Fw: H-ASIA: CFP Socio-political & Economic Life in Market Towns of Colonial Multan, prop. panel Conf on S. Asia, Oct 2011

----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Conlon" <conlon@U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 2:15 AM
Subject: H-ASIA: CFP Socio-political & Economic Life in Market Towns of
Colonial Multan, prop. panel Conf on S. Asia, Oct 2011

> H-ASIA
> March 17, 2011
>
> Call for panel participants: Socio-political and Economic Life in the
> Market Towns of Colonial Multan, for Annual Conference on South Asia,
> Madison, October
> ************************************************************************
> From: Michael J. Kruse <conference@southasia.wisc.edu>
>
> SOCIO-POLiTICAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE IN THE MARKET TOWNS OF COLONIAL MULTAN
>
> Multan is an important region of southasia.a city of monuments has been
> around for centuries. history of multan dated back to ancient times. as
> per
> stories its origin is assigned to the hazrat noah under the various form
> of
> ancient designations, kasyapapura, kashapur, hanspur,bagpur and
> mulashthana.it has been an empire, a kingdom,a state and a divisional head
> quarter.from alexander to aurangzeb the city was built,damaged, repaired,
> destroyed, demolished and reconstructed many times.at the British
> annexation
> in 1849, once again changed the face of the city and witnessed the new
> demographic and socio-economic order.Multan has been re-inventing it self
> ever since. this research focuses on the socio-political and economic life
> of the market towns of colonial multan. the booming cotton industry and
> the
> establishment of zamindars trading agencies reflect the rise of new
> business
> opportunities that the agricultural transformation and urbanization
> brought
> about in order to process the cotton produce and facilitate the
> agriculture
> trade. the hindu money lending class availed the new economic
> opportunities
> and developed into a new capitalist class.many foreign trading firms
> established their agencies in the market towns. they appointed local
> agents
> in the markets and and in majority of the cases the agents served as
> private
> bankers for the firms.the erstwhile Hindu money lenders of the villages
> who
> moved to the towns now established themselves as bankers and capitalists
> dealing with these firms and their status was so much boosted that they
> were
> thoroughly transformed in to a new economic class.this new class of
> capitalist wanted to invest its wealth in the booming cotton industry of
> the
> towns and were viciously opposed by the existing industrialists , which
> left
> a narrow margin of action for the district administration. how ever , the
> district authorities ,basing their decision on prevailing economic
> conditions later said with the incumbent industries, who were allotted
> factory sites in the early colony days. the socio political life like the
> economic life reflected the dominance of the wealthy Hindu community. the
> politically controlled the municipal committees and used them to further
> community aims. the research will, therefore, be an attempt to highlight
> the
> nature of economic development in colonial multan by identifying the
> essential culture of multan and tracing its features during colonial
> period.in this study will explore the cultural conflicts and their
> resolutions. please reply to Abida Chuadhary (abidachuadhary@yahoo.com).
>
> Abida Chuadhary (abidachuadhary@yahoo.com