A historian studying how later thinkers used Bernier's account lists two ideas, each with a claim. Which of the following pairs is correctly matched?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Oriental despotism - Everybody except the emperor and his nobles barely survived
Option (1) Oriental despotism - Private property in land was widespread in Asia — Incorrect. Under oriental despotism, Montesquieu argued that <strong>all land belonged to the king</strong> and private property did not exist. The claim is reversed.
Option (2) Asiatic mode of production - Surplus was taken by big zamindars from the villages — Incorrect. In the Asiatic mode of production, Marx held that <strong>surplus was appropriated by the state</strong> itself; big zamindars have no place in his model.
Option (3) Oriental despotism - Everybody except the emperor and his nobles barely survived — Correct. Oriental despotism, the idea Montesquieu built from Bernier, held that Asian rulers had absolute power. Their subjects lived in poverty, so <strong>only the emperor and his nobles lived well</strong>; the rest barely survived.
Option (4) Asiatic mode of production - The imperial court took away the autonomy of villages — Incorrect. Marx said the imperial court <strong>respected the autonomy</strong> of the village communities as long as surplus flowed to it. The claim is reversed.
NCERT (2026-27): “6.1 The question of landownership … “This idea was further developed as the concept of the Asiatic mode of production by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century. He argued that in India (and other Asian countries), before colonialism, surplus was appropriated by the state. This led to the emergence of a society that was composed of a large number of autonomous and (internally) egalitarian village communities. The imperial court presided over these village communities, respecting their autonomy as long as the flow of surplus was unimpeded. …” |