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The Feudal Tentacles: Is Feudalism Dead

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The Feudal Tentacles: Is Feudalism Dead Pakistan Perspectives Vol. 13, No. 2, July-December 2008 1, January-June 2008 The Emergence of the Unionist Party in the Colonial Punjab (1923-1946): Politics of Opportunism Lubna Saif Introduction The colonial Punjab, ‘the flower bed of Indian Army’ remained a backwater for the nationalist movement. The province was considered a ‘security zone’ by the colonial administrators and was never allowed to develop democratic institutions like other Indian provinces. Till the 1919 reform, the Punjab was deprived of a constitutional government and maintained as a non-regulation province. There was no Executive Council or High Court and it did not have any effective representation in the Imperial Council. Immediately after its annexation, the province was placed under the authoritarian form of administration by Lord Dalhousie’s handpicked British officers, which came to be known as the Punjab School of Administration having a paternalistic attitude towards the province. 1 The ‘imperial experiment’ that was conducted in the Punjab between 1849-1856, the period of Lord Dalhousie’s governor- generalship, was essentially an experience in authoritarianism and political exclusiveness, which became a trade- mark of colonial policies in Punjab. Looking at the colonial political and administrative policies in the Punjab, this paper aims to trace the emergence of the National Unionist Party that continued to rule the Punjab till the last days of the raj. The Punjab National Unionist Party was born as an alliance of the Punjab Muslim Association and the Punjab Zamindar Central Association representing the landed and military interests in the aftermath of the 1919 reforms and continued to dominate the Punjabi politics for almost a quarter of a century before the partition. The Unionist Party owed its domination in the Punjab politics to the restricted Dr. Lubna Saif is Chairperson of the Department of Pakistan Studies, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad. 1 Andrew Major, Return to Empire: Punjab Under the Sikhs and British in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp.127-33. 14 Pakistan Perspectives franchise and official patronage. The Unionist ideology was consistent with dependence on a rural hierarchy and official patronage a phenomenon created by the colonial policies a legacy Pakistan inherited and continued even after sixty years of its independence. Analyzing British colonial policies in the Punjab, Ian Talbot argues that security rather than commercial considerations prompted the British administrative policies in Muslim northwest India. 2 Similarly, David Page observed that the ‘fear of Russian expansion’ and ‘the location of the Punjab’ created the dependence of Indian defense upon a strong Punjab.3 Colonial rulers’ concerns forced them to establish a ‘security state in the north-west India’. ‘Such a state could not afford political participation of the people resulting in far less developed political institutions and its survival dependant upon the support of certain tribal and landowning interests. 4 Imran Ali claims that the colonial state used ‘the land settlement policies’, especially in Canal Colonies for the fulfillment of military needs and provided the rural bases of military recruitment patterns.5 The support of local allies was crucial to the colonial control of the Punjab for its immense value to the British strategic interests and its reputation for political loyalty to the raj.6 David Page wrote that ‘the Muslims of West Punjab had played an important role in the annexation of the province, and both the Muslims and the Sikhs provided the forces, which enabled the government to put down the Mutiny of 1857’.7 These Muslim rural families were the ones who provided military services to the Sikhs and served the Sikh durbar in various administrative capacities and had been given jagirs. 8 Most of these families were of peasant origin and attained a prominent status by supporting and, in some cases 2 Ian Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 184-1947 (New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1988). 3 David Page, Prelude to Partition, The Indian Muslims and the Imperial System of Control 1920-1932 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp.51-2. 4 S. P. Cohen, The Indian Army: It’s Contribution to the Development of a Nation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), p.54. 5 Imran Ali, The Punjab under Imperialism, 1885-1947 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp.109-11 and M. S. Leigh, The Punjab and the War (Lahore: Government Printing Punjab, 1922), p.8. 6 Ibid., p.48. 7 David Page, op.cit., p.49. 