Issue 63 Vol III, May 15, 2008

F E A T U R E S

Feudalism
Ishtiaq Ahmed

IN a debate article in the Dawn of April 30, 2008, Haider Nizamani seeks to dispel the widely held view that feudalism exists in Pakistan. He asserts that feudalism never existed in South Asia. To consider honour killings and exploitation of peasants by mighty landlords as indicative of feudalism he finds untenable because according to him, by 1999, 88 percent of cultivated land in Pakistan was in farm sizes below 12.5 acres. Just over half the total farms were less than five acres in size. "This would hardly be the hallmark of a feudal society," he asserts.

This economistic argument is a legitimate one, but too narrow, mechanical and formalistic, because it presupposes that if the economic base changes cultural and ideological changes follow suit. In reality there is never a perfect fit between a mode of production and cultural and ideological forms, otherwise the thoroughly capitalised economies of the Middle East would have no place for tribal norms and behaviour patterns. Marx was acutely aware of the far more complex relationship between the economic base and the superstructure. He famously observed that Christian theology remained the reigning ideology much after classical feudalism had disintegrated and dissolved.

Classical feudalism emerged in Western Europe when the old city-based high cultures of the Greeks and the Romans disintegrated and the locus of social activity moved into local units headed by tiered nobility, which controlled their serfs through a range of economic and extra-economic coercions. The feudal vassals, in turn, rendered services to the superior lords, and that chain of services finally connected to the king, who was named as the "first among the lords." He claimed a tribute or levy from the lesser nobles, who also provided him with soldiers.

The above description is, of course, an ideal one in the tradition of Max Weber. In reality no two feudalisms anywhere in Europe were the same, except in the essential sense of an agrarian economy providing much of the surplus, as well as the soldiers upon which the ruling classes built their leisured lifestyle.

Christian theology justified social hierarchy, and people knew their place in society – the rule was that the superiors were chosen by God and obeying them was a duty and obligation. Professions and roles in society were inherited from father to son. Feudal society was fatalistic, superstitious and static in relative terms.

Now, in the case of South Asia, striking parallels can be found in the power structure that prevailed during the pre-colonial period. A maharaja or emperor at the apex of that order received tribute from a descending but segmented hierarchy comprising smaller rajas and nawabs, mansabdars and zamindars and village headmen. They also provided him with soldiers.

The incumbents of land grants under the mansabdari system (military-feudal order) held their fiefs during the pleasure of the emperor. Original rights to a fief were largely absent and the king could in principle expropriate an incumbent at any time. That is why Indian feudalism was more of an oriental despotism because in Western feudalism even absolute kings were in principle bound by the law. The mansabdars ruthlessly exploited the peasants and the other agrarian workforce to extract as much wealth as possible before their estate was taken away from them. When the Mogul Empire weakened and the hold of the central government loosened, the lesser rajas and nawabs asserted their independence, while the mansabdars became hereditary owners of their estates.

The caste system and the elitist Islam of the Muslim ruling class – both sanctioned strict hierarchy. The Muslim ruling class, comprising descendants of Turkish, Afghan, Persian and Arabic origin, until the 19th century did not start associating with the bulk of the local converts. The threat they perceived from the rising Hindu middle class that had taken to education, trade and commerce, forced them to evolve the novel idea of a Muslim nation comprising all Muslims.

The British perpetuated the dependency of princes, nawabs, rajas and so on, on the colonial state, but with ample latitude to continue to exploit the peasants, artisans and other poor working on their estates. In fact the British most skilfully used land grants to create landlords that would see to it that protests and rebellion among the people in their areas of influence were effectively crushed.

At the same time, with regard to Punjab and the NWFP the landlords compelled their peasants to join the British Indian Army. With the exception of Pir Sabghatullah Pagaro and some others from Sindh, almost all other pirs (spiritual leaders) were solid supporters of the British Raj.

Sindhi, Punjabi and Pakhtun Muslims lagged behind the Hindus and Sikhs because while the latter opened schools the Muslim landlords did not allow schools to be established in their domains. Ayub Khuhro and many other Sindhi leaders were educated in schools established by Hindus. In the late 1960s, when I was associated with the Mazdoor-Kissan Party of Major Ishaq, some of our comrades tried to provide free literacy classes to peasants in the stronghold of the Mazaris and Legharis in southern Punjab. They were harassed out of those areas.

The land reforms introduced by Ayub Khan and followed by a series of radical land reforms by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto weakened that class but did not abolish it. Even now in southern Punjab and interior Sindh that decadent class exercises considerable political clout and upholds a culture that is oppressive of women, and the poor in general.

