During the life in the Gupta Period, the King was the head of the administration. With the help of his ministers the King had to rule following the set principles of Rajya Dharma.

The Gupta Empire, following the traditional system of administration, was separated into Bhuktis, Vishayas and Gramas. Large parts of the empire was administered by internally autonomous fuedatories.

Prevelent was the practice of land grants and the King bequeathed fiscal and administrative concessions to priests. According to the system of Varna the society was divided due to which the brahmanas had established and further cemented their supremacy in society.

However, the traditional four fold caste system had stretched to include foreign elements such as Hunas as well to provide a place to tribal / backward people who, after getting land grants of Guptas, had become a significant part of the society. Due to prevalence of untouchability, the Chandalas had to live outside the city boundaries. Status of women also declined.

Must Read: Significance of the Harappan Civilization

Economic Life in the Gupta Period

The principal occupations of the life in the Gupta Period comprised of ivory work, mettle work, pottery, pearl fishing, garland making, weaving.

The members of these above mentioned professions were organized into Guilds (Sreni) that were corporate bodies set up by members of a particular trade to perform important economic functions.

In the life in the Gupta Period these Guilds acquired more autonomy and started to perform even judicial and executive functions concerning their members. Not only this, the guilds also started to maintain their own militia termed Srenibala.

It were the lawmakers, it seems, who had sanctioned the autonomous character of the guilds. It can be confirmed this fact that while the earlier texts ask the king to respect the Srenidharma, the texts belonging to the life in the Gupta period reveal that the king was bound to accept the decision of the guilds.

The paucity of coin, during the life in the Gupta Period, of common and everyday usage indicates that money economy was getting weaker. There are ample evidences that Guptas issued a large number of gold coins, but these could not be used for daily trade transactions. According to Fa Hsien, the Chinese pilgrim who visited India during the reign of Chandragupta II, cowrles were the common medium of exchange.

The most significant characteristic of the economic life in the Gupta Period was the decline of the trade that is evident from the decay of urban centres: archaeological diggings at place like Mathura and Sanghol display that the Kushan layers belonging to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD are very flourishing, while Gupta layers belonging to the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries are in a state of decline.

However, this decline of trade in the life in the Gupta period does not mean that the people of this period lived in poverty. The Kamasutra, a famous book on the art of love that was composed and authored life in the Gupta period, describes the life of a well – to – do citizens as one devoted to the pleasures and refinements of life.

Due to the practice of land grants, that caused transformations in the economic structure of society, there emerged a class of priestly landlords who had control over not only land but also its inhabitants. Land charters belonging to the 6th century clearly display the transfer of peasants along with the soil to the beneficiaries,.

Also Read: The Vijayanagar Empire: Social life and Economic condition

Social Life in the Gupta Period

During the social life in the Gupta Period of general people was affected by the marked revival of brahmanism. Resultedly, the caste-based four-fold division of society was given greater emphasis and efforts were made to cement the supremacy of the brahmanas.

One of the most significant development that happened during the life in the Gupta Period was the proliferation of the castes, meaning that traditional four castes were divided into a member of smaller sub – castes were divided into a number of smaller sub-castes. Chief among them were the foreigners such as Hunas who were now called Rajputs.

In the similar fashion, land grants during the life in the Gupta Period caused many backwards and tribal people to enter the social fold. In such cases, while the tribal chiefs were granted a respectable position.

During the life in the Gupta Period the position the position of women declined: they were denied formal education and they were married off very early. Womenly activities were restricted to households duties. Women, however, were allowed to listen to the Epics and the Puranas. Women were not given any right to property expect for Stridhana. Stridhana consisted of the garments and jewellery gifted to a women at the time of her marriage. In this context, it is important to mention here that social evils such as Sati and Child Marriage are a product of the Gupta Period.

As far as the social life in general is concerned, the upper classes, during the life in the Gupta period lived a comfortable life. Literary and musical gatherings were held. Sports like hunting, bull – fighting were common. Playing chess and dice too was common.

Read Also: The Mughal Empire

Religious Life in the Gupta Period

The most distinguished characteristic of the religious life during the life in the Gupta Period was the transformation of ancient brahmanical faith into modern Hinduism.

Brahmanism had come to the forefront as Buddhism longer received royal patronage in the life in the Gupta Period. The Bhagvata Sect of Hinduism was provided protection by the Guptas rulers. The members of the Bhagwata Sect called themselves Bhagvatas, worshipped gods Vishnu, and Shiva, performed Ashwamedha sacrifices, gave large donataions to brahmanas and built many temples.

Final Compilation of Puranas was done during the life in the Gupta Period. Vishnu came to be represented as savoiur of Varna system and emerged as the god of devotion. Around Vishnu, numerous legends gathered and a whole Purana called Vishnu Purana was compiled in his honour. A law book Vishnusmriti was also named after him.

To champion all these by the 4th century AD there came into existence a famous Vaishnava work Bhagvad Gita that taught devotion of Lord Krishna.

A few Gupta Kings were worshippers of Shiva, the lord of destruction. However, the theory of Ten Avatars of the Supreme God Vishnu was accepted and among them Krishna Was accepted as the most important.

