MASTERY OVER GEOGRAPHY AND THE RISE OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE CANAL IRRIGATION SYSTEM OF THE WEST PUNJAB DURING COLONIAL INDIA.

It is the geography that determines social development and, in response, social development changes the meanings of geography. The ability to harness geography, natural resources gave the British an upper hand over the other nations in the 18th and 19th centuries and helped them creating a vast empire. The construction of the modern canal irrigation system in the Punjab by the British was a great feat of engineering and administration and the best use of the soil and water. The British canal irrigation system brought a change in the social and economic lives of the people of the Western Punjab.