Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-4hvwz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T07:01:55.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Militarized Masculinities: Shaped and Reshaped in Colonial South-East Punjab*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2012

PREM CHOWDHRY*
Affiliation:
Email: chowdhryprem@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper offers a gendered perspective to British domination in India through the British Indian Army—which in many ways was central to their entire structure of economic and political domination in India. Locating its understanding drawn from the political economy of south-east Punjab, it argues that the designated martial castes and military recruitment structurally and ideologically identified with and privileged those trends of existing masculinities in this region which suited their power structure and empire building. It was a constellation of marital caste status, land ownership, dominant caste syndrome and good bodily physique or physical strength that ideologically came to connect and configure dominant masculinity in colonial Punjab. An Army profession fully supported it. During the two world wars it emerged as the militarized masculinity, amply supported by legal and administrative measures introduced or apparently adopted in deference to certain popular cultural practices. The associated economic and political privileges turned ‘loyalty’ into an inherent and special ingredient of ‘masculinity’ which the nationalists had to confront and deal with till such times that it came to be firmly linked with nationalism and patriotism.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on this paper.

References

1 The Ambala division also underwent a few territorial changes after Independence. Now the state has twenty districts. Geographically, the state surrounds the national capital on three sides and is hemmed in between Uttar Pradesh in the north and Rajasthan with its vast deserts in the south.

2 Rohtak District Gazetteer, 1910, III-A, Lahore, Government of Punjab, Civil and Military Gazette, 1911, p. 68.

3 Calculated from the Board of Economic Inquiry, The Size and Distribution of Agricultural Holdings in the Punjab, Lahore, Civil and Military Gazette, 1925, p. 16.

4 For details, see Cohen, Stephen P., The Indian Army, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 4654Google Scholar. Also see, Ellinwood, DeWitt C. JrAn Historical Study of the Punjabi Soldier in World War I’, in Singh, Harbans and Gerald Barrier, N. (ed.), Essays in Honour of Dr Ganda Singh, Patiala, Punjabi University, 1976, pp. 337362Google Scholar.

5 For details see Chowdhry, Prem, ‘Customs in a Peasant Economy: Women in Colonial Haryana’, in Sangari, Kumkum and Vaid, Sudesh (eds), Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, New Delhi, Kali for Women, 1989, pp. 302336Google Scholar.

6 At the time of arranging her marriage the acknowledged requirement was hath-paer ke mazboot honi chahiye, take khet-kiwar ka kaam thik treh ho sake’(she should be physically strong so that agricultural work can be performed well) and we may add ‘reproduction’ as well. The required qualities also led them to disregard the girl's age and height etc., with the result that the girl was quite frequently older and sometimes taller than the boy. See Ibid.

7 For details see, Chowdhry, Prem, ‘The Advantages of Backwardness: Colonial Policy and Agriculture in Haryana,’ The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 1986, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 264288CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Heather Streets gives an interesting account of what prompted the Highlanders from Scotland, Gurkhas from Nepal and Sikhs from Central Punjab to enlist in the British Indian Army. See her Martial Races: The Military Race and Masculinity in British Imperial Culture, 1851–1914, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2004, pp. 190–225.

9 India Office Records (IOR), Punjab Official Selection (POS): 5547, War History of the Rohtak District, Lahore, Superintendent, Govt. Printing, 1920, p. 6.

10 O’Hanlon, Rosalind, ‘Issues of Masculinity in North Indian History: The Bangash Nawabs of Farrukabad’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, January–June 1997, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 119Google Scholar.

11 Cited in Mazumder, Rajit K, The Indian Army and the Making of Punjab, Delhi, Permanent Black, 2003, p. 15Google Scholar.

12 Sinha, Mirinalini, Colonial Masculinities: The ‘Manly Englishman’ and the ‘Effeminate Bengali’ in the late Nineteenth Century, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 1995Google Scholar.

13 See Alienation of Land Act, 1900 (Act no. XIII of 1900 as modified up to 1st June 1939), Lahore, Govt. of Punjab, Legislative Dept. Superintendent Govt. Printing, Punjab, 1939.

14 This was borne out by the Punjab Disturbances of 1906–1907 which had succeeded in enlisting the sympathy of some of the army pensioners and a few personnel of the serving regiments. See Josh, Bhagwan, Communist Movement in Punjab, Delhi, Anupama Publications, 1979, p. 19Google Scholar.

15 The confusion arose because the nineteenth century British administrators while producing vast literature on the description and identification of various tribes and caste groups in the population of India did not follow any clearly formulated system of classification. However, the anthropological definition of tribe makes a clear distinction between the two. A tribe is socially, economically and politically a self-contained unit—a unit that has within its boundaries all the resources necessary for the continued maintenance of a particular mode of existence. But a caste is not an autonomous entity. Identified with ritual or occupational specialization, it is dependent on others for its survival. For details see Andre Beteille, ‘On the concept of tribe’, International Social Science Journal, vol. XXXII, no. A, 1980, pp. 825–828.

16 The term ‘caste’ as used by the British included both the varna and the jati categories. For the purposes of evaluating what constituted caste in judicial terminology, the British adopted the broadest ideological identification associated with the four-fold primary varna category which roughly coincided with the jati or occupational category. Varna in Sanskrit is literally ‘colour’. Originally it referred to the four great divisions of society outlined in the Brahmanical Texts as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Sudra and referred to as a status order system, traditionally assigned to a specific occupation. For example, Brahmins were the priestly caste, Kshatriyas, the warrior caste, Vaishyas, the trading caste and Sudras, the menials. Jati refered to an endogamous unit within which one must marry; members of a jati were members of a descent group.

17 For example, the Marathas (of the former Bombay Presidency) came to be divided into three groups for recognition of their caste ranking: the five families, the 95 families, and the rest. The Marathas of the first two categories were declared to belong to the twice born but the third to the Sudra category.

18 For extensive mobilization of Jats see Chowdhry, Prem, Punjab Politics: The role of Sir Chhotu Ram, Delhi, Vikas Publishers, 1984, pp. 4060Google Scholar.

19 Smith, R. Saumarez, ‘Caste, religion and locality in the Punjab census’, M.Litt., dept. of sociology, University of Delhi, 1971, pp. 8688Google Scholar.

20 Rohtak district alone had a thousand recruiters. For a most interesting account of how recruits for the army were ‘procured’ from different villages see IOR, War History of the Rohtak District, Lahore, Superintendent, Govt. Printing, 1920, p. 1.

21 Leigh, M. S., The Punjab and the War, Lahore, Superintendent, Govt. Printing, 1922, p. 7Google Scholar.

22 War History of the Rohtak District, p. 6.

23 Leigh, Punjab and the War, pp. 61–62.

24 IOR: Punjab Official Selection (POS), 5540, War Services of the Karnal District, August 1914–31 March 1919, Lahore, Superintendent, Govt. Printing, 1920, p. 17.

25 The Board of Economic Inquiry in Punjab, Soldiers’ Savings and How They Use Them, Lahore, Superintendent, Govt. Printing, 1940, p. 3.

26 The Public Relations Department, Punjab, Rohtak District, Jullunder, 1952, p. 18.

27 For details see Kundu, Apurba, Militarism in India: The Army and Civil Society in Consensus, New Delhi, Viva Books Ltd, 1998, pp. 2324Google Scholar.

28 Ibid, pp. 17–18.

29 The percentage of males of military age enlisting in these arid areas during World War One was as follows: Rohtak, 23.90; Gurgaon, 16.23; Hissar, 13.73; Ambala, 8.48; Rawalpindi, 40.1; Jhelum, 38.7; Attock, 23; Kangra, 13.9; See Leigh, Punjab and the War, pp. 61–62.

30 IOR: P/6045/33, 1945, see Five-Year Plan: Post-War Development Scheme, Lahore 1945, pp. 1–2. Also see Leigh, Punjab and the War, pp. 61–62.

31 The percentage of males of military age who enlisted during World War One in the canal colonies was as follows: Lyallpur. 5.5; Montgomery, 3.3; Jhang, 1.1; See Leigh, Punjab and the War, pp. 61–62. An interesting disclosure was made by the Secretary of the District Soldier's Board, Montgomery, who wrote that during 1934 and 1938 the 60,000 military grantees in Montgomery district returned less than 60 men for recruitment. See Soldier's Savings, p. 4.

32 War Services of Karnal District, p. 7.

33 Chaudhuri, Nirad, ‘The Martial Races of India’ part IV, in Modern Review, February 1931, vol. 49, pp. 215228Google Scholar.

