Class, Power, and Patronage: Landowners and Politics in Punjab

Abstract

Abstract In the century following their conquest of the province, the British in Punjab erected an administrative apparatus that, like those of precolonial regimes, relied heavily upon the support of the province's landed class. The relationship between the landed class and the colonial state was one of mutual benefit, with the latter using the former to ensure the maintenance of order and collection of revenue in exchange for state patronage. In this paper, it is argued that this administrative framework gave rise to a path-dependent process of institutional development in Punjab, allowing for the different fractions of the province's landowning class to increasingly entrench themselves within the political order in the postcolonial epoch. This paper outlines the mechanisms underlying this process of institutional development, focusing, in particular, on the strategies adopted by the landowning class to reproduce its power. This paper also considers the potentialities for institutional change in Punjab, allowing for the creation of a more democratic and participatory politics in the province. Keywords: LandColonialismPatronageClassInstitutions Acknowledgements The author is grateful to Anushay Malik, Ali Cheema, Imran Ali, Robin Archer, Participants of the Pakistan Workshop 2010, and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments and suggestions. The author is responsible for any errors that may remain. Notes Often incorrectly equated with castes or tribes, biraderis are occupationally stratified, endogamous kin groups. While there can be a number of sub-divisions within a given biraderi, the basic differentiation is between biraderis of landless labourers, artisans, cultivating tenants, and landowners (see Ahmad Citation1977; Alavi Citation1972b; Rouse Citation1988). Government of Pakistan, 1967, "Industrial Potential of the Rural Areas of West Pakistan". The details of which have been outlined at length by Stokes Citation(1959), Metcalf (Citation1962, Citation1964), van den Dungen Citation(1972), and Penner Citation(1986). Report on the General Elections to the Punjab Legislative Assembly, 1945–1946.