The social, economic and political milieu of any epoch is the mirror of the happenings of those times and sets grounds for the future. The social, economic, religious and political conditions are conditioning factors behind the human experiences. In this vein, it becomes imperative to understand the Indian society if any religion has to be understood in the right perspective. The dynamical stimulation provided by any religious or social reformers is influenced by these propelling or damaging factors present in the society.
One has to be attuned to the theme of hierarchy and inequalities in India to discern any historical epoch. India is a hierarchical and multi-structured society and highly fragmented into religion and caste groups. Within Indian culture, whether in the north or the south, Hindu or Muslim, urban or rural areas, virtually all the things, people and groups of people are ranked according to various qualities. In the past, there were differences and discrimination based on caste, religion, sex, race etc. and the social, eco-nomic and political conditions of the large number of people were denied their 'personhood' and consequently, the basis of their being equal.
A great deal of work has already been done in the field of dynastic history. Monographs have been written on each of the important Sultans of Delhi and on almost all the great Mughals from Babur to Aurangzeb. But very little work has been done in the field of social history. The main problem in the study of medieval Indian society is that the chroniclers of that time were mainly the court historians, who for obvious reasons concerned themselves only with the task of describing the victories, reforms and an ex-aggerated account of the achievements of their kings and nobles. While the contemporary court historians and other chroniclers throw enough light on the ruling elite, there is practically no mention of the common masses, who constituted the bulk of the medieval Indian society. In those cases where some of the foreign travellers tried to mention about the masses and various social institutions, they could not do much justice because due to language barrier, and could not really communicate with the masses and depended more upon oral traditions given to them in distorted form. Moreover, their travel accounts were limited mainly to the coastal areas.
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