PUNJAB has been an unusually fluid region, not just geographically but socially and culturally. The boundaries of present day Indian Punjab for example, the region that this paper focuses on, have been redrawn several times over the last few centuries, currently occupying less than 15% of the total geographical area of pre-partition colonial Punjab. A large number of Punjabis, both Sikhs as well as Hindus, live outside the state. A good number of those who migrated from across the border to the Indian side at the time of Partition were resettled in Delhi and other towns of North India.

Over the years, a large number of Punjabis have also migrated out of India, particularly to the countries of the West. Punjabis are among the most influential diasporic communities in some countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America. For example, the proportion of Sikhs in Canada today is approximately the same as in India, constituting nearly two per cent of the total population of the country.

Socially and culturally too Punjab has seen many changes in its profile. Though in popular imagination Indian Punjab is identified with the Sikhs, it was only after its reorganisation in 1966 that Sikhism became a majority religion in the state. In colonial Punjab, Sikhs were a minority and constituted only around 12% of the total population. The Muslims with a population of around 51% formed the majority and the Hindus were around 36%.

Commitment to the ‘native language’ too has not been a passion among the Punjabis. It was not only a section of the Hindus of Punjab who chose to report themselves as speakers of Hindi during the post-independence period, the Muslim Punjabis of Western Punjab (the part that went to Pakistan) too hesitate to identify themselves with their ‘mother tongue’.1 The Punjabi elite of Pakistan, like their counterpart Hindu Punjabis of the Indian Punjab, prefer to identify themselves with Urdu, the national language of their country.

However, despite this fluid and fragmented nature of Punjabi identity, the region has enjoyed a somewhat prominent position in the subcontinent. In the Indian national anthem, of all the provinces mentioned, Punjab’s name comes first. The people of Punjab were also at the forefront of the nationalist freedom struggle. Local leaders, particularly the Sikh Akalis, have often demanded that the Punjab needed to be accorded special treatment because no other region had sacrificed as much for the freedom of the country as had the people of Punjab with martyrs like Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh and Lala Lajpat Rai and massacres like the Jalianwala Bagh. Most importantly, Punjab and Bengal were the only provinces to be partitioned at the time of Independence with millions of Sikhs and Hindus having to cross the newly drawn international border leaving behind virtually all their possessions.

Punjab continued to occupy a distinctive position in the Indian Union during the post-independence period. Being a border state, it was a critical region for independent India. Ever since the British declared Punjab a region of martial communities, the proportion of Sikhs in the national defence forces was much higher than their relative numbers in the Indian population. In popular imagination the Sikhs continue to be viewed as brave soldiers. As mentioned above, the Punjabis are also known to be among the most mobile communities of the subcontinent. They were among the first to go abroad to make their fortunes.

More importantly, however, Punjab, post-independence, acquired prominence for its dynamic and progressive economy, particularly its agriculture. The green revolution, though experienced in other parts of India, was primarily identified with Punjab. At a time when India experienced serious shortages of foodgrains, the success of the green revolution nearly solved the vexing food problem of the entire country.