ABSTRACT
Rural leaders under both previous and present conditions are of course concerned with some matters which bear no formal relation to administrative systems, such as the organization of community rites and arbitration councils. In other societies, the settlements were not officially recognized at all, and no official leadership existed before local government was introduced. This chapter provides examples from the overseas Indian communities in Fiji, Trinidad, British Guiana, and Mauritius. It considers leadership in the light of two 'ideal types' of leader, the patron and the broker. The patron recruits followers by his power to dispense favours. The broker, on the other hand, is a middleman attracting followers who believe him able to influence the person who controls the favours. This gives the introduction of local government an added significance for the latter; for a system which produces village leaders will do much to give local settlements a political and social unity which they have hitherto lacked.
