Building the Empire, Building the Nation: Water, land, and the politics of river-development in Sind

292 Pages·2011·2.18 MB·English

Building the Empire, Building the Nation: Water, land,
and the politics of river-development in Sind, 1898-1969

Timothy Daniel Haines

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy (PhD), Royal Holloway College,
University of London.

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Declaration of Work

I, Timothy Daniel Haines, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it
is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly
stated.

Signed……………………………………………………………………………

Date………...................04 April 2011…………………….............

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Abstract
Major attempts to control the natural environment characterized government
‘developmental’ activity in twentieth-century Sind. This thesis argues that the
construction of three barrage dams across the River Indus, along with a network of
irrigation canals, enacted human control over nature as a political project. The Raj
and its successor state in Sind, Pakistan, thereby claimed legitimacy through their
capacity to benefit humans by re-modelling the landscape. These claims depended
on an implied narrative of material progress, which irrigation development was
expected to bring about, in a province considered technologically and socially
backward.
In allocating land that was newly made available for cultivation, government
officials found an unprecedented opportunity to also re-shape agrarian society. As
well as providing the means by which ‘ideal types’ of cultivator could be encouraged
to proliferate, the development of Sind’s irrigation system was based on concepts of
modernization that promoted increasing state intervention in agrarian life to render
a ‘disordered’ society more easily governable. This trend was constrained, however,
by successive administrations’ need to balance the lure of radical modernization
against the powerful claims on new land of local magnates.
The colonial belief in the agricultural, economic, and social benefits of large-
scale irrigation projects was transplanted into the post-colonial state. The
construction of irrigation works, the colonization of land, and their political
implications before and after Independence are therefore analyzed, in order to
demonstrate how and why the logic of large infrastructure schemes remained
consistent. At the same time, differences in how successive administrations framed
and enacted barrage projects are shown to have depended on contemporary
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circumstances. In the process, the thesis sheds new light on the tensions between
and within the central and provincial governments, demonstrating the contested
nature of concepts of Imperial governance, nation-building, and material progress.

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Table of Contents

DECLARATION OF WORK ...................................................................................................... 2
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. 3
ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................... 7
A NOTE ON SPELLING AND NAMES ....................................................................................... 8
MAP OF PAKISTAN ............................................................................................................... 9
MAP OF SIND’S RIVER AND BARRAGES ............................................................................... 10
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... 11
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 13
WATER IN SOUTH ASIA .............................................................................................................. 18
INTRODUCING SIND ................................................................................................................... 21
METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES .................................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER OUTLINE .................................................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER 1: THE JAMRAO CANAL AND THE BEGINNING OF SCIENTIFIC IRRIGATION IN SIND
........................................................................................................................................... 34
SIND BEFORE AND AFTER BRITISH ANNEXATION .............................................................................. 36
THE LAIKPUR CANAL .................................................................................................................. 42
THE JAMRAO CANAL ................................................................................................................. 47
COLONIZATION OF THE JAMRAO PROJECT ...................................................................................... 53
CONTROLLING IRRIGATION AND CULTIVATION ON THE JAMRAO TRACT ................................................. 68
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 74
CHAPTER 2: THE SUKKUR BARRAGE AND SIND’S TRANSFORMATION ................................. 78
PLANNING THE SUKKUR BARRAGE ................................................................................................ 79
The 1912 Despatch .......................................................................................................... 82
The 1920 Despatch .......................................................................................................... 87
CONSTRUCTING THE BARRAGE..................................................................................................... 92
CEREMONIAL EVENTS................................................................................................................. 98
LAND DISTRIBUTION POLICIES .................................................................................................... 105
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 118
CHAPTER 3: FROM EMPIRE TO NATION: IRRIGATION AND GOVERNANCE DURING
PROVINCIAL UPHEAVALS .................................................................................................. 122
THE SUKKUR BARRAGE AND SIND’S CONSTITUTIONAL STATUS .......................................................... 124
SEPARATION GRANTED: AGRICULTURE AND THE LEGISLATURE .......................................................... 130
WARTIME DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES ............................................................................................ 145
‘PROGRESS’ AFTER PARTITION ................................................................................................... 151
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 159
CHAPTER 4: THE NATION-STATE VERSUS THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT .......................... 161
THE NEW BARRAGES ................................................................................................................ 162
FEATS OF ENGINEERING ............................................................................................................ 172
RATIONALIZATION OF RESOURCES: ONE UNIT ............................................................................... 183
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DEVELOPMENT OF THE BARRAGE AREAS ...................................................................................... 187
DRAINAGE: SETBACKS IN ‘PROGRESS’ .......................................................................................... 195
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 207
CHAPTER 5: THE POLITICS OF LAND AFTER INDEPENDENCE .............................................. 210
BARRAGE LAND, REFUGEES, AND CENTRE-PROVINCE TENSIONS......................................................... 212
LAND IN EARLY 1950S SIND ...................................................................................................... 217
LAND UNDER THE ONE UNIT ADMINISTRATION ............................................................................. 226
COLONIZATION AND LAND REFORMS UNDER MARTIAL LAW ............................................................ 234
COLONIZING THE GUDU BARRAGE .............................................................................................. 253
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 256
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 258
EPILOGUE .............................................................................................................................. 276
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 278
PRIMARY SOURCES .................................................................................................................. 278
(i) Private papers ....................................................................................................... 278
Oriental and India Office Collections (IOR), British Library, London ........................................ 278
(ii) Official records ................................................................................................. 278
Institute of Sindhology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro ........................................................... 278
Government of Sindh Archives, Karachi (G.S.A.) ..................................................................... 278
Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai (M.S.A.) ....................................................................... 278
National Documentation Centre, Islamabad (N.D.C.) .............................................................. 278
Oriental and India Office Collections (IOR), British Library, London ........................................ 279
United Kingdom National Archives, Kew (U.K.N.A.)................................................................. 279
United States National Archives, College Park, Maryland (U.S.N.A.) ....................................... 279
(iii) Official publications .......................................................................................... 279
Institute of Sindhology, University of Sindh, Jamshoro ........................................................... 279
Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai (M.S.A.) ....................................................................... 280
Oriental and India Office Collections (IOR), British Library, London ........................................ 280
Pakistan Institute for International Affairs, Karachi ................................................................. 281
School of Oriental and African Studies, London ...................................................................... 281
(iv) Newspapers and periodicals ............................................................................. 281
SECONDARY SOURCES .............................................................................................................. 282
(i) Publications .......................................................................................................... 282
(ii) Unpublished printed matter ............................................................................. 290
(iii) Electronic material ........................................................................................... 290
APPENDIX: PHOTOGRAPHS OF SUKKUR BARRAGE WORKS............................................... 291

