Javid, Hassan
(2012)
Class, power, and patronage: the landed elite and politics in Pakistani Punjab.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
Following their conquest of Punjab, the British erected an administrative apparatus that
relied heavily upon the support of the province’s powerful landed elite. The relationship
between the two was one of mutual benefit, with the British using their landed allies to ensure
the maintenance of order and effective economic accumulation in exchange for state patronage.
Over a century and a half later, the politics of Pakistani Punjab continues to be dominated by
landowning politicians, despite significant societal changes that could have potentially eroded
their power. In order to answer the question of why this is so, this thesis uses a historical
institutionalist approach to argue that the administrative framework emerging out of the initial
bargain between the colonial state and the landed classes gave rise to a path-dependent process
of institutional development in Punjab that allowed the latter to increasingly entrench
themselves within the political order during the colonial and post-colonial periods. In doing so,
the landed elite were also able to reinforce their bargain with the colonial state and, after
independence, the Pakistani military establishment, perpetuating a relationship that facilitated
the pursuit of the interests of the actors involved.
In order to account for this path-dependent process of institutional development, this
thesis treats the initial period of colonial rule in Punjab as a ‘critical juncture’, tracing the factors
that led the British to rely on the landed elite for support, and enter into the bargain between the
two actors that drove subsequent institutional developments. The thesis then explores the
mechanisms used to perpetuate this arrangement over time, focusing in particular on the use, by
the state and the landed elite, of legislative interventions, bureaucratic power, and electoral
politics, to reinforce and reproduce the institutional framework of politics in Punjab. Finally, the
thesis also looks at points in time during which this dominant institutional path has been
challenged, albeit unsuccessfully, with a view towards understanding both the circumstances
under which such challenges can emerge, and the lessons that can be learnt from these episodes
with regards to the prospects for the creation of a democratic and participatory politics in the
province.
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