Introduction

First published in 1937, India’s Social Heritage is intended to give a simple statement of the principal features of the social system in pre-independence India. The social system of pre-Independence India retained many features characteristic of an early stage of social growth. Society was still largely communal in the sense that it was organized in groups. Individual life was based on collective standards and had to be in harmony as a unit in a group, to whose interests his own were subordinate. The social system may be described as a synthesis of groups rather than persons, while the joint family was the basis of Hindu law. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology and South Asian studies.