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Modernization of Agriculture in Colonial Punjab and its impact on the Rural Economy

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Author Affiliations

  • 1Department of History, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
  • 2Punjab State Council for Science & Technology, Sector-26, Chandigarh, India

Int. Res. J. Social Sci., Volume 5, Issue (12), Pages 52-55, December,14 (2016)

Abstract

Agriculture was the main occupation of the overwhelming majority of population as well as the mainstay of the government income in the Punjab under British rule. Therefore, it became one of the main areas which determined the policies of the British. This was also because the economic transformation of the province depended on the dissection and form of agricultural change. At the outset of British rule in Punjab, the agricultural operations in use, the quality of seeds, animal husbandry, the system of crop rotation and marketing of agricultural produce was almost becoming marked by stagnation and obsolescence. The establishment of British rule in Punjab opened the way for the introduction of western science and technology in the province. Various technological improvements such as the use of high yielding varieties of seeds, improved irrigational system, better livestock, new techniques of cultivation such as better system of rotation of crops, use of more manure, control and avoidance of crop diseases and better system of marketing of agricultural produce were systematically introduced by the British. Changes in the methods of production brought significant changes in the social and economic set up in the province and their impact was generally positive and long lasting. This paper discusses the impact of modernization of agriculture in colonial Punjab.

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