The Punjab (Punjabi: پنجاب (help·info)) province of Pakistan is the country's most populous region and is home to the Punjabis and various other groups. Neighbouring areas are Sindh to the south, Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province to the west, Pakistan administered Azad Kashmir, Islamabad to the north, and India to the east and north-east. The main languages are the Punjabi, Urdu, Saraiki, Potohari and Pashto. The provincial capital is Lahore. The name Punjab literally translates from the Persian words Pañj (پنج) , meaning Five, and Āb (آب) meaning Water. Thus Punjab can be translated as (the) Five Waters - and hence the Land of the Five Rivers, referring to the Jhelum River, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej these five rivers are all the tributaries of the Indus River. The province was founded in its current form in May 1972.
In the acronym P-A-K-I-S-T-A-N, the P is for PUNJAB.
Geography and Climate
Punjab is Pakistan's second largest province at 205,344 km² (79,284 mi²) after Balochistan and is located at the northwestern edge of the geologic Indian plate in South Asia. The provincial level-capital and main city of the Punjab is Lahore which has been the historical capital of the region. Other important cities include Multan, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi. The province is home to six rivers: the Indus, Beas, Sutlej, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi. Nearly 60% of Pakistan's population lives in the Punjab. It is the nation's only province that touches Balochistan, North-West Frontier Province, Sindh and Pakistan administered Kashmir, and contains the federal enclave of the national capital city at Islamabad. This geographical position and a large multi-ethnic population strongly influence Punjab's outlook on National affairs and induces in Punjab a keen awareness of the problems of the Pakistan's other important provinces and territories.
The province is a mainly a fertile region along the river valleys, while sparse deserts can be found near the border with India and Balochistan. The region contains the Thar and Cholistan deserts. The Indus River and its many tributaries traverse the Punjab from north to south. The landscape is amongst the most heavily irrigated on earth and canals can be found throughout the province. Weather extremes are notable from the hot and barren south to the cool hills of the north. The foothills of the Himalayas are found in the extreme north as well.
Climate
Most areas in Punjab experience fairly cool winters, often accompanied by rain. By mid-February the temperature begins to rise; springtime weather continues until mid-April, when the summer heat sets in.
The onset of the southwest monsoon is anticipated to reach Punjab by May, but since the early 1970s the weather pattern has been irregular. The spring monsoon has either skipped over the area or has caused it to rain so hard that floods have resulted. June and July are oppressively hot. Although official estimates rarely place the temperature above 46°C, newspaper sources claim that it reaches 51°C and regularly carry reports about people who have succumbed to the heat. Heat records were broken in Multan in June 1993, when the mercury was reported to have risen to 54°C. In August the oppressive heat is punctuated by the rainy season, referred to as barsat, which brings relief in its wake. The hardest part of the summer is then over, but cooler weather does not come until late October.
Recently the province experienced one of the coldest winters in the last 70 years. Experts are suggesting that this is due to global climate change.
History
Ancient History
The main site of the Indus Valley Civilization in Punjab was the city of Harrapa. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan and eventually evolved into Indo-Aryan civilization. The arrival of the Indo-Aryans led to the flourishing of the Vedic Civilization along the length of the Indus River. This civilization shaped subsequent cultures in South Asia and Afghanistan. Although the archaeological site at Harappa was partially damaged in 1857 when engineers constructing the Lahore-Multan railroad used brick from the Harappa ruins for track ballast, an abundance of artifacts have nevertheless been found. Punjab was part of the great ancient empires including the Gandhara Mahajanapadas, Mauryas, Kushans and Hindu Shahi. Agriculture flourished and trading cities (such as Multan and Lahore) grew in wealth.
Due to its location, the Punjab region came under constant attack and influence from the west. Invaded by the Persians, Greeks, Kushans, Scythians, Turks, and Afghans, Punjab witnessed centuries of bitter bloodshed. Its legacy is a unique culture that combines Zorastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Persian, Central Asian, Islamic, Afghan, Sikh, and British elements. The city of Taxila, reputed to house the oldest university in the world, Takshashila University, was established by the great Vedic thinker and politician Chanakya. Taxila was a great centre of learning and intellectual discussion during the Maurya Empire. It is a UN World Heritage site, and revered for its archaeological and religious history.
