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The Chengalpattu
Survey of 1767-1774 was perhaps the first effort that the
British made to understand the ways of the Indian people
before devising modes of effectively subjugating and
administering them. Accounts of over 2100 localities of the
Chengalpattu region of Tamil Nadu were collected as a part of
this Survey. These accounts present the most detailed picture
available anywhere of the functioning of Indian society,
economy and polity at its basic level, before it was disrupted
and transformed through the instruments of British
administration.
We have so far been led to believe, on the basis of rather
tenuous historical evidence, that India of that time was a
poor, scientifically and technological backward, and socially
and politically dysfunctional nation. The locality accounts
presented in these manuscripts, however, present a picture of
Indian society and polity that is the exact opposite of these
images of poverty and dysfunctionality
This book presents detailed accounts for two localities,
Thirupporur and Vadakkuppattu, in the original Tamil script of
the of the palm-leaves and in English translation. The
introduction gives an overview of the Chengalpattu information
and highlights some of the important features of the society,
economy and polity of Thirupporur and Vadakkuppattu.
Different
Sections of the book may be downloaded below:
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