206

CHAPTER-IV

SOCIAL RELATIONS

The rural society in the Punjab was comprised of an agricultural

community which lived in villages. A village was the smallest unit of

the administration. The term „village‟ normally used to a consolidated

agricultural community and implied a distinction from other types of

settlement patterns. The village was the predominant type of human

community during British Rule and had been so for the last three

millennia and continued to be so.1 People have spoken for a long time

of the „village community‟, and the expression has taken on somewhat

different meanings since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The

first stage is that of the now famous descriptions by British

administrators in the first thirty years of the century. They described

the village as a „little republic‟, self-sufficient, having its own

functionaries, and surviving the ruin of empires2. In the Victorian

period, „village community‟ took another meaning related to the

supposed communism of primitive peoples or of Indo-European pre-

history. Marx shifted the stress from political autonomy to economic

autarchy. While he finally attributed ownership of the land to the king,

so that only possession in common lands remained to the communities,

he considered them as a „unit of production‟ which were consequently

subject of division of labour.3

H. Calvert in his book, Wealth and Welfare of the Punjab,

mentioned that in 1935-36, there were around five lakh villages in

1 David L. Sills (ed.) International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. XVI, The Macmillan,

New York, 1968, p 18 2 Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus, Oxford, 1970, p 158 3 Ibid.

207

colonial India, which were almost the same in the early 20th

century.4

The Punjab contained, in 1901, three cities; Delhi, Lahore and

Amritsar, with more than I,00,000 population, 53 towns with more

than 10,000, and 99 more than 5,000. Village numbered 43,660, of

which 14,127 contained 500 inhabitants or more. In the Punjab plains

the village was as a rule a compact group of dwellings; but in the

south-west and the hill tracts it comprises a number of scattered

settlements or hamlets, grouped together under the charge of a single

headman for fiscal and administrative convenience.5 Table 4.1 shows

the proportion of urban and rural population at the various censuses.

TABLE 4.1

PERCENTAGE OF RURAL/URBAN POPULATION6

Year Urban Rural

1868 10.4 89.6

1891 10.7 89.3

1901 10.6 89.4

1911 9.8 90.2

1921 10.3 89.7

1931 12.4 87.6

1941 12.8 87.2

The majority of the population lived in the rural area. The

gradual decrease in the rural population was due to various factors such

as shifting of peasants to cities as skilled and un-skilled labour. The

4 We assume that one of the major causes behind unincrease of the village, was the territorial

adjustments of the colonial state; for example, the separation of Burma from colonial India. 5 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, vol. XX, p 280 6 Census of India, Punjab, 1891, p 93; Census of India, Punjab, 1901, p 169; Census of India,

Punjab, 1911, Vol. XIV, part-I, p 97; Census of India, Punjab, 1921, part-I, pp 34-42; Census of

India, Punjab, 1931, Vol. XVII, part-I, p 317; Census of India, Punjab, 1941, Vol. VI, p 51

208

majority of the people living in rural area primarily depended upon

agriculture as their profession.

This exercise uneven distribution as between the towns and

villages indirectly shows the economic backwardness of the

population. The Britishers did not build up any industrial base in

Punjab; hence, there was no large scale migration towards the towns.

The decrease during the decade 1901-1911 in the urban population was

owing to the outbreak of the epidemics which took an extra ordinarily

heavy toll of life in the towns.7

The population of the Punjab, including native states, further

increased to 34 million by 19418 which was an increase of 42 per cent

on 1901.

TABLE 4.2

VILLAGES AND TOWNS IN PUNJAB9

Years Villages Towns Percentage of Rural

Population

1849 28,879 59 91.2

1901 43,660 155 89.4

1921 34,630 171 89.7

1931 36,011 177 87.6

1941 37,213 191 87.2

The villages differed in their size and spacing in different parts

of the Punjab. During the British rule the small towns, decayed and

7 Census of India, Punjab, 1911, p 96 8 Census of India,Punjab, 1941, Vol. XVII, Table II, pp 6-9 9 Selection from the Records of the Government of India (Punjab), Calcutta; 1856, No. XI, p 10,

Census of India, Punjab, 1901, p 169; Census of India, Punjab, 1911, Vol. XIV, part-I, p 97;

Census of India, Punjab, 1921, part-I, pp 34-42; Census of India, Punjab,1931, Vol. XVII, part-I,

p 317, Census of India, Punjab, 1941, Vol. VI, p 51

209

most of the large towns grew rapidly.10

The stagnation of the smaller

towns forced the population to migrate either to the villages in order to

toil as agricultural labourers or to big cities in order to work in the

factories which were coming up but at slow pace or search for some

other avenues.

The relation between the village communities has been focus of

many debates in both colonial and postcolonial literature. Colonial

literature is replete with images that are now recognized as

stereotypical, often mythical, such as the belief in self-sufficiency of

the village or it‟s being a „little republic‟. For instance, a House of

Commons Report of 1812, described the typical village “as occupying

large acres both waste and arable land; having offices such as that of

headman, revenue collector, accountant, and police boundary man, and

with an internal economy that remained largely unchanged.” Besides

being a unit of administration, the village was also the main source of

revenue in India from Ancient period.

Baden Powell in Administration of Land Revenue and Land

Tenure in British India, remarked that the „village‟ was an aggregate of

cultivated holdings with or without some waste area, belonging to, or

attached to it: and usually it had a central site for dwelling houses

congregated together. The village, moreover, often boasted a grove, or

at least a single tree under which local assemblies will take place.11

It

is understood that the country districts were almost everywhere divided

up into groups of holdings, which were called‟ villages‟ or

10 Neeladri Bhattacharya, Agrarian Change in Punjab, 1880-1940, Ph. D Thesis. JNU, New Delhi,

1985, pp 553-93 11 Baden Powell, Administration of Land-Revenue and Tenure in British India, Esi-E, 1978, pp 66-

67(Reprint, originally published in 1907). The „District‟ (sometimes called Collectorate) was the

administration unit into which each province was divided. In some respects it answered to the

„county‟ in England.

210

„townships‟.12

The „village‟ is not always, strictly speaking, itself the

unit estate. It may happen that a connected group of co -shares have

come to be owners of an estate comprising several geographical

villages, and that the different branches of the family have not divided

the whole so as to make the separate shares consist each of one or more

entire villages. Each branch may have taken its share partly in one

place, partly in another. Hence the real unit, for revenue purposes at

any rate, was the Mahal or a group of lands held under one and the

same title; and registers are prepared to show the list of lands brought

together for this purpose on paper, but actually lying, some here and

there, possibly through half a dozen mauza on the map. Still, there are

a very large number of cases in which a single village is also a mahal,

or estate.

The existence of the village was noticed from the earliest times

to the present time. Studies in social evolution have shown how

nomadism was given up for village life once settled agriculture became

a way of life.13

In India, the village (gram) finds mention in ancient

texts and later epics. It was distinguished from the city (nagar) and the

town or the fortress (pur), while all three stood in opposi tion to

habitations of recluses in the forests (aranya). In the Vedic age the

economy was mainly pastoral, villages were, however, ubiquitous.

According to Basham, the Indian village had not changed much from

what it was like during the first millennium to what it was in mid-

nineteenth century.14

In ancient times the villages were usually walled or stockade, as

they are still in many parts of the Deccan, while most villages in the

12 See, Baden Powell, Short Account of the Land Revenue & Commrece of British India, Clarendon

Press, 1894, p 22 13 See, Barrington Moore for the nature of village life under different political regimes. 14 A.L.Basham, The Wonder that Was India, Sidgwik and Jackson, 1954, p 150

211

north are now open and undefended. The village was a cluster of huts,

small and large, often grouped round a well or a pond, near which was

a small open space with a few trees. In ancient India villages, often had

clubrooms, which served as rest houses for travellers and as centres of

social life; later the village temples took the place of these halls.

„Then, as now, the villages formed a self maintained community and

often had an energetic communal life.‟15

The Arthshastra (400B.C.-

200A.D.) provides us with a classification of the King‟s duties related

to administrative affairs of the village, for example, a new village

could be brought into existence by enabling people to migrate from one

place to other. Kautilya‟s Arthshastra also remarked about the village

life and its administration.16

The Epic Mahabharata (400 B.C-

400A.D.), similarly spoke of types of habitation and settlements,

interrelations between and within villages, and identified them for

purpose of governance. Manusmriti, the book of Brahminical laws

(100A.D - 300A.D.) classified villages in terms of their size and

habitation. Even the Kushan relics of 200 A. D. depicted aspects of

village life. Cholas were also famous for their village administration.17

In the medieval times, Al-Biruni‟s celebrated Kitab-ul-Hind

gives us an account of the village organisation, which was based on

caste. Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire in the early sixteenth

century, commented on the rapid appearance and disappearance of

hamlets and villages. A detailed study of the growth and character of

the village from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries has been

discussed by Irfan Habib in his book on the Agrarian System of Mughal

15 Barrington, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy; Lord and Peasant in the Making of

Modern World, Boston, 1967 16 Kautilya, The Arthshastra, ed., rearranged, translated and introduced by L.N. Rangrajan, Penguin

Books, 1987, p 57 17 Vandana Madan, (ed.), The Village in India, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, pp 2-5.

212

India.18

He relies on documents particularly from all parts of India,

although his focus is peasant rights and tenancy, the information

indirectly brings out the nature of social and cultural life in the villages

of medieval times. The role of the Panchayat as the head in everyday

life is mainly emphasized. What was said by a revenue manual of the

early nineteenth century of the Delhi and Agra region would have bee n

as true in the seventeenth century.” The cultivating peasants ( asamis),

who plough up the fields, mark the limits of each field, for

identification and demarcation, with borders of [raised] earth, brick

and thorn, so that thousands of such fields may be counted in a

village”.19

In rural areas the village watchman was entrusted, under the

supervision of the village headman and the higher revenue officials,

with the duty of registering birth and deaths. Though almost invariably

illiterate, this agency was so closely supervised in British Districts that

the registration was, in the mass, exceedingly accurate, and its results

were in close agreement with the census returns.20

The first important

feature of the old economic order was the division of the Province into

the villages where the large numbers of the people lived and continue

to live from ancient person to this day. The isolation of the self -

sufficient village was the unit of old Indian economy and “it is to the

village that we must go to study the conditions in which men live and

work who are still under the old dispensation.”21

Confirmation of the tentative hypothesis that settlement

patterns were tribally influenced comes from the Lohare District

Gazetteer for 1916: “In the older Jat village of the Majha it will be

18 Ibid., p 4-5 19 Irfan Habib, Agrarian System of the Mughals, Bombay, 1963, p 135 20 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, vol. XX, p 281 21 B.S. Saini, The Social and Economic History of the Punjab, 1901-1939, Delhi, 1975, p 39

213

generally found on close inspection that the houses are divided off in

some sort of order according to the pattis, tarafs or other internal

subdivision observed in the village constitution.”22

The people of the villages and pattis are often said be descended

from a common ancestor. Thus, the four patis of a village will be said

to have been established by four brothers, the descendants of each man

forming the basic population in each patti. Such groups bear a name

which is thought of today as a “family name”.23

Conditions in this village must have been typical of most in the

tract and the general wail of the people to Mr. Darling was of the

"drought and slump." Prices of food grains and fodder rose in 1928-29

and after April 1930 came the catastrophic fall in prices owing to the

agricultural depression, so that the peasant was doubly hit. It will be

seen that in the barani area they rose from 60 seers to the rupee in

1927 to 30 seers in 1928 and 1929, while in 1930 they fell in 80 seers

and in 1931 to 160 seers. The following table shows the changes in the

quantities of some food grains, obtainable for a rupee, in the district

from 1927 to 1931:-

Crop. 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931

Srs. C. Srs. C. Srs. C. Srs. C. Srs. C.

