One of the widespread fallacies routinely touted in our political and cultural discourse in the country is that the Punjab, our largest province, never resisted invaders who shaped the history of the entire region spanning thousands of years. Punjab’s neighbors in the north, south and east hold it as a politically loaded accusation while Punjabis, alienated from their history, because of colonial occupation and certain other misplaced ideological considerations, willy-nilly half accept it which further muddies their already murky intellectual landscape.

The origins of this modern distortion lie buried in the era of occupation when it was imperative for the architects of colonial project to re-write history for their own ends. Demonizing the people and their past made it easier for the occupation force to dictate and for the occupied to acquiesce to what was being dictated. But the process of demonization in Punjab has a long history. In the aftermath of Aryan ascendancy way back in time, we find the earliest evidence of such a phenomenon in Vedic and post Vedic myths and literature which is hardly different from what emerged with advent of colonialism. Both carry unmistakable signs of what ensued from occupation; demonization of the subjugated and rejection of their socio-cultural assets which could be in any way a source of historical pride. In one of the stories native language of Harappa is demonized in a mythopoeic fashion. Far superior Harappa Civilization and people were denigrated by pastoral nomads with the express intent of demeaning of what their civilization advance could offer. The treatment accorded by the colonial masters was no different from the one shown for the vanquished by Indra, the deified general of Arya, when one of the British officers said: “Punjab has been occupied but not conquered”. And conquered it was when new discourse about Punjab and its people initiated by colonial bureaucracy found traction with the colonized people by osmosis.

When Punjab’s neighbours in the north assert that the Punjab never resisted the invaders, they consciously or subconsciously not only forget history but distort it. All invaders from Alexander of Macedonia to Babur of Farghana came from the north. Each marauder after having decimated north moved towards the fertile plains of the Punjab. Punjab’s northern neighbours failed to stop the advancing armies of Iranians, Greeks, Scythians, Huns, Kushans, Turks and Mongols which waylaid their mountains. Their routine capitulation used to pave the way for the capture of the Punjab by foreign forces. No invader stopped by them ever reached Punjab. But unfortunately they stopped none. What in fact happened was this: after being beaten by the invaders they invariably became part of invading armies as mercenaries and ran amok in the Punjab. No chief or ruler of the north is held out as an epitome of bravery. It was King Porus who resisted the Greeks with unprecedented ferocity. And thus it was Porus who had been praised to the skies by all Greek and Roman historians who wrote on the Greek’s invasion of India as the bravest king Alexander encountered in his long journey. Porus surpassed all those who resisted the invaders and thus attained eternal glory. His name has become synonymous with bravery and honour.

Punjab’s neighbours in the south didn’t do brilliantly either as is shown by historical record. An epoch making event took place in early eighth century when Muhammad Bin Qasim, a young Arab general, invaded and occupied Sindh changing its religious and cultural fabric for all times to come. Arab armies took hold of a part of the Punjab after having consolidated their grip over Sindh. Had Punjab’s southern neighbours stopped the Arabs in their tracks, they would not have been able to reach Multan. The recent nationalists’ genuflecting to the idol of Raja Dahir is like, as they say in Punjabi, ‘beating the snake tracks after snake has slithered away’.

The latest invaders who set their foot on the soil of the Punjab were British. And they descended from the east where their rule had been already firmly established. After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, when the East India Company taking advantage of chaos at Lahore Durbar decided to invade and annex the Punjab where did the bulk of its troops come from? It were of course Purbias [people from Delhi/ Uttar Pradesh and Bihar] who formed the major segment of the mercenary forces that fought against Punjab in wars that are generally known as Anglo-Sikh Wars. ‘Anglo-Sikhs Wars’ is again a misnomer as the colonialist scholars have put their spin on it. It was Punjab’s army comprising troops from diverse communities that fought the ‘white’, not just a Sikh army as it was made out to be with the intent of driving wedge between communities [poet Shah Muhammad in his Var/epic ‘Jang Hind Punjab’ tells us the story]. How can Purbias shame Punjabis when they themselves were accomplices in the crimes committed against the Punjab by the East India Company in the mid nineteenth century?

To sum up, the Punjab is a landlocked region. It has historically faced invasions from the north, south and east. No invader could have reached the plains of the Punjab if it were resisted successfully and stopped by its neighbors in the north, south and east. The entire debate about the recent ethno-linguistic ‘nationalistic’ upsurge is premised on a misconceived postulate. Nation state which tends to trigger an avalanche of nationalist pride is a recent phenomenon in the subcontinent. So it must not be confused with pre-modern state whatever its nature. But it’s equally important to detect and locate the nature and forms of resistance put up by indigenous communities and ethnic groups against the foreign intruders in their myriad historical expressions. Let’s beware of snake-oil salesmen of nationalist variety who stand to gain from selling their historically expired wares that insidiously pit people of one region or community against the rest. 

— soofi01@hotmail.com