Canal system of Punjab: What were the objectives of the British?

On hearing the name of Punjab, the image that comes to mind is that of a lush and green region where six rivers flow, streams scatter silver and crops sprout gold.

But this image of Punjab is not ancient. In earlier times, Punjab was not known for agriculture and most of its area was uninhabited or called ‘Rakkar’. What little cultivation there was was in the areas around the rivers. Most of the population was not engaged in agriculture but in farming.

But then, in the 1880s, the British launched a plan that, within the next few decades, made Punjab the vibrant region that comes to mind when we hear the name Punjab.

How did the canal system begin?

The British conquered Punjab in 1849 after defeating the Sikhs. Eight years later, when the war of independence was fought, the majority of the people of Punjab supported the British, especially the Sikhs, who played an important role in defeating General Bakht Khan’s forces in Delhi. Apart from this, the people of Punjab were also very useful in fighting the Afghans. This made the British realize that this area was of great importance to their power on the subcontinent, as the Frontier Province was then part of Punjab and was the last province of the British Empire to border Afghanistan.

That is why they started taking various steps to strengthen their hold here.

The British had a habit of classifying the people of different regions. He gave the title of ‘martial races’ to some castes of Punjab and started recruiting them in his army on a wholesale basis. These castes included the Janjua, Gakhar, Awan, Khatar, Jat and Towana besides the Sikhs, while the Gujjars and Oudh were deprived of this honor. At that time, the British Empire was at its peak and there was a worldwide power struggle, so they were in dire need of warriors.

It was a time when large parts of the subcontinent depended on rains for agriculture. The problem of Punjab was that as one went down from the mountains of the valleys, the proportion of rains decreased accordingly, so the land here, despite being fertile, presented a largely desert appearance because of the inter-river areas. Areas (called bars, like sandal bar, blue bar etc.) were not watered. According to the law, these areas were owned by the British government, so they decided to settle these areas.

The British found from the geological survey that canals could easily be dug in this area, as there is a gradual slope after Potohar that leads to the Indus. Well, small-scale digging of canals had already begun, but the formal canal system began in 1886, when the British first dug the Sidhnai Canal near Multan in southern Punjab.

It was not only the canal but the area irrigated by it, 2705 farmers were brought from other areas and distributed around 250,000 acres of land among them. Thus it was not only an agricultural but also a social project.

After that millions of acres were irrigated in Sahagpara, Chunian, Chenab, Jhelum, Lower Bari Doab, Upper Chenab, Upper Jhelum, and Nellibar and people were settled there.

Before these canals, the total agricultural area of ​​Punjab increased from 3 million acres to 14 million acres. All this work was done without modern machinery and bulldozers without shovels, shovels and laborers.

According to researcher David Liddon, the British dug a total of 33,612 km of canals. This is such a distance that five and a half rounds can be made between Lahore and London.

Captain Grey, Alexander the Great of the Canals

The impact it had on the local people can be gauged from a poem written by a Punjabi poet for Captain LH Grey, Deputy Commissioner of Ferozepore in the last decades of the 19th century. In it, he likened Captain Gray to Alexander the Great and said that thanks to him, spring has now come to Punjab.

نہ کاہش دوربین دی نہ حاجت کمپاس
اللہ صاحب گرے نوں دتا روشن قیاس

Asif Wala Vikh K Rode Wala Niz
جا سبھراون نہر دی سوچ لئی تجویز

The poet further says that spring has come to Punjab because of the canals:

There is Oho Gray, the inventor of Inhar
Streams, waves, marson, logan, spring

How did the British become so well-wishers of Punjab?

This question was part of the PhD research of Dr. Tahir Mehmood of Punjab University. He told Independent Urdu that ‘the British wanted to run their empire on the principle of low-cost-balanishen. They did not want to bring their resources from Britain and use them here. Punjab was the last province of India that they annexed. They realized that there was plenty of water here, it was just too late to use it.’

“The bar areas in the middle of the rivers were mostly herdsmen, so the British selected people from the densely populated central areas and settled them and gave them land in squares, so as to reduce the population pressure on the central districts. Even less, the government should have revenue in terms of finance and irrigation and the local people should become more loyal.’

The British did not dig a canal unless it was already proved to be profitable. Some projects started giving 40% profit in the first year and within two or three years they recovered their cost. This price was collected from the local farmers in the form of Malia and irrigation.

‘Great Game’ with Russia

Dr. Tahir said that he also had some political goals. For example, Russia was advancing towards Afghanistan and the British feared that it might become a threat to British power in the subcontinent. Therefore, if the local people become loyal to the British, then Russia will not have enough opportunity to destabilize this province.

These were the initial goals. With the passage of time, these objectives also changed.

Dr. Tahir said that at that time, horses were imported from Australia for the British army. So they started distributing lands among the local people to settle the horses locally. For this purpose Ghoda Pal Scheme was started. Whoever provided horses was given land.’

