The non-brahman movement in Maharashtra, the author has argued in an earlier article ('Development of the Maharashtrian class Structure, I818 to 1931', Special Number, August 1973). represented a peasant-based 'mass' movement of the bahujan samaj against the shetji-bhatji class consisting of the intelligentsia and the moneylender-landlords. This hypothesis, however, is contrary to the prevailing view of the development of Indian social-political systems, which sees the process as one of a transfer of power from an urban-based upper-caste elite to an only slightly lower, rural-based landholding dominant caste. Instead of class conflict, the model generally in use has been that of conflict between opposing elites.
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