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- Title
Agro-Economic Development and Socio-Political Change in Colonial District Multan (1849-1901).
- Authors
Kausar Chuadhay, Abida; Arif Dasti, Humaira
- Abstract
This research examines the impact of colonial rule on Multan district of the British Punjab (1849-1901). It seeks to examine process of socio-economic development enforced through political control and the policies which were somewhat conflicting. The colonial interests were served by the policy of co-option of the rural elites, which were also the religious elites as Pirs, the custodian of the Sufi shrines. The colonial state continuously relied on the policy in which support of local elites was of crucial importance for colonial control in the region. The motives of colonial control gave rise to system of informal alliances with the landed elites. Multan district, essentially agrarian in a sense that land and cattle were the only source of livelihood, environmental factors and scantier economic prospects contributed in the economic and agricultural backwardness of the region. The agricultural indebtedness, growth of money lenders, sale and mortgages of land were the result of economic policies which had its fall out on the district in the form of social dislocation and communal tensions. The business castes were more suited than the agricultural castes to exploit economic opportunities and other changes connected with colonial rule. The effects were a large scale transfer of agricultural land to money lenders in Multan, which undermined the economic and social position of large landlords and their ability to act as important collaborators for the colonial state.
- Subjects
MULTAN (Pakistan); SOCIOECONOMIC factors; AGRICULTURAL economics; IMPERIALISM; SOCIAL science research
- Publication
Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences (PJSS), 2014, Vol 34, Issue 2, p563
- ISSN
2074-2061
- Publication type
Article