Punjab and Awadh 1857-1887 (Ideology, the Rural Power Structure and Imperial Rule)

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Dr. Chhanda Chattopadhyay is teaching History in the Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. She has studied in the book the process by which 'British imperialist interest and colonial economic ideologies were slowly assimilated themselves with the local power structure in the two newly annexed northern Indian provinces of Punjab and Awadh in the second half of 19th century. The process of assimilation according to her was guided by the over all British agrarian policy orientation which may be summed up as

1) harness the development of Indian agriculture to Manchester growing needs for raw-materials and markets.

2) create a political environment congenial to the undisturbed pursuit of such objects.

The land policy is a crucial determinant of social and political stability of any country particularly in a country like India which is largely dominated by the agrarian economy.

The study, therefore, has a topical interest in the current situation of the country as well.

I am, therefore, of the opinion that this dissertation would be very much useful to the scholars working in the relevant field of study.

This is a study of the process by which British imperial interests and colonial economic ideologies were slowly assimilating themselves to the local power structure in the two newly annexed northern Indian provinces of Punjab and Awadh in the second half of the nineteenth century. This period is known in the history of British land policy in India as the period of 'aristocratic reaction.' This proaristocratic phase is also trailed by two successive pairs of tenancy legislation in both provinces in 1868 and 1886-87. However, the structural forms emerging in the two provinces in the aftermath of these juridical exercizes offered sharp contrasts to each other, compelling the observer to look beyond the legal enactments for an explanation of the outcome. It appeared that although imperial perception of its interests and the attempt to expedite such interests through a resort to the dominant ideology of the day did not vary much in these two places, yet the presence of some autonomous indigenous elements changed the entire chemistry of the situation. These indigenous variables were the differential evolution of lord-peasant relations in the two different regions which would account for the divergence in the outcome of similar imperial policies and ideologies in the two places. The domination of the military warrior groups had been a fact of such significance in Awadh for a period stretching over several centuries that the peasantry in this region had never succeeded in asserting their claim to anything beyond a bare subsistence in the agrarian surplus of the country. Punjab, on the other hand, had been experiencing the upward thrust of the cultivating owners aided by the financial requirements of the militant Sikh state. A proaristocratic policy was therefore unlikely to meet the same reception in the two configurations. In Awadh it further intensified the weight of upper caste pressure on the cultivators, two successive tenancy laws notwithstanding. In Punjab even a distant shadow of the aristocratic cloud on the horizon was strongly insured against by means of the tenancy laws, the second one trying to close the gaps in the former.