ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with social change in Pakistan, particularly the relationship between indigenous sociocultural orientations, the development process, and the rise of a new middle-level entrepreneurial class in the Punjab. It aims to understand the growth of this class, especially the factors which have influenced individuals’ decisions to depart from their previous lifestyles and enter into modern forms of industry. Perhaps the failure of Pakistan’s industrial development, marked by the concern for political survival of regimes regardless of the well-being of the majority of the people, typifies the kind of social organization which has enabled the military, though enjoying little popular support, to repeatedly seize state power. Although social change may be recognized as apparent and new classes—such as the middle-level bourgeoisie under analysis —may enter the economic arena as serious actors, the profound and pervasive transformations effected by development may prove antithetical in the long run.
