The Punjab Canal Colonies, 1885-1940

Abstract

The "Punjab Canal Colonies" was the name given to those parts of the western Punjab in which, from 1885, hitherto barren tracts were brought under cultivation through a process of canal reconstruction and agricultural colonisation. The Canal Colonies were situated on crown waste land, which gave to the British ruling authority the ownership of the land, and hence the power to decide to whom and in what ways colony land was to be distributed. State policy was, therefore, a fundamental determinant of the type of society that emerged in the Canal Colonies. A study of the colonisation policy of the government is one focus of this thesis.