rode a horse, sometimes a tank. Sometimes they wore a headgear, sometimes a crown or a hat, sometimes a Gandhi cap. But their purpose remained the same; to loot the farmer. As time passed, some looters formed their organized gangs; they kept becoming bigger and more powerful. Some gang leaders became dukes, some grew even bigger to become kings and eventually emperors. Along with their plundering, philosophies also began to be developed to justify that plunder. Intellectuals existed even then who could develop theories most suitable for the rulers. Out of that developed even such philosophies which said that certain type of loot is not sinful but in fact pleased God. In history we read about different campaigns, about armies venturing out; but the real meaning of all that was to go out for looting. Later on, looters started collecting some amount as ransom or ‘protection money’ rather than loot the entire crop; just as some goons collect some money regularly as ‘protection money’ from their own respective areas. That way the looting could efficiently continue year after year. Over time population grew and it became difficult to collect protection money from such a large group. Then the practice came into being whereby each farmer on his own would pay some amount regularly as rent to his king. It was impossible for one person like an emperor to collect that money from everyone, so many subordinate authorities were appointed for this purpose, who in turn gave similar authority to knights and baronets working under them. The general idea was to say, “Give me such and such amount regularly and I shall be content with that; the balance you can keep for yourself. In return for this amount, I shall protect you if someone attacked.” The ransom was called land rent and was basically “protection money”! The land rent soon became general taxation; more and more money from more and more pockets began to reach the ruler. 180
Q
Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
