LAHORE: (Friday, January 18, 2013): “The development of the Jamrao Canal in southeastern Sindh between the 1890s and the 1900s addressed anxieties that the British administration felt about internal and external frontiers to its power.” These views were expressed by Dr. Daniel Haines of Royal Holloway, University of London at a seminar on “Canal development on the Empire’s frontier: securing late nineteenth century Sindh” organized by Pakistan Study Centre, University of the Punjab. Prof. Dr. Massarrat Abid, Director, Pakistan Study Centre, University of the Punjab introduced the speaker and theme of the lecture.

A large number of students of Pakistan Studies, History and Geography Departments attended the lecture. He further said that the relationship between space and power in imperial states is an important one. Transitioning from a frontier to a settled province characterized the evolution of British colonial governance in Sindh between its annexation in 1843 and the beginning of the twentieth century. One of the key ways that the colonial administration extended its authority over the province was by digging canals and allotting canal land to particular groups. On the one hand, the administration aimed to create a set of regular, ordered villages in the Jamrao tract. This process aimed to transform parts of Sindh into a space of strong state authority. On the other, British policy towards settling Hurs, Talpur Mirs, and Punjabi cultivators on Jamrao land showed that the state’s desire to control Sindhi society by regulating agrarian space was real, but limited. At the same time land grants with military purposes demonstrated that’s Sindh’s location close to the borders of the British Empire had a continuing influence on how it was governed. Sindh remained, therefore, a frontier of state power in many ways. Canal system caused rising of two school of thoughts with regard to the settlement of frontier. The approaches were Conservative and Modernizing.