LAHORE: (Tuesday, January 08, 2013): “Creation of Pakistan can not be explained entirely in terms of Two Nation Theory or Divide and Rule Policy of the British, there is an environmental aspect of this history too,” said Professor David Gilmartin of North Carolina State University and an eminent historian, in his special lecture arranged at Punjab University’s Pakistan Study Centre here on Tuesday.

Prof. Dr. Zakria Zakir, Dean, Faculty of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Punjab University and Prof. Dr. Massarrat Abid, Director, Pakistan Study Centre also spoke on the occasion. The seminar was participated by a large number of students and faculty members. Prof. Gilmartin, while talking in details how the construction of unprecedented irrigation works and opening of the Punjab canal colonies shaped the environmental transformation of the Indus Basin region, said that Indus basin, the heartland of present day Pakistan, witnessed one of the most dramatic environmental transformations of the modern colonial era with the massive, unprecedented irrigation works that led to the empowering of the local masses which gave birth to Brotheri system that paved the way for strings of nationalism. “That was also a product of, and an impetus to, the creation of unusually highly bureaucratized forms of rule in this region. And yet, this was a region that was also marked by unusual localism, tribalism, and cultural fragmentation. It shaped significantly the nature of the movement for Pakistan in this region.

This is not to argue that the partition can be explained entirely in terms of such issues, but that this environmental story represents an important element in Pakistan’s creation as an Indus basin state,” he said. The lecture was followed by a lively question-answer session. Later, a lunch reception was also hosted in the honor of Prof. Dr. David Gilmartin by PU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran.