Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the impact of 'development' rhetoric and planning in Sindh before and following independence, highlighting connections between post-war reconstruction and the early ‘improvement’ policies pursued in the Sindhi countryside after 1947.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the impact of 'development' rhetoric and planning in relation to the agricultural landscape of Sindh before and following independence. Taking as its starting point the involvement of one individual 'expert', Roger Thomas, who played a key role in shaping policy there in 1940s and 1950s, it highlights the extent to which planning for post-war reconstruction underpinned - indeed was directly translated into - initiatives to improve agricultural production in the province after 1947. Thomas, who was Advisor to the Government of Sind in Agriculture and Post-War Development from 1944 to 1952, chaired the Sind Farm Tenancy Legislation Committee (better known as the Hari Committee) in 1947-48, a role that allowed him to champion his long-held belief in the need to restructure economic relations in the Sindhi countryside (which was eventually translated into the 1950 Sindh Tenancy Act with mixed results). His similarly strong faith in the positive impact of technology, especially the tractor, together with the benefits of improved seeds and irrigation techniques, foreshadowed later arguments associated with the so-called 'green revolution' in the region. More broadly, by exploring the ways in which authorities in Sindh (and Pakistan more generally) approached the task of economic and in particular agricultural development in the first years of independence, we gain insights into the political challenges associated with the pursuit of 'development' during the transition from colonial rule to post-colonial South Asia.