Wheat .. .. 8 1 7 14 7 8 12 4 17 9

Barley .. .. 10 8 10 7 9 2 16 4 23 13

Jowar .. .. 9 11 12 8 8 0 11 15 19 2

Bajra .. .. 9 8 9 11 7 3 12 9 20 11

Gram .. .. 9 13 9 9 7 4 10 9 16 11

22 M.N. Srinivas (ed.), India’s Villages, pp 165-66 23 Ibid, p 166

214

Another important feature of the old socio-economic system was

the village community. It is defined by Mr. Douie as a body of

proprietors, who owning a greater part of the village lands as common

possession held themselves responsible jointly for the payment of

revenue.24

The members of the proprietary body were often uni ted by

real or fictitious common descent and for this reason strangers were not

admitted to the brotherhood. The village custom in the matter of

inheritance and pre-emption were accordingly dictated by this feeling.

But during the British rule, the feeling of the reluctance to admit

strangers was subordinated to the need for meeting immediate demand

for land revenue claimed by the government and outsiders were in such

circumstance allowed to share “rights” which had become burdens.”25

The Unionist party had its social base mainly in the rural area, it

was wedded to the betterment of the rural Punjabis at the cost of the

urbanites. As such immediately after coming into power it took

programme of social and economic upliftment of the ruralites. In the

very first session of the Legislative Assembly the leader of the

Unionist party declared that the object of the Unionist Party was to

bring down the distribution of taxes between the over-taxed

agriculturists. 26

The population of the Punjab- the land of Five Rivers- which has

often proved the best of all recruiting grounds for the Indian army,

falls generally in too three groups- Hindu, Sikh and Muslim- but the

differences between them are rather religious than racial, at any rate if

the Pathans and Baluchis of the western Punjab be excluded. For the

Punjabi Muhammadan who provided such an important element in the

24 J.M. Douie, Punjab Settlement Mannual, 1930, p 62 25 Trevaskis, The Punjab of Today, vol. I, p 14 26 Punjab Legislative Assembly Debates, vol. I, p 947

215

Indian army is commonly of Rajput extraction, as are many of Sikh

rulers, while the Jat who from perhaps the most important element in

the population of the Punjab may be either Hindu or Sikh or Muslim,

through the last are in the minority, and the typical Punjab Jat is

probably a Sikh.27

The population in Punjab, unlike other provinces, was divided

into three major religions and several minor one, as is shown in the

Table 4.3

TABLE 4.3

RELIGION-WISE POPULATION IN PUNJAB in 1901-194128

Year Hindus Sikhs Muslims

1901 1,04,78,721 21,30,987 1,41,41,121

1911 87,73,421 28,83,729 1,22,75,477

1921 87,79,651 31,10,060 1,29,55,341

1931 81,25,202 45,38,220 1,33,32,460

1941 80,31,454 48,44,346 1,35,26,912

According to the census of 1941, the proportion of the major

communities per 10,000 of the population was 5340 Muslims, 3018

Hindus and 1429 Sikhs, i.e., 53.40 per cent Muslims, 30.18 per cent

Hindus and 14.30 per cent Sikhs. It is evident that the Muslims formed

the majority in the province.

The Hindus were in majority in most of the districts east of the

Ravi whereas the Muslims dominated the rest, with the Sikhs

concentrated mainly (but not as the largest community) in Lahore and

27 J.H.Hutton, Caste in India, oxford, 1963, p 37 28 Census of India, Punjab, 1891, p 93; Census of India, Punjab, 1901, p 169; Census of India,

Punjab, 1911, Vol. XIV, part-I, p 97; Census of India, Punjab, 1921, part-I, pp 34-42; Census of

India, Punjab, 1931, Vol. XVII, part-I, p 317; Census of India, Punjab, 1941, Vol. VI, p 51

216

Jullundur divisions. Believers of different religious were there, more or

less, among all the major three social groups like the Jats, the Rajputs

and the Khatris and it were their norms and habits rather than religion,

that determined the life pattern of the Punjabi society was always more

egalitarian and mobile and whatever casteism existed there was

confined mainly to urban centers. In rural areas society was still

organized rather on traditional lines than on that of religion.29

Since its different segments were found in all three main

religious groups, therefore for the sake of convenience Punjabi society

has been divided into four large occupational groups; (i) priests and

professionals, (ii) the trading, (iii) agriculturists and (iv) artisans and

landless labourers, although in actual life there is considerable

overlapping of roles, especially among the Sikhs and the Hindus

priestly and commercial groups, as well as among the Jats and Rajputs

of different faiths.

The peasantry in Punjab was not a homogenous one. The

differentiation and stratification with the peasantry was the main

feature of the Punjab agrarian structure.30

Commercialization,

indebtedness, land revenue demand, sub-division of land and rising

prices effected the various section of Punjab peasantry differentiation

leading to big differentiation in land-holdings. This differentiation is

quite evident from the report of an enquiry conducted in 1939. The

report was as follows:

29 Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. XX, p 267 30 C.H. Philips, Select Documents on the History of India and Pakistsn. The Evolution of India and

Pakistan, (1858-1947), p 320

217

TABLE 4.431

SIZE OF HOLDINGS IN PUNJAB IN 1939

Size of holdings % of owners % of total land

From 0-1 acre 20.2 0.8

1-3 acre 28.6 5.2

3-5 acre 14.9 6.2

5-10 acre 16.9 13.1

10-15 acre 7.3 9.1

15-20 acres 3.6 7.2

20-25 acres 2.2 55.6

25-50 acres 3.9 14.8

50 and above 2.4 38.0

Total 100.00 100.00

The above table shows that a big chunk of land was in the

hands of big landlords. Some of them were non-cultivators owners and

lived in town as absentee landlords. Some small peasant proprietors

had lost their land either to money lenders or to landlords and they

were forced to work as tenants. there was a large number of

agricultural labour belonging to lower castes Sikhs such Majhabis etc.

on the contrary 83.3 per cent peasant proprietors had holdings of less

than 10 acres. Besides this there were large number of land less tenants

and their number was maximum in the districts of Multan and

Montgomery.32

There was a large number of agricultural labour in the

31 Bhagwan Josh, Communist Movement in Punjab (1926-47), p 5 32 Ibid, p 8

218

province.33

The small peasant proprietors, tenants and agricultural labour

were economically the most oppressed due to the exorbitant land

revenue, price-rise and indebtedness. In order to improve their

conditions the peasants from lower agricultural classes sought other

means to compensate the poor returns of land.34

The Punjab had the main recruiting ground for the Indian Army

and war had always offered opportunities for employment to the

martial classes of the province. The Sikh Jats, the major tribes of the

tract under survey, had traditions of service in the British Indian Army

going for as far back as the eighteen fifties when the first regiments of

the Ludhiana Sikhs were formed. It was there for natural to except

when the recent war broke out that they would made the biggest

contributions in men from this tract. A notable fact, however, was that

during that war not only the martial but the non-martial classes as well

availed themselves of the opportunities for employment and joined the

army in large numbers.35

It was, however, not the military tradition but the economic

factors which were responsible in the largest measure for recruitment

from the poorer sections of the village society such as the menials and

even the artisans. The following table shows, by religion and tribes, the

number of persons who joined the Army before and during the recent

33 Percentage of four agricultural classes in Punjab was as follow:

(a) Non-cultivating owners 5.4%

(b) Cultivating Owners 48.5%

(c) Tenant Cultivator 31.8%

(d) Agricultural Labour 14.0% The Tribune, March 16, 1975

34 In 1870 the land was sold at the rate of Rs. 10/- per acre. But gradually the price of land increased

to Rs. 100/- per acre. H. Calvert, The Wealth and Welfare of the Punjab, p 219 35 BEIP,„Punjab Village During the War‟, Pub No. 91, p 7

219

war up to December, 1942:

TABLE 4.5

RELIGION, TRIBE AND NUMBER OF PERSONS IN THE ARMY

Religion and

Tribe

Joined before

the War

Joined during

the War

Total

Sikhs

(i) Jats

(ii) Chamars

(iii) Chuhras

(iv) Karigars

(v) Others

Total

195

6

6

11

4

222

299

111

60

20

26

516

494

117

66

31

30

738

Muslims

(i) Arains

(ii) Julahas

(iii) Others

Total

21

--

6

27

36

25

71

132

57

25

77

159

Hindu 2 25 27

Grand Total 251 673 924

Above Table 4.5 shows that before the war only Sikh Jat

recruited in the army but during the World War II other castes also had

been recruited in the army. Before the war only 222 Sikhs of all castes

recruited in the army but during the war 516 persons joined the army.

Same thing happened in the Muslims but not in Hindu community.

Another 33 persons, whose religion and tribe could not be verified,

joined the Army in 1945.36

There the large number of peasants took up jobs in the army. The

income from this profession to their homes improved their conditions

36 Ibid.

220

and it became easy for them to pay land-revenue. The shifting of

people from agriculture to army had reduced pressure on the land.37

A good deal of money was flowing into the tract from those

working outside either in the army or in the other occupations. A

general idea of the size of income from the army can be formed the

tract that when on general duty a sepoy on an average could send Rs.

10, a Lance-Naik Rs. 15, a Naik Rs. 20, a Havildar Rs. 25, a Jaimadar

Rs. 50 and an Subedar Rs. 75, per month; these amount increase when

the soldiers went on field duty. During a period of 19 months, from

April 1943 to November 1944, the twenty villages received, by money

orders from those in service outside (mostly by way of family

remittances from soldiers), Rs. 3,86,366, thereby giving an average per

month of Rs. 20,335 for the villages, Rs. 1,017 per village and Rs. 15 -

10 per remitter, this being the average remittance from all absentees,

i.e., soldiers who joined before December 1944 and others employed

outside their villages.38

The general picture of the villages during the war was one of the

rise in money incomes without a corresponding rise in the real

incomes. The rise in money incomes was due to the rise in the prices of

agricultural produce and the larger recruitment to the Army. It should

be normally have led to an increase in the real incomes also and to a

higher slandered of living but conditions during the war were

abnormal; both producer and consumers goods were short in supply

and even money could not, in many cases, buy the article badly needed.

The villagers, therefore, found that there were not sufficient stocks in

the market on which to spend his increased income and, making a

37 For this see K.L. Tuteja, Sikh Politics, (1920-40), p 26 38 BEIP, „Punjab Village During the War‟, Pub No. 91, p 8

221

virtue out of necessity, he began to amass savings, he did, of course,

invest in land, cattle and house construction wherever he could; he

took land on mortgage and he also went in for luxury articles whenever

he could have them. But even so, there were surplus in income to spare

and the only things that could be done with them were to keep them.

