The Social Dynamics of Economic Development in Rural Punjab

Abstract

tural production since 1950. In the past decade, the West Punjab area of Pakistan has shown similar dynamism in agriculture. The region thus affords an opportunity for the examination of factors involved in rural economic development, useful theoretically, as well as for the lessons it may have for the rest of the subcontinent. This paper is an exploration of some of the social factors in Punj abi rural development, focusing on the interplay between village social stratification systems and conditions effecting development. Our discussion of social dynamics is based in part on field work in two Lahore District communities (Pakistan) two villages in Ambala District (India), and on visits to many other villages primarily in Central Punjab and Canal Colony Districts which are today in West Pakistan.' Since our information is obviously derived from a limited sample, we cannot suggest that the social patterns described are universal in this region, but we believe they are common enough to be important. Our analysis should be taken as directed toward the development of some interpretive ideas and hypotheses, and certainly not as an attempt to formulate definitively the nature of social dynamics throughout rural Punjab. In any attempt to deal with rural economy in the Punj ab, the history of public works, particularly canal irrigation, must be taken into account. With the extension of the canal network, culminating in the great canal colonies constructed from 1880 to 1930, Punj ab moved from one of the poorest agricultural regions to the most productive. The total area under cultivation increased sharply-50 per cent from 1868 to 1921-and the proportion of canal irrigated area, from around 6 per cent to 36 per cent.2 Up to the 1920's, the area under cultivation seems to have expanded more