I was horrified when a landlord told me some years ago that all the young women that came to work on his farm had to provide him with sexual gratification, otherwise they would not be employed. Bonded labour still exists, notwithstanding a ban imposed on it by the Supreme Court.

Feudalism in the strict Western sense may never have existed, but its subcontinental forms during the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods were no less harsh and oppressive. Pakistani feudalism may now be in its death throes, but that is no reason to exonerate it from continuing to wreck the lives of vast numbers of the rural poor in this region of peripheral capitalism.

As a cultural and ideological system Pakistani feudalism is a bastion of conservative values and moribund ideas. The sooner its remaining vestiges are abolished and a healthy class of peasant proprietors is created, the better it would be for all of us. In the years ahead we would need to radically modernise our agricultural sector so that a smaller number of farmers can produce many times more the food we will need.

[The writer is a professor of political science and a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore. Email: isasia@nus.edu.sg Courtesy The News international Pakistan ]

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Reorganising India
Gobind Thukral

THE demand for the creation of news states is as old as independent India. In fact, it should be considered older as the Congress party during the peak of the freedom movement, much before 1947 had promised to create linguistic states. Yet it has been a painful struggle for people and political parties like in Punjab, Andhra, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, Kerala, Assam and other north eastern states and Uttrakhand. People lost their lives, spent years in jails and after much blood letting, new states were created and still leaving contentious issues that boil blood even now. We in Punjab know the hard grinding times and the blood letting on boundary and river waters. There have been inordinate delays and colossal wastage of money and time for a poor country. It is indeed a sad comment on the political leaders who love to play narrow partisan games to win elections.

Even now people in several stats are struggling hard to create their own niche. According to union home ministry the public is demanding carving of 15 more states spread across the country. The political class, nevertheless, is in dilemma. Among the regions where demand is vociferous one is Telangana, Andhra Pradesh. Congress party had promised and struck a deal with Telangana Rashtra Samithi, but has backed out, repeating its long history. People want a separate state that includes the districts of Warangal, Adilabad, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Rangareddy, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, and the state capital, Hyderabad. The Krishna and Godavari rivers flow through the region from west to east. The demand for a separate state began soon after the carving of Andhra in 1956. Though the Congress faced dissension within its ranks, its leadership initially opposed additional linguistic states. The BJP promised a separate state if it came to power but its coalition partner, the Telgu Desam Party, was opposed to it. All this revived the Telangana movement and led to the formation of Telangana Rashtra Samithi under Chander Shekhar Rao. In 2004, the Congress came to power, in an alliance with the TRS, with the promise of separate Telangana State. In December 2006, the TRS quit the coalition government, accusing the Congress of going back on its promise. There is now increasing pressure on the Congress for a separate Telangana state. It is a major issue in the coming assembly election and the Congress shall have top pay the price.

For Vidarbha from the present state of Maharashtra, the demand goes back to the Sixties when Maharashtra was created as a separate State.  Vidarbha and Marathwada, two economically-backward regions have the dubious distinction of being the suicide regions of India. Here maximum numbers of farmers, mostly cotton growers have been committing suicide to get out of the debt burden. They have genuine complaints about regional imbalances and political neglect. The issue was a political fodder for different factions of the ruling Congress and later on, for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena. The Congress has sent signals in favour of the demand. The NCP is also in favour of the demand. The BJP had earlier supported it but has been silent in the recent times because of the Sena's opposition to the demand. The BSP too is making it an issue in its attempt to make inroads into the State. We may see the birth of two states, Vidharbha and Marathwada, if the parties show sincerity.

Purvanchal is a geographic region of north-central India, which comprises the eastern end of Uttar Pradesh state. It is bounded by Nepal to the north, Bihar state to the east, Bagelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh state to the south, the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh to the west. Purvanchal comprises three divisions—Awadhi region in the west, Bhojpuri region in the east and the Baghelkhand region in the south. Purvanchal area is represented by 23 members in the Lok Sabha and 117 legislators in the 403-member Uttar Pardesh assembly. Recently UP chief minister Ms Mayawati has supported the demand. But the Congress and BJP are playing hide and seek. U P has time and again proved it is ungovernable as it too large. All the regions could do wondrous job if these are small. Harit Pradesh in western Uttar Pradesh is new demands by powerful people.

The demand for creation of a separate Kodava state is based on the region having a distinct culture, rather than on allegations of discrimination and neglect. The demand, which has intermittently been raised since the 1950s, has never gained much popularity, but is a genuine demand.