To some extent, therefore, the villager was „forced‟ to save. It would of

course, be wrong to say that all the savings of the villagers were

„forced savings‟ because the war did teach the villager the virtue of

savings.39

As for the cost of living of “soldiers”, it has already been

pointed out that increase in the cost of food, lodging and dress are

automatically matched by an equal rise in the money value of items

furnished for the solider. This means that the soldier who has these

items furnished for him has his cash income available for service

items, miscellaneous items and the acquisition of assets. Though we

have no index to measure it, the position seems a favourable one in

respect of cost of living as compared with the groups who must buy

food, lodging and dress.40

Two important castes in the Punjab who are much more often

Hindu than Sikh or Muslim are the Khatri and Arora caste, which stand

in a reciprocal relationship very similar to that of Rajputs and Jats. The

Khatri at any rate claim to be of Kshatriya origin, but the principal

pursuit of both these important and numerous cases is trade.41

The Hindu trading classes fall into three major groups, the

Khatris, the Aroras and the Banias. As may expected in the martial

39 Ibid. p 32 40 BEIP, Impact of Rising Pr ices of Various Social Strata in the Punjab, Pub No. 82, 1944, p 8 41 Denzil Ibbetson, A Glossary of the Tribes an caste of the Punjab and North West Frontier

Province, Vol. II, Language Department Punjab, 1970, p 501

222

Punjab, it is the Kashatriya status which was the most valued,42

and the

Kashatriyas were represented both by the landowning Rajputs,

particularly in the eastern sub-montane districts, and by the urban

Khatris of the central and north-western plains.43

However, for

centuries, there was no social bond between the two and the Khatris,

strangely enough, claim the Kashatriya status and enjoy high social

eminence, although almost everywhere they were engaged in

commercial and clerical pursuits.44

Although the Khatris were

essentially a trading caste like the Aroras and Banias they stand higher

than either of these in social hierarchy.45

They were also largely employed in civil administration. The

Hoshiarpur District Gazetteer records, “the great majority of the

Khatris in the district are money-lenders or traders, very few are land-

owners expect by recent traders‟ purchases. As a group they are

extremely thrifty and acquisitive. They were also in the vain in

receiving modern education, and they enter government services of all

kinds, except the army.”46

The Aroras occupy nearly the same social status as the Khatris

and were mostly Hindus.47

A few, who embraced Islam, were known as

Khojas. They were scattered all over the province, but in term of

regions they mostly inhabited Multan, Rawalpindi and the Lahore

divisions and the Ferozepur district.48

Aroras were better known as

traders and money-lenders than as farmers, but industry and capacity

42 M.A. Sherring, Hindu Tribes and Castes, Cosmo Pub., Delhi, 1974, p 76. 43 Denzil Ibbetson , op.cit., vol. II, p 507 44 Punjab Government, The Land of the Five Rivers, p 331 45 Denzil Ibbetson, op.cit., p 507 46 Hoshiarpur District Gazetteer, 1904, p 55 47 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, Census of India, 1921, Vol. XV, part II, p 132 48 P.H. Kaul, Census of India,1911, vol. XIV, part I, p 445

223

tell in farming as on everything else.49

Though they seldom plough

their land themselves, they supervise their labourers with thoroughn ess

and rarely allow their land to be wasted by tenants.50

Since they were the primitive capitalists, wherever they went,

they introduced certain progressive influences. They were often

responsible for the tube-wells that were sunk. In Mianwali it was an

Arora who introduced gram in Thal, to the great advantage of the tract.

In Lyallpur and Rawalpindi the managers of experimental farms were

mostly Aroras. M.L. Darling writes that “As long as 1859 the

comparatives prosperity of Multan was due mainly the efforts of the

non-agricultural Aroras51

, who by his labour and capital greatly

improved the productive power of the soil; and even now the Aroras,

or Kirar as he called, is better than the ordinary landlord not only in

Multan but also in the adjoining districts of Dera Gazi Khan,

Muzaffargarh and Jhang.52

However, the most important profession of the Aroras was trade

and money-lending. In trade they were mainly shop-keepers.53

But they

took to other professions as well as. In 1921 they owned 24 and

managed 27 industrial concerned54

and worked as artisans and workers

in different fields.55

In fact, the Aroras contributed much to every field

of life except politics. In spite of his relatively weak physique he is

active and enterprising, industrious and thrifty. As a Jhang proverb

says,

49 M.L. Darling, Rusticus Liquator , Oxford, 1929, p 230 50 M.L. Darling, The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt, 1925, P 158 51 Ibid. 52 Ibid, p 157 53 Darling, op.cit., 1929, p 233 54 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 412 55 Ibid, p 380-81

224

“Lak Bandha Arorian to Munna Koh Lahore.”56

(when an Arora girds up his lion he makes it only two miles to

Lahore).

The word Bania is derived from a Sanskrit Bania or trade, and

the Bania by caste as his names implies, live by commerce.57

They

were divided into three main sub-divisions; Aggarwals, Oswals and

Maheswaris, who usually do not smoke, eat or inter -marry with one

another.58

The „Bania’ of the village lived at a respectable place called the

„Haveli’. In spite of this, one or two houses in the villages belonging to

the peasants of a more economically rich and high buildings with flat

roof sometimes of two stories and having a lofty gateway of red brick.

In the villages, the proprietors, Banias, and Brahmans lived in the

centre, while the menials resided on the outskirts of the village.59

In trading castes in the villages occupy a lower position than the

landowning classes, but in the towns they ranked higher. The most

important were the Banias in the south-east, the Khatris in the centre

and north-east, and the Aroras in the south-west. All these were Hindus

or, rarely, Sikh. The principal Muhammadan trading classes were the

Shaiks and Khojas..60

However the Bania of the Punjab were mainly of the Aggarwals

sub-caste.61

The majority of them were Hindus, but quite a number of

them had embraced Jainism. This different in religion affiliation,

however, constitute no barrier to marriage and inter -dinning among

56 Denzil Ibbetson, op.cit., p 16 57 Punjab Government, The Land of the Five Rivers, p 332 58 Imperial Gazetteer Provincial Series, p 233 59 Settlement Report of Karnal District, p 120 60 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, vol. XX, p 288 61 Punjab Government, op.cit., p 331

225

them.62

These were the non-agriculturists caste in the Punjab. The non-

agriculturists were at liberty permanently to alienate land through

sales, exchanges, gifts and wills. Permanent alienation by them to any

one not belonging to this tribe (including the non-agriculturists) would

require the sanction of the Deputy Commissioner.63

Temporary alienation of land to non-agriculturists upto a

maximum period of 20 years could be made, but after the lapse of 20

years the land would revert unencumbered to the alienation.64

This

provision of the Act created a serious discontent among the business

communities of the province, because it prevented the exploitation of

the peasants.65

But the Act could not fulfill the government's

expectations, because the money lender, after margining the land of

their clients, confined their attention only to yield and not to the land.

In other words, land still remained in the hands of its original owners.

But under the land alienation act, a new class of agriculturist money-

lenders emerged. This class was interested in capturing the land

holdings of their clients. This system led to evasions of the provisions

of act through Benami transaction by which transfer were nominally

made in favour of agriculturists while the real profit was reaped by

moneylenders.66

The Unionist party highly pleased in passing these Acts.

Speaking about the Acts Ch. Chhotu Ram declared the Acts would

most benefit the backward and poor classes like Kisans, Mazdoors and

the untouchables.67

In another occasion Sir Chhotu Ram condemned the

previous governments and tried to win the hearts of the Zamindars. He

62 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 344. 63 M.M. Islam, op.cit,. p 272 64 P.K. Singla, "British Administration in Punjab 1897-1919 and its reaction. New Delhi, 2003, p

179 65 M.L. Darling, 'The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt, 1925, p 156 66 Administration Report of Punjab and its Dependencies, 1918-19, Govt Press Lahore, 1920, p 19 67 Jat Gazette, July 12, 1939, p 6

226

said that “the Govt. of these days were autocratic and irresponsible

which could not be moved except when they were face to face with

serious threats…. I raised the cry in the hope that the government

might in order to avert this threat agree to make other reasonable

concessions to the Zamindars”.68

In fact the Unionist party wanted to

maintain itself the champion of suffering peasantry of the Punjab but

the facts told a different tale. The reason for this being the Unionist

party denied the fact of a dichotomy of interests between the big

landlords and the petty peasants.69

Sir Chhotu Ram declared that there

was no difference between moong and moth (two kinds of pulses).70

Therefore, these acts were „golden acts‟, for the rich

agriculturist and agriculturist money lender who were in a stronger

position than ever before, these laws did not touch the fringe of the

problem and the exploitation contained space. The political parties i.e.

the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha, the National Progressive party

condemned these Acts even when they were in the shape of bills. They

raised the slogan, “Hinduism is in danger”.71

Now, the ordinary villager goes to a bania to borrow money. The

bania says, he will charge only one anna in the rupee per mensem. The

villager is never able to realize the consequences such a bargain. He

cannot calculate what an anna is the rupee means. He does not know

that the rate of interest comes to 12 annas in the rupee per annum,

which means 75 percent per annam. Honorable members of this House

can easily realize the heavy burden that is thrown on the villager who

68 PLAD, vol. XIX, p 47 69 PLAD, vol. I, p 949-50 70 Ibid. 71 PLAD, vol. XI, p 249

227

borrows from a bania.72

Some local proverbs prove this in respect of the social and economic

relation between peasant and money-lenders

Bania bhar gya khothi main,

Baalak rovain roti nein.

This proverb popular in the area of the south-east Punjab

another was popular in the area of central Punjab:

Kanjar Kirad Kutta Da;

Swa Na Kije Sutte Da.

(Kanjar and Kirad term were represent to Bania, Bania were

compared with the Dog and if those are sleeping don‟t believe on these

both.) These type of proverbs shows the relation of the peasant and

money-lender in the rural area.

Moreover, these crafty money-lenders evade the provisions of

the Land Alienation Act in many ways. They mortgage the lands of

their debtors to others zamindars on agreement that they should pay the

money advanced in fixed installments. Those zamindars also, in their

turn, fail to pay the installments at the fixed installments. Those

zamindars also, in their turn, fail to pay the installments at the fixed

time whereupon the Insolvency Courts come to the help of the money

lenders and the land is attached and sold. The condition of the

zamindars is pitiable. Three consecutive crops have failed. The non-

agriculturists are wise and cunning. And on the top of all this, comes

the ruling given by Mr. Justice Dalip Singh, which is sure to prove

72 Punjab Legislative Council Report 1924, p 338. “The money-lenders charge very high rates of

interest and also use various deceptive methods to entangle the zamindars. For example, when a

zamindar comes to a sahukar to repay his debts the sahukar takes out his account book and says:

"You borrowed Rs. 50, and the interest on that sum is only Rs. 15, which means that you owe me

Rs. 75. As a personal favour I remit Rs. 5, and you may pay the remaining sum of Rs. 80." The poor zamindar ignorant of any calculation pays and goes his way well satisfied and feels obliged

to the crooked money lender for Rs. 5.”

