economics of on-farm development - Institute for Social and ...

the Indian state had followed a policy <strong>of</strong> irrigation which was beneficial to the
privileged rich landed class and through loopholes in the system. it even
managed to favour a select clientele which was close to the political. bureaucratic
and engineering conglomerate (Singh. 1997: lSI). He reiterates that the objective
<strong>of</strong> the British policy was to generate more income and interestingly, at times <strong>of</strong>
drought, the revenue collected reached phenomenal proportions (Ibid.: 53).
The colonial interest in promoting irrigation in India was not only to
cultivate commercial crops and augment the state revenue, but also to meet
certain other social obligations. For instance, irrigation projects were intended to
rehabilitate the Sikh army in the Punjab, which was disbanded in 1849 (Aloys,
1967; Islam, 1997). The construction <strong>of</strong> canals provided the soldiers with
employment and they were then settled in vast areas <strong>of</strong> arable land by
introducing irrigation. Islam' 5 (1997) study traces back to the 'development
ethos' that promulgated the colonial powers in patronising massIve canal
construction programmes In the state. The 'relative dynamism' <strong>of</strong> the state in
agrarian transformation was attributed to the favourable factors that the state
inherited under the colonial patronage in terms <strong>of</strong> massive public investment for
infrastructure development, viz" construction <strong>of</strong> canals, roads and railways. The
massive canal construction and the subsequent colonisation 5 programmes have
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cent and 6.5 per cenl in different periods (Public Works Comminee. 1879: GOI. 1972: 249-
51 ).
5 The colonisation programme as introduced in the Punjab province differed from the
rest <strong>of</strong> India, ill tlul. there was no or little resident pllpuiation in the Crown land (vast
tracts <strong>of</strong> unou;lIpied land taken over by the British for canal construction and
colonisation programme) and it was necessary to physically transfer communities from
elsewhere tll senic dn\\n along the canal sides.
6