A violent agitation for the creation of a separate Bodoland state resulted in an agreement between the Centre, the Assam government and the Bodoland Liberation Tigers. According to the agreement of February 10, 2003, the Bodoland Territorial Council was created to govern four districts covering 3,082 Bodo-majority villages in Assam. Elections to the council were held on May 13, 2003, and Hagrama Mahillary was sworn in as chief of the 46-member council on June 4, 2003. Yet peace has not returned.

Darjeeling enjoys a measure of autonomy under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council set up in 1988 after a protracted agitation. However, demand for full statehood has emerged once again by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

A strong movement is emerging for the creation of Bhojpuri speaking state comprising Eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar. Bhojpuri is a major language in India with over 150 million people who speak the language and has a flourishing entertainment industry. Demands for Maithili speaking state also lingers on. Maithili is spoken by 45 million people. It has its own traditional script.

Saurashtra in Gujarat and Koshalanchal in Orissa have been struggling for separate statehood for long. Political parties have supported and then opposed the demand, according to their whims and needs.

Gondwana wants a separate status with portions of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Same way Kamtapur, consisting of the northern West Bengal districts of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, and southern plains of Darjeeling, including Siliguri city.

In December 1953, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had appointed a commission headed by Justice Fazal Ali to prepare for the creation of states on linguistic lines. This commission created a report in 1955 recommending the reorganisation of Indian states. The States Reorganisation Act of 1956, which went into effect on November 1, reorganised state boundaries and created or dissolved states and union territories.  But this did not satisfy many including Punjab.

Reorganisation of states on linguistic of cultural lines is not a sad experience for India. It has not broken Indian into parts as BJP and RSS feared. These new areas as we can se from Haryana, Himachal and Uttrakhand have shown remarkable economic progress. So fears are not based on facts and experience. There is strong need to setup a second States Reorganisation Commission.

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No More Thermal Plants Please!
Raj Sadosh

THE Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan (BKU) has finally lifted 100 days old "Pucca Morcha" from the Kundal-Bhangala link road in Abohar sub division of border district Ferozepore believing that the Punjab Govt. had dropped the idea of acquiring 2050 acres of agricultural land for installing 1100 MW thermal plant in the private sector here.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had earmarked for places for installing thermal plants, all in the private sector, in different parts of the state claiming that this would bring the power shortage to an end besides exploring new avenues of employment and development in the concerned regions.

One of the plants was "gifted" to Abohar to strengthen the SAD (B) bonds with the affluent Bishnoi community which had earlier been cent percent loyal to the former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal but geographical proximity to the Lambi Assembly segment represented by Parkash Singh Badal lured them to the SAD (B) folds to get day to day problems solved in the recent times.

The travails hogged the project when the government announced that the plant would be installed in village Seetogunno better known as the "capital" of the Bishnoi community.

A team from the union government found no viability as Seetogunno is located at 21 km distance from Abohar town. Laying a rail line to link Seetogunno with Abohar would cost more than the total estimated cost of the thermal plant. Then no canal flows within 5 km radius.

The state government then moved to village Bahadurkhera-Malukpura-Dhaba Kokrian. The survey time had an encounter with about 50-60 black bucks there and wondered why the government had concealed that Asia's largest open wild life sanctuary existed close to these villages.

Then it was the turn of village Kundal-Chanankhera-Balluana-Bhangala as the railway line was a bit close to this cluster of villages. But here too the farmers got united to oppose the acquisition of land. They argued that most of them had migrated from the West Punjab province due to creation of Pakistan in August 1947 and worked hard to cultivate the small pieces of land that were allotted to them here. Most of them had recently developed orchards finding that the region was leading in growing kinnow fruit-a blend of citrus and orange.

The BKU district general secretary Gurmail Singh Burjan and block president Sukhmander Singh while spearheading an agitation against acquisition of highly fertile two-crop land for the project argued that UK and China were thinking of abandoning the thermal plants considering these as hazardous to health then why the Punjab Govt. which cried high of spread of respiratory diseases and cancer in the Malwa region planned new thermal plants to benefit the private sector. The government had failed to check fly ash that emanated from the first thermal plant in Bhatinda for last three decades, then why millions more in this region should be subjected to suffer, they said. Even women and children have been participating in the sit-in during last 100 days besides forming vigil committees to prevent entry of the survey teams in the area.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal during a function here indicated that the thermal plant would be installed near village Thehri of Gidderbaha Assembly segment which had elected him in February last. He did not list Abohar in the proposed thermal plants. Thehri and its surrounding areas were known as waterlogged belt and the farmers would certainly like to get good amount of compensation by handing over their land to the government, the SAD (B) activists hoped. Yet environmental issues remain unresolved or unattended in the process.

[Raj Sadosh is a free lance journalist. Sahitya Sadan, ABOHAR – 152116]

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