Greeks, Central Asians, and Persians
Unique to Pakistani Punjab was that this area was briefly conquered into various central Asian, Greek and Persian empires: after the bloody victories of Alexander the Great, Mahmud of Ghazni and Tamerlane. These were periods of contact between this region of Pakistan and the Persian Empire and all the way to Greece. In later centuries, when Persian was the language of the Mughal government, Persian architecture, poetry, art and music was an integral part of the region's culture. The official language of Punjab remained Persian until the arrival of the British in the mid 19th century, where it was finally abolished and the administrative language was changed over to English. After 1947, Urdu, which has Persian and Sanskrit roots, became Pakistan's national language (Zaban-e-Qaum).
Arrival of Islam
The Punjabis followed a diverse plethora of faiths mainly Hindus but with large minorities of Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Pagans and Shamanists when the Umayyad Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Punjab and Sindh in 711. Bin Qasim recorded he so was overwhelmed by the gold in the Aditya Temple in the thriving trading city of Multan (known as Mulasthana then), that he recovered the expenses for his entire invasion.
During the reign of Mahmud of Ghazni, non-Muslims were ordered to pay the jaziya tax. The province became an important centre and Lahore was made into a second capital of the Ghaznavid Empire based out of Afghanistan.
Mughals
The Mughals controlled the region from 1524 until 1739 and would also lavish the province with building projects such as the Shalimar Gardens and the Badshahi Mosque, both situated in Lahore. Muslim soldiers, traders, architects, theologians and Sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to the Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and some may have settled in the Punjab. Following the decline of the Mughal Empire, the Shah of Iran and founder of the Afsharid dynasty in Persia, Nader Shah crossed the Indus and sacked the province in 1739. Later, the Afghan conqueror Ahmad Shah Durrani, incidently born in Panjab, in the city of Multan made the Punjab a part of his Durrani Empire lasting until 1762.
Afghans
The founder of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Durrani, an ethnic Pashtun (Afghan), was born on the outskirts of Multan, souther Panjab where many of his descendants live to this day. After cementing his authority over various Afghan tribes, he went about to establish the first united Afghan Kingdom (Greater Afghanistan) that during its greatest extent included modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northeastern Iran. The Punjab was a cultural reservoir for the Afghans, and many where attracted to its lush fertile lands, a process that continues to this very day. It has been said that with the loss of the breadbasket regions of the Punjab and Sindh, Afghanistan has never been able to achieve a stable state ever since. Many ethnic Afghan or Pashtun tribes continue to live in Pakistan's Punjab province such as the Khugyanis known as Khakwanis, Alizais, Tareens, Durranis, Mullazais, Niazis, Khattaks, Lodhis, Kakazais, and Barakzais to name a few.
Sikhs
At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the religion of Sikhism was born, and during the Mughal period gradually emerged as a formidable military force until subjugated and assimilated by the later rising and expanding Sikh Empire. After fighting Ahmad Shah Durrani, the Sikhs wrested control of the Punjab from his descendants and ruled in a confederacy, which later became the Sikh Empire of the Punjab under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A denizen of the city of Gujranwala, the capital of Ranjit Singh's empire was Lahore. The Sikhs made architectural contributions to the city and the Lahore Fort.
British Raj
The Maharaja's death in the summer of 1839 brought political chaos and the subsequent battles of succession and the bloody infighting between the factions at court weakened the state. Relationships with neighbouring British territories then broke down, starting the First Anglo-Sikh War; this led to a British official being resident in Lahore and the annexation of territory south of the Satluj to British India.
Some parts of Pakistani Punjab also served as the centre of resistance in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Sikhs were the first people of the Punjab to rule their own land since Prithviraj Chauhan's defeat.
Independence of Pakistan
In 1947 the Punjab province of British India was divided along religious lines into West Punjab and East Punjab. The western Punjabis voted to join the new country of Pakistan while the easterners joined India. This led to massive rioting as both sides committed atrocities against fleeing refugees.
The undivided Punjab, of which Punjab (Pakistan) forms a major region today, was home to a large minority population of Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus unto 1947 apart from the Muslim majority.
At the time of Partition in 1947 and due to the ensuing horrendous exchange of populations, the Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus migrated to India.[6] Punjabi Muslims were uprooted similarly from their homes in East Punjab which now forms part of India.
Of the total estimated figure of 7 million plus who moved to West Pakistan, over five million settled in Punjab.
