Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute, Lyallpur (1906-1947): Generating Knowledge for Colonial Enrichment Kamlesh Mohan* (Received 06 October 2017; revised 04 April 2018) Abstract The paper discusses the colonial state’s aims and objectives of establishing the Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute, Lyallpur (1906-1947). It argues that the project of diffusion of scientific knowledge and technological change in agriculture, guided by imperialist interests, was half-hearted and aimed mainly to fulfil the colonial goals, e.g. political stability, military recruitment, financial profit and government solvency. In the course of transfer and diffusion of knowledge, the differentiated identities of colonial and Indian experts/colleagues were produced and strengthened. Key words: Agricultural colonization, Agrarian economy, Scientific agriculture, Socio-scientific laboratory, State capitalism, Underdevelopment. * Professor-Emeritus, Department of History, Panjab University, Chandigarh. Mailing Address: 367 Sector-44A Chandigarh- 160047 Email: kamleshmohan14@yahoo.com 1 For a detailed discussion on these associations under the Company rule see Edward W. Ellsworth, Science and Social Science Research in British India, 1780-1880: The Role of Anglo-Indian Associations and Government (Greenwood Press, New York, Westport, Connecticut, London, 1991), pp.115-130. 1. INTRODUCTION Throughout the entire career of imperialist rule in India, the British administrators adopted an interventionist approach for rendering the colony governable and economically profitable. India was the first unit of the empire where the British made a conscious effort to take help of applied science and technology as an administrative tool and instrument knowledge for solving the practical problems of the empire. Its major problems included mapping the huge territories under its possession and integrating them, reducing its heterogeneous population (characterized by multiple castes/tribes and religions) into neat categories, exploiting India’s human and natural resources for economic gain and military control. Botanical-cum-agricultural wealth was to be utilized for industrial and experimentation purposes. Both under the Company and the Crown rule, India became a socio-scientific laboratory for testing the ideologies and institutions which were emerging in Britain. Information-generation through state- sponsored scientific and technical projects, in which colonial bureaucrats, their entourage and indigenous workers participated, was an integral part of the knowledge-making process in India. Transfer of indigenous botanical varieties and their acclimatization was the first step in experimentation in agricultural sciences for dealing with virulent famines and their prevention. 1 It is in this context that the colonial state constantly tried to strike a balance between its two contradictory objectives. Its first objective was to extract the maximum land revenue from agriculture with almost no investment for transforming agrarian production and the related labour systems as well as social and economic conditions of the majority of cultivators. This aim Indian Journal of History of Science, 53.2 (2018) 205-223 DOI: 10.16943/ijhs/2018/v53i2/49425