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1 • INTRODUCTION

Punjabis derive their name from a geographical, historical, and cultural region located in the northwest of the Indian sub-continent.Punjabcomes from the Persian wordspanj(five) andab(river) and means "Land of the Five Rivers." It was the name used for the lands to the east of the Indus River that are drained by its five tributaries (the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej). Culturally, the Punjab extends beyond this area to include parts of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, the foothills of the Himalayas, and the northern fringes of the Thar (Great Indian) Desert in Rajasthan.

The Punjab is an ancient center of culture in the Indian subcontinent. It lay within the bounds of the Harappan civilization, the sophisticated urban (city-based) culture that flowered in the Indus Valley during the third millenniumBC. Harappa, one of the two great cities of this civilization, was located on the Ravi River in what is now Pakistan's Punjab Province. The Punjab has also been one of the great crossroads of southern Asian history. Nomadic tribes speaking Indo-European languages descended from the mountain passes in the northwest to settle on the plains of the Punjab around 1700BC. After then, Persians, Greeks, Huns, Turks, and Afghans were among the many peoples that entered the Indian subcontinent through the northwestern passes and left their mark on the region. Punjabis, who are basically of Aryan, or Indo-European ancestry, are the modern descendants of the mixture of peoples that passed through the region.

At times in the past, the Punjab and its population have enjoyed a special political identity as well as a cultural identity. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuriesAD, the region was administered as a province of the Mogul Empire. As recently as the nineteenth century, much of the area was united under the Sikh nation of Ranjit Singh. Britain administered the Punjab as a province of its Indian Empire. However, in the redrawing of political boundaries in 1947, the Punjab was divided between India and Pakistan. In spite of their common cultural heritage, Punjabis are now either Indians or Pakistanis by nationality.

2 • LOCATION

Punjabis number about 88 million people. About 68 million live in the Pakistan Punjab, and just over 20 million live in the Indian state of Punjab. Punjab Province in Pakistan includes just about all of the Punjab (West Punjab) that was assigned to Pakistan in 1947. The Indian Punjab State (East Punjab) extended from the international border with Pakistan to Delhi. In 1966, however, agitation for a Punjabi-speaking state led to the creation of the present Punjab State. The location of India's Punjab State along the border with Pakistan and only some 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the city of Lahore, gives it great military significance.

The Punjab is an agricultural region. Punjabis, whether in India or in Pakistan, share the agrarian (farming) social structure based oncastethat is found throughout southern Asia. TheJats, who are mainly landowners(zamindars)and cultivators, are the largest caste in the Punjab. Other agricultural castes include R a jputs, Arains, Awans, and Gujars. Among the lower-ranked service and artisan castes are the Lohars, Tarkhans, and Chamars.

The homeland of the Punjabis lies on the plains of the upper Indus Valley, covering an area of roughly 104,200 square miles (270,000 square kilometers). It stretches from the Salt Ranges in the north to the fringes of the Thar Desert in the southeast.

The western margins lie along the base of Pakistan's Sulaiman Range. The Shiwaliks, the outer foothills of the Himalayas, define the Punjab's eastern boundary. The region is a vast plain, drained by the Indus River and its tributaries. In the northeast, the plain lies at just under 1,000 feet (about 300 meters) above sea level, but it declines to under 250 feet (75 meters) in elevation along the Indus River in the south. The hills bordering the plain are higher than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) in the Shiwaliks and about 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) in the Salt Range.

The Punjab has a subtropical climate, with hot summers and cool winters. The average temperature for June is 93°F(34°C), with daily maximums often rising much higher. The mean maximum temperature for Lahore in June is 115°F(46°C). Dust storms are common in the hot weather. The average January temperature is 55° F (13° C ), although minimums drop close to freezing and hard frosts are common. Rainfall varies from about 49 inches (125 centimeters) in the hills in the northeast to no more than 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the dry southwest. Rain falls mainly in the summer months. However, weather systems from the northwest bring valuable amounts of rain in the winter.

3 • LANGUAGE

Punjabi is the name of the language, as well as the people, of the Punjab region. In Pakistan, Punjabi is written using the Persian-Arabic script, which was introduced to the region during the Muslim conquests. Punjabis in India use a different script. Punjabi is spoken by two-thirds of the population of Pakistan. In India, Punjabi is the mother tongue of just under 3 percent of the population. Punjabi was raised to the status of one of India's official languages in 1966.