Competitions for Resources: Partition's Evacuee Property and the Sustenance of Corruption in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper explores the part that the redistribution of evacuee property—the property abandoned by departing Hindus and Sikhs during the mass migrations after Partition—played in the institutionalization of corruption in Pakistan. By drawing on hitherto unexplored sources, including Pakistan's Rehabilitation Department papers, local police files and court records, it highlights the schemes of illegal appropriation, misappropriation, and paints a wholly convincing portrait of the scramble for millions of rupees worth of abandoned property in the towns and countryside of West Punjab. It shows how politicians, bureaucrats, powerful local notables and enterprising refugee groups grabbed properties, mainly by bribing officers charged with allocating them to incoming refugees, or by utilizing their personal contacts. The paper argues that the fierce competition for resources and temptations for evacuee property encouraged the emergence of a ‘corruption’ discourse which not only contributed to an atmosphere that was detrimental to democratic consolidation in the early years of Pakistan's history, but also justified later military intervention. This not only adds to the empirical knowledge of Partition and its legacies, but also makes a significant contribution towards our understanding of the transitional state in Pakistan.

The Punjab Borderland

“…The anti-democratic corruption-dominated discourse that emerged more vigorously in the backdrop of public competition for evacuee property in the early years of Pakistan's history is the subject of an earlier work by the author. 57 This book builds on and is a substantial extension of the impact of the distribution of abandoned evacuee properties on the 'corruption discourse', leading to high levels of resentment and disillusionment, which were a factor in the 1958 coup. It seeks to link the 'narrative of smuggling' with the widely accepted discourse of the weak political institutionalisation in Pakistan, which is often cited as a factor in the drift to authoritarianism.…”

Tales of Restoration: A Study of the Evacuee Property Laws

“…regarded as one of the starting point of the state's corrupt political culture. 36 He claims that it was the pervasive corruption in the redistribution of abandoned Sikh and Hindu properties that eventually paved the way for military dictators in Pakistan. Joya Chatterji revises Vazira Zamindar's thesis by highlighting the 'many small acts of agency', instead of just the top-down bureaucratic discourse to argue that evacuee property legislations have affected the content of citizenship laws in South Asia.…”

Faction-building in Pakistan: Sir Francis Mudie and Punjab politics, 1947–1949

“…The Centre did not exclusively direct corruption scandals against politicians. Provincial politicians also implicated rivals in cases (Chattha 2012).…”