Colonial Administrative Control, Collaboration and Underdevelopment in Colonial Punjab

Abstract

This article discusses the British system of political and administrative control, based on collaboration and its fallout on rural agricultural society of South-West Punjab. Using archival documents, the article brings forward an elaborate plan of colonial administrative policy under which Punjab was sliced from North West Frontier and Mianwali’s incorporation in the Punjab despite being part of Bannu district of North West Frontier with a predominantly Pathan population. The focus is on how with the support of local elite as colonial intermediaries created a social structure which led to the growth of parasitic class that became instrumental for the extraction and exploitation at the cost of rural poor. These collaborating elite assisted the British in maintaining stability and peace, helped in recruitment in army with pro-British political orientations. British considered it crucial to sustain indigenous institutions and tribal structure, manipulated and controlled by colonial hierarchy to work for colonial interests. The nexus of state and colonial elite precluded all prospects of development.