Montesquieu
Topic: Medieval India through Travellers' Eyes · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers"
Meaning
Montesquieu (1689–1755) was a French philosopher. His most famous book is The Spirit of the Laws (1748). He used Bernier's account of Mughal India to build the idea of oriental despotism. In this idea, Asian rulers had absolute power and their subjects lived in poverty and subjugation. All land belonged to the king, and there was no private property. He contrasted this with what he saw as European liberty.
Example
Bernier wrote in the 17th century that the Mughal emperor owned all land. Montesquieu took this claim and turned it into a general theory about the East. Historians reject the basic claim. No Mughal document says the state owned all land. Abu'l Fazl called land revenue "remunerations of sovereignty", meaning a payment for the ruler's protection, not rent paid to an owner.
Don't confuse with
- Karl Marx's "Asiatic mode of production" (19th century): it built on the same line of thought. But it focused on the state taking the surplus from self-governing, unchanging village communities.