228

very disastrous in its results.73

Any measurement of cost living of agriculturists is complicated

by the familiar facts of use of barter and their considerable measure of

self-sufficiency. There are at least two approaches to the problem. One

is to assess the agriculturist‟s consumption of his own produce at the

going sale price and enter this figure on both income and expenditure

sides of the account. This will show his income in respect of these

commodities to have risen in the same proportion as his cost of living

in respect of these commodities. On the other hand, if his consumption

of his own produce can be taken as fairly constant, variations in his

economic position can be read from the changes in cash income and

cash expenditure. The former method is more strictly correct, but the

latter method is more feasible and is employed here.74

This agriculturist family, with a cost of living index of 190 for

the 1942-43 crop year, shows the lowest rise of living of any group

studied here. This given us the problem of explaining, not why prices

should be lower in the villages, a fact easily understood for agricultu ral

commodities produced nearby and for the services of cobblers, barbers,

etc., who lived in the villages, but why the proportionate rise should be

less75

After agriculture, money lending was the most important

occupation in the province. In 1930 there were at least 40,000 persons

who depended solely or in part upon money lending.76

The ratio of

Punjab money lender to its population was 1 to 100 and in India it was

73 Ibid, 1929, vol. XII, p 556 74 Paul Green, Impact of Rising Prices of Various Social Strata in the Punjab, The Board of

Economic Enquiry, Punjab, Pub No. 82, p 8 75 Paul Green, Impact of Rising Pr ices of Various Social Strata in the Punjab, The Board of

Economic Enquiry, Punjab, Pub No. 82, pp 9-10 76 H.Calvert, op.cit, p 255

229

1 to 367. Thus, this business of money lending was running down the

rural economy of the province.77

In 1921 the total strength of Aggarwals in the Punjab was

3,25,000, the majority of them living in the south-east of the

province.78

They carried on a flourishing business and dominated the

economy of this region. However, the main occupation of the

Aggarwals was money-lending or banking for which they were known

in the Punjab. Indeed they had a strong hold over the farmers, and

performed functions of cardinal importance in village economy. 79

The following is a statement showing the acreage and the

price of cultivated land mortgaged annually since 1939-40 in the

twenty villages:-

TABLE 4.680

MORTGAGE OF LAND DURING II WORLD WAR

Year No. of

cases

Area

Mortgaged

Area

Revenue

Assessed

Rs. a. p.

Mortgage money

Rs. a. p.

Mortgage

price

Per acre

Rs. ½

1939-40

1940-41

1941-42

1942-43

1943-44

1944-45

1945-46

Half Year

163

155

231

257

572

679

158

170

156

273

316

1,019

905

197

283 1 9

266 12 0

425 7 3

534 1 0

1,598 15 0

1,457 5 0

291 12 0

27,308 1 0

30,171 11 0

68,399 14 0

114,986 14 6

587,894 1 9

505,543 0 0

153,376 0 0

161

193

251

364

577

559

799

77 Ibid, p 367 78 Punjab Government, op.cit., p 332 79 Ibid, p 322 80 Ibid, p 20

230

The area mortgage in 1940-41 was 14 acres less than that

mortgaged in 1939-40, but thereafter it increased steadily to 316 in

1942-43 and steeply to 1,019 in 1943-44 after which year it fell to 679

in 1944-45 and only 158 acres in first half of 1945-46. During the war

the percentage rise in the mortgage value of the land had been greater

than in its sale price. In 1939-40 the mortgage value of an acre of land

was 43 per cent of its sale value, but by the first half of 1945-46, it was

62 per cent of the latter. The average mortgage value of land showed in

increase of 20 per cent in 1940-41, 56 per cent in 1941-42, 126 per

cent in 1942-43, 258 per cent in 1943-44, 247 per cent in 1944-45 and

264 per cent in the first half of the 1945-46 when it stood at Rs. 799

per acre.

In the first session of the new Assembly an important Act as

was passed. According to the provisions of this act lone which previous

became automatically double the amount when advanced irrespective

of the period now stood replaced. It could not be now double under the

new act, actually debt conciliation Boards were established in the

districts to give relief to the debtors. It worked very well and provided

substantial relief to the suppressed rural cultivators.81

By the end of

1939, there were 29 debt conciliation Board functioning in the

province. They received 40720 applications from debtors during this

period involving a debt of about Rs. 563 lakhs and 27060 applications

from creditors are covering a debt of Rs. 27 lakhs.82

Unionist party constantly pleased that no land revenue should be

charged from those who owned either upto 2 acres of canal irrigated

81 B.S. Saini, op.cit., p 229 82 H.Calvert, I.C.S. a great writer on rural debt in Punjab, remarked “a rural Jat was born in debt and

died in debt (as cited in H.S. Bajwa, Fifty years of Punjab politics (1920-70), p 51

231

land or 5 unirrigated acres, or those who paid land revenue upto 5/ -.83

Actually, a cultivators paying Rs. 5/- as land revenue with in service

was much better off than the Rs. 25/- but without any member of the

family in service.84

Therefore, when the Unionist party got majority, it

tried to implement its ideas of limited abolition of land revenue. The

Unionist Govt. allowed special remission on account of low prices or

bad crops in districts where the system of sliding scale of assessment

of land revenue had not yet been introduced. In 1937 the remission

were given to the extent of Rs. 95000 and in 1938 it was Rs. 4,58,000

for the rabi crops.85

During the years 1937-38 remission of Rs. 3.6237 crores were

given due to hailstorm and famine while it was only Rs 1.4737 crores

between 1934-37.86

The rate of land revenue was lowered from 40-46%

in Gurgaon, Jhelum and Lahore districts to 23.2% in Fasur from 22%

to 16% in Chunian 33.5% to 15% and in Amritsar from 22% to

15.3%.87

By 1942, the Punjab cultivator had become the lowest “land

rule” payer in the country.88

On March, 13, 1942, Ch. Chhotu Ram

remarked on the floor of the Legislative Assembly that they further

wanted to reduce the land revenue and the objective could be achieved

only if the provincial Govt. was allowed by the central Govt. to levy

full taxes on the capitalists of the Punjab who had been enjoying

almost total immunity from local taxation.89

But the claim is belied by the facts. The Unionist party made no

effects to implement this programme. It would not prove workable

83 Punjab Past and Present, oct 1976, p 345 84 PLAD, vol. XIV, p 331 85 18 month of Provincal Autonomy in the Punjab, (1/4/35 to 30/9/37), p 4 86 Mitra, Indian Annual Register, vol. I, p 188 87 PLAD, vol. XIV, p 856 88 PLAD, vol. XIX, p 184 89 Ibid, p 330

232

because the poor and illiterate agriculturists would not be able to

maintain their accounts, more so when traders with an annual turnover

exceeding Rs. 10,000 were finding it difficult to maintain their

accounts for assessment under the General sales Act.90

The

Agricultural markets products act passed in 1939, was mainly intended

to prevent mal-practice in the markets whereby the ignorant cultivator

had been defrauded of his just dues.91

Other less important trading groups among Hindus were the

Bhatias, who were confined to the western districts, the Suds and

Bohras in the Sub-Himalayan districts and the Pahari Mahajans and

Bohras of the Himalayan area.92

However, among the Muslims the

Khojas and Khakas of the west were the only trading castes. The

Khojas were of great importance so far as trade was concerned. The

term Khoja is of Persian origin and was conferred upon converts so all

classes, through it was usually confined to Khatris, Aroras, Brahmans

and Bhatias. The term Khaka was somewhat similarly used.93

However, like other communities, the Khojas too sometimes

took up other occupations, like agriculture, transport and government

employment. Their position in Muslim society was rather like the

Khatris among the Hindus. However, since the Muslims are usually

very orthodox and refrain from talking interest, they could not progress

like their Hindu counterparts in the Punjab.94

The Rajputs formed more or less, the landed aristocracy of the

province. Big landlords hardly existed in the Punjab and the Rajputs

90 PLAD, vol. XIX, p 327-28 91 The hartal were organized against this bill in 1941. Home (Pol.) File No. 18/5/41, poll (I). 92 Ibid, p 331 93 Ibid, p 333 94 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 380-383

233

were indifferent farmers. By religion they were mostly Muslims, who

formed 70.7 per cent of the Rajputs population of the province while

only 27.7 per cent were Hindus.95

The low hills and sub-montane regions of the districts of

Gurdaspur, Sialkot and Gujarat had many Rajputs tribes, of whom

some were Hindus and the rest, more or less, recent converts to Islam.

In the Jhelum and Rawalpindi districts numerous Muslims tribes were

found with Rajputs status. The highest percentage of Rajputs was in

Rawalpindi 21%, Kangra 14%, and Jhang 13%. Hindu Rajputs were

found mainly in Kangra and Hoshiarpur, whereas their Muslim

counterparts were mainly in Rawalpindi-Jhelum, Montgomery-Jhang,

Bahawalpur, Hissar and Karnal.96

From the above distinction of tribes the Rajputs might be

classified under two heads; one was the Rajputs of the hills and another

was the Rajputs of the plains. But many classes of the Rajputs were

three both on the hills and in the plains, and, for many reason, they had

common methods of the way of life, manners and customs. Normally

the same class enjoyed different social status in different parts of the

country. However, Sir James Lyall, writing on Kangra remarked “Till

lately the limits of caste do not seem to have been so immutably fixed

in the hills as in the plains. The Raja was the fountain of honour, and

could do much as he liked. I have heard old men quote instances within

their memory in which a Raja promoted a Ghrith to be a Rathi, and a

Rathi to be a Rajput for service done or money given.” Again “A rich

man of a Rathi family marry his daughter to an impoverished Raja, and

his whole clan gets a kind of step and becomes Thakur Rajput.” This

95 Ibid, p 325 96 P.H. Kaul, Census of India 1911, vol. XIV, part I, p 437-438

234

system among the Rajputs of the hills exhibited some of the usual

features of the society organized on a system of hypergamy. Their

feeling of pride forbids a Rajput to marry his daughter to any but a man

of equal status or preferably superior status.97

On the other hand they had to buy husbands for their daughters

while, on the other hand, the Rathis will not give them daughters

without exacting a price. So they were miltched both when marring and

when giving in marriage98

. As a result, a Rajput of ordinary fortune

could not expect to be married for less than Rs. 800 or Rs. 1,000, and if

he had to purchase his bride, the amount will be nearer Rs. 2,000.99

This shows that in the 20th

century relation between the society were in

tension.

The Rajputs were very important in the Punjabi society. The

majority of them were Muhammadans. They did not ranked high as

cultivators, but furnished many recruited in the army under the general

designation of Punjabi Muhammadans. The Hindu Rajputs were found

mainly in the north-east corner of the province, and in the Himalayan

and submontane tracts, the Rajput tribes of the plains having the most

part accepted Islam. As a body the Rajputs stand higher than the Jats in

the social system, and this had prevented their adherence to the

leveling doctrines of Sikhism.100

However, the Rajputs was notorious for bad husbandry and

extravagance. He is, by common consent, the worst cultivators in the

province. If he is of pure descent, he is forbidden to touch the plough,

and even he was not bound by this rule, where the Jat plough deep he

97 H.A. Rose, Census of India 1901, vol. XVIII, p 320-21 98 Ibid. 99 M.L. Darling, Rusticus Liqutors, p 7 100 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, vol. XX, p 287-88

235

will only scratch the surface of the soil. His hedging and weeding are

equally superficial. A settlement officer remarked that the general

untidiness of his fields, the absence of rich crops, and the numerous

pathways, which a short detour would save, proclaim the Rajputs

village even before the owner appears.101

The real disadvantage of a Rajput cultivators was his regards for

Izaat, which unlike a Jat, prevented him from taking any help from his

wife. In case his orthodoxy involved serious economic disabilities. For

instance, having no one to bring them their meals to the fields, Rajputs

were often tempted to stay at home till the morning meal was over.

