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Technological improvements in agricultural implements and their impact in colonial Punjab, India

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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 6, Issue (6), Pages 21-24, June,14 (2017)

Abstract

Technological progress has defined the social conditions and has caused civilizations to evolve and progress. Technology in agriculture has been the hallmark of ancient as well as modern civilizations. Agriculture has been the main occupation of the overwhelming majority of population in Punjab since ancient times and it defined the economy of the rulers. In Colonial Punjab too, agriculture continued to be the mainstay of the government income. 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 implements in use were medieval in nature with not much technological changes from the Mughal period and the Sikh rule. The establishment of British rule in Punjab opened the way for the introduction of western Science and Technology in the province. Various technological improvements were introduced in agriculture which lead to new techniques of cultivation, irrigation, reaping and harvesting and as such more efficient equipments and machines. Technological changes in the agricultural implements brought about 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 technological improvements in agricultural implements under the British regime in Punjab during 1849 to 1947.

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