Administration during Feudalism in Early Medieval India

The kingdom was divided into a central region directly ruled by the king and many areas or fiefs were governed by feudal lords. The central region was divided into bhuktis or rashtras which were under viceroys, vishayas under vishayapatis and finally villages under grama patis. The village self-government weakened during this period due to the domination of the feudal chiefs while at the same time it was best under the Cholas in the south India.

The army consisted of royal retainers or the personal army of the king and the contingents supplied by feudal lords. This was the main reason for the lack of unity in the armies of the rulers of this period. The military service became the monopoly of Rajputs. Taxation during this period was heavier compared to earlier times. This was mainly due to heavy expenditure over the royal household and the court. There was also fighting all around for suzerainty. The burden was laid on the general public.

There was no clear instructions for maintain justice. In the Bhuktis there was a dandanayaka who was in charge of justice, police and prison. There is no mention of any other officer. It is likely that most of the cases were settled by caste and village panchayats. Some feudal chiefs were government officers who were increasingly paid not in cash but by assigning to them revenue-bearing villages. Others were defeated kings and their supporters who continued to enjoy the revenues of limited areas. Some were tribal chiefs.Some of them were village chiefs who had dominated the entire region. There was a definite hierarchy among these chiefs. They constantly fought against each other for supremacy.

Society during Feudalism in Early Medieval India

The caste system formed the basis of the society as in earlier periods but now the kshatriyas and the Brahmins were given more privileges while more and more social and religious disabilities were placed on the sudras and other lower castes. A large number of sub castes such as potters, weavers, goldsmiths, musicians etc proliferated. They were classified as jatis now. Most of the workers were classified as untouchables. Women continued to be denied the right to education. The age of marriage for girls was further lowered. They were kept in seclusion and their lives were regulated by the male relations –fathers, brothers and husbands. The practice of sati seems to have spread widely and was made even obligatory at some places. The custom of sati was widespread in the higher castes.

The attitude of higher classes became very rigid. They tended to isolate themselves from all scientific thought. Buddhism almost disappeared from the land of its origin. There was a marked revival and expansion of Hindusim.There was a growing popularity of Shiva and Vishnu cults. A number of popular movements arose around the worship of these gods. In the eastern India, a new form of worship arose. This was the worship of Sakti or female creator of the universe.

Economy during the Feudalism in Early Medieval India

A very important development of the period was the rise of a self-sufficient village economy where production was according to the local requirements with little attempts at producing a surplus to be used for trade or exchange. This existing system led to accepting the standard of minimum production since the incentive to improve production was absent. As a result pressure on peasantry was increased and production stayed at a subsistence level only.

The subsistence economy of the village led to decline in trade. Trade was further hampered by the emergence of wide range of local weights and measures making long distance trade more difficult. The unstable political conditions and internal fighting in India only helped this process of decline in trade.

This decline in trade affected the growth of towns. In coastal areas and Bengal towns however prospered because they continued to trade with West Asia and South East Asia. The only prosperous class in north India during this period was feudal lords. But the surplus wealth was not invested in trade or craft production. It was on the other hand used for conspicuous consumption. The huge amounts were given to temples also thus attracting outsiders.



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MATATAG: Ancient India: Early Medieval India, Indian Feudalism and Alternative, ,Indian Feudalism,Feudalism in Ancient India,Essay on Feudalism in Ancient India,Early Medieval Period: Historiography and Debates, medieval india: society, culture and religion,A Social History of Early India,Feudal Social Formation in Early Medieval India,Interpreting Medieval India: Early medieval, Delhi Sultanate,Early Medieval Indian Society,Indian Feudalism,Land Grants and Its Impact on Agrarian Economy of Northern India,Early Indian Feudal Formation,Early Medieval India,The History of Early Medieval Northern India ,Medieval India: Important Previous Years' Questions with Solutions,The Decline of Coins in the Early Medieval India

Feudalism in Early Medievel India

Feudalism became an important feature of the political system of North India between 750 and 1200 AD. This was because the authority of the rulers had been limited in many ways. The ministers were appointed on the hereditary basis and became all powerful. There were numerous feudal chiefs who had ties with ruling class. In the local and central govt these feudal chiefs had special privileges and powers which no ruler could ignore. This also led to the limited authority of the kings. The rulers were under the obligation to rule according to holy Sastras and Smirtis could not enact or amend the laws at will. Thus rulers of this period were basically feudal lords with limited overall power.

