Power and Property

Tirthankar Roy on Power and Property

• ……..during the colonial period, a broad-based commercialization and a state that wanted to consolidate private property rights, led to a legal and market regime in which communities had to shed their isolation,
• ……….If we compare the complex of case laws in 2000 with that in 1850, it would seem that private rights have won the battle, but not without great economic and social cost.
• ………the Kings in precolonial India were expected to function within a moral order that included the notion of a social contract. The principle of the contract was to respect the juridical-economic-cultural autonomy of those collectives that supplied essential services for the state. All states are built upon alliances. There was no essential difference between Europe and India in this respect.