Added to this duality of political and religious obligations, feudal Europe witnessed diffusion and dilution of even political obligation. Feudalism is characterized by diffusion of power, fixed social hierarchies and a rigid pattern of obligations and services. This means that unlike sovereignty of the nation-state, the feudal society had no centrally located power, no concept of citizenship, defined rights and duties and impersonal order. It was based on hierarchical relations of obligations and services, where lord, vassal, barons and serfs are related in a chain of obligations and services. While the lord stood at the top and granted land and other privileges including protection to vassals and barons, the latter were obligated to provide military and political support to the lord. The vassals and barons, in turn, also sublet land and other privileges to those below them. This had created sub-infeudation (chains of feudal relations). At the bottom were the serfs who had nothing to receive but only to work and render. Feudalism in Europe and in India18 made holding of land and performance of military and political obligations linked. During the feudal period in Europe, due to decentralization of power and feudal relations, political obligation was in fact absent. At the most, it manifested in economic and military obligations of vassals and barons to lords and latter’s to the king or the emperor.
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