Social Security in Mediaeval India

The medieval period brought drastic changes in the socio-economic and political spheres. It was the period of ascendency of foreigners on this part of the planet. That proposed the concept of slavery with completely suspended rights. It was a state fully dependent on the mercy of the masters. The era completely changed the employer-employee relationship. The worker became the personal property of the owner. It was the most heinous time to treat humanity worse than animals. Slaves were used as bulls to plough the fields. Sometimes, they were kept hungry and used for maximum work. They were used in place of horses and tattoos for short distance journeys. They were used for sex, etc. The terms employer-employees relationship totally changed as master-slave. No rules, regulations, liabilities were set to regulate their conditions at a wide scale. Mughal Invasion This was the most degraded time for the employer-employee relationship. Basically, slavery system was started in India with the Muslim invasions on this part of the planet. Initially, slaves were kept as domestic help, careers in military expeditions, exported to the other countries in the middle-east, used as soldiers during the attacks, etc. Even women and children were not spared. Slaves were initially used to seize in India and exported to Islamic societies outside the subcontinent. Many authors like Scott Levi and others have cited examples of slavery in India and it was said that the institution of slavery continued (in India), in various manifestations, well after the decentralization of the Mughal Empire in the early 18th century. Then they started to be used as providers of various services like, cleaning, cooking, washing, cattle keeping, right to have sex with a captive slave girl owned or a slave girl owned by another (with master's consent) without marrying her, etc. It became the predominant system in North India in the thirteenth century and retained considerable importance in the fourteenth century. Slavery was still vigorous in fifteenth-century Bengal, while after that it shifted to the Deccan. There it persisted until the seventeenth century. It remained present to a minor extent in the Mughal provinces throughout the seventeenth century and had a notable revival under the Afghans in North India again in the eighteenth century. Arrival of British The inhuman conditions of slaves, extreme exploitation, shook the society. Efforts for the abolition of slavery began. It is evident that the British Government abolished slavery throughout the British Empire except the territories possessed by the East India Company. To abolish slavery, an Act named, Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. But the British Government allowed slavery in the Indian subcontinent operated by the East India Company. Another important incident of creating a new system of slavery with contracts began to be established in the world. It was called the ‘indentured labour’ which was a very important component to operate the plantations, mines, domestic tasks, managing fields, etc. Industrial Revolution This was continued upto the emergence of the industrial revolution. It was the time when new situations emerged. A great demand for industrial workers emerged with the advent of the industrial revolution. That newly emerged class of industrial workers was deployed in newly set up mechanized/semi-mechanized establishments where they found to be worked in abysmally low conditions, initially very similar to the animals. That later emerged in the form of dissatisfaction about the conditions of work. This led to raise collective voices against the exploitation of workers/labour which laid emphasis on reinventing the employers/employees relations. Demand increased to set some basic liabilities by enacting different laws and legislations for social security and safety.