34 Lal, Hardwari, Understanding Politics and Society, 1910–1997, edited by Prem Chowdhry, Manak Publication, New Delhi, 2010, see Chapter I.Google Scholar

35 Narain, Brij, India in the Crisis, Indian Press, Allahabad, 1934, p. 365Google Scholar.

36 For details see Woolacott, Angela, Gender and Empire, Palgrave, Macmillian, USA, 2006, pp. 5680CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Peers, Douglas M., ‘The Martial Races and the Indian Army in the Victorian Era’, in Marston, Daniel P. and Sundaram, Chandar S. (eds) A Military History of India and South Asia: From the East India Company to the Nuclear Era, Praeger Security International, London, 2007, pp. 3452Google Scholar.

38 Cited by Nirad Chaudhuri ‘The Martial Races of India’ part IV, in Modern Review, February 1931, vol. 49, pp. 215–228.

39 The General Annual Report on Recruiting, cited in Ibid.

40 Heathcote, T. A., The Indian Army: The Garrison of British Imperial India, 1822–1922, Vancouver, David and Charles, 1974, p. 105Google Scholar.

41 War Services of Karnal District, p. 13.

42 Omissi, David, The Sepoy and the Raj: The Indian Army, 1860–1940, Macmillian Press, London, p. 28Google Scholar.

43 In the later period of war, the British felt compelled to recruit soldiers from castes other than the ‘martial castes’. Thus during the course of the war 75 new castes were included for the purposes of recruitment in the British Indian Army. Out of these castes, 22 were from Punjab, the majority of whom were cultivators. Singh Sohal, Sukhdev, The Making of Middle Classes in the Punjab (1849–1947) Jalandhar, ABS Publications, 2008, pp. 133134Google Scholar.

44 The only condition that the pensioners had to fulfill in order to avail of their pensions was to keep away from any involvement in the politics opposed to the colonial regime. Ibid, p. 134.

45 Punjab District Gazetteer, Rohtak, 1910, III–A, p. 168.

46 Indian Statutory Commission, II, written evidence, memorandum, Punjab government, Indian Statutory Commission, Vol. X, see written evidence in Memorandum submitted by the Government of the Punjab to the Indian Statutory Commission.

47 Punjab Provincial Banking Inquiry Report, 1929–1930, II, evidence, Lahore, Superintendent Government Printing, 1930, p. 872.

48 See detailed caste-wise figure (1926–1927 to 1939–1940) in land transactions (mortgage and sale) of Rohtak district between members of agricultural castes only in IOR: Annual Report of the Land Revenue Administration in Punjab, 1921–1940, see statement III of these reports for the relevant years.

49 Darling, M. L., Wisdom and Waste in the Punjab Village, London, Oxford University Press, 1934, pp. 6768Google Scholar.

50 Moreover, unlike the army men the police became notorious for accepting bribes. This became specially marked after the great depression of 1929 when the purchasing power of people declined enormously. Considered morally degenerate, the policemen could hardly be dubbed as ‘honorable men’. See Sohal, The Making of the Middle Classes, pp. 149–150.

51 Daily issue of rations for Indian troops and followers on field service was calculated to be as follows: juice: ½ fl. oz; milk fresh: 8 oz; milk canned: 2 oz; onions: 2 oz; potatoes: 2 oz; salt: ½ oz; sugar: 2½ oz; tea:1/3 oz; vegetables, fresh (other than potatoes and onions): 1 lb; atta: 1½ lb; chillies: 1/6 oz; dal: 3 oz.; garlic:1/6 oz; ghee: 2 oz; ginger: ¼ oz; turmeric: 1/6 oz; thrice weekly issues of: cigarettes: 40 or tobacco: 2 oz; sweets: 4 oz. Cited in Chaudhuri, ‘The Martial Races of India’ p. 221.

52 Esher Committee Report of the army in India, cited in Ibid., p. 221.

53 Goldstein, Joshua S., War and Gender: How Gender shapes the War System and Vice-Versa, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 257Google Scholar.

54 Information given by the late Hardwari Lal (1910–1997) a well known educationist and politician of Haryana and corroborated by many village elders in most of the villages, 19 March 1985.

55 For ethnographic data from New Zealand regarding this see Campbell, Hugh, ‘The glass phallus: Pub(lic) masculinity and drinking in rural New ZealandRural Sociology, 2000 vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 562581Google Scholar.