However, for the Rajputs, the other most popular source of income was

entered in the army and the police.102

The Jats were in every respect the most important among the

agricultural groups of the province. In 1921, their total population was

a little short of 5.5 millions. They were divided into three groups, the

Muslims, the Sikhs and the Hindus,103

comprising 47.3&, 33.4% and

17.3 of the Jat population.104

The Muslim Jats were confined mainly to

the western districts, the Sikhs Jats to the central districts and the

Hindu Jats to the south-eastern districts of the province.105

All joined

together constituted 27 per cent population. Therefore the Jats of the

Punjab enjoyed a different status and influence in their respective

religious groups. Among the Hindus the social position of the Jats was

below that of the Brahman, Rajputs and Khatris.106

The Muslim Jat too

was below the Ashrafs, the Baloch and the priestly tribes, and could

101 M.L. Darling,, The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt, p 24-25 102 M.L. Darling, Rusticus Liqutors, p 65 103 Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer, vol. XX, p 287 104 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 344 105 Punjab Government, The Land of the Fiver Rivers, p 324 106Denzil Ibbetson, op.cit., vol. I, p 427

236

not substantiate a claim to Rajput decent. Of all these three religions of

the Jats, the position of Sikh Jats was the highest.

The Jats comprise a vast congeries of tribes, all practically on a

level of equality; through some of them have a vague and undefined

sense of superiority over the rest. Usually the Jats practice Krewa

marriage and do not wear scared thread,107

but the practice does not

always follow precept; and among the lower Hindu and Sikh castes

remarriage was allowed, while in the Himalayas women were sold from

hand to hand, and system of temporary marriage prevailed.108

Certain

tribes avoid the former custom without acquiring a status superior to

those who retain it. Similarly, the Jats of a certain village may wear the

scared thread without distinctly raising themselves above the level of

their tribe or village folk. There are no real caste distinctions among

the Jats, and they are well-known for their egalitarian social structure

and attitude. Many Jat tribes have tradition of Rajput origin.109

But

neither territorial sovereignty nor the avoidance of widow re-marriage

and the refusal of a bride-price can raise a Jat to the level of Rajput.

Another point of interest was that most Jat Sikhs did not have that rigid

system of hypergamy in regard to their exogamous groups as the Hindu

Jats had.110

But marriage rules in relation to the ranked village would be

observed in order that a daughter be given only to a man of an equal or

a more respectable village. Sikh Jats who live north of the Beas in the

Manjha usually do not give their daughters in marriage to those who

live south of it in the Doaba and Malwa. This was because of certain

107 H.A. Rose, Census of India 1901, vol. XVII, part I, p 324 108 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, vol. XX, p 280 109 H.A. Rose, op.cit., vol. XVII, part I, p 324 110 Ibid, pp 325-26.

237

traditional differences in the types of work associated either the women

of different regions. For instance, the women of the latter had to sweep

the cattle dung and carry it in basket, while the Majha women will lose

her status if she dies this, and this work is usually done by sweepers.

There were other differences of custom also. In the Doaba Jat women

milk the cattle and help draw the water. The Jhinwars do not always do

this and assist their men in sowing. But in the Majha all they do in the

field was to pick the cotton and cook for their men.111

The Jats, as a rule, married outside the exogamous groups of his

father, mother and mother‟s mother and step-mother. But the marriage

must be within the caste. However, there are minor variations from

section to section, depending on the amount of orthodox Hindu

influence.112

As an institution, caste plays a far less important role in the

social life of the people than in the other parts of India. Its boost bonds

were stronger in the east than in the west, and generally in the towns

than in the villages, so that in the rural area of the western Punjab

society was recognized on a tribal basis, and caste hardly existed.113

Socially the landed classes stand high, and of these the Jats were the

most important. The Jat or Jaat as he is termed in the south-east of the

province, was essentially a landholder, and when asked his caste

usually replies „Jat Zamindar’. The Jats were divided into numerous

tribes and sects, and many of these hold considerable area which were

divided among village communities.114

In every aspect, the Jats were the most important tribe in the

Punjab. They are excellent cultivators, industrious and thrifty.

111 M.L. Darling, Rusticus Liqutors, p 175-76 112 H.A. Rose, Census of India 1901, vol. XVII, part I, p 326, 331-333. 113 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, vol. XX, p 287. 114 Ibid.

238

However, the Sikh Jats, in comparison to other Jats, had a higher

income from land. The Sikh Jats were more ambitious, self -assured and

progressive in outlook and adopted new methods of agriculture. Upto

the middle of the 19th

century large area of the Western and South-

Western Punjab and parts of Montgomary, Sirsa and Hissar were

virtually without any settled village community. The inhabitants were

the shifting semi-pastoral tribes. The Sikhs were the first to bring to

peace and order and sometimes even minor irrigation facilities to parts

of Gujranwala and Multan. The British further accelerated the process

through a better enforcement of law and order and improved irrigation

facilities.115

However, the Sikh Jats were the most advanced community

among the Jats due to their military and agricultural acumen. The

increasing literacy among Jat Sikhs made them eligible for government

posts also. Establishment of co-operative societies and the Land

Alienation Act made it possible for the Jat Sikhs to take over the

money-lending, business as well. These further added to their land and

wealth, which in turn raised their status in society.

Other important agricultural segments of the Punjab were the

Pathans, Mughals, Meos, Quereshis, Sayeds and Sheikhs.116

They only

part of the Punjab, where they formed the dominant agricultural tribe

was the Chach country in Attock and Mianwali districts. This tribe,

most probably, immigrated to the Punjab during the Pathan rule over

India and made these regions their permanent abode. Because of their

economic and education backwardness, the Pathan tribes remained

relatively unimportant. But they are a proud people and consider

115 S.C. Sharma, Punjab: The Crucial Decade, p 110. 116 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 344

239

themselves superior to others. Many of them found employment in the

army and the police or got engaged in small trades.117

The next important caste was that of the Bloch, with 5,31,000

population.118

The Bloch tribal system was intact and their chiefs still

exercised a considerable authority under this system. The Bloch had

preserved his tribal characteristic, hospitality, courage and fidelity to

his words. They mostly dominated the districts of Muzaffargarh,

Multan and Jhang. But their status too differed from region to

region.119

Another agricultural tribe was that of Meos, living on the

borders of Rajputana and in the Ferozepur district. But economically

and culturally they remained extremely backward.

The artisans located in the region, also had a several grading,

among them; the sunars (goldsmith) occupied the highest position

owing to their economic status. Then came the barhis (the carpenter),

lohar (the blacksmith, kumhar (the potter), nai (the Barber), dhobi (the

washerman), kahar (the lootic).120

At the lowest rung of the social

hierarchy were the chamars (tanners), chuhras (scavanger) and dhanks

(weavers). These were all considered as untouchables, and their

residential quarters were located outside the village and they were not

allowed to mix with members of the upper castes.121

The improvement on the economic condition of the members of

the artisan and menial groups was reflected to some extent in the

change of their status. The employers became more careful in their

treatment of the artisans and menials because the latter were no longer

117 S.C. Sharma, op.cit., p 110 118 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 344 119 Punjab Government, The Land of the Fiver Rivers, p 328 120 Denzil Ibbetson, The Glossary and Tribes of Castes, (Reprinted by Language Department, Patiala,

1995,) p 188-89. 121 Ibid., (Reprint in 1993) , p 188-89

240

wholly dependent on income from land and could throw up their job

and maintain the pre-war standard of living without working for them.

The Karigar, who could do the job of a carpenter, a blacksmith and a

mason had a rush of work and was able to build up small nest -eggs

from the savings. The Sunar was not so lucky but he, too, might get his

chance after the war. The village shop-keeper, however, lost, because

his activities had to be restricted due to war-time control. The high

price and the disappearance of the quality cloth brought into

importance the weaver who again became an indispensable organ of the

village society.122

The mobility and sphere of women somewhat enlarged. It was

due to education system because the girls had to step out from their

village for education to nearby villages. They were learning a lot from

education through which society could change and it impacted the

women to a marginal degree.

In order to measure the rigidity- flexibility dimensions of the

caste system prevailing in the rural society, it can be said that, in a

majority of rural south-east Punjab the social distance between high

and low castes had to some extent been narrowed in1940s, but

untouchability still prevailed in the society.123

The traditional pattern

was however, common. „We must not en ter the Zamindar’s house: we

wait outside and call; if not one comes, we come back when someone

is there. If the Jat happened to touch the chamar then Jat washed his

clothes and bathe.124

The menial‟s position was not too bad and was rapidly

122 BEIP, „Punjab Village During the War‟, Pub No. 91, pp 32 123 Similar views is taken from Dharamvir Arya, Arya Samaji and ex Senator, whom continuously

discussion by me on the role and relevance of Arya Samajh at Chandigarh. 124 M. L. Darling, Rusticus Loquitor, PP 62, 94-95

241

improving.125

The tanner, the carpenter, and the blacksmith had all

greatly improved their position: the sweeper too could earn more, but

he was an extravagant fellow and spent all he got. The barber and the

carpenter might now be found amongst the money-lenders. The dhobi

or washer man was doing as well as anyone, for far more washing was

done-probably twice as much as before.126

The landlord‟s condition was more of less improved from the

nineteenth century, but the enquiries (1930) suggested that in the last

ten year there had been no marked change for the better. There were

the land lords who were both good and bad. The reason for this was

that the ordinary word for „good‟ in Hindi-achcha-had no moral

significance, but only material, the condition of a village moneylenders

was also decreasing. „These are not days,‟ he grumbled. The old days

were better.127

Especially was it so with the Rajputs, the Sainis were

honourable me (sharif) this was a complement of their surroundings-

and paid back something. „It is very difficult now days to get anything

back from the Zamindars„.128

Several changes in attitudes, thinking and customs became

visible in food, dress and social behaviour. New food items started to

be used for example, vegetable and tea. There was some change in

apparel for men with the adoption of trousers, hats, shirts and a hosiery

items like gloves, socks and mufflers. In the social sphere, English

words found their way in every day parlance. Mobility and social

space, especially for girls, increased to some extent. The tr aditional

125 F. L. Brayne, Batter Villages, 1937, P 26 126 M. L. Darling, op.cit, P 65 127 There was a popular saying about the village money-lenders in this respect. „ Tuta Bania jab

janiye jab Kahe purani bat. (You may know a Bania has come to a grief when he talks of old

times.) Final Report of the Revision of Settlement of the Sirsa District, in the Punjab, 1879-83,

Calcutta Central Press, Calcutta, 1884, P XXII. 128 M. L. Darling, Rusticus Loquitor, P 65-95

242

lower groups also became mobile and track to new occupations. The

distinction of caste, however, though a minimal degree of change.

Social customs also reflected subtle changes with the passage of time

and the impact of colonial rule.129

The war disturbed the prevailing harmony among various groups

of the rural society and intensified the tension between the landlords,

artisans and the menials. The menials did not remain unaffected by

their increased professional income and the money received from their

relatives in the army or the other occupations; they stopped rendering

„begar’ and other services witch before the war they rendered to the

landowners without any obligations on account of their absolute

dependence on the land. The landlords in turn, acting through the

agency of the panchayats, withdraw concessions such as collection of

fuel from the fields, picking „sag‟ etc. formally allowed to the menials.

The old basis of reciprocal cordiality in social relationship was thus

knocked out and any assistance given by one class to the other was

invariably considered as a special favour. Among the artisans, the

carpenters and the blacksmiths became economically better off than a

small cultivator and were, therefore, able to shed their feeling of social

inferiority.130

In the traditional multi-structured society of India, the status and

characteristics of different castes groups came to be rather permanently

associated with certain arts and crafts required by the different

segments of the society. Craft like spinning, weaving, oil pressing and

sugar manufacturing were mostly performed by Julahas and Telis. But,

usually, these constituted a supplementary domestic industry in the

129 Radhakamal Mukherjee, Economic Problems of Modern India, Vol. I, London 1939, p 47-48 130 BEIP „Punjab Village During the War‟, Pub No. 91, p 28.

