Fareeha Zafar. Canals, Colonies and Class: British Policy in the Punjab 1880- 1940. Lahore, Pakistan: Lahore School of Economics. 2017. xxii + 317 pages. Price not given.

Fareeha Zafar’s book Canals, Colonies and Class: BritishPolicy in the Punjab 1880-1940 is essentially an edited reproduction ofher PhD thesis, The Impact of Canal Construction on the Rural Structuresof the Punjab: The Canal Colony Districts, 1880 To 1940. The thesis wascompleted about 35 years ago at the School of Oriental and AfricanStudies, the University of London (now SOAS, the University of London).She studies the British colonisation process in the Punjab and itseffect on the local environment, the production patterns, and socialrelations, understanding that despite several similar studies on theregion, no serious effort had been made to synthesise these issues theway she does in this book. However, in the form of a new book, thesynthesis does not add much value as it reiterates the Britishcolonisers’ well-known strategies, namely irrigation development as atool to settle disarmed forces and nomads and, thereby, strengthening aclass of local landed elite to maintain their power in the colonies,their revenue-seeking policies, indebtedness of the landed class andalike. Nevertheless, considering the timing of the originalcontribution, the book, if read together with the contributions such asKhuhro (1978/1999) and Cheesman (1997), provides a relatively richdescription of geographers’ analyses of the British policies, theirintentions, and their effects.