Punjab

Im  a Punjabi, first and last, of the Dogra tribe/race. In all the vast diversity of India, and the South Asian subcontinent, you will not find anything like this region--my native region--the Punjab: "The Land of  Five Rivers".

Originally, the 'Five Rivers' which made up the 'Punj' (Five) and 'Ab' (water/s) were --the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej;  sadly, after the old (British) Punjab was truncated by the independence/partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the whole Punjab was riven by chaos and in this chaos our five rivers were also divided.  Most of the headwaters of these rivers spring up from Tibet, or the Himalayas,  and pass through Kashmir (itself sadly truncated too) and Jammu (the homeland of my ancestors) and, by and large, some parts of all five are still flowing through parts of modern/contemporary India; whereas the Pakistani Punjab now only has four of the fiver flowing through its territory i.e. Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej.

The old, pre-British Punjab, although a lingustic entity, roughly speaking, ws not really a geographical teriitory united as one. Later on, between, 1819-1839, the Sikh Maharaja of Lahore, Ranjit Singhji, tried to forge a unity of sorts, which was to an extent achieved; although most of what is 'East Punjab' (Indian) fell under the sway of the Britsih East India Company and areas on the fringes, which had once been also part of the Afghan/Durrani kingdom  of Afghanistan (such as Hazara and the Peshawar valley, now both in NWFP or 'Khyber Pakhtunkhwa' Pakistan, were never properly absorbed into this entity or territory.

It is only after the 2nd Anglo-Sikh War of  1848-49, that in March 1849 finally the whole Punjab was annexed as part of British India and in time developed into a dynamic, rich, prosperous, fertile and highly significant province. So, desite all the 'negatives' of colonialism , the British must get their due credit.

Then population of this Punjab and its topography and lingustic dialectical diversity was simply amazing-- more of that later-- and the ethnic variety of its inhabitants,  of  so many diverse origins, ranging from  Pashtun/Afghan races in the North and North West to the Jatts and Rajputs and a host of other indigenous peoples , was and is astounding. More on that too, sometime. I n terms of creeds and religious belief, Punjabis are Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, primrarily, and although they have fought each other too, they mostly still retain a common 'Punjabi' bond or identity, which transcends many borders.

Of this Punjab, with its many special things and aspects, we shall talk from  time to time and share information from  various sources, too.