About the Book: Early Medieval Indian Society
The traditional view of feudalism, defined by scholars like Karl Marx and Marc
Bloch, describes a system where a dominant social group controlled ownership of
land and enjoyed the benefits of labour of servile serfs who toiled to generate
produce from land. While this model was based on conditions in Europe, Marx felt
that this did not apply to medieval India as most peasants were technically free
land-owners.
R.S.Sharma goes beyond this traditional view of feudalism.In hisEarly Medieval
Indian Society,he shows how dominant groups used techniques such as land-grants,
control of common services, caste and religion to gain control over