Colonial Governance in Gujrat: Revenue Administration and Judicial Transformation under British Rule (1849–1947)

Abstract

This study focuses on the emergence and function of revenue and judicial systems during the British colonial period (1849–1947) in Gujrat. After the annexation of Punjab in 1849, the British colonial government established a centralized bureaucratic framework that aimed to consolidate political authority, regulate agrarian production, and secure a steady revenue stream. In Gujrat, these policies were carried out by implementing systematic land revenue settlements, extensive land surveys, and developing intricate systems of record-keeping, such as jamabandi and khasra records. These policies resulted in a change in land ownership and strengthened the hand of local landed classes, who worked closely with the colonial government. Simultaneously, the colonial government's introduction of codified legal systems replaced earlier systems of pluralistic legal practices, such as customary law and Islamic law, with a hierarchical judicial framework that operated under British legal codes. This study reveals how closely connected these systems were with each other during the colonial period in Gujrat. Land records, which emerged during revenue settlements, served as principal evidence in legal cases, and the judicial systems frequently upheld the agrarian order that emerged during colonial fiscal policies. While these systems ensured administrative and legal standardization, they also led to considerable socio-economic implications, including landlordism, the marginalization of small farmers, and an increasing reliance on market forces and credit systems. This study, by examining settlement reports and colonial gazetteers, attempts to place Gujrat's experience within a broader framework of colonial Punjab and suggests that these systems functioned not just as systems of governance but as tools by which colonial authority remade rural Punjab and its people. This study also reveals how these systems' legacies continue to impact contemporary administrative and legal systems in postcolonial Pakistan.