Colonializing Agriculture: The Myth of Punjab ExceptionalismThis book is the first comprehensive study of the impact of colonialism on the agriculture of this very important region which, apart from the Pakistani and Indian provinces of Punjab, included the present day Indian provinces of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Making extensive use of data culled from government archives and private papers in India and Britain, as well as from village surveys, farm accounts and family budgets, the author argues that Punjab was by no means an idyllic land of prosperous peasant proprietors. She maintains that it was also the land of big feudal landlords, rack-rented tenants, and struggling small-holders, who were forced to enlist in the army or migrate to enable their families to pay government taxes and to repay debts. Comparing Punjab with its supposed polar-opposite, the eastern region of Bengal and Bihar, Mridula Mukherjee demonstrates that Punjab too had begun to exhibit features typical of colonial under-development, such as stagnation of productive forces, intensification of semi-feudal relations, forced commercialisation and lack of capital investment in agriculture. The green revolution therefore was not the result of a continuity but actually because of a break with the colonial past. |
From inside the book
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Page 2
... assessment and of the as- sumption that an average of good and bad years was a correct method of arriving at an assessment.5 3 The most widely prevalent method of assessment under Ranjit Singh , who ruled till 1839 , was batai , that is ...
... assessment and of the as- sumption that an average of good and bad years was a correct method of arriving at an assessment.5 3 The most widely prevalent method of assessment under Ranjit Singh , who ruled till 1839 , was batai , that is ...
Page 3
... assessment was adopted initially to take care of the vagaries of canal water supply , cultivators repeatedly scuttled attempts by the government to shift to a fixed assessment , clearly showing their preference for the fluctuating ...
... assessment was adopted initially to take care of the vagaries of canal water supply , cultivators repeatedly scuttled attempts by the government to shift to a fixed assessment , clearly showing their preference for the fluctuating ...
Page 12
... assessment in different settlements in some parts of the province . The data in Table 1.3 was collected in 1925 by the financial commissioner , Punjab , and in the table " new assessment " refers to the assessment fixed at the beginning ...
... assessment in different settlements in some parts of the province . The data in Table 1.3 was collected in 1925 by the financial commissioner , Punjab , and in the table " new assessment " refers to the assessment fixed at the beginning ...
Contents
Peasants as TaxPayers | 1 |
Peasants as Debtors | 31 |
Peasants in the Market | 55 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Colonizing Agriculture: The Myth of Punjab Exceptionalism Mridula Mukherjee No preview available - 2005 |
Colonizing Agriculture: The Myth of Punjab Exceptionalism Mridula Mukherjee No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
25 acres accumulations agrarian agricultural labourers agriculturist Amritsar Amritsar District assessment average Banking Enquiry Report batai BEIP Bihar British Punjab Calvert canal colonies capital capitalist cash rents cent commercialization costs of cultivation crops cultivated area Darling Papers decline Delhi Dera Ghazi Khan Economic Survey example family labour Ferozepore District Gijhi in Rohtak Gujranwala District Gurdaspur Gurgaon Gurgaon District Hissar holding size categories Hoshiarpur income increase India investment irrigation Jullundur Jullundur District Kangra Kessinger Lahore land revenue landlords landowners leasing Lindauer and Singh loans LRCR Lyallpur Lyallpur District moneylenders mortgage debt Multan District Muzaffargarh Muzaffargarh District non-agriculturist operated holdings owners Peasant in Prosperity peasantry percentage production proportion Prosperity and Debt province Punjab Banking Enquiry Punjab Peasant Rawalpindi regions Report of Settlement Rohtak District sahukar Sandila Settlement Operations Sialkot small-holding societies surplus appropriation Survey of Gijhi Table Tehsil tenants tenants-at-will Vilyatpur wage labour water rates wheat