243

peasants‟ household, which formed a part of the self-sufficient

economy. Secondly, other craftsmen were blacksmiths, carpenters and

shoemakers, who were maintained collectively by the village

community, by allocating to them a certain share of peasant‟s crops,

rigidly fixed by tradition, and sometimes also a small plot of land.131

All the tribes, the Chamar, Meghwal, Dhed, Julaha, Paoli,

Mochi engaged in weaving coarse cloth and working in tanned leather

in the Punjab, were originally the same race, or at all events closely

connected, and perhaps of aboriginal descent. The chamars were

divided into several distinct sections which did not inter -marry with

each other. The Chandor Chamar will not associate with the jatiya

chamar, who (they Said) work in leather made from camels or horses

skins, which was an abomination to the former. On the other hand, the

Marwari chamars settled at Delhi who makes tours in the Punjab in the

cold weather selling leather ropes in the villages refuse to have any

connection with the local chamars, who (they said) tan leather and eat

the fresh of animals that have died; while they work only in leather

already tanned.132

The chamars were mostly Hindus and Sikhs; the Muslim

chamars were known as Mochi. They were tanners, leather workers,

field labourers, and often performed menial jobs in the village. The

Chuhras (Hindu) and Mussalli (Muslim) were quite often working as

ordinary labourers rather than sweepers and scavengers.133

They were

mostly unskilled workers. These people held land as owners or

occupancy tenants, and sometime, in order to retain their services and

sometimes for the village community, they were given land in certain

131 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 344-45 132 Radhakamal Mukherjee, Economic Problems of Modern India, Vol. I, London 1939, p 47-48. 133 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 380-81

244

villages out of the community land.

At Lahore, both the Hindu and the Mohammedan goldsmiths

related from one craft guilds, which has fixed the charges for particular

classes of work. Such rates were strictly adhered to by member of the

Northern and Western India there was a guild of traders of all castes,

consisting of representatives of each caste, who decided cases related

to trade.134

Women were far more conservative; but the influence of the

Islam had brought about the adoption of the trouser instead of the

Hindu skirt, which was only general in the south-east. Here again local

and tribal customs vary. The Rajput women, Hindu as well

Muhammadan, wear the trouser, and Gujars the petticoat, while many

Sikh and Hindu Jat women wear both. In the wilder parts of the central

area the skirt was little more than a kilt, but the more elaborate

garment was coming into fashion. The wrap or chadar was universally

worn; and the purda system compelled most Muhammadan and many

Hindu and Sikh ladies of the better classes to wear, when compelled to

leave the house, an ungainly and uncomfortable vail (burka) which

cover the whole form.135

The Gurgaon districts of the Punjab may be mentioned as one

notable instance where this welfare work was beginning to be extended

to the villages, as part of an intensive campaign of rural uplift

organized by a most enthusiastic deputy commissioner and his wife-

Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Brayne. This village work was undertaken by lady

health visitors of whom there were four that time. They advised

pregnant women on necessary precautions and on the selection of a

134Radhakamal Mukherjee,op.cit., p. 52-53. 135 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, vol. XX, p 293

245

good dai, etc. Dais were trained by the Lady Health Officer at the

district headquarters. 136

The ordinary peasant house was not uncomfortable, through

hardly attractive. Built of mud, with a flat roof, and rarely decorated, it

was cooler in summer and warmer in winter than a house of brick or

stone. In the large villages of the Central and South-East Punjab the

dwellings are close and confined, but in the south-west a ruder and

more spacious type was found. Houses of stone were found mainly in

the hills and slate roof only Himalayas. Brick (pakka) houses in the

villages were rapidly increasing in numbers, but in comfort were

hardly an improvement on the old.137

Among these castes who migrated to the canal colonies the

Chamars headed the list. The motivation was not economic alone. This

migration was due to social reason also, because in new local ities they

could raise their status.138

Mazhbis or Sikh sweepers held the lowest place on the social

scale but were, nevertheless, one of the most useful members of the

community. Their duties, like the Hindu and Muslim Chuhras,

comprised the cleaning and sweeping of houses and streets and the

collection of cow dung. The latter task, however, was usually

performed by their wives.139

Experienced and trained “Siris” (permanent agricultural

labourers on a fixed shares as well) could not be found easily in spite

of the increase in their shares as well as liberal concessions given to

them by way of larger advances whenever required. In every village

136 Report on the Royal Commission on Agriculture,1928, p 488 137 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, vol. XX, p 293-94 138 L. Meddelton & S.M. Jacob, op.cit., p 180-81 139 Ibid.

246

cases were mentioned of “siris” deserting their masters and the latter

finding it difficult to get back the advanced of wages made to the

former.

The wages paid in kind to artisans and labourers for the various

agricultural operations were the same as before the war but more often

the cultivators made an attempt to get work done for cash rather than a

kind in spite the rise in cash wages. Cash wages were thought to be

economical because, firstly, greater control could be exercised over the

worker whose services were hired for cash than on one working for

customary kind wages and, therefore, he could be made to put in more

time than before, and secondly, the weights fixed by custom for wages

in kind were not properly defined.140

The following table shows the pre-war and the current (1944-45)

average rates of wages for the more important classes of labourers in

the tract:

TABLE 4.7

AVERAGE RATES OF WAGES FOR DIFFERENT

CLASS OF WORKERS141

Class of Workers Rate of Wages per Day

Pre-war Current

Field Labourer Half Day

Full Day

Karigars

Weavers

Rs. as. P.

0------4-----0

0------6-----0

0-----13-----0

1------0-----0

Plus 10 Kacha

seers of grain as

„pan‟ i.e. 1—4--0

Rs. as. P.

1------0------0

1------12----0

2------8-----0

2------8-----0

Plus 15 Kacha

seers of grain as

„pan‟ i.e. 4—0—0.

140 BEIP,„Punjab Village During the War‟, Pub No. 91, p 10 141 Ibid.

247

Table 4. shows that during the IInd World War the wages of a

labourer were increased because due to war non-martial castes

recruited in the army and their income grew, because the number of the

labour was continually decreased in the rural area.

Tenancy the number of big non-cultivating owners (with, say,

over 100 acres) being nominal and the consequent absence of the class

of landless tenants, the tenancy problems, as commonly understood,

did not exist in the tract. No change was noticed as regards terms of

batai cultivation (which continued to be half and half) and the sharing

of costs of production. The relation between the non-cultivating

landowner and the owner-tenants on the whole remained cordial

because both of them were in most cases relatives. It was an

undeniable fact that the position of peasant proprietor was better than a

tenant as several factors were in favour. The size of holding was

generally large; his cultivated areas were relatively better; and their

economic condition was comparatively sounder than that of tenant. For

political consideration and imperial interest, the British government

was conducive to him. Concessions and exemptions offered by the

government, or in other words, almost every initiative of government

regarding agriculture went largely to the favour of the peasant

proprietors.142

Thus, the myth has taken place that the Punjab was

primarily a land of Undifferentiated peasant proprietors.143

Besides these rural proprietors, there were also tenants closely

associated with the village agrarian production organization. Many of

them were decedents of those, whose ancestors helped the village

proprietary body in the foundation of new villages. Many again were

142 NAI, Department and Agriculture, Land Revenue-A, April 1901, Proceeding no. 25-26. 143 M.L. Darling, op.cit,. p 4

248

related to the proprietors by ties of kinship and assisted them in

repelling the attacks of common foes. 144

Cash rents nearly trebled on the chahi and more than doubled on

the barani soils. The area under cash rents decreased due to the fact

that while formerly the non-cultivating owners used to lease out land,

take to other occupations within or without their village and save

themselves the bother of looking after the land, now with the raising

prices of food they thought of advisable to grow their own cereals

rather than buy them and did not, therefore, lease the land as freely as

before.145

The following table shows the acreage and the price of

cultivated land sold annually since 1939-40 in the twenty villages:

TABLE 4.8

ACREAGE AND PRICE OF CULTIVATED LAND SOLD

Year No. of

sales

Area sold

(Acres)

Revenue

assessed

Rs. a. p.

Price paid

(Rs.)

Price per

acre

1939-40

1940-41

1941-42

1942-43

1943-44

1944-45

Half Year

1945-46

128

143

184

108

114

213

35

132

176

155

129

217

183

26

189-15-9

291-11-3

229-12-0

215—1-0

323—8-6

203—1-0

47—11--0

51,215

80,273

74,548

74,467

197,077

175,653

33,347

377

456

481

577

908

960

1283

Average

Per year

142 157 240-0-0 105,628

144 Himadri Banerjee, op.cit, p 5 145BEIP, „ Punjab Village During the War‟, Pub No. 91, p 13

249

Above table 4.8 Shows that the price of the land increased

drastically during the war and it reached at high level in the 1945-46

and land price was Rs. 1283/- acre, but on the other hand, it was only

Rs.377 in 1939-40. The area sold rose from 132 acres in 1939-40 to

176 acres in 1940-41, then fell in the next two years to 155 and 129

acres respectively, rose again to 217 acres in 1943-44 and fell to 183

acres in 1944-45.

The price of land as shown in the table above was as average

price for all classes of land. The price of chahi land rose from Rs.

1,212 per acre in 1939-40 to Rs. 1,515 in 1940-41, fell to Rs. 1,159 in

1941-42 and then rose again, being Rs. 2,974 in 1943-44, which meant

an increase of 143 per cent. The price of barani land rose from Rs. 245

per acre in 1939-40 to Rs. 667 in 1943-44. i.e., by 172 per cent.146

There was a noticeable change in the attitude of the villagers.

They generally wanted to earn more and spend less in order to have

surplus budgets. As capital investments had to be postponed on account

of a prohibitive rise in the prices of iron, cement, wood and bricks, and

as the supplies of consumers‟ goods were short, the surpluses flowed

into the savings. In a way it was good because it was expected that

after the war, goods would be available in plenty and the villagers

would be able to buy more with their savings.147

It is of some to inquire how the savings were used or kept by the

villagers. A part of them found its way into the purchase of land which

is considered the safest investment by the zamindars. Another part

went into War Loans and Defence Bond, partly under pressure. The

index for judging the ability of the individual to contribute towards

146 BEIP,„Punjab Village During the War‟, Pub No. 91, pp 19-20 147 Ibid, p 32

250

these loans was the land purchased, taken on mortgage or redeemed by

him. An appreciable part of these savings was kept in cash at home,

because it was feared that if deposits were placed with the Co-

operative Societies or the Postal Savings Banks, they might broadcast

the reaches of their owners and induce the Government to adopt

measures to grab a part the savings was utilized for redeeming

mortgaged lands and shaking off past indebtedness. It appears that

wherever old liabilities could be built up by the use of cash, the

villagers utilized their increased income to di so. This increase in

prosperity percolated to the lower groups of society also. Artisans and

menials had their due share of it; the wages of field labourers also rose,

as some of them left to join the army. The relations between the

landowners and the landless class became even less cordial and the

harmony of village society was disturbed.

The villager, of course, suffered on account of the controls on

the distribution of necessaries like sugar, kerosene oil , cloth and

capital requirements like iron, cement, bricks, etc., but his difficulties

were in no way as great or formidable as those of the urban people.

