Punjabi Identities before the Punjab’s Partition
By Ishtiaq Ahmed
Back to Language Policy Home Page
A very interesting article, particularly about how Hindu Punjabis felt towards
other religious groups.
COMMENT: Punjabi identities before the Punjab’s partition —Ishtiaq Ahmed
The emergence of revivalist religious movements in the early 20th century as a
reaction to the proselytising activities of Christian missionaries resulted in
the establishment of community schools and colleges as well as newspapers and
magazines by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. These developments helped promote a
more exclusive and puritanical religious identity
Much has been written on the question of Punjabi identity but as yet the
scholars are not agreed on whether such an identity was important in the lives
of the Punjabi-speaking people or that religion, caste, biradari (kinship
lineage) or sect played a greater role in creating networks and solidarity groups.
I think the notion of a composite Punjab in which all Punjabis shared a strong
sense of solidarity, derived from their common culture; as well as the one that
religious differences make for a permanent conflict among Punjabis are
exaggerated — each of these is an oversimplification of reality.
Pre-colonial Punjab had been under Muslim rule for several centuries till
Maharaja Ranjit Singh established his kingdom at Lahore in 1799. Ranjit Singh
initially used overwhelming force to pacify the Muslim ruling class of the
Punjab, but once he consolidated his power he ruled in the traditional manner —
as a patron of all communities. The three main communities of the Punjab —
Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs — were represented at his court and held positions of
authority in the state. After the British annexed the Punjab in 1849 by
defeating the Sikh armies in a number of battles they continued with a tolerant
approach to religion.
Prakash Tandon, whose Punjabi century 1857-1947 (of 90 years!), is a classic
account of the pre-partition Punjab notes that Brahmins were not a privileged
class among Punjabi Hindus. As was common elsewhere in India, Punjabi Muslims
and non-Muslims did not eat together and marriage between them was taboo. Hindu
eating habits were governed by rules of pollution and were also applied by the
superior castes against lower ones.
Dietary rules were so elaborate (and absurd) that even Brahmins and Khatris
could not eat together. Hindus and Sikhs, of the same caste, on the other hand,
could eat together and even inter-marry. Cross-community marriages took place
especially among the trading castes of Khatris and Aroras.
Some villages and areas were entirely Muslim or Hindu-Sikh but there were mixed
villages and urban localities too. Sikh and Hindu landowners and cultivators
employed Muslim tenant cultivators, artisans and the lower service castes.
Similarly Hindu service castes served in pre-dominantly Muslim villages. There
were some villages in which both Muslim and Hindu landowning and cultivating
castes lived together. Sir Denzil Ibbetson notes in his famous Punjab Castes
that the agricultural castes of the Punjab identified among Hindus, Muslims and
Sikhs shared the same gotras (kinship lineages). Conversions from the Hindu
trading castes and Brahmins to Islam were few.
However, changes in social structure and communal organisation began to take
place after the British established modern education institutions and a
capitalist economy. Muslim aversion to British rule prevailed even in the Punjab.
In fact during the 19th century Wahhabis had gained influence in the Punjab as
a result of the jihad movement launched by Syed Ahmed Shahid Brelvi. Moreover,
modern banking and investment procedures introduced by the British were
unacceptable to the Muslims. Due to such factors Hindus and Sikhs left Muslims
behind in educational and economic terms.
The stratum that gained most from the opportunities created by the colonial
order was the Hindu trading castes of Khatris and Aroras and Sikhs of the same
stock. Hindus and Sikhs were the first to take to modern education and
establish modern businesses and enterprises. From the beginning of the 20th
century urban Hindus and Sikhs established a firm hold over the modern economy.
Hindu-Sikh partnerships and joint business ventures were noteworthy but Muslims
were almost invariably excluded.
The emergence of revivalist religious movements in the early 20th century as a
reaction to the proselytising activities of Christian missionaries resulted in
the establishment of community schools and colleges as well as newspapers and
magazines by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. These developments helped promote a
more exclusive and puritanical religious identity. Moreover, while all three
communities spoke Punjabi at home, Muslims began to declare Urdu their mother
tongue in the census records, Hindus identified themselves with Hindi, and
Sikhs with Punjabi. These processes were certainly accentuated in the new
colonies where in upwardly mobile Hindu families while the educated men
progressively liberalised their social attitudes the women continued to
represent traditional puritanical values.
Som Anand the author of, Lahore: Portrait of a Lost City, provides insight in
how upwardly mobile Hindu Khatri families continued to practise the pollution
code against Muslims:
“To keep themselves away from the Muslims’ ‘polluting touch’, the Hindus had
set-up many barriers in their daily life. My mother, for example, would never
allow any Muslim to enter her kitchen. No cooked food was accepted from them. I
remember how, if any of our Muslim neighbours even sent any special dish for my
father, it never went beyond the dining table, a place where she did not take
her own food. While eating she would never allow any of her Muslim friends or neighbours
to touch her. During my childhood such inhibitions were generally not observed
by male members of educated Hindu families. (Women have always been more
conservative in these matters.) Some decades earlier these rules formed a
strict code of conduct for all, no matter how educated or enlightened a person
might be.
“The absurdities of such Hindu restrictions notwithstanding, the Muslims had
come to accept them as a law of nature. Their older generation knew the limits
of a relationship with the Hindus and considered it improper even to offer them
drinking water from their utensils.... The Hindus have always complained of
Muslim fanaticism but they have never understood that the walls they raised
around themselves could have not resulted in any other attitude....
“It took many centuries for the Hindus of Punjab to realise how absurd and
harmful their anti-Muslim prejudices were. In this respect the first current of
change was felt during the Khilafat movement in the early twenties. Though the
spirit of Hindu-Muslim amity received many reverses in later years, at the
social level the urban elite had changed its code of conduct for the better.
This was due, in part, [to] Western education. What this change meant was
evident in my father’s attitude. When he was young, my mother used to recall,
he would come back to change his clothes if a Muslim had touched him while
walking in the bazaar; but during my childhood in Model Town, father had
several Muslim friends and he considered my mother’s inhibitions a sign of
backwardness.”
The author is an associate professor of political science at Stockholm
University. He is the author of two books. His email address is Ishtiaq.Ahmed@statsvet.su.se
Source: http://www.paklinks.com/gs/culture-literature-and-linguistics/220703-punjabi-identity-pre-partition.html
Back to Language Policy Home Page
|