 The basis of the sovereignty during this period was a mixture of Divine Right theory and contract theory. On the one hand the authors of treaties on polity regarded the ruler as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. On the other hand they also held that it the people who conferred sovereignty on the ruler. So the natural duty of the ruler was to rule in the interests of the people while the duty of the people was to be loyal to him.

A king was usually succeeded by his elder son. If a king dies without an heir the kingdom passed to the head of next in king to the ruling dynasty. There was little scope for disputed succession in this period. The powers of the king were limited in practice due to privileges and prerogatives of the feudal lords. Since he had the theoretical ownership of all the lands, the feudal lords needed his recognition but then this prerogative of the kings was limited as the feudal lords had hereditary rights.

The king was helped in the administration by a council of ministers besides crown prince. The chief priest and the court astrologer were recruited from Brahmin while all over posts were held by feudal lords. They usually belonged to Kshatriya caste.Sudras or lower caste had no place in the political set up of the king.

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MATATAG: Ancient India: Early Medieval India, Indian Feudalism and Alternative, ,Indian Feudalism,Feudalism in Ancient India,Essay on Feudalism in Ancient India,Early Medieval Period: Historiography and Debates, medieval india: society, culture and religion,A Social History of Early India,Feudal Social Formation in Early Medieval India,Interpreting Medieval India: Early medieval, Delhi Sultanate,Early Medieval Indian Society,Indian Feudalism,Land Grants and Its Impact on Agrarian Economy of Northern India,Early Indian Feudal Formation,Early Medieval India,The History of Early Medieval Northern India ,Medieval India: Important Previous Years' Questions with Solutions,The Decline of Coins in the Early Medieval India

Iqtadari System

Iqtadari System was a combined mechanism of expropriating tax and distribution of these revenues to the ruling class. It was a kind of territorial assignment which was guided by three factors-

Collection of revenue,

Maintenance of army

Maintenance of the traditional system in order to prevent any untoward reaction.

The term Iqtadari system was coined by Nizamul Mulk to maintain smooth administration of the Abbassid Empire. The sultans of Delhi Sultanate like Balban, Iltutmish , Allauddin Khilji  etc  effectively used the Iqtadari system for their centralization of power. The Iqtadari system did not confer any ownership in land and it was subject to transfer.

The iqtadar had two functions – to collect the revenues and distribution among the soldiers . It was a unique blend of expansion and consolidation.

The Iqtas were of 4 types:

Iqta- It was administrative cum military grants

Iqta-i-Tamlik- Iqta for collection of revenue

Iqta-i-Istighatal-An Iqta of stipends

Iqta-i-Waqf-Iqta for charitable purposes.

Local Self-Government Institutions in India

The history of urbanization and urban governance in India dates back to the period of

the Indus Valley Civilization. Subsequent periods saw a major transformation in the

perception of urbanization and urban governance. In the pre-historic period, the origin and

rise of civilizations, identified as urbanization, were normally governed by the local

cultural process.

The concept of local self-government in India as an organized system of governance

emerged during the late seventeenth century with the setting up of the Municipal

Corporation of Madras by the East India Company in 1688. Subsequently, Mayor's Courts

were set up in the presidency towns of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta in 1720. This

followed the empowerment of the Governor-General in Council to appoint justices of

peace in the presidency towns in 1793 mainly to levy taxes on houses and lands to provide

sanitation in the towns. Efforts were made to further strengthen the municipal functions

through resolutions by Lord Mayo, the then Governor-General of India in 1870 and by

Lord Ripon in 1882, which approved non-official majorities in all municipalities and

replaced even the district collector by a non-official chairman. A Royal Commission on

Decentralization (1907), the Government of India Act, 1919, the Simon Commission

Report, 1925, and the Government of India Act, 1935 replacing the Government of India

Act, 1919, are a few important events during the British rule aiming at empowerment of

local self-governments in India. The Government of India Act, 1919, enlarged the scope

of taxation by local self-governments and introduced a dyarchical system of governance

empowering the provincial governments to control the local institutions through a minister. Local self-governments continued to function under the control of provincial

governments or the district administration.

Despite these developments, local government institutions in India as well as in Punjab

continued to function without any significant functional, jurisdictional and financial

autonomy. Whatever was done to empower the local bodies, exposed them to

administrative lapses due to the lack of administrative experience and shortage of funds.