Although Buddhism was on its decline during the life in the Gupta period, it continued to have following. Apart from the artistic creations of Ajanta & Ellora caves, Sarnath images of Buddha of this time show that Buddhism was also quite popular. Jainism also commanded some following life in the Gupta Period.

Fa Hsien’s Account

According to the Hsien the people during the life in the Gupta Period were generally happy. They practiced Ahinsa and were vegetarians. They were educated and kind. Rich Vaisyas were always ready for dispensing charity and medicines. However, society was divided as per the Varna System and untouchability has begun.

The Gupta rulers were not despots. They did not impose any restrictions on the movements of their subjects. The criminal law was not harsh and there was no capital punishment. Offenders were fined/punished according to their crime. The people in general were honest and even a lonely pilgrim like him felt safe from rubbers while travelling through the life in the Gupta Period.

Don’t Miss: Timeline of Maurya Empire

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian socio-educational reformer who was also known as ‘Maker of Modern India’ and ‘Father of Modern India’ and ‘Father of the Bengal Renaissance and the prophet of Indian nationalism.” for the remarkable reforms he brought in the 18th century India. He was born on May 22, 1774, in Burdwan in Bengali Hindu family.

Among his efforts, the abolition of the sati-pratha-a practice in which the widow was compelled to sacrifice herself on the funeral pyre of her husband-was the prominent. His efforts were also instrumental in eradicating the purdah system and child marriage. One of his greatest achievements is the uplift of the position of women in India. First of all, he tried to give women proper education in order to give them better social status in society. His effort in the abolition of Sati made him immortal as a social reformer.

Read Also: Indian Renaissance The Socio-Cultural Awakening

In 1828 at Kolkata, Ram Mohan Roy formed the Brahmo Samaj, a group of people, who had no faith in idol-worship and were against the caste restrictions. He advocated the study of English, Science, Western Medicine and Technology.

He was a scholar and was well-versed in Sanskrit, Persian, English, Hindi, and Bengali. He made an intensive study of Christianity and other religions. After that, he came to the conclusion that the Hindu society needed reform and India had to learn a lot from the West.

Raja Rammohan Roy served the East India Company for a number of years and became a revenue officer in 1809. He was a critic of the unjust actions and policies of the British Government in India. He protested against the curbs on the freedom of the press.

His progressive views helped to change Hindu society but these views were bitterly opposed by the orthodox Hindus. He was a social and religious reformer, an educationist and a political leader. His efforts actually led to the resumption of the ethics principles of the Vedanta school of philosophy. He co-founded the Calcutta Unitarian Society.

The title ‘Raja’ was awarded to him by Mughal emperor Akbar, the second in 1831 when Roy visited England as an ambassador of the King to ensure that Bentick’s regulation of banning the practice of Sati was not overturned.

In November 1830 Ram Mohan Roy traveled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of the Mughal emperor to plead for his pension and allowances. Raja Ram Mohan Roy passed away on September 27, 1833, at Stapleton near Bristol due to meningitis.

Must Read:

Founder of Indian Institutions

History of India in a nutshell

We all remember the year of 1947 as the year of independence from the British rule. But, Lives of many people were in chaos irrespective of the independence celebrations. The partition of India (say British India) into India and Pakistan resulted in communal riots, especially in the Punjab region. Many people were killed in the riots. The factors that led to the partition of India draw their origin from the Indian freedom struggle.

CAUSES OF PARTITION OF INDIA:

India is a land of many religions and various communities with diverse cultures. Majority of the people belong to the Hindu community and the rest of the communities are minorities. During the freedom struggle, great persons like Mahatma Gandhi strove hard to gather people of all communities and make them fight against British rule. At the same time, the British rulers adopted the Divide and rule policy. That means by taking advantage of the fear of the minorities, especially Muslims they obstructed the national movement from time to time. This was ultimately going to result in the partition of India in a way which was not only unexpected by Britishers but even people who were very vocal in demanding the partition of India.

All India Muslim League, a brainchild of British rulers which was formed in 1906 used to fight for the cause of Muslims since its formation. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who is considered as the father of Pakistan became the president of the Muslim League in 1924 proposed the two-nation theory and in 1940 he demanded a separate state for Muslims.

Also Read: Overview of the History of India

British rulers encouraged the Muslim League and also introduced separate electorates for Muslims in 1932. From time to time they introduced new acts in the favour of minorities and by the time of independence the demand for Pakistan is very strong. Though leaders like Mahatma Gandhi were against the partition of India, it became inevitable and British India was divided into India and Pakistan.

Here Pakistan consists of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan(the region west of present-day Punjab).

AFTERMATH OF PARTITION OF INDIA:

At the time of Partition of India exact boundaries were not decided and people started moving towards the regions which they hope relatively safer and of their religious majority. That means Muslims in India moved to Pakistan while Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan moved to India crossing borders. Meanwhile, communal violence broke out and people started killing those of the opposite community.

