gation technology increased crop production and made many wealthy landholders wealthier.
Since 1977, landholders have been officially limited to owning only 100 acres
(40 hectares), but powerful extended families control thousands of acres. One study
estimated that 40 percent of Pakistan’s
arable land is owned by 1 percent of the
landholders.
Because large landowners have controlled
far more land than they could farm, a
sharecropper system developed centuries ago. Under this system, landless peasants may contract to work the landholder’s
land for half the crop produced. The sharecropping system, however, is open to numerous abuses by the landowner.
An age-old system of serfdom is unUnscrupulous landowners may loan
dergoing tremors in Pakistan’s Indus
money, food or shelter to their sharecropValley as serfs try to cast off generations
pers at excessively high interest rates,
of traditional servitude to wealthy landthus keeping sharecroppers perpetually
owners.
in debt. When this happens, the workers
It’s surprising that at the end of the
and their families become serfs, whose
20th century Pakistan even condones a
debts and services
serfdom system. Yet
Indus Valley
may be sold or traded
one of the world’s anbetween landowners.
cient cradles of civilizaTURKMENISTAN
RUSSIA T I B E TA N P L AT E A U
This differs little from
tion, the Indus Valley
the situation of the
of Pakistan, stands toH
KA
K US
U
medieval serfs of Euday as one of the largR
D
AK
H IN
OR
rope.
est remaining bastions
A M CHINA
Islamabad
Pakistan’s serfs are
of feudal serfdom. The
AFGHANISTAN
now leaving their
valley’s physical and
H
“owners” in large
human geography, in
IM
numbers, according
part, has fostered the
Lahore
A
IRAN
L
to an Aug. 20 Los Ancontinued practice.
A
Y
geles Times article.
The Indus River begins
A
S
Consequently, landdeep in Tibet and flows
y
a ll e
V
holders,
called
for 1,800 miles (2,897
s
u
Ind
zamindars, are raidkm) across Pakistan to
NEPAL
Great Indian
New
ing local villages and
the Arabian Sea. The
PAKISTAN
Desert
forcing runaway
Indus meanders southDelhi
sharecroppers back to
westward across a
work, often while law
broad structural basin
Karachi
INDIA
enforcement looks on.
along the western side
Serfdom is an antiof the Indian subcontiquated system of innent.
500 Km
dentured labor, long
Over millions of years,
considered a plague
the river’s tributaries
500 Mi
on the landless people
gnawed at the steep
slopes of the high Tibet
maps.com ©2000 of the world. The
Geography in the News # 488
spotlight of internaPlateau, Himalayas,
tional publicity may
Pamir Knot and Hindu
be a powerful tool in
Kush. The turbulent
~ Highland areas with major mountain
chains named
righting such wrongs
headwaters carried
in countries such as Pakistan.
people continued through the millennia
clay, silt and sand from the high mounAnd that is Geography in the News, Octoto farm this fertile land.
tains to the basin floor. There, at the foot
ber 1, 1999.
In 1858, the British added Pakistan to
of the mountains, stream velocities slowed
its British India colony. In addition to
on the flatter terrain, and the meandering
(The author is a Professor of Geography at
implementing education and health rechannel splayed the loamy materials
Appalachian State University, Boone, NC )
forms, the British constructed more water
across the width of the basin.
#488
and irrigation projects. This modern irriIt was on this fertile and friable soil
PAKISTAN’S
SERFS
that the great Indus Valley civilization
was born about 2,500 years B.C. The relatively flat terrain, loamy soils and potential for widespread irrigation created excellent agricultural potential. These conditions were similar to those found at the
sites of the other three great civilizations—
the Nile in Egypt, Tigris-Euphrates in
Iraq (Mesopotamia) and Hwang He in
China.
The Indus Valley civilization developed a high level of specialization, including metal craft, artistry, religion, sanitation and engineering. But the civilization rested upon the agriculture base,
which in turn relied on the dependability
of the natural elements.
By about 1,700 B.C., the civilization
had weakened, and outside invaders destroyed it. Theories abound about causes,
but it is generally believed that a string of
poor harvests and natural disasters may
have contributed to the downfall. Nonetheless, most of the Indus Valley’s rural
© 2000 maps.com