It is wrong to assume that throwing the landowners out and giving the land to the people is going to have the effect that people imagine. On the contrary, it will lead to violence and destruction. The feudals will be no more in a generation or two, and it will happen without anyone actually havingto do anythingabout it

I AM a member of a land-owning family in Sindh. Landowners often earn the label of ‘feudals’, but this is somewhat of a misnomer, for feudalism is a mindset more than an economic reality in a post-Ayub Pakistan where three land reforms took place and reduced most feudals’ holdings by thousands of acres in the 1960s and the ‘70s.
     Most landowners in Sindh were born into a certain system and they worked within the system that was established at the time. But they have made huge efforts to step out of this system and bring modernity both to themselves and to the people of their areas. This essay is meant to bust a few myths and communicate a few home truths about ‘feudalism’ in this country, which many people in the urban centres of the country believe to be the reason for why things in Pakistan are so amiss.
      This essay is based on my own personal knowledge of this world; it is the talk of an ‘insider’ and you may accept it or not as you please. I am being honest about my background, and naturally you may find me a bit biased. But I have nothing to gain by touting the wrongdoings of this segment of society and nothing to lose by talking openly about its good points. Next>