ABSTRACT
The ethnic and tribal groups that constituted the Pakistan nation were exclusive, distinctive congeries of proud people that gave their allegiance to familiar local leaders. Tradition and custom guided their behaviour and their integration into a modern polity, their identification with a political abstraction that transcended their immediate surroundings, required tact, patience and wisdom. The numerous ethnic and tribal people of the northwestern part of South Asia were associated with political environments of considerable durability. Organized along functional lines, superior-inferior patterns of behaviour and control were effectively sustained. The overwhelming belief system of this diverse population was Islam, but religion seldom caused either a diminution in regional, ethnic or tribal separateness, or promised much in the way of cooperation. Policies directed at, or interpreted as, muffling ethnic distinctiveness only intensified provincial feelings and heightened bitterness toward the League. Under British rule the Punjabi landed elite expanded their influence and enhanced their tribal and/or biradari relationships in the province.
