Our friends from the South [Sindh] try to stigmatise Punjab for showing lack of will to repulse the foreign invaders and passively accept their dominance. They like our Pashtun friends forget history as their nationalist view is conditioned more by current political exigencies than historical consciousness.

Punjab faced one major invasion from the South that transformed its socio-religious and politico-cultural landscapes; the Arab invasion. This in fact was an extension of Arab invasion of Sindh. After endless deliberations and meticulous planning, the Arab armies launched their relentless assaults on Sindh. The expedition was neither the first one nor the faith-driven as is made out in our textbooks. This in fact was the third attempt under young Umayyad general Muhammad Bin Qasim who happened to be son-in-law of Hajaj, the governor of Iraq. His army invaded Sindh in 712 A.D. By this time the Arabs had built a vast empire that included countries such as Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, parts of Central Asia and present-day Afghanistan [Arabs captured Herat populated by Buddhists in 652].

Empire by its very nature has its own dynamics; it must expand or stagnate and eventually disintegrate as a result of an enervating policy underpinned by hewing and hawing. An empire without insatiable lust for expansion becomes vapid and unsustainable. Arab empire was no exception. It was steadily pushing its boundaries eastward and westward with its armies fired by the pooled energy of newly found confederacy of Arab tribes and the faith that unified disparate peoples.

Raja Dahir obviously fought the invading army but lost. Thus Sindh became ‘Babul Islam’ [the Gateway of Islam] in the Indian subcontinent. Without going into reasons for the invasion, one can say to our Sindhi friends of nationalist persuasion: Had you stopped the Arab tide at your shores, it would not have touched the upland plains of Punjab. It was Sindh that paved the way for the partial Arab conquest of Punjab. The second wave that swept Punjab came gushing from the North with a snowball effect. Central Asian Turks from the 10th century onwards occupied Pashtun region and subjugated its people before entering the present-day Punjab. Pathan tribes which take great pride in their military prowess couldn’t stop predatory Turks in their tracks. They need to pause and ponder before accusing Punjab of being more acquiescent in the context of the past invasions. Our literature and folklore are replete with references to the resistance put up by various segments of Punjab’s society. Baba Guru Nanak wrote a scathing criticism and loud condemnation of Babar’s invasion titled ‘Babar Bani’ which very explicitly portrays the atrocities committed by Babar’s troops against Hindus and Muslims, especially the women irrespective of faith. Babar’s unbridled troops mass-raped ‘Hinduwanis [Hindu women]’ and ‘Trukanis [Muslim women]’.

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Poet Nijabat composed the most celebrated epic of our literature ‘Nijabat di Var aka Nadir Shah di Var’ which exposed Nadir’s barbarity as well as the shenanigans of quislings. About the Nizam of Deccan, the collaborator, Nijabat says: ‘May this Nizam’s very roots dry out / He lit the candle to show a thief the house’. So pervasive was resentment that Ra Bhobat, the head of a school of ascetics, urged his followers to defend the homeland: “Ra Bhobat roused all his colleagues to take the challenge/ The life in the world lasts for a day or two/How long will you live?/ all of you are audacious musclemen/ so you all go down fighting”. Another classical poet Ali Haidar from Khanewal named and shamed ‘Toorani’ and ‘Irani’ factions of the Mughal court for not defending the country. Ahmed Shah Abdali’s invasion proved to be a disaster both for the Mughal and Afghan as in its aftermath the peasantry rose in rebellion and wiped out the vestiges of foreign rule from Punjab.