The Punjab--an area now divided between Pakistan and India--experienced
significant economic growth under British rule from the second half of
the nineteenth century. This expansion was founded on the construction
of an extensive network of canals in the western parts of the province.
The ensuing agricultural settlement transformed the previously barren
area into one of the most important regions of commercial agriculture in
South Asia. Nevertheless, Imran Ali argues that colonial strategy
distorted the development of what came to be called the "bread basket"
of the Indian subcontinent. This comprehensive survey of British rule in
the Punjab demonstrates that colonial policy making led to many of the
socio-economic and political problems currently plaguing Pakistan and
Indian Punjab.
Subordinating developmental goals to its political and military
imperatives, the colonial state cooperated with the dominant social
classes, the members of which became the major beneficiaries of
agricultural colonization. Even while the rulers tried to use the vast
resources of the Punjab to advance imperial purposes, they were
themselves being used by their collaborators to advance implacable
private interests. Such processes effectively retarded both nationalism
and social change and resulted in the continued backwardness of the
region even after the departure of the British.
Originally published in 1988.
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