Moreover, the war time conditions must mean some inconvenience for

all classes which should be weighed and balanced against the profitable

opportunities it offered to particular classes. In the case of the rural

agricultural class as a whole, I would perhaps be correct to say that

benefits far outweighed the losses.148

The increased income of the villagers in general and the peasants

in particular eliminated the need for credit. If a cultivator had to

borrow at all during the war, he could not get unsecured debt at any

rate of interest and had invariably to mortgage his land. But for the

148 BEIP, „Punjab Village During the War‟, Pub No. 91, pp 33

251

war-time prosperity, the Debt Legislation, which had considerably

curtailed the facilities available to the agriculturist for borrowing

freely from the only rural credit agency, viz., the non-agriculturist

money-lenders would have been put to severe test. The co-operative

credit societies were able to recover many of their outstanding debts.

Redemption of mortgaged land, of course, absorbed a large percentage

of the rural savings.149

After the Second World War, the social relation in rural society

of the Punjab was tensed due to some reason. During the War a number

of persons recruited in the army to all castes from the Punjab. So the

economic conditions of the people of the Punjab had been raised due to

the money came from in the form of pay. Because of this, the economic

status of the many families of the rural Punjab had been increased. So

the relation of the rural society was not in a normal position. All these

were due to the policies of the British colonialism.

149Ibid, p 34

252

CONCLUSION

The British East India Company which emerged as a political

power after its geographical expansion upto mid-nineteenth century,

start the economic exploitation by their economic policies. After 1857,

the time popularly known as the British Raj in India witnessed a new

face of the Britishers not only in politico-administrative field but also

in agro-economic area. The subtle ways of the drain of wealth

perpetuated till the rule ended. But a benevolent face is also seen in the

means of growth of agriculture production by way of adoption of

agricultural technology to sustain and promote the growth. But the

underline idea was not save the peasantry of the Punjab under study,

but to help the cultivation to grow more raw materials for the benefit of

the British.

Colonial rule had great impact on the region of the Punjab. The

Punjab was annexed by the East India Company in 1849. When the

Britishers came to this region, they did not so merely as traders.

Instead, they came, to quote K. W. Jones with „mature Imperial

consciousness‟, which indeed determined their policies in the newly

acquired province. About a hundred years earlier when the British East

India Company henceforth the Company conquered Bengal, it

represented an important extension of the system of mercantilism under

which the upper most object of the Company had been to collect more

and more wealth by expending trade and by direct pillage and loot on

the strength of control of state power. With the beginning of the

nineteenth century, however, the British industrial bourgeoisie

gradually hegemonies the society and the politics in England and this

led to an important shift in the nature of the British rule in India. In the

253

new conditions, the underlying objective of the colonial state was to

consolidate its rule in different parts of the country not only to enlarge

the volume of trade, but also to have an access to raw materials

necessary for production on industrial goods in England.

Keeping in view this aspect, the British government gradually

„converted the Punjab into an agrarian appendix of the Brit ish

metropolis. Large amount of capital were invested by the government

in building canal irrigation system in West Punjab which brought new

areas under cultivation, and greatly increased agrarian production. In

this region of canal colonies, agriculture was actually transformed into

a capitalist venture where production was geared to the market, and

was not merely an activity pursued for the purpose of subsistence. A

major part of the agricultural produce was transported through the

newly established railway system from the Punjab to port cities for

export to the overseas market. This included export of grains and raw

cotton to Britain in large quantities which naturally made this province

particularly important for the metropolis.

Agrarian policy of the British government was not uniform in all

Indian provinces, it was changed with the passage of time and as well

as specific regions. The aim of the policy was suppression and

exploitation of the colonial people. The first stage of suppression

shifted towards exploitation in the second stage. Several factors were

responsible for this shift, for example, the very geographical conditions

of the area, potentialities for agriculture, colonial needs, nature of

peasantry, colonial understanding of land-rights and political hold over

the territory an others.

The Punjab with its ample agricultural potentialities like the

fertile thirsty plains, under-utilized rivers and hardworking peasantry,

254

regarded by its British conquerors as more valuable than the discovery

of the richest mines. A great portion of the available uncultivated land,

however, was situated far away from the centers of trade and lines of

communication or was not within the reach of canals or wells and even

of seasonal rainfall. The expansion of cultivat ion in such tracts could

be affected only through large scale canalization of the measures

specifically suited to their local circumstance.

At the outset of the British rule, about one-fourth of the total

area was under cultivation, and sixth to one fifth was regularly

irrigated. The agricultural resources of the province were not only

highly under-utilized; the area under cultivation was also unevenly

distributed. Development of agricultural science and technology under

towed agricultural development in the Punjab under British rule.

Initiative in this direction was taken in the days of the Board of

Administration. The new varieties of the crops gave higher yield than

the indigenous varieties. The new varieties of wheat, Punjab 11, Punjab

8A and wheat No. 265 yielded produce worth Rs. 15 per cent more

than the native varieties. Increasingly greater attention was paid to it in

the later years. High yielding verities of crops like wheat, cotton and

sugarcane were either brought from other counties or were evolved in

various research institution in the Punjab and elsewhere Punjab 8A and

Punjab 11; that of cotton were American 4F- Egyptian varieties; and of

sugarcane were Poona and Coimbatore. Some new crops such as tea,

flex and potatoes were also introduced. In the period under study,

the three-fourth population of the Punjab depends on the agricultural.

The population of the Punjab in 1901 was 24,367,113 or 8 per cent of

the total population of the Indian empire. The increase in the

population of the province during the period 1901 to 1941 was 40.8 per

255

cent. Throughout our period, from 50 to 60 per cent of the total

population was directly and solely engaged in agricultural and pastoral

pursuits. Since the employment opportunities in the non-farm

avocations did not grow equal to the growth in the population,

increases pressure fell on land and the only device left was to bring

more area under cultivation which augmented the total cultivated area.

Agricultural innovations in the 20th

century made considerable

headway and experimental farms were established at important places

in the province. The more sophisticated, durable and light iron

implements like the sugarcane press, Persian-wheel, fodder-cutter,

harrow and the iron plough became very popular. New techniques of

sowing and rotation were evolved to renovate the soil. For the

prevention and increase of the productive power of the soil, the

devastating activities of the chos and the water-logging were checked.

Live stock was improved by cross-breeding of strong and more

efficient cattle. Use of organic manure also increased. Even the

inorganic fertilizer steadily increased in use in the last quarter of

British rule.

Was not the result of expansion of irrigation alone, in 1868,

about 14 million acres 66.6 per cent of the total cultivated area was

unirrigated. In 1900, the unirrigated area was about 19 million acres

forming 68 per cent of the total land under cultivation. For the

significant extension of the cultivated area, however, the growth of

irrigation and colonization of the vast uncultivated tracts was of the

foremost importance. The canal system like, the Lower Chenab Canal.

Lower Jhelum Canal, Triple Project, Satluj Valley Project, Haveli

Project, and part of Sirhind Western Jamna and upper Bari Doab Cana l,

brought water to the arid, thinly populated and sparsely cultivated

256

regions in the south- western and south-eastern plains of the Punjab. In

the south-western Punjab, alone with irrigating the already cultivated

land, the expansion of irrigation led to established of flourishing canal

colonies known as Lyallpur, Shahpur, Ganji Bar, Nili Bar, Sidhani,

Sohag-Para, Chunian, Jang Upper Chenab and Upper Jhelum- covering

altogether an area of about five million acre. The canals added

considerably to the agricultural prosperity of the dry south-eastern

districts of Ferozepur, Sirsa and Hissar as well. Irrigation both by the

government canal and private works, particularly the wells, increased

rapidly over the period.

As the area under irrigation increased, the percentage of the

matured over the sown area also went on increased. Annual

fluctuations in the cropped area in normal years decreased

successively. In addition to bringing marginal land under crop and

cultivation it also encouraged the cultivation of more remunerative

crops and adoption of techniques of intensive cultivation. In the

already well cultivated central and eastern districts, expansion of

irrigated acreage brought security to the crops against scarcity of

rainfall and drought like conditions

The area under irrigation increased in the Punjab. In 1901 the

irrigated area was 5,473,359 acres, but in 1936-37, it increased and

reached 15,604,704 acres near about three times had been increased in

the Punjab province. The cultivated area of the Punjab province was

irrigated by canals.

The British government introduced some new things in animal

husbandry with a motive to improve and promote the methods and

technique. The effort was made to improve the condition of the live-

stock in the region to the west of river Sutlej. The most important step

257

in this direction was the importation of the bulls from Hissar, Hansi

and Sirsa for the improvement of cattle wealth, the veterinary college

of the Punjab was established in the Lahore. The output of the Hissar

Cattle Farm was limited, while the demand for stud bulls may expect to

increase. During the British period, south-east Punjab was main hub of

the live stock. Many cattle fair organized in this track like Jehazgarh

Cattle Fair, Hansi cattle Fair and Rohtak Cattle fair. But the scarcity of

the fodder was a setback for the live-stock in this region.

Agriculture was the main occupation of the majority of the

people in Punjab during the British rule and it continues to so even

today, though its share in the gross national product has decreased.

However, it is a regrettable fact that agriculture during the British

period was in very backward state. Agriculture was not a very lucrative

profession and even the large size of land holdings held by the

zamindars was no criteria to determine their prosperity nor was the

higher amount of land revenue paid by the meant greater prosperity of

a peasant. The condition of the tenants was still worse. This was

substantiated by the findings of the board of economic enquiry, Punjab,

which showed "tenant was at the bottom of his resources, he practically

got very little after meeting his rent. Peasant proprietors and tenants

played an important role in agrarian society.

The loans for agricultural improvements also were given on th e

security of land to those persons who had a right to make that

improvement. The concession and exemptions offered by the

government to those constructed irrigation works and effecting other

improvement of land also went largely to the peasant proprietors . In

fact, the system of public investment and incentives given in

agriculture was such in which greater advantage to the peasant

258

proprietors was inbuilt. Unionist party constantly pleased that no land

revenue should be charged from those who owned either upto 2 acres

of canal irrigated land or 5 unirrigated acres, or those who paid land

revenue upto 5/-. Actually, a cultivators paying Rs. 5/- as land revenue

with in service was much better off than the Rs. 25/- but without any

member of the family in service. Therefore, when the Unionist party

got majority, it tried to implement its ideas of limited abolition of land

revenue. The Unionist Govt. allowed special remission on account of

low prices or bad crops in districts where the system of sliding scale of

assessment of land revenue had not yet been introduced. In 1937 the

remission were given to the extent of Rs. 95000 and in 1938 it was Rs.

4,58,000 for the rabi crops. During the years 1937-38 remission of Rs.

3.6237 crores were given due to hailstorm and famine while it was only

Rs 1.4737 crores between1934-37. The rate of land revenue was

lowered from 40-46% in Gurgaon, Jhelum and Lahore districts to

23.2% in Fasur from 22% to 16% in Chunian 33.5% to 15% and in

Amritsar from 22% to 15.3%. By 1942, the Punjab cultivator had

become the lowest “land rule” payer in the country.

A comparison between the years 1911-12 and 1918-19 given in

the statement shows that the total area held by occupancy tenants and

tenants-at-will had increased from 14,767 acres in 1911-12 to 792,147

acres in 1918-19. It can be easily concluded that there was a great

demand for land, but this increase did not improve the plight of

cultivators owing to high rents, and the ability of the landlord to exact

a fifty per cent share in land instead of reasonable cash rent. But the

condition was not better of a peasant comparison to a peon.

