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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“Doubtless it was not a free state; it was any rate a state” (KAN Sastri). Reflect upon the nature of local self-government institutions in the Chola country.

  • UPSC 2018
  • Early Medieval India, 750-1200

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K.A.N. Sastri's epigram compresses into a single sentence the whole difficulty of characterizing Chola village government: the Uttaramerur assembly and its counterparts were "not a free state" because they never possessed sovereignty independent of the Chola crown, yet they were "at any rate a state" because within their own sphere they exercised genuine, institutionalized public…

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What the full answer covers

  • "Not a Free State": The Limits on Sovereignty
  • "At Any Rate a State": Genuine Institutional Capacity
  • Refining Sastri: Burton Stein's Challenge to the "Centralized State, Autonomous Locality" Frame
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