Class, caste and housing in rural Pakistani Punjab: The untold story of the Five Marla Scheme

Abstract

This article examines the contemporary significance of caste as a dimension of social stratification in Pakistani Punjab, using rural housing as a vantage point. Work on the interplay of class and kinship group, mediated by status hierarchy between agricultural and non-agricultural castes, serves as a point of departure. The organisation of the system of private property in rural land, based on the colonial village record and land alienation laws, is actively used to maintain class power and status hierarchy between kinship groups. Post-independence reforms sustained caste disadvantage, which is particularly conspicuous with regard to housing. The Five Marla Scheme was an exceptional intervention, rooted in populist electoral politics of the 1970s, which provided residential land to rural workers belonging to non-agricultural castes. This significant but dormant and largely undocumented intervention is examined through the case study of a large village in Okara district. We argue for a re-engagement with caste as a valid category for the understanding of class and citizenship in Pakistani Punjab.