B astar , C hattisgarh In most agrarian or ‘peasant’ societies around the world, periodic markets are a central feature of social and economic organisation. Weekly markets bring together people from surrounding villages, who come to sell their agricultural or other produce and to buy manufactured goods and other items that are not available in their villages. They attract traders from outside the local area, as well as moneylenders, entertainers, astrologers, and a host of other specialists offering their services and wares. In rural India there are also specialised markets that take place at less frequent intervals, for instance, cattle markets.
These periodic markets link different regional and local economies together, and link them to the wider national economy and to towns and metropolitan centres. The weekly haat is a common sight in rural and even urban India. In hilly and forested areas (especially those inhabited by adivasis), where settlements are far-flung, roads and communications poor, and the economy relatively undeveloped, the weekly market is the major institution for the exchange of goods as well as for social intercourse. Local people come to the market to sell their agricultural or forest produce to traders, who carry it to the towns for resale, and they buy essentials such as salt and agricultural implements, and consumption items such as bangles and jewellery.
But for many visitors, the primary reason to come to the market is social – to meet kin, to arrange marriages, exchange gossip, and so on. While the weekly market in tribal areas may be a very old institution, its character has changed over time. After these remote areas were brought Adam Smith is known as the fountainhead of contem- porary economic thought. Smith’s reputation rests on his five-book series ‘The Wealth of Nations’ which explained how rational self-interest in a free-market economy leads to economic well being.