This chapter explores which brought ideals of Brahmanical rank to the fore in Indian life, without ever fully supplanting the ideals of the lordly man of prowess. It also explores why the Brahman's and merchant's ideal of a 'pure' dharmic way of life became so influential in the world of the so called caste 'Hindu'. In middle of the eighteenth century there were three main areas of advancement in which Brahmans and Brahman-centred values came increasingly to predominate: in the field of finance, statecraft and war, and ritual arena. In the peshwa daftar records, that is, the Maratha rulers' registers of state transactions and revenue obligations, the Peshwas documented acts of adjudication through which they as Brahman guardians of the realm proclaimed themselves arbiters of other people's jati and varna status. India's dynasts built their power through a drive for cash revenue. The techniques used to spread and tax commercial cash-crop production prefigured the strategies of Britain's colonial revenue machine.

In the midst of military conflict and disruption, the eighteenth century witnessed a significant stage in the formation of the social order of modern India. This chapter starts by examining the changes in the imperial hegemony during the eighteenth century, then moves to the petty kingdoms and finally to the magnates of the villages who controlled production. A discussion of the Indian economy and society in the eighteenth century follows. Yet these divisions only constitute a device for organising themes. Developments at all these levels and in all these domains were linked. All powers seeking to establish their rule in eighteenth-century India needed to acquire imperial titles and rights. The spirit and forms of Mughal provincial government changed only slowly. The regional power-holders also inherited the problems of previous Mughal governors. The great non-Muslim warrior states, Marathas Sikhs and Jats, represented something more than simple devolutions of Mughal power to the provinces.

The result for the British was a long period of economic lethargy which was barely obscured by the slow introduction of the panoply of the modern state. Yet this should not be taken to imply that the early nineteenth century was an era devoid of significant social change. This chapter shows that these years were critical in the creation of the modern Indian peasantry, its patterns of social divisions and its beliefs. Others have argued that colonial rule was peripheral to most of Indian society: it could effect changes neither for good nor ill because the new export trades were fitful and the waves of reform and regeneration were merely paper debates conducted in the corridors of Government House, Calcutta. The chapter holds implications for the definition and operation of caste and for the practice of the Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jain religions as they evolved during the nineteenth century. Rural people also turned to Muslim revitalisation and reform movements.

This chapter looks the areas of Portuguese' social interaction in India by first presenting a case study of the Portuguese capital of Goa, and then discussing religion separately. Portuguese private trade, for in many ways this exemplified Portugal's unofficial activities in India. Viceroy Almeida's preliminary expedition to Coromandel in 1507 was to investigate the general situation, especially relating to trade, and to look for the tomb of Saint Thomas, the Apostle. For the private trader there were differences between areas remote from, and areas controlled by, the official system. The chapter presents a detailed social analysis of Goa so as to show the Portuguese empire in operation, and build on analysis of private Portuguese trade. The most convincing evidence have concerning the role of Indians, especially Saraswat brahmins, in the Goan economy comes from quite detailed statistics concerning the holders of rendas, or tax-farming contracts.

This chapter presents a discussion on the religious interaction of Portuguese India. Around 1540 in Goa there were some 100 priests, though a Jesuit historian tells us they often were ignorant, and most interested in their trade and their concubines. In the watershed year, 1540, in order to encourage conversions all temples in Goa were destroyed. Most Hindu ceremonies were forbidden, including marriage and cremation. One disadvantage with being made subject to the padroado was that this also meant subjection to the authority of the Inquisition. Amongst Muslims the missionaries made almost no converts; they complained about how obdurate these Muhammadans were. Among Hindus also there was strong opposition, or passive resistance. The chapter considers the nature of the much-publicized conversions to Christianity. The continuing influence of Hindu caste notions among Goan Christians is a specific illustration of the way Catholicism adapted, at least a little, to its Indian environment.