1. This is very interesting. When efforts were first made to digitize land records in Punjab - in order to reduce litigation, increase revenue, and limit corruption - Patwaris across the province went on strike arguing that they would lose their jobs. https://twitter.com/Huk06/status/1385891308720504832

2. They also suggested that their knowledge - and labour - could not recorded and replicated by machines given the complexity of property ownership and revenue collection at the local level.

3. Historically, Patwaris have played a crucial role at the local level, maintaining a written record of land ownership, property transactions, and revenue calculations. This written record was supplemented by knowledge of social relationships within villages.

4. Possession of the 'only' legitimate record of land ownership imbued Patwaris with a tremendous amount of influence; historically, they were vital to resolving property disputes but, more importantly, also played a strategic role in reinforcing local power relations.

5. Exclusive access to land records allowed Patwaris to manipulate those records, altering them as and when necessary to shift boundaries, establish (or contest) claims of ownership, and introduce ambiguity in the calculation and collection of revenue.

6. In my own research, I came across numerous instances in which Patwaris introduced ambiguity to land records, often for the benefit of powerful local elites. In one instance, a well-known landholder who was accused of usurping land was acquitted by a court because a typo...

7. In the Patwari's register - the ONLY document recording ownership in the village - made it impossible to determine if the landholder rightfully owned 5 or 500 acres of land! Similar mechanisms were employed to evade - among other things - attempts at land reform.

8. The Patwari-Landholder nexus made Patwaris a powerful political constituency, and also saw them receive benefits - in the form of wages, perks, and even land - from successive governments in Pakistan's history.

9. Digitization was meant to address all of this, particularly in terms of how ambiguity and uncertainty in land records hampered efficiency and productivity. Yet, as is often the case, complex social problems rarely have simple technological fixes.

10. It's not clear to me why the current government is reintroducing the Patwar system. The quoted news report suggests that digital land record administration ran into problems because officials lacked the training and knowledge required to properly understand the revenue system

11. This may be the case, but I would not be surprised to find that lobbying and pressure by Patwaris - and their backers amongst the political, landed elite - might have played a role in reviving the old system.

12. Have just found that the news about bringing Patwaris back was incorrect. Still, there is a constituency that would like to have them back and it'd be interesting to see how this plays out over time.