the ethnological notebooks of karl marx - Marxists Internet Archive

xx) character of an agricultural village, so beschrieben by a young zemindar,Bobu Peary Chund Mookerjee, Beng. Soc. Sei. Trans., v. I V , jw. /.“A husbandman of the present day is the primitive being he always (!) hasbeen. With a piece of rag round his loins for his clothing, bare feet, amiserable hut to live in, and a daily fare of the coarsest description, helives a life unruffled by ambition. If he gets his two meals and plainclothing he is content with his lot, and if he can spare a few rupees forpurchasing jewellery for his wife and children, and a few rupees more forreligious ceremonies, he will consider himself as happy as he can wishto be. He is the greatest enemy of social reform [? wäre nicht enemy of gettinghimself the rent to pay to Zemindarees, old or young!]13, and neverdreams of throwing off the trammels which time or superstition hasspun around him. He will not send his son to school for fear [and a veryjust one, too!] of being deprived of his manual assistance in the field;he will not drink the water of a good tank because he has been accustomedto use the water of the one14 nearer to his house; he will not sow a cropof potatoes or sugar-cane because his forefathers never did it; he willx) allow himself to be unmercifully fleeced by his hereditary priest to secure the hopeof utter annihilation after death__ The ryots too poor (!), too ignorant, toodisunited among themselves to effect... improvement.” (65-67)Domestic LifeWealthy enterprising %amindars sehr selten im Mofussil [or Mafassal = thecountry as opposed to the town; the subordinate as opposed to the principal].137 The Hindu | gentleman of the Bengali village, the landed proprietor of thelocality, had income von Rs 100 to Rs 200 per Jahr höchstens; nicht immera pakka house; his property is probably a share of the village, or of severalvillages together, held on some tenure; his net income = d. remainder of thecollections he has made from the ryots after he has paid thejama [od .jamma = theaggregate of payments made for land in the year - the total rent\ of histenure to his superior or to the Government, as the case may be. (68, 69)Bhadralog,, respectable well to do people, who are not Brahmans;Andar mahäl [D. Wort Mahalla = a division of a town, a quarter], theportion of the house or homestead allotted to the female members of thefamily, which strangers and non-privileged males are not allowed to enter.Ashan = a square piece of carpet; thdla metal plate or dish;pan = a betelleaf. Tiffin = a refreshment; bau = young married girl; hart = a dwellinghouse, homestead.Universal habit in Bengal prevalent in all classes for the members of a family tolivejoint and to enjoy the profits ofpropertyjointly. Z.B. in Ryofs family: nachTod d. Vaters, seine Söhne, früher dependent members of the familyliving in the same homestead and assisting the father in the cultivationof his jot ( = jote = both the land which the cultivator tills, and his tenureof it), continue in same homestead, cultivating the same jot, but now asowners. Manchmal tragen sie ihre Namen collectively ein statt dessen257