The West Punjabi Sikh and Hindu refugees who moved to India leaving their ancient home lands in Punjab (Pakistan) belonged to various sub groups, clans, tribes, castes and also linguistic groups. This includes Khatris, Tarkhans, Rajputs, Jats, Gujjars, Kambojs, Mohyals, Mazhabis, as well as others such as the linguistically distinct Multanis. The Punjabi tribes having Indo-Scythian origin(Tarkhan, Khatri, Jat, Gujjar, Kamboj, Rajput) are found as a majority in Punjab. A unique feature among Punjabis of different faiths Sikh, Muslim and Hindu hailing from the area which now forms the Punjab (Pakistan) is the enduring affinities to sub grouping and clans cutting across religious lines. Consequently these Punjabis of Pakistan, despite having left the country, continue to share common surnames and tribal affiliations with their parent tribes and lands left behind. This includes surnames such as SAHI (JUTT),Awan, Kahlon,Khokhar,Nanda, Duggal, Sethi, Suri, Bajwa, Sahgal, Sial, Bagga, Panesar, Bhatti, Ghumman, Sandhu, Tiwana, Wahi clan, Puri, Vohra, Toor, Kohli, Bakshi, Bhogal, Matharu, Virk, Virdi, Handa, Dhillon, Sindhu, Sidhu, Sohal, Tarar, Waraich, Grewal, Deol, Cheema, Oberoi, Tandon, Wasser, Warar, Maan, Johal, Bains (Jat), Sehdev]], Brar, Shergill, Gill (clan), Boparai, Dhand, Bahri, Bindra, Maitla, Kang, Randhawa, Sial, Dhariwal, Hanjra, Sabharwal, Bassi, Gujral, Sahota, Malhotra, Mehra, Chatwal, Sarna, Khanna, Chopra, Bhambra, Nagi, Chadhar, Bhalla, Anand, Chandhok, Basur, Johar, Kochhar, Bhasin, Sodhi, Bedi, Ghai, Jolly, Tuli, Talwar, Nayar (Khatri), Sobti, Alagh, Khullar, Bhullar, Bhogal, Chadhha, Bhurjee(Bhurji), Bal, Mehta (Khatri), Gulla, Passi (surname), Uppal(Khatri), Marwah, Hunjan, Chaudhry(Khatri) etc. In recent years, many of these refugees have been able to visit their ancestral homelands.
Recent history
Since the 1950s, Punjab industrialized rapidly. New factories came up in Lahore, Multan, Sialkot. In the 1960s the new city of Islamabad was built near Rawalpindi.
Agriculture continues to be the largest sector of Punjab's economy. The province is the breadbasket of the country as well as home to the largest ethnic group in Pakistan, the Punjabis. Unlike neighbouring India, there was no large-scale redistribution of agricultural land. As a result most rural areas are dominated by a small set of land-owning families. This small ruling class also allegedly dominates powerful positions in the army and civil bureaucracy. This results in some resentment from residents of other provinces as well as by the working people of Punjab.
In the 1950s there was tension between the eastern and western halves of Pakistan. In order to address the situation, a new formula resulted in the abolition of the province status for Punjab in 1955. It was merged into a single province West Pakistan. In 1972, after East Pakistan seceded and became Bangladesh, Punjab again became a province.
Punjab witnessed major battles between the armies of India and Pakistan in the wars of 1965 and 1971. Since the 1990s Punjab hosted several key sites of Pakistan's nuclear program such as Kahuta. It also hosts major military bases such as at Sargodha and Rawalpindi. The peace process between India and Pakistan, which began in earnest in 2004, has helped pacify the situation. Trade and people-to-people contacts through the Wagah border are now starting to become common. Indian Sikh pilgrims visit holy sites such as Nankana Sahib.
Starting in the 1980s large numbers of Punjabis migrated to the Middle East, Britain, Spain, Canada and the United States for economic opportunities. Business and cultural ties between the United States and Punjab are growing.
Culture
The population of the province is estimated to be 86,084,000 in 2005 and is home to over half the population of Pakistan. The major language spoken in the Punjab is Punjabi (which is written in a Perso-Arabic script in Pakistan) and Punjabis comprise the largest ethnic group. The language is not given any official recognition in the Constitution of Pakistan. Punjabis themselves are a heterogeneous group comprising different tribes and communities, although the different castes in Pakistani Punjab has more to do with traditional occupations such as blacksmiths or artisans as opposed to rigid social stratifications.
