The great agrarian conquest : the colonial reshaping of a rural world

"This book examines how, over colonial times, the diverse practices and customs of an existing rural universe--with its many forms of livelihood--were reshaped to create a new agrarian world of settled farming. While focusing on Punjab, this path breaking analysis offers a broad argument about the workings of colonial power: the fantasy of imperialism, it says, is to make the universe afresh. Such radical change, Bhattacharya shows, is as much conceptual as material. Agrarian colonization was a process of creating spaces that conformed to the demands of colonial rule. It entailed establishing a regime of categories--tenancies, tenures, properties, habitations--and a framework of laws that made the change possible. Agrarian colonization was in this sense a deep conquest. Colonialism, the book suggests, has the power to revisualize and reorder social relations and bonds of community. It alters the world radically, even when it seeks to preserve elements of the old. The changes it brings about are simultaneously cultural, discursive, legal, linguistic, spatial, social, and economic. Moving from intent to action, concepts to practices, legal enactments to court battles, official discourses to folklore, this book explores the conflicted and dialogic nature of a transformative process. By analyzing this great conquest, and the often-silent ways in which it unfolds, the book asks every historian to rethink the practice of writing agrarian history and reflect on the larger issues of doing history"-- Read more... Contents 8 Acknowledgements 14 Abbreviations 18 Introduction: The Great Agrarian Conquest 22 I. Governing the Rural 37 1 Masculine Paternalism and Colonial Governance 37 Colonial Riders 37 Styles of Governance 42 The Fear of Ambiguity 47 The New Paternalism 55 Reason and the Imagination 61 The Return of the Despot 67 Paternal Violence 72 II. The Agrarian Imaginary 85 2 How Villages Were Found 85 How Estate becomes Village 91 Recording the Interior 95 The Cartographic Truth 106 Bounding Sovereignty 114 Agrarian Spaces, Village Structures 118 Respatialising the Rural 125 3 In Search of Tenures 130 Mapping Tenures 133 The Logic of Classification 136 Temporalising Space and Spatialising Time 147 The Prison-house of Categories 152 Landscaping Village Communities 156 The Limits of Classification 161 Empowering the Village Brotherhood 163 4 The Power of Categories 173 Ethnographic Truth and the Question of Rights 174 Translating Categories 178 Rights vs Practice 191 Fixity, Security, and Legal Order 196 The Production of Categories 200 5 Codifying Custom 204 From Text to Practice 207 Of Informants and Sovereigns 213 The Enquiry 219 The Impossible Task of Preservation 224 Tradition, Reason, and Time 229 Custom and Power 233 The Discourse on Custom 237 III. From Code to Practice 242 6 Remembered Pasts 242 Dabwali Dhab 243 The Remembered Past 249 The Time of Reciprocity 260 Through the Native Voice 264 7 Beyond the Code 274 The Myth of Patrilineal Descent 276 The Politics of Adoption 283 Against Gifts 289 The Will of the Dead 293 The Rights of Chastity 295 The Community and the Individual 301 Who was the Outsider? 306 The Commodity Economy and the Language of Rights 312 8 Fear of the Fragment 316 Fear of the Fragment 317 Times that Bind 319 Two Histories of Partition 322 Modernity and the Culture of Joint Holdings 331 The Market and the Ambiguities of Law 338 When Negotiations Fail 341 The Logic of Scatter 348 IV. From the “Primitive” to the Modern 360 9 Colonising the Commons 360 Nomads of the Bãr 363 Tirni and the Politics of Settlement 369 The Unpublished Maps 377 The Fraudulent Line 383 Regulating Rights 388 Regenerating Grasslands: From Practice to Science 398 10 The Promise of Modernity, Antinomies of Development 406 Canals and the Science of Empire 410 A Regime of Squares 420 Enclosing the Fields 424 A New Language of Claims 431 Promise and Betrayal 437 Antinomies of Development 446 Two Paths of Agrarian Conquest 456 Epilogue: The Last Ride 463 Glossary 480 Bibliography 487 Index 532 Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: The Great Agrarian Conquest -- I. Governing the Rural -- 1 Masculine Paternalism and Colonial Governance -- Colonial Riders -- Styles of Governance -- The Fear of Ambiguity -- The New Paternalism -- Reason and the Imagination -- The Return of the Despot -- Paternal Violence -- II. The Agrarian Imaginary -- 2 How Villages Were Found -- How Estate becomes Village -- Recording the Interior -- The Cartographic Truth -- Bounding Sovereignty -- Agrarian Spaces, Village Structures -- Respatialising the Rural -- 3 In Search of Tenures -- Mapping Tenures -- The Logic of Classification -- Temporalising Space and Spatialising Time -- The Prison-house of Categories -- Landscaping Village Communities -- The Limits of Classification -- Empowering the Village Brotherhood -- 4 The Power of Categories -- Ethnographic Truth and the Question of Rights -- Translating Categories -- Rights vs Practice -- Fixity, Security, and Legal Order -- The Production of Categories -- 5 Codifying Custom -- From Text to Practice -- Of Informants and Sovereigns -- The Enquiry -- The Impossible Task of Preservation -- Tradition, Reason, and Time -- Custom and Power -- The Discourse on Custom -- III. From Code to Practice -- 6 Remembered Pasts -- Dabwali Dhab -- The Remembered Past -- The Time of Reciprocity -- Through the Native Voice -- 7 Beyond the Code -- The Myth of Patrilineal Descent -- The Politics of Adoption -- Against Gifts -- The Will of the Dead -- The Rights of Chastity -- The Community and the Individual -- Who was the Outsider? -- The Commodity Economy and the Language of Rights -- 8 Fear of the Fragment -- Fear of the Fragment -- Times that Bind -- Two Histories of Partition -- Modernity and the Culture of Joint Holdings -- The Market and the Ambiguities of Law -- When Negotiations Fail "This book examines how, over colonial times, the diverse practices and customs of an existing rural universe--with its many forms of livelihood--were reshaped to create a new agrarian world of settled farming. While focusing on Punjab, this path breaking analysis offers a broad argument about the workings of colonial power: the fantasy of imperialism, it says, is to make the universe afresh. Such radical change, Bhattacharya shows, is as much conceptual as material. Agrarian colonization was a process of creating spaces that conformed to the demands of colonial rule. It entailed establishing a regime of categories--tenancies, tenures, properties, habitations--and a framework of laws that made the change possible. Agrarian colonization was in this sense a deep conquest. Colonialism, the book suggests, has the power to revisualize and reorder social relations and bonds of community. It alters the world radically, even when it seeks to preserve elements of the old. The changes it brings about are simultaneously cultural, discursive, legal, linguistic, spatial, social, and economic. Moving from intent to action, concepts to practices, legal enactments to court battles, official discourses to folklore, this book explores the conflicted and dialogic nature of a transformative process. By analyzing this great conquest, and the often-silent ways in which it unfolds, the book asks every historian to rethink the practice of writing agrarian history and reflect on the larger issues of doing history"-- Provided by publisher This book examines how, over colonial times, the diverse practices and customs of an existing rural universe—with its many forms of livelihood—were reshaped to create a new agrarian world of settled farming. While focusing on Punjab, India, this pathbreaking analysis offers a broad argument about the workings of colonial power: the fantasy of imperialism, it says, is to make the universe afresh. Such radical change, Neeladri Bhattacharya shows, is as much conceptual as material. Agrarian colonization was a process of creating spaces that conformed to the demands of colonial rule. It entailed establishing a regime of categories—tenancies, tenures, properties, habitations—and a framework of laws that made the change possible. Agrarian colonization was in this sense a deep conquest. Colonialism, the book suggests, has the power to revisualize and reorder social relations and bonds of community. It alters the world radically, even when it seeks to preserve elements of the old. The changes it brings about are simultaneously cultural, discursive, legal, linguistic, spatial, social, and economic. Moving from intent to action, concepts to practices, legal enactments to court battles, official discourses to folklore, this book explores the conflicted and dialogic nature of a transformative process. By analyzing this great conquest, and the often silent ways in which it unfolds, the book asks every historian to rethink the practice of writing agrarian history and reflect on the larger issues of doing history. This book examines how, over colonial times, the diverse practices and customs of an existing rural universe - with its many forms of lifelihood - were reshaped to create a new agrarian world of settled farming. While focusing on Punjab, this pathbreaking analysis offers a broad argument about the workings of colonial power: the fantasy of imperialism, it says, is to make the universe afresh. Such radical change, Bhattacharya shows, is as much conceptual as material. Agrarian colonisation was a process of creating spaces that conformed to the demands of colonial rule. It entailed establishing a regime of categories - tenancies, tenures, properties, habitations - and a framework of laws that made the change possible. Agrarian colonisation was in this sense a deep conquest. Colonialism, the book suggests, has the power to revisualise and reorder social relations and bonds of community. It changes the world radically, even when it seeks to preserve elements of the old. The changes it brings about are simultaneously cultural, discursive, legal, linguistic, spatial, social, and economic. Moving from intent to action, concepts to practices, legal enactments to court battles, official discourses to folklore, this book explores the conflicted and dialogic nature of a transformative process. By analysing this great conquest, and the often silent ways in which it unfolds, this book asks every historian to rethink the practice of writing agrarian history and reflect on the larger issues of doing history.