, 1883/4 (Lahore, 1885), pp. 78–9.Google Scholar

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⁶⁷ However, it is worth pointing out that the mahajan, or bania, so crucial from an economic angle in the micro-economies of the villages, was not generally absorbed within the system. In Agra the sahukar was supposed to have worked within the system, but the description of the transaction does not sound particular to the jajmani structure. Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee Report, United Provinces, 1929/30, Vol. 1, p. 38.

⁶⁸ See Commander, ‘Agrarian Economy of Northern India’, Chs 2 and 3.

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⁷⁰ This process of individualization of the transaction was advanced in some areas in the earliest part of the nineteenth century. In Gorakhpur, for instance, the kamins' share was granted at the zamindar's pleasure and did not constitute a defined deduction from the grain-heap. M. Ricketts, Gorakhpur, to H. Newnham, 14 May 1818, UPSA Gorakhpur Collectorate, Vol. 126.

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⁷⁶ Ibbetson, D., Report (1883), pp. 115–16.Google Scholar Begar was later, post-1920, to become an important political issue in this area with the Congress using this as a plank in their campaign against the Unionist Party. On this subject, see Prem Chowdhury, The Role of Sir Chhotu Ram in Punjab Politics (J. Nehru University Ph.D, 1979), pp. 75ff.

⁷⁷ A point made more generally by Orenstein, H., ‘Exploitation and Function in the Interpretation of Jajmani’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 18, No. 4, pp. 303 ff.Google Scholar

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⁸⁰ Thus, in Mirzapur where Bhangis were few in number, they were included within the jajmanistructure. Crooke, , Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P. and Oudh, Vol. I, p. 291.Google Scholar

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⁸⁴ Tulloh to Board of Revenue, 15 April 1825.

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⁸⁸ Settlement of mouza Bhendleh, compiled by Bunmali Sen, enclosed in J. Turner, Sirpoora, to Commissioner 16 September, 1825. UPSA Etah Revenue, Vol. 149.

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⁹² Epstein, ‘Productive Efficiency’, in Firth (ed.), Themes in Economic Anthropology.

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⁹⁴ Wiser noted the difficulties that lay in store for those wishing to suspend their patronal obligations. Wiser, , Behind Mud Walls, pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

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⁹⁸ See, for instance, Elder, ‘Rajpur’, in Ishwaran, , Change and Continuity, p. 123;Google Scholar Reddy, N. S., ‘Functional Relations of Lohars in a North Indian Village’, Eastern Anthropologist, 8 (1955). pp. 155 ff.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Within the urban labour market there was a pronounced tendency for corporate organization of trades and professions. This was certainly the case in early nineteenth-century Delhi where artisanal and general labour was recruited through well-developed channels organized around a headman, or chaudhuri, of the corporate group. This was also the case in many of the weaving centres, such as Ghazipur or Mhow in Azamgarh. This ‘closed’ pattern of recruitment which lacked, however, the prime quality of the genuine medieval guild—the capacity to lag production behind demand—was maintained even in the new industrial concerns that began to develop post-1900. In Kanpur in 1906, for example, koris and julahas composed a sizeable proportion of the total work-force in the five major textile concerns of the city. Lastly, both at a village and urban level, corporate regulation was maintained with, however, differing effectiveness, through caste panchayats whose cohesion has remained quite pronounced in some areas up to the present time. See, inter alia, Reid, J. R., Final Report on the Settlement of Azamgarh District (Allahabad, 1877), pp. 148ff;Google Scholar Mathur, , Caste and Ritualism in a Malwa Village, p. 162;Google Scholar Lewis, , Village Life in Northern India, pp. 81 ff;Google Scholar Blunt, E. A. H., The Caste System of Northern India (Delhi, 1969), pp. 259–60;Google Scholar Ibbetson, , Report (1883), pp. 90–1;Google Scholar S. H. Fremantle, Report on the Supply of Labour to the United Provinces and Bengal, U.P. Revenue Proceedings A, May 1906, Nos 90—5, Appendix A (I am indebted to Chitra Joshi for this reference); Ishwaran, , Shivapur, A South Indian Village, pp. 22–7;Google Scholar Briggs, , The Chamars, pp. 47 ff.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Fox, From Zamindar to Ballot Box, pp. 101 ff.Google Scholar

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¹⁰³ Commander, ‘Agrarian Economy of Northern India’, Chs 4 and 5, for a more detailed treatment of this aspect. A single district-level study in relation to one crop (sugar-cane) also has some useful information on this subject, Amin, S., ‘Sugarcane Cultivation in Gorakhpur, U.P., c. 1890–1940: A study in the Interrelation between Capitalistic Enterprise and a Dependent Peasantry’ (Oxford D.Phil., 1978).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Fox, From Zemindar to Ballot Box, p. 107.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ This is the sense in which Bayly employs the term when arguing that the redistributive element integral to the indigenous State forms distinguishes them from the extractive and one-sided nature of the colonial State. However, the fact that these States may have had a more organic and ‘stranded’ relationship with their subjects does not justify the use of the termjajmani. Furthermore, jajmani seems on close examination to lack the quality of a system even at a micro-level. However, its sphere of operation and the sense of the structure was undoubtedly one of a micro nature. C. A. Bayly, ‘Towns and Traders in Northern India, c. 1720–1850’ (forthcoming).

¹⁰⁶ Martinez-Alier, Juan, Haciendas, Plantations and Collective Farms: Agrarian Class Societies—Cuba and Peru (London, 1977), Chs 1–3.Google Scholar