According to Mr. Morland it was better to be a peon than a

peasant under the Mughal kings in 16th

-17th

centuries. That may or may

259

not be true, but it was literally true that in the Punjab, where the level

of the agricultural „prosperity‟ was higher than in other parts of India,

the meanest peon was better off than an average peasant owning less

than 5 acres (58.3 per cent of the total number of owners), and much

better off than a tenant cultivators (tenant cultivate about 60 per cent of

the land in the Punjab). A peon earned about Rs. 200 in a year. The

average net income per acre in 1932-33 according to the Punjab Farm

Account, was Rs. 20.4, or a little more than Rs. 100 for 5 acres (Rs.

11-14 per acre in 1931-32 and Rs. 7-13 in 1930-31). Even in 1928-29,

or before the collapse of prices, the average income per acre did not

exceed Rs. 33. The tenant, it goes without saying, earn much less than

peasant-proprietors. To a great many peasants in the Punjab in British

period the earnings of a Government peon were untold wealth.

On March, 13, 1942, Ch. Chhotu Ram remarked on the floor of

the Legislative Assembly that they further wanted to reduce the land

revenue and the objective could be achieved only if the provincial

Govt. was allowed by the central Govt. to levy full taxes on the

capitalists of the Punjab who had been enjoying almost total immunity

from local taxation. But the claim is belied by the facts. The Unionist

party made no effects to implement this programme. It would not prove

workable because the poor and illiterate agriculturists would not be

able to maintain their accounts, more so when traders with an annual

turnover exceeding Rs. 10,000 were finding it difficult to maintain

their accounts for assessment under the General sales Act. The

Agricultural markets products act passed in 1939, was mainly intended

to prevent mal-practice in the markets whereby the ignorant cultivator

had been defrauded of his just dues.

The Unionist party highly pleased in passing these Acts.

260

Speaking about the Acts Ch. Chhotu Ram declared the Acts would

most benefit the backward and poor classes like Kisans, Mazdoors and

the untouchables. In another occasion Sir Chhotu Ram condemned the

previous governments and tried to win the hearts of the Zamindars. He

said that “the Govt. of these days were autocratic and irresponsible

which could not be moved except when they were face to face with

serious threats…. I raised the cry in the hope that the government

might in order to avert this threat agree to make other reasonable

concessions to the Zamindars”. In fact the Unionist party wanted to

maintain itself the champion of suffering peasantry of the Punjab but

the facts told a different tale. The reason for this being the Unionist

party denied the fact of a dichotomy of interests between the big

landlords and the petty peasants. Sir Chhotu Ram declared that there

was no difference between mong and math (two kinds of pulses).

The non-agriculturists were at liberty permanently to alienate

land through sales, exchanges, gifts and wills. Members of the

agricultural tribes would enjoy the same liberty but only if the alinee

was a member of the same tribe in the same district. Permanent

alienation by them to any one not belonging to this tribe (including the

non-agriculturists) would require the sanction of the deputy

Commissioner temporary alienation of land to non-agriculturists upto a

maximum period of 20 years could be made, but after the lapse of 20

years the land would revert unencumbered to the alienation. This

provision of the Act created a serious discontent among the business

communities of the province, because it prevented the exploitation of

the peasants. But the Act could not fulfill the government's

expectations, because the money lender, after margining the land of

their clients, confined their attention only to yield and not to the land.

261

In other words, land still remained in the hands of its original owners.

But under the land alienation act, a new class of moneylenders

emerged. This class was interested in capturing the land holdings of

their clients. This system led to evasions of the provisions of act

through Benami transaction by which transfer were nominally made in

favour of agriculturists while the real profit was reaped by

moneylenders.

Now, the ordinary villager goes to a bania to borrow money. The

bania says, he will charge only one anna in the rupee per mensem. The

villager is never able to realize the consequences such a bargain. He

cannot calculate what an anna is the rupee means. He does not know

that the rate of interest comes to 12 annas in the rupee per annum,

which means 75 percent per annam. Honorable members of this House

can easily realize the heavy burden that is thrown on the villager who

borrows from a bania.

Moreover, these crafty money-lenders evade the provisions of

the Land Alienation Act in many ways. They mortgage the lands of

their debtors to others zamindars on agreement that they should pay the

money advanced in fixed installments. Those zamindars also, in their

turn, fail to pay the installments at the fixed installments. Those

zamindars also, in their turn, fail to pay the installments at the fixed

time whereupon the Insolvency Courts come to the help of the money

lenders and the land is attached and sold. The condition of the

zamindars is pitiable. Three consecutive crops have failed. The non-

agriculturists are wise and cunning. And on the top of all this, comes

the ruling given by Mr. Justice Dalip Singh, which is sure to prove

very disastrous in its results.

262

As a cumulative result of the new conditions and the response of

the people to them, the gross cultivated area over the total area in the

Punjab increased from 23 per cent in 1849 to 45 per cent in 1901 and

53 per cent in 1947. The irrigated area over the gross cultivated area

similarly rose from 28 per cent in 1868 to 33 per cent in 1901 and 52

per cent in 1940. In 1939-40, the Punjab formed about 12 per cent of

the total as well as the net sown area in British India. But it had 30 per

cent of the total irrigated area and 45 per cent of the area irrigated by

the government canals. Of the total irrigated crops 29 per cent were in

the Punjab; followed by United Province, 22 per cent ; Madras 18 per

cent; and Sind 18 per cent. Much more than this, the Punjab had

respectively 46 and 63 per cent of the total irrigated area in British

India under wheat and cotton. The yield per acre also increased by 50

per cent on irrigated land. As a result, the Punjab became the foremost

grain exporting province in British India in the 20th

century. Thus, with

the advancement of agricultural science and technology as well as

irrigation in the Punjab it became agriculturally the best developed

region of India.

The cultivated area did not expend everywhere. In some tracts

there were signs of consideration. The cultivation in bet areas

decreased considerably with the construction of large scale canal

irrigation works because the flow of the water in the river channels

decreased which reduced the area under sailab cultivation. The

excessive canal irrigation often resulted in water logging along the

course of the main canals and turned the fertile fields unproductive.

The movements of peasantry from the populous districts to the canal

colonies also caused decrease in cultivation in the home districts.

The extension of the irrigation and the availability of cultivable

263

land to be brought under cultivation were obviously the basic factors

which determined the growth of agriculture in different regions. The

most noteworthy characteristic of agricultural developments thus was

that it was primarily a development in the sense of increase in acreage

under cultivation effected through the various irrigation projects. In

other words, comparatively less attention was paid to intensive

cultivation.

Mir Maqbool Muhammad, PLC member, informs the Council

that the zamindars of the province from two-thirds of the total

population. But the annual average income of a zamindar ranges

between Rs. 40 and Rs. 60 While an average expenditure on feeding

and clothing alone of a Punjab prisoner is Rs. 92. It shows that about

one half of the population of this province cannot afford even the

miserable standard of feeding and clothing of prisoners. Consequently

it is quite obvious that the zamindars specially require the immediate

help and consideration of both the Government and the Public. It is

admittedly true that land and the average produce of the zamindars are

decreasing day by day. Moreover the zamindars are crying under the

heavy burden of loans and at the same an ordinary zamindar to pass his

days of life. Owing to these circumstances the death rate has

considerably increased. It is gratifying that the Government is prepared

to do everything reasonable for the betterment of the zamindars but I

feel there is still much to be done in this connection. For a few co -

operative societies or dairy Farms would not solve our rural problem.

There should be a definite programme before the government for the

purpose. Wherever in Europe or America the zamindars have made any

real progress you would see the reform started with a definite

programme set up by a committee of the type.

264

The general picture of the villages during the war was one of the

rise in money incomes without a corresponding rise in the real

incomes. The rise in money incomes was due to the rise in the prices of

agricultural produce and the larger recruitment to the Army. It should

be normally have led to an increase in the real incomes also and to a

higher slandered of living but conditions during the war were

abnormal; both producer and consumers goods were short in supply

and even money could not, in many cases, buy the article badly needed.

The villagers, therefore, found that there were not sufficient stocks in

the market on which to spend his increased income and, making a

virtue out of necessity, he began to amass savings, he did, of course,

invest in land, cattle and house construction wherever he could; he

took land on mortgage and he also went in for luxury articles whenever

he could have them. But even so, there were surplus in income to spare

and the only things that could be done with them were to keep them.

To some extent, therefore, the villager was „forced‟ to save. It wou ld of

course, be wrong to say that all the savings of the villagers were

„forced savings‟ because the war did teach the villager the virtue of

savings.

The improvement on the economic condition of the members of

the artisan and menial groups was reflected to some extent in the

change of their status. The employers became more careful in their

treatment of the artisans and menials because the latter were no longer

wholly dependent on income from land and could throw up their job

and maintain the pre-war standard of living without working for them.

The Karigar, who could do the job of a carpenter, a blacksmith and a

mason had a rush of work and was able to build up small nest -eggs

from the savings. The Sunar was not so lucky but he, too, might get his

265

chance after the war. The village shop-keeper, however, lost, because

his activities had to be restricted due to war-time control. The high

price and the disappearance of the quality cloth brought into

importance the weaver who again became an indispensable organ of the

village society.

Therefore it can well be concluded that the tools and methods of

colonial state in Punjab worked as two-edged sword further the rural

society. The British colonialism penetrated its root deep into the

agrarian exploitation of the rural society by enhancing the capacity of

its coffer with more and more revenue collection by various means as

referred in two different chapter of this study and also by creating a

divide into the Punjab society with its colonial tools. In one way it

succeeded in collecting more and more revenue and also agricultural

produce for the industries in Britain, on the other hand, it successfully

divided various communities. The money-lenders and peasantry was at

dagger‟s head, the Congress and Unionist party also became political

enemies, organization like Hindu Mahasabha created communal

disharmony and urban and rural society saw a clear divide due to the

British tool of colonialism in Punjab. The fallout of the Second World

War created dissension and discontentment in the rural society as has

been discussed elsewhere in this study.

266

GLOSSARY

Anna 1/6th part of a rupee.

Bail Oxen.

Bajar Retail market, shopping centre.

Bajra Millet.

Bandobast Settlement or arrangement. Colloquially the

arrangements for any undertaking.

Bania A Hindu, trader-cum-money lender.

Banjar Waste or fallow land.

Begar Forced labour

Benami Transfer in the name of the fictitious person

Bhus Wheat straw.

Bigah A measure of land.

Chahi Irrigated from well

Chara Straw.

Charasa Leather bucket

Gur Raw sugar.

Guru Hindu religious teacher spiritual guide.

Hakim The indigenous practioners of medicine.

Hollow Gohn.

Jowar A kind of millet

Kharif Autumn harvest.

Khuta Mud receptacles.

267

Kirar Contemptuous term for Hindu Money-lender

Killa A acre.

Kup Storage of straw.

Mandi Market for a particular article.

Maund A measurement unit of 40 seers.

Moongfali Groundnut.

Nahar Canal.

Nahari Irrigated from a canal

Pargana Sub-division of a tehsil.

Patwari Village accountant.

Persian Wheel Rahat.

Rabi Spring crop.

Seer A measurement unit, V40 th part of a maund.

Shahukar A small scale dealer, trader and Money-lender.

Taccavi Cash loan for productive purposes.

Tehsil Sub-division of a district.

Wajib-ul-arz Rights to take the water.

Zaildar Official for collection of revenue in the villages.

Zamindar Owner of land.

268

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272

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