Harking Back: How the economic plan of Khalsa Raj worked 'wonders'.

Byline: Majid Sheikh

Every time a new government comes to power, the expectation is that they will fix the main pillars of the economy and introduce creative laws to convert society into one in unison with the rest of the world.

Since 1947 there have been sparks of progress, only to fade away within years to head in the other direction. With less than one per cent of our national wealth being spent on the education of the poor, corruption set in quickly. Slowly bureaucracy became masters of scuttling progress. The only way forward is, as the property magnate Malik Riaz famously said on TV: 'I simply grease the file from the top to the bottom.'

When the British came they initially, because of the East India Company, indulged in cruel exploitation. But when the British Government took over in 1858, some semblance of honesty was introduced. They concentrated on modernising agriculture, for it provided the main taxes. New canals and waterways were dug and barren land opened up. In the cities roads and pavement were made and keeping the cities clean was a priority, as was education, however warped their total approach was. But then colonisers have their priorities.

What about the Sikh days? How come conditions were so fine that Punjabis did not want to migrate to British held area? How come that in Lahore the literacy levels were higher than the rest of British India? How come it was compulsory for every woman to own and read a basic alphabet book before she got married? How come the spices and shawls and indigo were exported to Persia, Arabia and even Europe? The lessons on the approach of Maharajah Ranjit led to the Punjab having the most modern army in the sub-continent, which Lord Roberts claimed was 'the finest in Asia.'

These are questions we must study and understand, for these changes happened in our land and in our city. In my research I have been going through the works of Prinsep, N.K. Sinha, Fauja Singh and Garrett, with a special interest in trying to understand just what did Maharajah Ranjit Singh do to convert a virtual wasteland into a prosperous economy guarded by a strong army with settled borders and peace internally. They are the basic issues that we face today, even though there are a lot of things he did not do, which ultimately harmed him. A lot of people cried foul at every step, as they do at today's rulers, yet it makes sense to see just what did the Sikh ruler do that we are not doing. Yes, the economy today is...