56 Dorschner, Jon Peter, Alcohol Consumption in a Village in North India, Michigan, UMI Research Press, 1983, pp. 35, 54Google Scholar.

57 Cohen, The Indian Army, pp. 46–47.

58 ‘Lord Kitchener and the Indian Army’, The Times, London, 10 April 1906, cited in Peers, ‘The Martial Races and the Indian Army’ p. 52.

59 Cited in Mazumder, The Indian Army and the Making of Punjab, p. 264.

60 Kundu, Militarism in India, p. 24.

61 O’ Dwyer, Michael, India as I know it, 1885–1922, London, Constable and Co. 1925, p. 216, 219Google Scholar.

62 Kundu, Militarism in India, p. 24.

63 A Pathan soldier writing in April 1915, cited in Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj, p. 82.

64 Ibid, p. 84.

65 In 1968–1969, a survey indicated an average expenditure of only 0.25 per cent out of the total domestic household expenditure which rose to 0.67 per cent in 1973–1974. A random survey of 76 families from all over Haryana in 1973–1974 indicated that ten of them spent nothing on religion. On the other hand, expenditure on social life, births, deaths and marriages had increased in the same period by 128 per cent. See Family Budgets of Cultivators in Haryana, 1973–74, Economic and Statistical Organization, Planning Department, Haryana, Chandigarh, 1976, tables 2.3 (b), p.8.

66 The older generation in the villages of Haryana was very keen to underline this fact. Indeed, it was suggested that parents tend to worry and find it embarrassing if a male child showed too much religiosity.

67 See Kapur, Anuradha, ‘Deity to crusader: The changing iconography of Ram’, in Pandey, Gyanendra (ed.) Hindus and Others, Viking, New Delhi, 1993, pp. 74109Google Scholar. Also, Jain, Kajari, ‘Muscularity and its ramifications: Mimetic male bodies in Indian mass culture’, in Srivastva, Sanjay, Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2004, pp. 300341CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 Babb, Lawrence, The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India, Columbia University Press, New York, 1975, p. 233Google Scholar. Also see Alter, Joseph S., ‘Nervous masculinity: Consumption and the production of embodied gender in Indian wrestling’, in Mines, Diane P. and Lamb, Sarah (eds) Everyday Life in South Asia, Indiana University Press, Bloomingdale and Indianapolis, 2002, pp. 132144Google Scholar.

69 Alter, Joseph S., The Wrestler's Body: Identity and Ideology in North India, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1992, p. 201CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 The reference is obviously to the retrieval of Sita, the wife and queen of Lord Ram, abducted by the demon king Ravana of Lanka and Hanuman's crucial role in the destruction of the demon and his kingdom. Known as ‘Lanka dhawan’ (destruction of Lanka) hardly any event in Hindu mythology is more familiar to the ruralities than this. It has historically formed the favourite subject of Ramlila, the dramatic representation at the annual festival of the dussera. See Crooke, William, The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, Vol. I, originally published in 1894, reprint Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi, 1978, p. 85Google Scholar.

71 See Talwar Oldenburg, Veena, Dowry Murders: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 15Google Scholar.

72 Roberts cited in Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj, p. 99.

73 Rohtak District Gazetteer, 1910, p. 88.

74 See Indian Law Reports, Lahore Series, 1934, Vol. XV, Jogahar Singh and Chattar Singh vs Sadhu Ram, pp. 688–693; Indian Cases, 1937, Vol. 166, Joginder Singh vs Kartara, pp. 719–723; Also see Rattigan, W. M., A Digest of the Civil Law for the Punjab Chiefly Based on the Customary Law as Present Ascertained, revised by Harbans Lal Sarin and Kundan Lal Pandit, second edition, 1880, Reprint, Allahabad, The University Book Agency, 1960, p. 82Google Scholar.

75 Indian Cases, 1937, Vol. 166, Joginder Singh vs Kartara, pp. 719–723.

76 Fallon, S. W., A Dictionary of Hindustani Proverbs, Benaras, E. J. Lazarus and Company, 1886, p. 228Google Scholar.

77 In the wake of 1857 and World Wars there arose a large body of such songs, prompting the men to recruit, that acted as reinforcement of masculinity amongst army men. This is especially poignant as in the 1914 war the entire Jat Platoon No. 6 was wiped out; no one came back alive. For details of these songs see Sharma, Jagdish Narayan Bhola Nath, Haryana Pradesh ke Lok Geeton ka Samajik Paksh, Chandigarh, Haryana Sahitya Academy, 1989, pp. 1516Google Scholar.

