Reflection of Inequlibirium and Inquality in Ancient Indian Slavery: an Analysis

Slavery was an important and unique feature of the society and economy in ancient India. It started in the initial subjugation of one tribe or race by another powerful tribe or group of people. Later on, prejudices against the weaker one, mainly the Sudras, widened the scope of slavery. Manu stated that a Sudra should be reduced to slavery because he is created by God for the services of the upper caste, and hence slavery is an eternal destiny of Sudras. The legal text undoubtedly restricted the members of the higher caste from entering into the well-designed net of slavery. So, it consisted mainly of low caste people. The social and legal position of slaves was, in fact, the complete loss of all Human rights and freedom in the Brahmanical hegemonic social set-up in ancient India. He was treated like a master’s chattel as much as like a domestic animal. A slave could possess no property; he could earn money by working by himself. It is also surprising that, in elaborating the duties and functions of slaves, no provision was made to safeguard their interests even on humanitarian grounds. The lower caste people, who were mainly trapped in this institutionalised network, had suffered to the maximum. The period of slave economy necessarily intervenes between those of primitive communism and the full growth of feudalism. These stigmatized and marginalized people may be treated as inertia who were not to be displaced by any external or internal forces. This, in an equilibrium in a hierarchical social setup, created a kind of inequality in ancient India. It means relative social solidarity within segmented group become a harsh reality if analyzed with critical investigation the psycho-social pathology of Brahmanic caste ridden system.