Feudalism Should Be Abolished In Pakistan

 

Feudalism evolved in medieval Europe between the 9th and the 15th century. It is derived from the Latin word feodum. It is a combination of economic, legal, military, and cultural customs defining the relationship derived from holding the land in exchange for services and labor. Land grant in exchange for services was called Benificium.

François Louis Ganshof described feudalism as a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations that existed between the warrior nobility and revolved around the concept of lord, vassal, and fief.

Marc Bloch described it as an obligation between the nobility, clergy, and peasantry bound by a system of manorialism sometime called a feudal society.

Karl Marx described feudalism and the feudal mode of production as an order coming before capitalism. It defined feudalism as the power of the ruling class in their control over agricultural land leading to a class-based society based on the exploitation of the peasants.

Feudalism emerged as a result of the decentralization of an empire especially the Carolingian empire which lacked the bureaucratic infrastructure.

Most of the military aspect of feudalism was abolished by the 15th century as the nobility was replaced by a professional army however in France it hung on to it till the French revolution in 1790. In the Kingdom of France feudalism was abolished on 11 August 1789 by a decree from the constituent assembly.

Indian feudalism refers to the feudal society that made up the Indian social structure until the Mughal Dynasty in the 16th century. Gupta and Kushans played an important role in India’s introduction and practice of feudalism.

Akbar the Great introduced the Mansabdari system for revenue collection. This system granted ownership on a non-hereditary transferable basis. Mansabdars never owned the land, they did not have the right to pass it on to their offspring.

British introduced three land revenue systems in their jurisdiction.

The Zamindari system was introduced by Lord Cornwallis in the Eastern provinces of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. In this system, the landlord was awarded a piece of land by the British and was solely in charge of revenue collections.

The Ryotwari system was introduced mainly in the South Indian region. In this system, peasants were awarded ownership of their land, making it a system of peasant-proprietorship. All land revenue collections were made directly from the peasants who worked on and owned the land they cultivated.

The Mahalwari system was introduced by William Bentinck in the region making up modern-day Pakistan. The British developed groups of villagers, the more prominent members, and assigned them the task of collecting land revenue from all the farmers.

Feudalism in contemporary Pakistan is referred to as the descendant of Indian feudalism. According to PILER, five percent of agricultural households own two third of the farming land in Pakistan.

The feudal lords own thousands of acres of land while making little or no direct contribution to agricultural production. They control the local people through debt bondage, power over the distribution of water, fertilizers, tractor permits, and agricultural credits. A report by the world bank cited land inequality as a primary cause of rural poverty with 44 percent of the rural farmland controlled by 2 percent of the households.

The leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League political party which founded Pakistan was dominated by feudal landlords such as Tiwanas, Chaudhry, Maliks, Talpurs, Khans, Sardars, Pirs, and Mukhdooms.

Most of the political parties in Pakistan are feudally oriented a good example is the Pakistan People’s party which was founded a feudal lord Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. According to a report, two third of the national assembly members belong to feudal families

The feudal system in Sind and other parts of Pakistan are raised in deep tribal loyalties and traditions and the British colonial officials conferred judicial and administrative powers to the prominent Muslim landlords.

Jatois in return for 120000 acres of land collected taxes and enforced law over an area of nearly 200 square miles a writ that was extended under British rule. They also had the allegiance of 400 to 500 smaller landlords and 1200 armed loyalists and have representation in both provincial and national assemblies, Laleka family owns nearly 7000 acres of land in southern Punjab. Prime minister Yousef Raza Gillani belongs to a large landowning family from south Punjab, and Hamid Nasir Chattha, a former speaker of national assembly belongs to a feudal family of Gujranwala.

Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, ex-prime minister and feudal lord from Baluchistan, once stated that there will be no land reforms under his watch. Feudalism hurt those who are not peasants by winning in the electoral process and doing legislation that protects their class interest such as the absence of the agricultural tax.

India was lucky enough to get rid of feudalism under Nehru in 1960. Abolishing feudalism served two purposes large agricultural holdings were considered a reason for low agricultural productivity, and it also provided equality of status and opportunities to the peasantry. In the case of India socialist philosophy was the prime force not industrialization for these reforms.

These land reforms led to the abolition of the intermediaries, fixing the ceiling of land holdings, tenancy reforms, and consolidation of landholdings. Pre-independence the tenants of the land used to pay between 35 to 75 percent of the gross produce throughout India. It was fixed at 20 to 25 percent.

In 1972 the land ceiling limit was fixed at 10-18 acres for best land 18 to 27 acres for the second class land and the rest 27 to 54 acres of land with slightly higher limits in the desert and hilly areas.

72 million acres of land were distributed in 1997 by the government of India to landless farmers.

In Pakistan, the feeble attempt at land reforms was ruled Un-Islamic by the supreme court in 1990.

The history of land reforms starts before the creation of Pakistan. First formal attempt was in 1945 by the tenancy legislation committee to achieve the goal of land reforms

The first legislation was West Pakistan land reforms regulations (Regulation 64 of 1959) which put the ceiling to 500 acres of irrigated land, and 1000 acres of unirrigated land. The second legislation (Land reform regulation1972) put the ceiling to 150 acres of irrigated land and 300 acres of unirrigated land. The last major piece of land reform was (Act II of 1977) which put the land ceiling to 100 acres of irrigated land and 200 acres of non-irrigated land.

Did land reforms achieve their objective?

Land reforms did not yield the result as desired as the ceiling on ownership was fixed on individual rather than family holding

Land reforms of 1959 and 1972 failed to alter significantly the highly unequal distribution of land ownership. It failed to reduce the power of the large landlords as they circumvent the ceiling by transferring the excess land to their real and fictitious family members.

The land handed over to the government was uncultivated land for which the government paid compensation to the land owner for the land which was producing nothing.

Capitalist farming also increased the economic and social dependence of the poor peasantry on the land owners as their powers were still intact.

In 1988 the government passed the Comprehensive reform for Agrarian land program CARP to end unfair ownership practices.

Chopping of both hands of Tabussum Iqbal by the feudal lord’s son Ghulam Mustafa in Chak Bhola, the killing of Shahzeb in broad daylight in Karachi by Shahrukh Jatoi, Nazim Jokhio murdered in front of 20 people shows the influence and grip of the feudal families on the state machinery.

Something is wrong with feudalism
We need to abolish feudalism and do land reforms.