8 David Gilmartin, Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan (London: I. B. & Taurus Co. Ltd., 1988), p.19. The Emergence of the Unionist Party in the Colonial Punjab… 15 joining winning misls.9 Their real fortunate moment came in 1857, when they joined and helped the British officers in the ‘dark and thick clouds’ of the ‘Revolt of the Indian Army’. The British recognized the heads of these families as ‘tribal leaders’, their local allies without whose support a strong loyal Punjab geared to bear the burden of Indian Army, could not be built. David Gilmartin observes that these ‘tribal leaders’ were promoted as ‘chieftains’, representatives of the landed class, since ‘the British found few established ‘tribal’ leaders in Punjab as they began to construct their rural administration’.10 These local rural intermediaries were created through a process started with the ‘land settlement’ policy, which resulted in the creation of homogenous administrative units called zails and took its final shape through Land Alienation Act of 1900, in the form of a system of indirect rule resting in the dominance of feudal and semi-feudal landowners and pirs, who were instrumental in recruitment of Punjabi soldiers. 11 In backward districts of western Punjab like 9 L. H. Griffin and C. F. Massy, Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab, 2 Vols. (Lahore: Government Printing, 1940), Punjab Archives [henceforth PA]. This is the single most comprehensive account of the social history of the Punjab elite. It contains short stories of the major families of each Punjab district and the Punjab chiefly states and tells how these families belonging to the peasant origin achieved the ‘elite’ status during the Sikhs and British rule. In the preface to the original edition of his book, Sir Lepel Griffin stated, ‘The intention of the work has been to give a picture of the Punjab aristocracy as it exists at the present day. No mention has accordingly been made of many families, Hindu and Muhammadan, once powerful and wealthy, which fell before the Sikhs. No mention has been made of many old Sikh families, whose jagirs were seized by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and whose descendants are now plain husbandmen. A few notices of tribes and families of no present importance have, for special reasons, been given; but as a general rule, only the histories of those men have been written who possess, at the present time, rank, wealth or local influence’, ibid., p.i. 10 David Gilmartin, op.cit., p.18. 11 During the First World War, heads of some Muslim families of western Punjab showed their loyalty by enlisting recruits for the Indian Army. Most notable amongst them were, Sardar Muhammad Nawaz Khan and Sikandar Hayat Khan in Shahpur and Jehlum districts who were assisted by pirs, such as Pir Ghulam Abbas of Makhad, Pir Fazal Shah of Jalalpur, Pir Badshah of Bhera, Pir Chan and Pir Sultan Ali Shah of Jehanian Shah. All these pirs directed their Muslim followers in the Shahpur and Jehlum districts to enlist. The involvement of pirs in raising recruits was very important since Indian Army was fighting against the Ottoman armies in Mesopotamia. See M. S. D. Butler, Record of War Services in the Attock 16 Pakistan Perspectives Muzzafargarh, Multan, Sahiwal, Shapur and Jhang, many families of loyal ‘pirs’ were converted into major landowners under the Land Alienation Act of 1900 by getting the status of agricultural tribes whose land could not be alienated. 12 By declaring them agricultural tribes, British not only provided protection to these hereditary custodians but also made them zaildars, honorary magistrates and district board members. 13 These hereditary custodians of shrines were also given maintenance grants subject to the good conduct of their wardens, in addition to ‘landed gentry’s grants’ in the Canal Colonies.14 ‘The Punjab Government’s recognition of the pirs as part of the ‘landed gentry’ had important political repercussions in establishing a unity of political interests between the landlords and the pirs’.15 In the absence of any ‘traces of former leadership’, structuring a reliable rural administration was a great challenge for the early British administrators. They constructed this foundation by redesigning the Punjabi rural structures and creating a ‘tribal social organization’ in which ‘tribes’ became the basis of the authority.16 Establishing a land owning class based upon ‘tribes’ in Punjab is linked to the ‘colonial recruitment policy of Indian army’. The Punjab government ‘very heavily relied on this landowning class in the recruitment of soldiers for the Army’.17 At the outbreak of the First World War, Indian Army was the largest volunteer army in the world’s history, and ‘consisted largely of officers and men District 1914-1919 (Lahore: Government Printing Punjab, 1921), PA. War Services of the Shahpur District (Lahore: Government Printing Punjab, n. d.), pp.37-50, PA. 12 For the list of tribes listed as ‘agriculturist tribes’ see S. Gurcharn Sing, The Punjab Alienation of Land Act XIII of 1900 (Lahore: n. p. 1901), PA. For example in Jhang, the agriculturist tribes included, Jats, Rajputs, Balochs, Syeds, Koreshis, Kokaras and Nekokaras. In Multan the list included, Kharals, Awans, Mughals, Pathans, Khokars, Arians, Gujars, Ods and Mahtams in addition to Jats, Rajputs, Bilochs, Syeds and Koreshis.
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