Feudalism in contemporary Pakistan usually refers to the power and influence of large landowning families, particularly through very large estates and in more remote areas. The adjective "feudal" in the context of Pakistan has been used to mean "a relatively small group of politically active and powerful landowners". "Feudal attitude" refers to "a combination of arrogance and entitlement". According to the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER), five percent of agricultural households in Pakistan own nearly two-thirds of Pakistan's farmland.
Large joint families in Pakistan may possess hundreds or even thousands of acres of land, while making little or no direct contribution to agricultural production, which is handled by "peasants or tenants who live at subsistence level". Landlord power may be based on control over local people through debt bondage passed down generation after generation, and power over the distribution of water, fertilisers, tractor permits and agricultural credit, which in turn gives them influence over the revenue, police and judicial administration of local government. In recent times, particularly "harsh feudalism" has existed in rural Sindh, Balochistan, and some parts of Southern Punjab. Pakistan's major political parties have been called "feudal-oriented", and as of 2007, more than two-thirds of the National Assembly (Lower House) and most of the key executive posts in the provinces were held by feudals, according to scholar Sharif Shuja.
Some prominent landed families in Pakistan consist of Kambohs, Arains, Rajputs, Nawabs, Khans, Bhattis,Nawabzadas, Mansabdars, Mazari tribe, Arbabs, Swatis, Makhdooms, Khatris and the Sardars. Explanations for the power of "feudal" landowning families that has waned in other post-colonial societies such as India and Japan include lack of land reform in Pakistan.
Criticism and analysis
Critics of feudalism have complained of a culture of feudal impunity, where local police will refuse to pursue charges against an influential landowning family even when murder or mayhem have been committed; of abuse of power by some landlords who may place enemies in "private prisons" and "enslave" local people through debt bondage; the harming of progress and prosperity by feudals who discourage the education of their "subjects" for fear it will weaken feudal power; the giving of space to extremists who peasants turn to in the search for deliverance from the cruelty of feudal lords; and an agriculture sector made stagnant by absentee landlordism.
Others have complained that Pakistan has developed a "fixation" on feudalism (Michael Kugelman); that it has become a scapegoat for Pakistan's problems, frequently denounced but not seriously studied (Eqbal Ahmed); a "favorite boogie of the urban educated elites"; or that it does not exist because South Asia never developed large concentrations of land ownership or a feudal class, and what is called feudal in Pakistan is merely a "rural gentry", who are "junior partners" to those who actually hold power (Haider Nizamani). “Feudalism serves as the whipping boy of Pakistan’s intelligentsia. Yet, to my knowledge few serious studies have been published on the nature and extent of feudal power in Pakistan, and none to my knowledge on the hegemony which feudal culture enjoys in this country.” Nicolas Martin's work is in this respect an exception, although he argues that it is politically influential landlords, and not all landlords, who wield the despotic and arbitrary powers that are often attributed to the landed classes as a whole.
Despite its political influence, feudalism has become so unpopular in public expression and the media that "feudal lords" are denounced even by some from "feudal" families (such as Shehbaz Sharif).
In media portrayals, the very popular 1975 Pakistan Television (PTV) series Waris centered around a feudal lord (Chaudhry Hashmat) who rules his fiefdom, "with an iron grip".
History
In Mughal Empire
"It was Akbar not the British colonizers who left us this parasitical curse". When the British first set foot on the Undivided India, the Mughals were in rule over most part of the region. As a part of their revenue administration was the mansabdari system through which they regulated control over the land revenue of the country. This system, introduced by Mughal Emperor Akbar, remained in place from the late 16th Century (dates vary between 1575 and 1595) till the fall of the Mughal Empire.A Brief History of British Land Acquisition in India