Rural class structure

During the medieval period the entire rural population was divided into two

broad classes, i.e. the big land-holders who collected land revenue from

peasants in addition to owning tax-free land and the masses comprising peasants,

artisans and landless labourers. The big land-holders constituted the rural

segment of the ruling class headed by emperor and his nobles. They were

known as

mugaddam and chaudhuri during the Sultanate period and

deskhmukh, patil, nayak

and usually malik during the Mughal period. They

had a good life without directly participating in the process of production.

They collected land tax from the peasants and owned their own land free

from taxes. They were generally prosperous enough to ride horses, wear fine

clothes, own good houses, gold, and silver ornaments and thus maintain a

high standard of life.

The peasants constituted the majority of the rural population. They cultivated

their land with family labour and earned their livelihood. They had to pay

land tax, which was usually, one-third but sometimes reached one-half of the

produce. Land revenue was generally paid in cash. In addition, the peasant

had to pay other taxes e.g.

shari (house tax) and charai (grazing tax) under Rural Economy

certain rulers like Allauddin Khilji. Having been subjected to various taxes

they had a very hard life to live.

Landless labourers formed another significant portion of the rural population.

They worked on the land of wealthy landholders. They were in agricultural

bondage of the large landowners. Some were slaves of the plough and others

in domestic slavery of wealthy land-holders. They constituted a service class

of hereditary serfs (Moreland 1983: 112).

In general, it has been observed that the life of the peasants, landless labourers

and artisans was hard. Contemporary writings show that the masses sold their

children during droughts and famines simply for the sake of their survival.