Sargodha on the Jhelum, as well as Faisalabad on the Chenab, were established as market towns, then connected to other parts of the country and ports by rail networks, so that the produce here was exported not only to India but to other countries. started to go

People’s loyalties squared

According to Dr. Tahir: ‘Another objective was to further empower the landed class for political control so that they could control the people and create a class that could protect the interests of the British. For this he gave huge grants to some Jagirdars. They include Twana, Nun, Mamdut and Twana families etc.’

Not only this, but the British later gave squares upon squares to the Gadishinis, Pirs and Sant Sadhus. This is also an effective way to control people’s minds.

Among the warring nations mentioned above, the British generously distributed lands. The soldier who retired and returned got land, the one who showed more bravery got more land. The numberedar or subaldar who did more recruitments got land.

For the Punjabis living on the poverty line, it was no less than a blessing to get a fixed job in the army, then a pension and finally a square. Like fingers in ghee and head in a frying pan. A total of 500,000 acres of land was given to soldiers in the nine colonies.

This is the reason why in the early 20th century, 50% of the British army consisted of Punjabis, even though the population of Punjab was less than 10% of the total population of the subcontinent.

An experiment in social engineering

The canal system was not only an agricultural project, but also settled millions of people. New villages were established for these people who were given the name ‘Chak’. Earlier, most villages in Punjab were called Pind or Dhok.

Earlier the names of Punjabi Pindas were traditional, now the names of Chaks are based on numbers and alphabets like the sectors of Islamabad, such as Chak 481 J, or Chak 45 GD. These chucks were constructed with great planning. In them straight streets like Mohan Jo Daro were built, schools, mosques and gurdwaras were arranged and special attention was paid to cleanliness. A farmer who threw garbage in front of the house was fined.

Plowman’s hands

Historian and scholar of Punjab Dr. Manzoor Ijaz told Independent Urdu that the British used to allocate land to those farmers who they thought were the most suitable. For example, ‘They used to hold the farmer’s hands to see if they were plowing hands or not.’

Dr. Sahib also narrated an interesting incident of his family. When his uncle went to allot the land, the British officer asked him how many children you have. When he found out that Taya had only two daughters, he refused to give the land. ‘Then Taya passed my father who was a healthy young man. The officer said yes he can get the land.

How different was the lifestyle and culture of settler farmers and indigenous pastoralists? Dr. Manzoor Ijaz told an interesting story that when his father came to the Sahiwal area with land, the local people, known as Jangli, used to be surprised to see his father eating curry and asked him. That ‘how do you do this if you make a boat of bread and fill it with curry and eat it? Teach us too.’ This was because the local people did not have the concept of eating roti with curry.

Thus, as a result of this settlement, a new society came into being which was a part of Punjab’s tradition but was completely different from it. There is no example in the world that such a large scale people have been picked up from one place and resettled in other areas under regular planning.

Historian David Gilmartin has written that ‘the new, orderly and logical environment of government-constructed settlement transformed the settler into a modern man.’

Water from the first river to the fifth river

This whole system went on happily, then came 1947 and the British took the bed and left behind the issue of dividing the borders, under which all the rivers were given to India and they could shut off the water to Pakistan whenever they wanted. could make it barren. In order to solve this problem, the Indus Basin Project was signed in the 1960s, under which Pakistan sought a solution to water shortages from large rivers. , Sutlej and Beas were given to India, while the western rivers Jhelum and Chenab came to Pakistan.

India closed the headworks of these three rivers and these rivers dried up. Nahar Javed Rasool, Executive Engineer of Kasur District, said that to meet this shortage, we devised a link canal system under which eight canals were dug and through these canals water from the western rivers was taken to the eastern rivers. .

He says that ‘We brought the water of Indus to the Sutlej through the Link Canal, that is, we brought the water of the first river to the fifth river. And thus saved South Punjab from becoming barren.’

Sindh United Party President Syed Zain Shah told Independent Urdu that ‘Punjab has got water, we are happy about it, but our river is drying up. Due to lack of water in Sindh, lakhs of farmers have become either fishermen or shepherds as their share of water has been exhausted.

What the British did not do

Regarding this, Khurram Amin, Additional Technical Secretary in the Canal Department, told Independent Urdu that after the creation of Pakistan, the Canal Department did many things which were not done during the British period. “For example, the British did not build any dams during their time, we have built many dams and barrages in the last 75 years to store water.

“Besides, the canals used to be raw during the time of the British, we have reduced the water loss by cooking the canals. Before independence, the capacity of the canal system was only 28%, that is, if 100 cusecs of water were released, only 28 cusecs would reach the fields, we increased this capacity to 68%.’

Two or four people would have been suspended

These things are admirable in their place, but we visited many areas of Punjab during the production of this documentary, including Kasur, Bediyan, Khadian, Okara and Hedmarala. Came.

Mian Shaukat Ali, the former assistant resident engineer canal in Khadian area of ​​Kasur, said that there are peepal trees growing inside the canals, the condition of the embankments is dilapidated, the boards are all uprooted. He said that ‘if there was such a thing in our era, two or four people would have been suspended.’