The paper is devoted to the Indian rural community, whose fate, under the pressure of the transforming activities of the British, excited the minds of Russian thinkers and the public in terms of the civilizational clash and its results for the local population. The assumption that Russia differed from the West made Russian intellectuals question the benefit of European values for countries different from the West. In particular, they were skeptical about the results of the civilizing mission of the British in India, and called to a more sensitive and cautious attitude towards native elements of life in India. Attention specifically to the Indian rural community was due to the fact that in Russia itself the community was a viable social institution of the village life. After the abolition of serfdom and reforms of 1860s, Russia stood at a crossroads, and understanding of possible ways of development took place by comparing its internal situation with the experience of other countries. Keen public interest in the history and future of the rural community in Russia facilitated the attention of the Russian public to the similar phenomenon in India. Information about the Indian community and the situation of the Indian peasantry as a whole was accumulated in Russia from various sources, including the testimonies of Russian travelers to South Asia, in particular I.P. Minayev. The result of these theoretical reflections were numerous publications in the Russian press. Since turning to Indian subjects was often an attempt to understand Russia’s own path of civilizational development, their coverage depended on the authors' affiliation with one or another socio-political current and had a noticeable ideological color.
