Against Feudalism

Ashok Rudra
Against Feudalism

Serfdom, with the associated institution of the manor, is generally recognized as one of the central features of European feudalism in its ideal form……..Most of the evidence advanced by protagonists of the feudal thesis, while not throwing much light on production-relations, relate to decentralization of authority and intermediary rights over land which are suggested to be parallels of the institution of vassalage and fief, typical of European feudalism….It is not only in the relation between the direct producers and the appropriators of surplus that the Brahmanic ideology with its jati Dharma and the theory of ‘karma’ eliminated the need of violence; the same is true of every other social relation of oppression.