INTRODUCTION
Conquering land and then consolidating a position is not an easy task, uphold of locals is an important aspect that cannot be denied. The historical study of Punjab is also in one way or the other same because the British had to depend on the local elites. It was due to the locals that the British could rule the gigantic population and vast land of Asia. The antiquity of colonial Punjab is extraordinary because it was the last major province that was annexed by the British Indian Empire. Punjab was the only province in the Indian subcontinent that was administered as a non-regulation province as compared to the rest of the regions in India. It was a form of government that emphasized dynamics administrative flexibility over rigid adherence to legislative regulations, and which became the basis of the paternalistic despotism that was to characterize the famed Punjab school of administration. This became possible because the British win the locals bypassing the policies in their favor and establishing the patronage system. It was in Punjab that the British experimented with and created a new agrarian frontier through its massive irrigation works that opened huge tracts of land in the arid western districts, leading to large-scale migration to and settlement of the so-called new canal colonies.
The native landlords, religious
leaders, civil servants, and chiefs were at the back end of income in the later
years of colonial rule. With time, they became institutionalized being loyal
politically and ultimately formed political parties though they had an intimate
relationship with the colonial administration. The nationalist parties were formed
under the leadership of the western literate class, unlike these political
parties who just had massive support. The early nationalist movements of the
western class were not popular. In British Punjab, the power lied with the
rural elite, so the western class needed to move out from cities and towns to
acquire power. If this was not possible for them then they had to aside them
from the imperial regime or wean themselves from the traditional groups. Sadly,
none was possible.
From the sepoy mutiny of 1857,
Punjab went through extraordinary events to emerge as the most powerful
province of the state. It remained royal with the British when the rest of the
regions were in open rebellion. It was the loyalty that let the British declare
Punjab as the homeland for recruiting the Indian Army from the 1880s till 1947.
Punjab gained its political stability because of being the home ground for the
Indian Army. The military contributions of British Punjab cannot be matched
with the rest of the provinces because it served the British not only in the
Indian sub-continent but also in the Middle East and parts of South-East Asia.
The study reveals that more than
half the soldiers of the Indian Army were recruited from Punjab, even during
the Second World War, the number of Punjabi soldiers did not hit below sixty
percent. On the eve of the First World War, Punjabis accounted for sixty-six
percent of all cavalrymen in the Indian Army, eighty-seven percent in the
artillery, and forty-five percent in the infantry. This high rate of military
induction in the Indian Army indicates the dominance and influence of Punjab in
social, economic, and political development.
It was not the British element that
introduces the Military in the province, it dates back to the pre-colonial era
because of its geography. Strategically situated at the north-western fringe of
the Indo-Gangetic plains, at the frontier where the Indian sub-continent leads
into Central Asia, Punjab had for centuries functioned as the route zone,
(connecting) the areas of Peshawar and over the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan
(with) the cultural-political centers around Delhi and Agra. It was also an
entrance for traders and invaders. The connecting border from the frontier
marks the land as an arena where aspirants fought for political power which
diffused violence and military in Punjab.
Formally, Punjab came under the
canopy of militarized state when Ranjit Singh took over after the fall of the
Mughal Empire. The Sikh kingdom was a classic example of a regional Indian Fiscal-military
state in which resources generated by a centralized authority were largely
devoted to maintaining its military machinery. The death of Ranjit Singh
collapsed Punjab and gave way to the British who were worried about the
north-western borders of the Indian Empire.
This study will be dealing with the
Punjab Province and its military contribution to Second World War. Putting it
into the context, it is important to throw light on the history of Punjab.
This historical piece is written by
Aisha Zaman Malik, one of the contributors to SOL Community.
