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Public Enterprise in India

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India, Mixed Enterprise and Western Business

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Abstract

It is interesting and significant to observe that India has long been regarded as a prototype case of public ownership. In the early 19th century, Richard Jones, in his Peasant Rents, had pointed out that the state owned the land and at least in theory, the ryots paid rents to the sovereign.1 In addition, along with the Russian mir, the Germanic mark and the primitive cantons of the Swiss (Allmenden), the Indian village was singled out as a celebrated ancient case of communal ownership.2 Students like Sumner Maine 3 and B. H. Baden-Powell 4 confirmed and clarified this conception. Although the communal ideal has been combated,5 without going into the controversy, it appears to be the modern view that at least some portion of the land (pasture in particular) was held in common.6 Moreover, some of this communality persisted down to the establishment of British rule in India.

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References

  1. Richard Jones, Peasant Rents, 1831 (reprinted N.Y., MacMillan, 1895), pp. 101–2 ff passim. There may have been earlier European scholars who pointed out this fact.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Illinois University, USA

    Daniel L. Spencer (Associate Professor of Economics)

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© 1959 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands

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Spencer, D.L. (1959). Public Enterprise in India. In: India, Mixed Enterprise and Western Business. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0713-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0713-4_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-015-0212-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-0713-4

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