Of late, the growth of the economic process in the form of rapid industrialization and

economic development including globalization, has led to the emergence of vibrant urban

centres in India. Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur,

Ludhiana, and Amritsar to name a few. With different levels of economic development,

these urban centres have been categorized into different groups according to their

population and income levels. The trend of urbanization is in favour of larger towns and

the spatial/ribbon pattern of urbanization is creating demographic imbalances. Punjab is

no exception to this general national urbanization scenario. The existing concerns and

challenges of urbanization and local urban governance in Punjab owe a lot to the history

and growth of urbanization and urban governance at the national level.

Punjab is the fifth major urbanized state after Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and

Karnataka. How local self-governments meet the challenges of rapid urbanization and the

problems of housing, poverty, environment, infrastructure and services, will largely

determine the future of Punjab. But the history of urban local self-governments indicates

that they have not been empowered to meet the growing challenges of urban growth in the

state. No serious effort has been made during the last century to improve their capacity.

Some important strategies need to be developed to improve the capacity of local selfgovernment

institutions.

In Punjab, the municipalities have been organized into three categories, namely, nagar

panchayats for transitional areas, municipal councils for smaller urban areas (further

classified in to class A, class B, and class C municipalities on the basis of their population

and revenue generation capacity), and municipal corporations for the larger urban areas

with a population of three lakh or more and a minimum revenue generation capacity as

specified by the state government, from time to time by notification.

The Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, and the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976

govern the functioning of nagar panchayats, municipal councils and municipal

corporations respectively, which were amended in 1994, after the 74th Amendment to the

Constitution of India in 1992. But the Conformity Legislation of 1994 passed by the state

seems to be a verbatim incorporation of the amended Act and not much change is visible

in the functioning, power structure and the fiscal domain of urban local self-government

institutions of Punjab.

The Constitution of India inserted the subject of local self-government in the Seventh

Schedule, which gave autonomy to state governments to decide functional and fiscal jurisdictions of the local government institutions. Many initiatives such as the Local

Finance Enquiry Committee, 1951; the Taxation Enquiry Commission, 1955; the Rural

Urban Relations Committee, 1963; and the Committee on Augmentation of Resources of

Local Bodies, were taken in Punjab to have a close look at the problems of local

government institutions. The Seventh and the subsequent Finance Commissions, the

Planning Commission's Task Force on Housing, 1983 and the National Commission on

Urbanization, 1988, all statutory bodies set up by the Government of India, did not change

the destiny of local self-governments in the states, which continued to suffer from lack of

functional clarity and financial autonomy. The Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976

did make an attempt to categorize specific functions of the municipal corporations under

two heads, obligatory functions and discretionary functions. However, the 74th

Amendment (1992), a landmark in the history of urban governance in India, prompted the

Punjab government to frame a comprehensive Municipal Bill in 1999, in place of the

earlier Municipal Acts. However, its implementation awaits approval of the central

government.

Overview of terrorist organizations

Before delving into the details of financing of terrorism, let us understand the various types of terrorist organizations and their need for funds. While perpetrators of terrorism can be classified in several ways, for the purpose of this section, we have classified them on basis of their affiliations, geographical spread and operational goals. The various categories of terrorist organizations overlap to describe a single terrorist organization and helps in identifying the motivation factor of these groups.

Non-state-supported terrorist groups: Such groups operate independently and receive no significant support from any government for intelligence, operations, and access to weapons, e.g., the Naxalites.

State-supported terrorist groups: These operate independently and receive the support of one or more government bodies for intelligence, operations, protection and access to various types of weapons.

International/Transnational terrorist groups: These have operations across the borders of their countries. They partner and work in collaboration with local/regional terrorist groups to share knowledge, plan and carry out terrorist activities on foreign soil.

Domestic terrorist groups: Such groups promote violence against the people and infrastructure in their own country. They may be provided operational support and weapons by international terrorist bodies.

Regional terrorist groups: The operations and influence of such groups are predominant in specific geographies. They may be regional affiliates of international terrorist organizations or independent entities.

Ideological terrorist groups: These groups attempt to impose their ideals on others. These ideals can be religious, political or dedicated to a particular cause such as anti- globalism, animal rights, ecology, and so on. Religious terrorist groups are motivated by religious ideologies and are most common. These perpetrator groups are dedicated to a religious cause. Terrorists associated with such organizations are trained, indoctrinated with religious teaching and even encouraged to sacrifice themselves for a religious cause. These perpetrators generally use terrorist tactics such as suicide bombing.

Economic terrorist groups: These aim to disrupt the economic stability of a country or region.