Government Reclamation Policy in British India

This paper describes the British Indian land-holding and revenue system based on ancient custom; how, in the Punjab, water is given, and charged for; what land is reclaimed, and how. Without attempting a comparison with America, attention is drawn to points that seem to be of value. Data ate given which show the magnitude of irrigation and reclamation works which seems not to be realized in America. Efforts of the British Government in the Punjab cover nearly all the reclamation work of India. In a pamphlet, “Federal Reclamation, What It Should Include", Elwood Mead, M. Am. Soc. C. E., devotes a section to “What Other Countries are Doing". In this, facts and even mention of India and Egypt are conspicuously absent. This is not an omission that is unimportant, for it is believed that the 27 500 000 acres annually irrigated in India are more than one-half the irrigation of the whole world. Of that in India, more than 40% is in the Punjab; the 5 000 000 acres of desert Crown Waste populated by canals constitute more than 20% of the area served by existing canals in the Province, and schemes under execution or projected will double that area of reclamation. Moreover, these data do not include privately owned desert land. In what follows, costs have been translated into terms of American money; for convenience.