78 Cunningham, F. cited in Rohtak District Gazetteer, 1883–84, Calcutta, Government of Punjab, n.d., p. 51Google Scholar.

79 Campbell, George, Memoirs of My Indian Career, (ed.) by Bernard, Charles E., Vol. I, London, Macmillan and Co., 1893. pp. 8384Google Scholar. Interestingly, his observation about having played this role was: ‘In my business with people my habits were those of extreme patriarchal familiarity’, p. 84.

80 Census of India: Punjab and Delhi, 1911, Vol. 17, Pt. 1, Report, p. 216.

81 Darling, Malcolm Lyall, Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt, First edition 1925, Reprint, Delhi, South Asia Books, 1978, p. 51Google Scholar.

82 MacMunn, G, Armies of India, London, Sampson Low, 1933, pp. 129130Google Scholar.

83 For themselves also the British zealously defended both manliness and their racial exclusivity. Their attitude towards Eurasians, children of ‘native’ and ‘European’ descent was also very disparaging. Condemned for ‘inherent defects of body and mind’ these ‘half-castes’ suffered severe disqualification in the eighteenth century and were excluded from all civil, military and naval posts. The British feared the communication of their ‘imperfections’ through inter-marriage to the succeeding generations of Englishmen. See Sudipta Sen, ‘Colonial aversions and domestic desires: Blood, race and sex and the decline of intimacy in early British India’, in Sanjay Srivastva, Sexual Sites, pp. 49–82.

84 The ‘Caste is race’ thesis is an old one which resurfaced in the context of the United Nations conference on racism held in Durban in August 2001. Caste was equated with race for two reasons: one was a misreading of Vedic texts inspired by the distinction made by early Indologists between fair Aryans and dark Dravidians. Two was because of some similarities between the ways blacks were treated in southern United States, or in apartheid Africa, and the treatment meted out to so-called ‘untouchables’ in caste Hindu society. It is now well accepted that caste cannot be seen as another variant of race.

85 See for example, Haria vs Kanhaya in Punjab Law Reporter, 1908, pp. 137–146.

86 All India Reporter, 1934, Lahore, Chiragdin vs Dilawar Khan.

87 In the Breach of Betrothal Right, when a girl's side broke off the betrothal they could be sued through the courts, though not vice versa. A large number of such cases were recorded in which damages were awarded and decrees of money were given to the boy's side. For detailed listing of such cases see Dunnett, J. M., The Customary Law of the Ludhiana District, revised edition, vol. V, Lahore, Punjab Govt. Press, 1911, pp. 1622Google Scholar; and A. Kensington, Customary Law of the Ambala District, pp. 4–5. In colonial Punjab the father was frequently accused of reselling his daughter. Indeed, there seems to exist almost a market-like situation as depicted by Jonathan Parry about the Rajputs of colonial Kangra, which allowed fathers to dispose of their daughters to the highest bidder. (Parry, Jonathan P., Caste and Kinship in Kangra, New Delhi, Vikas Publishing House, pp. 243246Google Scholar). However, it is equally likely that in some of the cases peer pressure would not allow the sale of brides from the lower classes of the higher caste groups to boys of ‘half-caste’ families. As such this move may be looked upon as denouncing inter-caste marriages by refusing marital alliance with such families, and an attempt to strictly enforce caste endogamy in marriage.

88 For details see Rattigan, A Digest of Civil Law, pp. 479–484.

89 In the Munni Lal vs Shyama Sonarin case for example, Shyama, a Sonarin (Vaishya) by caste got married in 1923 to Munni Lal who was of ‘mixed blood’. His father was a Sunar but his mother was a Mallahin. Apparently under the pressure of the wider Vaish community the girl was kept back and not sent to her husband. Munni Lal instituted the Restitution of Conjugal Rights case, demanding his wife back. The court ruled against the marriage; Munni Lal was declared of ‘mixed blood’, ‘illegitimate’ and a ‘Sudra’; there could be no ‘legal marriage’ between ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ caste. See Indian Cases, 1926, vol. 97, Munni Lal vs Shyama Sonarin, p. 347. For other cases see also Punjab Law Reporter, 1934, vol. 35, Santu vs Har De pp. 480–481; Punjab Law Reporter, 1914, vol. 15, Budhu Mal vs Mansh Ram, pp. 259–261.

