How feudal was Indian feudalism?

Mapping historical and contemporary agrarian transformations and capitalist infiltration in a complex upland environment: A case from eastern Nepal

“…As with many historical South Asian kingdoms, the state held ultimate rights to land, and the bureaucracy (sometimes with the aid of the military) appropriated surplus through taxation and labour rent (Regmi, ). Regmi () has termed the mode of production in 18th‐ and 19th‐century Nepal “state landlordism,” although in reality it is very much akin to the mode of production present in India in the precolonial period, referred to by Sharma () as a form of feudalism, but by some others as the “Asiatic” mode of production (see chapter on pre‐capitalist economic formations in Grundrisse, Marx, ). A network of intermediaries with local control over resources collected surplus to channel to the overlords in the centre, the ultimate landowners.…”

Nakhudas and Nauvittakas: Ship-Owning Merchants in the West Coast of India (C. Ad 1000-1500)

“…in the external affairs department). Here one encounters a family of hereditary administra-19) The distinct possibilities of the growth in the rural economy, largely because of the spread of agricultural settlements by the regular issuance of copper plate charters, have been highlighted by Nandi 1984 (this has a bearing on the situation in the Karnataka region); Sharma, 1994; for a general account of crafts and commerce in Karnataka during the period from the later part of the tenth to the Þrst half of the fourteenth century see Kuppuswamy 1975; the activities of merchants in the Konakan coast during the early middle ages have been discussed by Chakravarti 1986, pp. 207-15.…”

Social Policy in India: One Hundred Years of the (Stifled) Social Question

“…The dharmic system codified during this period emphasised individuals' duties rather than rights, and it was considered the duty of every individual to work for the well-being of society (Sharma 1984). 7…”