Investigates the alliance between the British administration and the Muslim landed magnates who dominated the countryside and provides valuable insights into the emergence of the elite's governing Pakistan today.

This is a study of 19th-century colonial rule in the Pakistani province of Sind. It investigates the alliance between the British administration and the Muslim-landed magnates known as Waderos, who dominated the countryside. The book offers a picture of the day-to-day realitites of the rural power structure, illustrating Waderos' relationships with each other, their peasant neighbours, their landless labourers, their Hindu bankers, the police and British district officers. This work aims to give a contribution to British India, and the economic and political evolution of agrarian society in the subcontinent generally. Its findings offer insights into the emergence of the elites which govern present-day Pakistan.