Pakistan publishes its agriculture census, revealing the federation beneath our fields
Bilal Gilani Published July 15, 2026 Updated July 15, 2026 11:56am Listen to article 1x 1.2x 1.5x The state’s desire to count is never entirely innocent. British India turned censuses, land records and irrigation maps into technologies of rule: enumeration made people and property legible, while the canal colonies linked land settlement, water allocation and revenue to a powerful bureaucracy. Pakistan inherited that administrative apparatus.
- ▪Bilal Gilani Published July 15, 2026 Updated July 15, 2026 11:56am Listen to article 1x 1.2x 1.5x The state’s desire to count is never entirely innocent.
- ▪British India turned censuses, land records and irrigation maps into technologies of rule: enumeration made people and property legible, while the canal colonies linked land settlement, water allocation and revenue to a powerful bureaucracy
- ▪Pakistan inherited that administrative apparatus.
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Pakistan publishes its agriculture census, revealing the federation beneath our fields Pakistan's latest Agricultural Census reveals shrinking farms, a shift from canals to private groundwater not only bringing shift in agriculture but an emancipation from state, a solar revolution in the fields, an interprovincial food economy, and livestock growth that has far outpaced crop acreage. Bilal Gilani Published July 15, 2026 Updated July 15, 2026 11:56am Listen to article 1x 1.2x 1.5x The state’s desire to count is never entirely innocent. British India turned censuses, land records and irrigation maps into technologies of rule: enumeration made people and property legible, while the canal colonies linked land settlement, water allocation and revenue to a powerful bureaucracy.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Dawn.
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