The zamindar is an overseer of taxes. His word is more than law for the peasants: it can be life and death if he chooses to take all of their surplus crop and more. The land-holding system of the zamindar (the word comes from the Persian for “landholder”) outwardly has much in common with feudal systems common in Europe and Japan. Land tenure is given to office holders and nobles. However, as an overseer of taxes a zamindar only holds his lands as long as he pays the stipulated revenue to the central government. He is, in effect, a tax farmer: his income and profit are dependent solely on his ability to tax his lands. He also carries out judicial and military duties for his tenured lands.