Intermediaries of Empire: Sajjada Nishins, Agrarian Power and Colonial Governance in Montgomery (Sahiwal), 1849–1947

Abstract

This paper focuses on role of Sajjada Nishins-hereditary custodians of Sufi shrines in District Montgomery (currently Sahiwal) under British rule (18491947) as a key mediator in the colonial governance. It asserts that British colonial power in Punjab was not coercive and bureaucratic only, but, instead, it was rooted in local socio-religious institutions. Colonial state co-opted the elites of the shrines into its system of administration through strategic patronage, land redistribution, administrative inclusion and legal protection. These actors were the key players in agrarian transformation, political control and social regulation over the rural areas in Montgomery. Based on the use of several archival documents such as district gazetteers, settlement reports and colonial administrative documents, as well as through a comprehensive review of historiography, this paper reveals how the British built a system of indirect rule that was based on religious justification. The chapter concludes that this alliance of both the colonial authority and the religious elites did not only stabilize the imperial rule but it also reorganized the rural power relations, which continue to be a legacy in the post-colonial political structures in Pakistan.

Keywords: Intermediaries, Empire, Montgomery, Colonial, Agrarian Power