SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN COLONIAL DISTRICT MULTAN: (1849-1901)

Abstract

The study aims at investigating the socio- economic development under the British Colonial rule in the Multan District (1849-1901). The city of Multan has been an area of strategic, geographical, political and economic significance throughout the recorded history but occupied special importance during the British rule in India. Historians have shed enough light on the national history and regional history of Pakistan, but they have overlooked the socio-economic aspect of local history of the Punjab in general and Multan in particular. Therefore, this study focuses on a local history of city of Multan which was one of the major cultural, social, economic and political centers of the British India. The study examines the process of socio-economic transformation enforced through political control and thus it shall be impact oriented based in which the theories of patron-client relationship and inclusion and exclusion shall be incorporated. This study emphasizes the contradictions and weaknesses inherent in the collaborative system of rule. The emphasis thus shifts from the colonial standpoint and understanding to a Punjabi perspective. This study is not only a new paradigm for explaining and interpreting the phenomena of socio-economic development and administrative control of Multan, but it also points out relative weaknesses and strengths in the existing paradigm. The findings revealed substantial development occurred as two-sided process of continuity and change in which the old modes of administration and social practices continued to exist. They were modified along with the new innovations in the region. The perennial canal system and the scheme of Sidhnai Canal Colony changed the whole landscape and economy of the district of Multan. This caused significant gap in the socio-economic growth in the proprietary and the colony villages and also in the old established towns and the migration from ancestral homes to new colony tracts of Sidnai Canal. The study also brought to light an under researched aspect which is the quest for power by the local elites and how the colonial state was manipulated by those local elites to quench their thirst for power and authority to strengthen their own declining positions in the society. Therefore, the study has ascertained that neither regional nor national history of Pakistan or South Asia can be properly touched without exploring the local history of the important towns and cities of the sub-continent during the British rule.