Things to be considered:
1. The non-progressive East
2. Problem of land ownership
3. Middle Class
4. Village Communities
5. Mughal Nation
6. Cities
7. Sati
Ibn Battuta and Bemier wrote their travel notes with their different views. Ibn Battuta was attracted by the newness and strangeness of things. He wrote about all the things that interested and impressed him. But Bernier’s descriptions were quite different. He gave more importance to negative things. He was interested in the contrasts he found between the things in Europe, especially in his country, France, and here, he wanted to influence the rulers to take just decisions.
Bernier presented India on the model of the binary opposition. This way India was presented as directly opposite to Europe. He also presented the differences between India and Europe on a comparative scale. India was at the lowest rung of the ladder. In short, Bernier felt that India was inferior and worse than the Western countries.
Bernier talked about land ownership in India. There was no private ownership of land here. The land here belonged to the king. The king divided the land among his lords. This was not good as people did not take an interest in developing the land and invest in the land for long term purposes.
Bernier says that there was no Middle Class in India. There were only 2 classes – the poor and the rich. The poor were the majority and they were suppressed by the ruling minority. There were too poor and too rich people, but there was no middle state. Bernier did not have a good impression about the Mughal Empire and its rulers.
The village communities were poor. They were often mistreated by the cruel landlords. Since there was no private land, people were not willing to work hard. Taxes were heavy. On the whole life in the village was unpleasant.
Bernier thought that the Mughal rulers were more interested in their comfort and luxury. They were not much worried about the welfare of the subjects. To Bernier Indian cities were Camp Towns. But his views are contracted by modem historians Bemier himself wrote to say that there were large scale exports from the country. Naturally from camp towns, they could not have exported a lot of things. For that, they would need manufacturing cities, trade cities and port cities. One touching description in Bernier’s writing is the description of Sati.
The widow in his description was a girl of about 12. He witnessed this piteous incident J in Lahore. This is what he wrote: “In Lahore, I saw a girl of 12 giving up her life in the pyre of her husband. She came to the pyre like a dead person. She was trembling with fear. She was crying piteously. I can’t describe the pain she must have been experiencing then. With the help of an old woman, 4 Brahmins performed the rituals. That woman forced the girl to sit on the pyre. To prevent her from running away her hands and legs were tied. That poor girl was burnt alive.”
We must admit that Bernier was often prejudiced against the East. But his descriptions offer us valuable information about the society and its ways of life at the time of his visit to India.
