BOUND TO THE LAND

In a discussion of Indian feudalism, there are two approaches that are equally misleading and therefore equally to be shunned. One approach is that which argues that India developed in a unique, peculiar and exclusive way of its own; consequently, any concept coined to explain the historical evolution of western Europe can have no relevance for a study of Indian history. At the other extreme is the attempt to prove that the structure of Indian feudalism was an unabridged and exact replica of the western European feudal mode of pro¬duction.