Neolithic Age, origin of Agriculture and Domestication of Animals
Neolithic Age : –
- Domestication of plants and animals has been considered as one of the main characteristic features of the Neolithic stage of culture. The tern Neolithic was coined by Sir John Lubbock in his book Prehistoric Times (first published in 1865). He used this term to denote an Age in which the stone implements were more skillfully made, more varied in form and often polished.
- Characteristic traits should be considered to represent the Neolithic Culture :
»Practice of agriculture
»Domestication of animals
»Grinding and polishing of stone tools, and also
»The manufacture of pottery - Domestication of plants and animals led to:the emergence of village communities based on sedentary life,the beginnings of agriculture technology, and greater control over nature by exploitation of natural resources.
- Wheat and Barley in Nile valley was domesticated before Rice in Bellan valley of Uttar Pradesh
- Before it was believed that domestication of plants and animals took place in Western Asia, however recent survey put it in Nile valley (Sites:-Wadi Kubbaaniya,Wadi Tuska)
- As there is no evidence of animals, domestication at the Egyptian sites it may be concluded that the cultivation of cereals preceded the domestication of animals in this region.Domestication of plants and domestication of animals are thus not necessarily inter-related.
Neolithic Age and Indian Subcontinent :-
- The subsistence pattern of the Neolithic period is characterized by a mixed economy based on early farming and domestication of animals supplemented by hunting. The inhabitants lived in rectangular houses of mud-bricks. Some of the structures were divided into small square compartments and used for storage.
- Sites:-
- Afghanistan and Pakistan
- Punjab, Kashmir,Tajikistan,Uzbekistan
- Baluchistan
- Mehrgarh
- Bellan Valley
- Village settlements appeared in the Kashmir valley by about 2500 B.C. Excavations at Burzahom and Gufkral throw significant light on the Neolithic culture of this region
- The Neofithic culture of Kashmir valley is characterised by pit-dwellings with well made floors smeared with red-ochre as well as dwellings in the open. The presence of a large number of unique bone tools suggests that the economy was predominantly a hunting economy.
- Harappans inherited the knowledge of wheat, barley, and cotton cultivation from their early ancestors at Mehrgarh
Neolithic Culture of Uttar Pradesh :-
- Sites – Bellan Valley, Koldhiwa, Mahagara,Chopani-Mando
- Bellan Valley – The river Belan flows down from east to west along the edge of the Vindhyan plateau outcrop. It is a tributary of the Tons which joins the Ganga near Allahabad. This region is part of the monsoon belt. The entire area is covered with thick forest of teak, bomboo and dhak.
- The relevant excavated sites of the Belan Valley which indicate transition from the food-gathering stage to the food producing stage are Chopani-Mando, Koldihawa and Mahagara ( All in Uttar Pradesh region)
- The excavations at Koldihwa revealed a three-fold cultural sequence (Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Iron Age). Mahagara is a single culture (Neolithic) site. The combined evidence from the two sites indicates sedentary life, domestication of rice (oriza sativa) and of cattle and sheep/goat.
- The Neolithic culture of the Belan Valley shows a developed and advanced sedentary life with:-
defined family units
standardizationof pottery forms
portable size of food-processing units like querns and mullers
specializedtools like chisels, Celts and adzes;
cultivation of domesticated rice,
domestication of cattle, sheep/and goat and horse - Chopni-Mando provides the earliest evidence of the use of pottery in the world.
Neolithic Culture of Bihar :-
- Sites- Chirand, Chechar,Senuwar and Taradib
- The lower central Gangetic valley with all its flora and faunal resources was occupied by sedentary village settlements much later (2000-1 600 B.C.).
Neolithic Culture of Eastern India :-
- The area comprises the hills of Assam including north Cachar, the Garo and the Naga hills.Ecologically the area falls in the monsoon zone with heavy rainfall
- Sites – Deojali Hading in north Cachar hills
- These objects discovered here have extensive distribution in China and South-East Asia with a long ancestry there
- The Assam Neolithic Culture has been tentatively dated around 2000 B.C.
Neolithic Culture of South India :-
- The Neolithic settlements are found on the hilly and dry Deccan plateau drained by the Bhima, Krishna, Tungabhadra and Kaveri rivers.
- These settlements flourished particularly in those areas where the normal rainfall is below 25 cm per annum
- Sites – Sangankallu, Nagarjunakonda, Maski, Brahmagiri,Tekkalakota, Piklihal, Kupgal, Hallur, Palavoy, Hemmige ,Utnur,Kodekal,and T. Narsipur
- South Indian Neolithic culture has been classified into three phases by archaeologists. The Phase I is represented at Sangankallu and Nagarjunakonda. The faint traces of dwellings, crude handmade pale reddish brown pottery with slipped outer surface, blade tools of chert and ground stone tools found at Nagajunakonda, demonstrate that the people had only rudimentary knowledge of cultivation. Probably they did not domesticate animals. This phase can be dated to 2500 B.C. or earlier.
- In Phase II besides the continuation of the features of Phase I, the pottery is mainly of red ware fabric. However, Lapidary art and domestication of animals are the pew features. Now the microliths were made of quartz crystals.
- In Phase III(datable to around 1500 B.C.) grey ware pottery, is predominant.
- Millet (Ragi) was one of the earliest crops cultivated by the Neolithic farmers of South India.
- Other crops cultivated by the Neolithic farmers of south India were wheat, horsegram,and moong (green gram).
- Terrace farming seems to have been an important feature of the method of cultivation during this period
- It is clear from the excavations at Nagarjunakonda that domestication of plants preceded the domestication of animals.
Neolithic Culture of Maharashtra region :-
- Evidence from Chandoli on the Bhima, a tributary of the Krishna and from Nevasa and Daimabad, sites on the Pravara, a tributary of the Godavari, suggests that Neolithic farmers in this region had moved into the Chalcolithic phase.
Recent Posts
- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)