~ THE EAST-WEST CENTER-formally known as "The Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West"-was established in Hawaii by the United States Congress in 1960. As a national educational institution in cooperation with the University of Hawaii, the Center has the mandated goal "to promote better relations and understanding between the United States and the nations ofAsia and the Pacific through cooperative study, training, and research." Each year about 2,000 men and women from the United States and some 40 countries and territories ofAsia and the Pacific area work and study together with a multinational East-West Center staff in wide-ranging programs dealing with problems of mutual East-West concern. Participants are supported by federal scholar­ ships and grants, supplemented in some fields by contributions from Asian/Pacific governments and private foundations. Centerprograms are conducted bythe East-West Communica­ tion Institute, the East-West Culture Learning Institute, the East-West Food Institute, the East-West Population Institute, and the East-West Technology and Development Institute. Open Grants are awarded to provide scope for educational and research innovation, including a program ~n humanities and the arts. East-West Center Books are published by The University Press of Hawaii to further the Center's aims and programs. L RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH AND PAKISTAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH AND PAKISTAN Edited by Robert D. Stevens HamzaAlavi Peter J. Bertocd JlANEAS~lVESTCENTERBOOK The University Press of Hawaii Honolulu Copyright © 1976 by The University Press of Hawaii All rights reserved. No part ofthis work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo­ copying and recording, or by an information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Penny L. Faron Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Rural development in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Revised papers presented at a Research Workshop on Rural Development in Pakistan, held at Michigan State University, June 21-July 28, 1971, under the sponsorship of the Asian Studies Center. "An East-West Center book." Includes bibliographies and index. 1. Bangladesh-Rural conditions-Congresses. 2. Pakistan-Rural conditions-Congresses. I. Stevens,-Robert Dale, 1927- II. Alavi, Hamza, 1921- III. Bertocci, Peter J. IV. Research Workshop on Rural Development in Pakistan, Michigan State University, 1971. HN690.6.A8R87 309.2'63'095491 75-17807 ISBN 0-8248-0332-9 CONTENTS Preface vii PART I. RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH ..-1,' Rural Development in Bangladesh: An Introduction 3 Peter J. Bertocci 2. Stability and Change in Landholding and Revenue Systems in Bengal 9 Philip B. Calkins ....-3: The Administration of Rural Reform: Structural Constraints and Political Dilemmas 29 Elliot L. Tepper / East Pakistan's Agricultural Planning and Development, 1955-1969: Its Legacy for Bangladesh 60 Charles M. Elkinton 5. Comilla Rural Development Programs to 1971 95 Robert D. Stevens 6. Introduction and Use of Improved Rice Varieties: Who Benefits? 129 LeVern Faidley and Merle L. Esmay ::r: Experience with Low-Cost Tubewell Irrigation 146 Khondaker Azharul H aq KSocial Organization and Agricultural Development in Bangladesh 157 PeterJ. Bertocci PART II. RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN PAKISTAN 9. Themes in Economic Growth and Social Change in Rural Pakistan: An Introduction 187 Robert D. Stevens 10. The Historical Context of Pakistan's Rural Economy 198 Harry M. Raulet vi Contents ll. Rural Self-Government in Pakistan: An Experiment in Political Development through Bureaucracy 214 Muneer Ahmad 12. Agricultural Growth and Planning in the 1960s 232 Parvez Hasan 13. Relationships between Technology, Prices, and Income Distribution in Pakistan's Agriculture: Some Observations on the Green Revolution 242 Carl H. Gotsch 14. The Adoption and Effects of High-Yielding Wheats on Unirrigated Subsistence Holdings in Pakistan 270 Refugio I. Rochin 15. The Development of Pakistan's Agriculture: An Interdisciplinary Explanation 290 Shahid Javed Burki 16. The Rural Elite and Agricultural Development in Pakistan 317 Hamza Alavi 17. The Green Revolution and Future Developments of Pakistan's Agriculture 354 Carl H. Gotsch Glossary 383 Index 389 PREFACE Rural development experiences in Bangladesh and Pakistan provide a major opportunity to examine the evolving interrelation­ ships between technical, economic, political, and social change. Over the last quarter ofa century, these experiences have occurred in the context of a series of national development plans and the onset ofthe "green revolution." * These rural