Here is your Paragraph on Village Community in India!
It is well known that India is predominantly a land of villages even today. Not for nothing does Mahatma Gandhi say villages are the very heart of India. He felt that the fate of the whole nation hinges on the fate of the villages.
Even from the historical point of view, villages are important because human society emerged from them.
William Cowper, the famous English poet, has a fine line of poetry to his credit. He sang, “God made the country and manmade the town.” This clearly underlines the importance of villages from the spiritual angle. Thus villages or rural groups enjoy an importance of their own from the economic, historical, sociological and spiritual points of view.
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The Indian village community has evoked profound interest among the scholars belonging to various social disciplines. It has also, due to its unique features, attracted the attention of litterateurs, historians and social workers. It has been recognised as a unique entity differing widely from the village of West Europe, the mir of Russia, the German mark or the Chinese village.
Village communities in India have come into existence since time immemorial. In the Vedas we find reference to village communities as agricultural communities. The Ramayana also mentions two types of villages, Kautilya talks of three types of villages in his book Arthasastra.
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Village community has been defined differently by different sociologists. According to Kroptkin, “The group of people living permanently in a definite geographical boundary is called a village community.”
In the words of E.S. Bogardus, “Human society has been cradled in the rural group”.
Village community refers to “a group of people permanently resides in a definite geographical area, who have developed certain community consciousness, and cultural, social and economic relations which distinguish them from other communities.”
The census of India defines village as those areas which have a maximum population of 5,000, density of population of at least 400 per square kilometer, at least 70 per cent of male working population engaged in agricultural pursuits.
A number of factors are responsible for the growth of village community. So far as the topographical factors are concerned, these include land, water and climate. It is obvious that these factors influence the development of the village community.
The economic factors governing the growth of the village community are the condition of agriculture, rural economy and cottage industries. The presence of natural resources and developed means of transport are also equally important. The social factors refer to peace, security, education, communal harmony and cooperation.