Friday, September 24, 2010

Marxian interpretation of social development of ancient India

Marx and Engels' studied the way of development of human society from its primitive stage of communism upto the modern times of 19th century and came to three conclusions. 1. the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles, 2. the development of human society depends on the relation between the existing productive forces and the productive relations, 3. the status quo of the existing society is maintained till the relation between the two forces can accommodate the expansion of the productive forces gradually developing within the present society due to scientific discoveries upto the current age.
They have not only explained the development of human society upto the present stage, they have discovered the ways and means of attaining the ideal society of human being.'The success of one is the precondition of the success of the other'.
They concluded that 'the history of all the hithrto existing societies is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guild master and journey man, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended , either in a revolutionary re-constitution  of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
So far as the documents revealed after excavation of Mohenjodaro-Harappa civilisation, it was found that in Indus Valley civilisation the division of classes existed. Those who had different opinions, would have no prove of documents. 
In the Indus valley civilisation excavations proved the existence of unequal status between different members of the societies.The rich persons lived in multistoried building where as the poor people lived in small thatched rooms. Even the graveyards showed the difference between a rich and a poor person. In the cities of Harappa age there were slaves. The class division in the time of Aryans had seeds in the Harappa civilisation.