development efforts have had mixed results. In recent years Pakistan's Punjab has broken international agricultural records through very rapid rates ofgrowth in wheat production. However, current social and politi­ cal trends in rural areas of Pakistan suggest considerable uncer­ tainty about future agricultural development and increased rural conflict. To the east, the continuing touch-and-go struggle of the Bengali people to increase rural welfare raises grave questions about national economy viability in agriculture and reasonable political stability. These papers provide the first in-depth study ofthe problems and processes ofrural development, up to 1972, in the two regions / of the former nation of Pakistan. The analyses are set against the backdrop ofhistorical change and the emergent social and political structures. They are undertaken in widely varying resource con­ texts, from the irrigated and unirrigated regions oflow rainfall and relatively low population density in Pakistan to the monsoon ag­ ricultural regions ofhigh rainfall and exceedingly high population density in Bangladesh. They include details of significant technological developments behind the green revolution in South Asia. The papers aid the student ofdevelopment to gain insight into how different sets of strategies are rooted in, and interact with, * The term "green revolution" refers to the recent large-scale development of high-yielding varieties of wheat, rice, and other grains, whose introduction into developing countries has greatly increased crop yields and food production. viii Preface historical, but changing, social structures. Attention is focused on evaluating the results ofsuccessful strategies as well as on under­ standing unintended outcomes. In doing so, these papers provide essential knowledge ofthe lessons ofpast economic developments at a critical turning point in South Asian history. In accomplishing these tasks they point to major rural development issues of the 1970s in these two large Asian nations and provide guidelines for future planning. Fundamental questions of economic and cultural change are explored in these two important agricultural regions ofthe subcon­ tinent, which have shared a common colonial history and until recently the same administrative and political structures. The questions taken up in these studies include the extent to which social structures are flexible and responsive to technical and. economic changes, alternative roles for the civil bureaucracy in rural development, the extent ofthe impact ofgovernment policies and planning on rural development, the unexpected social effects of private and governmental agricultural development achieve­ ments, the extent to which rural income disparities are increasing, and the impact of original experiments in institutional change on government programs. Three general themes emerge: of agricultural stagnation and geographically limited spurts ofgrowth in each nation; ofthe need for political and administrative change to accompany social, economic, and technological developments; and ofthe importance ofthe interrelationships between social structures and the distribu­ tion of the benefits of technical and economic progress in rural areas. Most of the authors represented in this volume were active participants in rural development programs in these nations in the 1960s. They have sought to analyze past developments, both as a guide to future rural strategy in these nations and for the lessons these experiences may provide for other developing nations. De­ spite notable successes, uncertainty is so great about the future directions of these large rural areas of South Asia that questions keep arising as to whether these national and rural social systems will be able to change themselves rapidly enough in an evolution- Preface ix ary manner, or whether economic and political events will occur so ' rapidly that revolutionary change will ensue. ~ The following political events provide a time frame for the analyses that follow. In August 1947, Pakistan attained indepen­ dence from Britain as a result ofthe partition of the subcontinent with India. The new nation led by Governor General Mohammed Ali Jinnah comprised the predominantly Muslim areas in Bengal (East Pakistan) and all or parts offive regions in the northwestern area of the subcontinent, the Punjab, North-West Frontier Pro­ vince, Kashmir, the Sind, and Baluchistan (West Pakistan). A dec­ ade later, in October 1958, after a series ofshort-lived governments, the army in a bloodless coup installed General Ayub Khan as president of Pakistan. Ayub Khan ruled for ten years until he resigned under pressure in March 1969. General Yahya Khan, commander-in-chiefofthe army, then became president