It is not uncommon for a Bengali communist to say that this or the other opinion, point of view, statement displays a feudal mindset, especially when the opposition is eloquently forceful. However, as would be seen later in the blog, the term is not only fuzzy, but also hazy and imprecise
A term first used in early modern period ( 17th century), feudalism in its most classic sense refers to a medieval European political system comprising of a set of reciprocal legal obligations among noble and warrior classes. Based on three key concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs, it is oten a component of manorial systems. The root is a Latin word, feodum meaning fief, but the term was never regarded as a formal political system by people living in medieval period. As there is no generally accepted agreement on its meaning, the working definition above is used by many historians. Nevertheless, from 1960 onwards, some medieval historians have included in the meaning broader social aspects, like peasantry, manorial bonds and other features of the so-called feudal society. Some other historians, since the 1970s, have re-examined the evidence and concluded that feudalism is an unworkable term and should be removed entirely from scholarly and educational discussions. If it is to be used at all, precise qualifiers are necessary.
Beyond Europe, the concept of feudalism is generally described by the analogous phrase semi-feudal in discourses on Japan under the shoguns, medieval Ethiopia and places further afield like ancient Egypt, Parthian empire, India to American South of the 19th century. Derogatory and inappropriate uses of the adjective feudal are not uncommon in descriptions of non-Western societies where institutions and attitudes similar to those of medieval Europe are perceived to prevail. Anyway, the indiscriminate manner in which the term feudalism has been used has deprived it of specific meaning, leading many historians and political theorists to reject it as a useful concept for understanding society.
INDIA
Having regard to the unwillingness of historians to classify other places following European examples, it is now rare to find early medieval Indian period being described as feudal. This is so inspite of Professor R.S. Sharma's work on Indian Feudalism. For instance, Dr. Sima Yadav after examining epigraphic records of land and village grants of Gurjar Pratihars, Pala, Parmara and Chandela dynasties has found that not more than 33 villages were granted by these kings ruling over the whole of Northern India from 700 to 1100 C. E. Among those villages, only two were secular land grants while the rest were educational or religious in nature. Extending the period by 200 more years, i.e., from 1200 to 1400 C. E., the total number of village grants reach a figure of 59, out of which only six villages were granted for secular purposes. As against this, 82% of Mughal revenue went to 1671 mansabdars of Akbar's India, even though Mughal empire was not regarded as feudal. It would be therefore seen that less than 0.001% of land grants in early medieval India was administrative or secular in nature. Dr. Sima argued that in view of this it would not be in order to designate the period as feudal. Moreover, there are other reasons for decline of trade, deurbanization, paucity of coins and emergence of a closed rural economy with a dependant exploited peasantry, regarded generally (in Europe) as necessary conditions for feudalism to emerge. Wherever the term feudal is used, it is generally with a pejorative intent, as also the offices of zamindar, jagirdar, desmukh and chaudhuri associated with it. Most of these systems were abolished after the Indian independence but some remnants exist.
ROOTS
When the term feudal was first used in 1614, the system it attempted to describe was on the wane if not gone entirely.There is no evidence of a writer in the period in which feudalism was supposed to have flourished making use of the word. Apparently, it was used as a pejorative to describe any law or custom that was deemed to be unfair or out-dated. Majority of these laws and customs were related in some way to the medieval institution of the fief, a word which first appears on a Frankish charter dated 884. Its derivative, feudalism, served the purpose of defining the social and economic systems of most of the medieval European societies. Its main ingredient--the granting of land in return for military service--had appeared all over the world in many different kinds of society e.g., Japan under the shogunates in the 16th century.
At the centre of the feudal system in medieval Europe was the king, and a medieval king was, above everything else, a warrior. During the period 9th to 14th century, considered to be the heyday of feudalism, the most important element in war was the armoured knight riding a horse. It was, however, quite expensive to maintain such a contingent, and the trend among the rulers was to hire the knights. The suppliers of such personnel were granted large holdings of land known as "feud" or "fief", and hence the term "feudalism". These suppliers, generally known as barons in England, received their lands directly from the king and, in turn, leased parts of their estates to the knights, who in their turn gave leases to yeomen farmers.
TRAITS
Although the theoretical background is this, there were places where feudalism scarcely gained a hold, and where men held with no obligation to anyone else unfettered ownership of land. This was known as an allod, a system of landholding prevalent in the south of France and Spain.
As a consequence, feudalism, due to its very nature, gave rise to a hierarchy of rank, to a predominantly static social structure in which every man knew his station. This hierarchical order told a man that he is obliged to serve on demand the person from whom he had his land. To maintain the existing relationships for all time to come, rights of succession to land were strictly controlled by various laws, or customs of entail. Among these, the most rigid control was provided by the custom of primogeniture, by which all property of a deceased landholder must pass intact to his eldest son.
With the exception perhaps of the monarch, every man was the vassal or servant of his lord. He had to take an oath of homage to him, and in return the lord promised to give him protection and to see that he received justice. So, from a theoretical point of view, feudalism was the expression of a society in which every man was bound to every other by mutual ties of loyalty and service. Actually, however, feudal society was marked by a vast gulf between the very few, very rich, great landholders and the mass of the poor who worked for the profit of the nobility, including bishops because the Church was one of the biggest landholders in medieval times. This social pyramid had near its base agricultural labourers or villeins and beneath them peasants or serfs.
BEGINNINGS
Till such time powerful monarchies with central bureaucracies emerged, it was the lord of the manor who was the real ruler of society. A peasant cultivated the land for him and owed him a number of feudal dues, more and more of which were commuted to money payments as time went by. In disputes, justice was dispensed to him in the manorial courts. There were variations in customs, but it was common for a peasant to have a small plot, or to share a communal plot, on which to grow food for himself and his family. He was also entitled to gather firewood from forest land for hearth fire and grind corn and bake bread on payment in the lord's mill and oven. Single plots were rarely found. Usually, the custom was to divide lands into strips, with each household's strips scattered about the manor.
It was in turbulent eighth-century France western feudalism evolved, offering aristocratic landowners potential security in the absence of law and order. At that time, major landowners assumed by concession or usurpation substantial legal and governmental power from the central government and proceeded through private arrangements with lesser landowners to create local militias for defensive purposes. By nature particularistic and quite undisciplined at the formative stage, feudalism was a component of the monarchy itself. Developing its own system of law and code of ethics for its members, feudalism spread throughout Europe to assume a dominant role in the political and cultural history of the medieval times. William the Conqueror brought it to England in 1066, and substantially curbing the powers of all feudal vassals retained for himself considerable central authority. Generally, feudalism comprised of three elements - personal, property, and governmental. Its members, including the monarchs who headed the feudal system, enjoyed specific rights but were also bound by feudal law to certain fixed duties.
LORDS, VASSALS AND FIEFS
Three Primary elements comprising feudalism were lords, vassals and fiefs, its structure defined how these three elements were brought together. The land-owning lord granted possession of the land or fief to a vassal, and received military service from the vassal in exchange. Feudalism was based on the obligations and relations between lord, vassal and fief. However, before a lord could grant land (a fief) to someone, he had to make that person a vassal. A formal and symbolic ceremony known as commendation was held for this purpose. It consisted of an act of homage and an oath of fealty. The homage was actually a contract between the two, under which the vassal was required to fight for the lord on demand. The oath of fealty was more or less an extension of homage, reinforcing explicitly the commitments of the vassal made during homage. On completion of the ceremony, lord and vassal were bound in a feudal relationship with agreed-upon mutual obligations to one another.