Honest Graft in the Punjab

Sir Sikander Hayat Khan ran Punjab as Unionist premier after the 1937 elections. As David Gilmartin’s Empire and Islam points out, this was a patronage-based operation led by the usual rural land-owning-elite suspects. In the words of Sir Sikander’s brother-in-law and chief political advisor, Mir Maqbul Mahmud, “There is a certain amount of legitimate [emphasis in original] patronage available to all parties in power. We should not hesitate to make full and fair use of it” (p. 148). Echoes of George Plunkitt’s Tammany  Hall. . .