Sikhs in Pakistan are dragged out of their houses and butchered. Same is the situation of Muslims in India. Dead bodies were laid down across the borders. The ultimate low of the situation is the utmost humiliation of women. They were openly being raped and some women voluntarily took their lives by jumping into the wells.

The situation went out of control and both the governments were able to do nothing. It was estimated that nearly 2 to 3 lakh people were killed during the riots. This was the largest ever migration that took place in History. Millions of people ran for their lives leaving their homes and cattle behind which were their means of living.

Later refugee camps were set up for all the migrants in both countries and they were settled in the course of time.

CONCLUSION:

Thus the partition of India saw the loss of many lives, property and will remain as the major tragedy of the Indian History.

Also Read This Article: India’s Freedom Struggle

Gopal Krishna Gokhale, born on 9 May 1866 in a village named Kothuluk of Guhagar Taluka in Ratnagiri district in the present day State of Maharashtra (at that time in the Bombay Presidency) in a Chitpavan Brahmin family, was an outstanding intellectual India witnessed during the early quarter of the 20^th century.

His education, Gopal Krishna Gokhale graduated from Elphinstone College in 1884, influenced his career in a tremendous way, for, in addition of learning and becoming familiar with English language, he was exposed to Western political thought; those thoughts impressed him to such an extent that Gopal Krishna Gokhale became a great admirer of authors like John Stuart Mill and Edmund.

Although Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a staunch critic of the English colonial rule, the respect for English political theory and institutions acquired by Gokhale in his college days remained with him for the rest of his life and often reflected in his way of dealing many situations he encountered.

Must Read: Brief biography of Mahatma Gandhi – A Journey from Mohandas to Mahatma

Entry into Indian National Congress

Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who acquired the membership of India National Congress in 1889, struggled for decades to get greater political representation and power over public affairs for common Indians.

As Gopal Krishna Gokhale was moderate in his views so he always approached British authorities with petitions to cultivate a process and system of dialogue and discussion that in Gokhale’s opinion, would fetch greater British respect for Indian rights. Gopal Krishna Gokhale became the joint secretary of the Indian National Congress in 1895.

Read Also: National Movement of India: 1920 to 1940

Gopal Krishna Gokhale: an outstanding intellectual

Gopal Krishna Gokhale got intensive training in India Economics by Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade and G.V. Joshi. Some historians have even called him ‘a protégé’ of social reformer Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale was not a “good orator” as it was not in his nature to use strong and forceful language as was the case with his other well-known Colleges like Tilak, Dadabhai Naoroji and RC Dutt.

As a speaker, Gopal Krishna Gokhale was gentle, courteous, reasonable, non-flamboyant and lucid. He always favoured detailed knowledge and the careful, cool and logical presentation and analysis of data. All these reflected in his speeches that did not entertain or hurt; however, they slowly drew the listener’s or reader’s attention by their intense intellectual power.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale got famous, primarily, for his budget speeches that were reported widely by the newspapers whose readers used to wait eagerly for their morning copy. He virtually changed the Legislative Council into an open university for catering political education to the people of the country.

It was his first budget speech on 26 March 1902 that earned him the name and fame of ‘the greatest parliamentarian that India has produced’.

In that historic session of the Parliament, when Edward Law, the Finance Member, presented the budget of a seven-crore-rupees surplus, he received congratulations of the house with great pride.

When Gopal Krishna Gokhale started to speak he began by saying that he could not ‘conscientiously join in the congratulations because of the huge surplus’. For him surplus budget did not bring the good news; on the contrary, the surplus budget, for G.K. Gokhale, “illustrated the utter absence of a due correspondence between the condition of the country and the condition of the finances of the country”.

In fact, according to Gopal Krishna Gokhale, this surplus in times of serious depression and suffering, made a wrong to the community.

Every aspect he raised indicated that the centre of his speech was the poverty of the people.

After examining all aspects of the problem Gokhale came to the conclusion that the material condition of the majority of people was ‘Steadily deteriorating’ and that the phenomenon was ‘the saddest in the whole range of the economic history of the world’.

Read Also: Emergence of Gandhi

Gopal Krishna Gokhale as a staunch economist

Analyzing the budget (1902) in detail he demonstrated how to land revenue and the salt tax had been soaring even in times of drought and famine. Demanding the reduction of these two taxes he vigorously sought for raising the minimum level of income liable to income tax to Rs. 1000 so that the lower middle classes would not face the heat.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale not only demanded greater expenditure on education and industry but also condemned the large expenditure on the army and territorial expansion beyond Indian boundaries. He plainly, without putting any irony in his tone or without raising the pitch of his voice, said that the management of Indian Finances revealed that Indian interests were invariably subordinate to foreign interests.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale became successful in linking the poor condition of Indian finances and the poverty of the Indian people in general with the colonial status of the Indian economy and polity. And he did all this by quoting at length from the Government’s own blue books.

On Gokhale’s getting sudden fame for his first budget speech, that had ‘an electrifying effect’ on the people, his biographer B.R. Nanda has perhaps rightly observed “Like Byron, he could have said that he woke up one fine morning and found himself famous.

Don’t Miss: Significance of the Harappan Civilization