Traditional Hierarchies of Zamindars and Kammis in Pakistani Punjab: Contemporary Contests Through Vartan Bhanji

This article challenges the traditional understanding of the role of landownership in rural Punjab in the context of recent socio-economic restructuring of Pakistani society. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork of contemporary practices of gift exchange (vartan bhanji) in a village, we argue that the Kammi biraderis, once considered lower class, now assert their elevated socio-economic status through vartan bhanji on important social occasions like marriages. Zamindars now see themselves in competition both with Kammi biraderis and each other for social prestige and superior status, as new claims made by different biraderis challenge traditional hierarchies created through historically structured socio-economic inequalities.