90 See for instance Punjab Law Reporter, 1931, XXXV, Kundan Lal vs Ram Chand, pp. 140–142.

91 See Prem Chowdhry, ‘Fluctuating fortunes of wives: Creeping rigidity in inter-caste marriages in the colonial period’, The Indian Historical Review, Jan. 2007, Vol. XXXIV, no. I. pp. 210–243.

92 Maconachie, R. (ed.), Selected Agricultural Proverbs of the Punjab, Delhi, Imperial Medical Hall Press, 1870, p. 280Google Scholar. This proverb is from Kangra, but according to Maconachie it revealed ‘a universal sentiment’ of Punjab.

93 Philip Oldenburg, ‘Sex ratio, son preference and violence in India: A research note, Economic and Political Weekly, 5–12 December 1992, Vol. XXVII, nos: 49 and 50, pp. 2657–2662.

94 See Chowdhry, Prem, Contentious Marriages, Eloping Couples: Gender, Caste and Patriarchy in Northern India, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2007Google Scholar.

95 See Prem Chowdhry, ‘First our jobs then our girls’: The dominant caste perceptions on the ‘rising’ dalits’, Modern Asian Studies, March 2009, vol. 43, part 2, pp. 437–479.

96 This routine also included violence of women (senior or high caste) upon women (junior and low caste).

97 See for example, the popular Hindi novel of Rajendra Singh Bedi, Ek chaddar Maili si (I take this woman), written in the early 1960s. It depicts graphically the rural society of Punjab and the role and acceptance of violence in everyday life especially in relation to married women. It was also made into a popular Bombay film (Hindi) by Sukhwant Dhadda in 1986.

98 For this see the collection of local sayings and proverbs collected by Maconachie, Selected Agricultural Proverbs; Fallon, A Dictionary of Hindustani Proverbs. Also see the Settlement Reports of different districts in Punjab written by British officers.

99 Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj, pp. 25–29.

100 Ibid.

101 See for example Ibbetson, Denzil, Punjab Castes: Races, Castes and Tribes of the people of Punjab, New Delhi, Cosmo Publications, 1981 (a reprint of 1910 edition), pp. 3897Google Scholar.

102 For details see Prem Chowdhry, ‘Villains and Loyalists: Constructing Colonial Concerns in Gunga Din (1939)’, The Indian Historical Review, January–July, 2002, vol. XXIX, no. 1 and 2, pp. 145–197.

103 Maconachie, Selected Agricultural Proverbs, p. 237.

104 The British collected a large body of local sayings during their revenue settlement operations. These and other collections were published in the late nineteenth century, with special emphasis on essential ‘tribal characteristics’, all of which showed negative traits. See for example Maconachie, Selected Agricultural Proverbs and Fallon, A Dictionary of Hindustani Proverbs.

105 The non-agriculturist castes were ridiculed for their physical cowardness. This specially held true of the Banias, Khatris and Brahmins. See Maconachie, Selected Agricultural Proverbs, pp. 160, 237–238, 240–241.

106 Ibid., pp. 237–251.

107 Figures calculated from Government of India (GI): Reforms Office, Franchise-B, March 1921, no: 34–99; and IOR: POS. 5546, Punjab Electoral Statistics and Maps, 1920.

108 See Prem Chowdhry, Punjab Politics, pp. 302–304.

109 Parliamentary Papers: See returns showing the results of elections in India, 1937, Cmd. 5589.

110 See Rajit K. Mazumder for a compelling argument about how colonialism was constrained and nationalism restricted as a consequence of the Indian Army's deep roots in Punjab. Mazumder, The Indian Army and the Making of Punjab.

111 Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj, pp. 113–152.

112 See Nandi, Ashish, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1983, p. 52Google Scholar.

113 For understanding the nuances and complexities of approach towards the British Indian Army, offered by the Congress and other important personages associated with it, see Kundu, Militarism in India, pp. 38–47.

114 For details see Chowdhry, Prem, ‘Triumph of the Congress in South-East Punjab: Elections of 1946’, in Panigrahi, D. N. (ed.), Economy, Society and Politics in Modern India, Vikas Publications, New Delhi, 1985, pp. 372395Google Scholar.

115 Cited in Omassi, The Sepoy and the Raj, p. 242.