Towards Constructing a Social History of Environment and Development in Punjab in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

If social history is taken as history of society in its broadest terms, as suggested by Eric Hobsbawm, it can dwell on the conditions of life with special reference to its quality, judged simultaneously in ecological, socio-economic and cultural parlance. In Punjab in the second half of the nineteenth century, the agrarian economy and society underwent significant transformation within a given ecological background, and notable changes were found in the social, religious and intellectual arena. At a limited plane, the response of the middle classes to the colonial change led to a certain kind of social and cultural resurgence among the communities of Punjab. This article tries to search for the possibility of the existence of any pattern in the complex social change that Punjab experienced during this period. Based mainly on the study of the activities of the Brahmo Samaj and Dev Samaj of the region, it attempts for something of a construction for comprehending social history where environment, political economy and sociocultural developments would significantly matter pari passu.