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Abbreviations
B.L. = British Library, London
ConRep = Fortnightly Confidential Report
G.S.A. = Government of Sindh Archives, Karachi
I.O.R. = India Office Records, British Library, London
M.S.A. = Maharashtra State Archives, Mumbai
MSS Eur = European Manuscripts collection at the British Library, London
N.D.C. = National Documentation Centre, Islamabad
N.W.F.P. = North-West Frontier Province
P.D. = Political Department
P.W.D. = Public Works Department
R.D. = Revenue Department
R.G. = Record Group
U.K.N.A. = United Kingdom National Archives at Kew
U.S.N.A. = United States National Archives at College Park, Maryland
V-AID = Village Agricultural and Industrial Development Programme
W.A.P.D.A. = Water and Power Development Authority

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A note on spelling and names
Personal names, place-names, and words transliterated from Indian languages can
all be rendered in a variety of spellings. These spellings have also tended to change
over time.
Spellings in this thesis have been rendered without diacritical marks. For place
names, spellings contemporary with the source material have normally been
preserved. During the period covered by this thesis, the name of the province was
spelled “Sind” (now “Sindh”). For personal names, the most common Roman script
spellings for individuals are used. This means that the same name can have different
spellings for different individuals, so “Mohammed Ali Jinnah” but “Ghulam
Muhammad”. Common words of indigenous origin, such as “zamindar” and “hari”,
have been rendered in their usual modern forms.
Where any of the above appear in direct quotations, the original spellings have been
preserved. Non-English words have been italicized in the text, except in direct
quotations, where the source’s usage has been preserved.
The names of the barrages themselves present more difficulties. The first barrage
was known during the planning phase as the Sukkur Barrage, then as the Lloyd
Barrage (after the Governor of Bombay who authorized its construction), and
eventually reverted to Sukkur Barrage. Contemporary usage appears to have been
subject as much to an author’s preference as to its formal name. Because “Sukkur
Barrage” was overall the most commonly-used name, it has been referred to as such
here.
The second barrage was initially known as the Kotri Barrage, and then renamed the
Ghulam Muhammad Barrage after a Governor-General of Pakistan. It has now
reverted to Kotri Barrage. However, because Ghulam Muhammad Barrage was
almost exclusively used at the time, this is how the name appears in the thesis.
The third barrage, the Gudu Barrage, has kept the same name but had a variety of
spellings. The form adopted here seems to be the most consistently used over time.
Again, in direct quotations, the original names and spellings have been reproduced.
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Map of Pakistan

Adapted from ‘Pakistan Political Map’,
http://www.mapsofworld.com/pakistan/pakistan-political-map.html (retrieved
07.01.2011).
N.B. This map is intended to be indicative and not definitive.

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Map of Sind’s river and barrages

Adapted from N.a., Ferozsons Atlas for Pakistan (Lahore: Ferozsons, 1986), pp.20-21.
N.B. This map is intended to be indicative and not definitive.
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