As per the census of Pakistan 1998, linguistic distribution of the Punjab province is: Punjabi (75.23%), Saraiki (17.36%), Urdu (04.51%), Pashto (01.16%), Balochi (0.66%), Sindhi (0.13%) others (0.95%). The population of Punjab (Pakistan) is estimated to be between 95% Muslim with a Sunni majority and Shia minority. The largest non-Muslim minority is estimated to be Christians, who are thought to make up 03% of the poulation. Other minorites include, Ahmedi, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis and Bah'ai
The dialects spoken in different regions of the land have a common vocabulary and a shared heritage. The shared heritage also extends to a common faith, Islam. The people of Punjab have also a shared spiritual experience, which has been disseminated by Tassawwaf and can be witnessed on the occasion of the remembrance-fairs held on the Urs of Sufi Saints.
The most important tribes within Punjab include the Punjabi Rajputs, the Gakhars, the Gujjars, the Jats (see also List of Jat Clans of West Punjab), the Dogar, the Arain, the Punjabi Shaikhs (other name of Pakistani Punjabi Khatris), the Kamboh, and the Syeds. Other smaller tribes are the Awans, Khateek, Maliar, Rawns, Punjabi Pathans, Baloch, Rehmanis ( Muslim Labana) and the Maliks. Other smaller ethnic groups in the province include the Siraiki, Hindko, Kashmiris, Sindhis, and Muhajirs. Three decades of bloodshed in neighbouring Afghanistan have brought a large number of Afghan refugees (Tajik, Pashtun, Hazara and Turkmen) to the province.
Punjabi Music
Classical music forms are an important part of the cultural wealth of the Punjab. The Muslim musicians have contributed a large number of ragas to the repository of classical music. The most common instruments used are the Tabla and Harmonium.
Among the Punjabi poets, the names of Sultan Bahu, Bulleh Shah, Mian Muhammad Baksh, and Waris Shah and folk singers like Inayat Hussain Bhatti and Tufail Niazi, Alam Lohar, Sain Marna, Mansoor Malangi, Allah Ditta Lunewala, Talib Hussain Dard, Attaullah Khan Esakhlvi, Gamoo Tahliwala, Mamzoo Gha-lla, Akbar Jat, Arif Lohar, Ahmad Nawaz Cheena and Hamid Ali Bela are well-known. In the composition of classical ragas, there are such masters as Malika-i-Mauseequi (Queen of Music) Roshan Ara Begum, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, Salamat Ali Khan and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan. Alam Lohar has made significant contributions to folklore and Punjabi literature, by being a very influential Punjabi folk singer from 1930 until 1979.
For the popular taste however, light music, particularly Ghazals and folk songs, which have an appeal of their own, the names of Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali, Nur Jehan, Malika Pukhraj, Farida Khanum, Roshen Ara Begum, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan are well-known. Folk songs and dances of the Punjab reflect a wide range of moods: the rains, sowing and harvesting seasons. Luddi, Bhangra and Sammi depict the joy of living. Love legends of Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahiban, Sohni Mahenwal and Saiful Mulk are sung in different styles.
For the most popular music from the region, bhangra, the names of Abrar-Ul-Haq, Arif Lohar, Legacy, and Malkoo are renown.
Folklore
The folk heritage of the Punjab is the traditional urge of thousands of years of its history. While Urdu is the official language of the province, there are a number of local dialects through which the people communicate. These include Majhi, Jhangochi or Jangli, Pothohari, Saraiki, Jatki, Hindko, Chhachhi, Doabi, and Derewali. The songs, ballads, epics and romances are generally written and sung in these dialects.
There are a number of folk tales that are popular in different parts of the Punjab. These are the folk tales of Mirza Sahiban, Sayful Muluk, Yusuf Zulekha, Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal, Dulla Bhatti, and Sassi Punnun. The mystic folk songs include the Kafees of Khwaja Farid in Saraiki, Punjabi and the Shalooks by Baba Farid. They also include Baits, Dohas, Lohris, Sehra, and Jugni.
The most famous of the romantic love songs are Mayhiah, Dhola and Boliyan. Punjabi romantic dances include Dharees, Dhamaal, Bhangra, Giddha, Dhola, and Sammi.
Government of Punjab
The Government of Punjab, is the provincial government in the federal structure of Pakistan, is based in Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province.
