Punjab, Punjabis and Punjabiyat: Reflections on a Land and its People by Khushwant Singh

by Khushwant Singh, Mala Dayal (Editor)

Punjab, Punjabis & Punjabiyat brings together Khushwant Singh’s best writings on Punjab, Punjabis and the Sikhs. Divided into three parts, the book deals with various aspects of the region—its geography, climate, history, culture, religion, politics, language and literature. Part I of the book delves into Punjab’s history, culture, language and Sikhism. Part II covers the burning issues that affected the state during Khushwant Singh’s lifetime, including the pains of Partition, the Khalistan movement, Operation Blue Star, the anti-Sikh riots, and more. Part III is a collection of profiles of well-known Punjabis—poets, politicians, activists, friends and family.
The pieces in the book celebrate the culture, determination and spirit of the people of Khushwant Singh’s native land, a place he identified deeply with. Taken together, they give us a peerless portrait of Punjab and its people.

Genres: Historical, India, History

194 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 27, 2018

About the author

Khushwant Singh, (Punjabi: ਖ਼ੁਸ਼ਵੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ, Hindi: खुशवंत सिंह) born on 2 February 1915 in Hadali, Undivided India, (now a part of Pakistan), was a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, was among the most widely-read columns in the country.

An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit.

Reviews

[Adnan Arshad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Punjab, Punjabis & Punjabiyat is collection (edited by Mala Dayal, daughter of author) of essays/columns written by Khushwant Singh (Writer/Journalist). Book is divided into three parts, as the name suggests.

Personally, Khushwant Singh is one of my favourite authors. His novel “Train to Pakistan” is one of best work done on partition & subsequent bloodshed in Punjab.  He describes Punjabi culture in English language in a very delicate manner.  He wrote Sikh history as well. In his autobiography he states himself as “Agnostic” but he kept Sikh demeanour for whole life.  According to him those Sikhs who cut their “Hair” they are no different than “Hindus”.

First part “Punjab” deals with Punjab history, evolution of Punjabi language and especially development of Sikh religion. At times it is evident that author feels that Punjab and Sikh history are same thing. According to author, Sikhism is the pure religion of Punjab and at the time of its development it tried to bridge gap between two major communities of India e.g. Hindus & Muslims. Word Sikh is derived from “Shish” which means “disciple”.  It took major theme of Monotheism from Muslim community and many traditions from Sikh religion. Granth Sahib, sacred book of Sikhism, contains 6,000 verses comprising work of first 04 gurus of Sikhs, Hindu scriptures & Muslim saints. Interestingly, place for Golden Temple was endowed by Emperor Akbar & its foundation stone was laid “Hazrat Mian Mir”.

Major developments in Sikh religion were brought by their tenth & last guru “Gobind Singh” who prescribes 05 K’s for followers of Sikh religion;

1.       Kesh (uncut hair),

2.       Kangha (a wooden comb),

3.       Kara (an iron bracelet),

4.       Kachera (cotton underpants)

5.       Kirpan (an iron dagger)  

Author terms Indian Army attack on Golden Temple in 1984 a major tragedy for Sikhs in India, as many innocent people lost their lives and life became hard for Sikhs. He returned “Padma Bhushan” award against desecration of Golden Temple by army. At this point a tantrum was thrown by his Hindu colleague that you preferred to be Sikh first and then Indian upon which author replied that it is Sikhs, Muslims & Christians who have to prove to their loyalty to India while Hindus are absolve of it.

Second part deals with “Punjabis”, these are most of people who were personal acquaintances of author.

Third part relates to “Punjabiyat” it compares Punjabi culture with other cultures and focuses on purity and bluntness of Punjabi culture.

It would have been better if date was also provided at the end of every column/essay, because it sometimes creates confusion for reader.

 

[Suraj Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Punjab, Punjabis & Punjabiyat is a compilation of various articles written by the author at various points of his life. These pieces of writing, collected here by his daughter Mala Dayal, represent Khushwant Singh’s Punjab.

Divided into three parts, the book deals with several aspects of the land and its people. The first part, Punjab and Punjabiyat- comprising of 17 short chapters, spans over more than half of the book. These chapters focus primarily on the geography & culture of Punjab. A considerable space is devoted to Silkhs and the history of Sikhism. Writings on Punjabi language & literature, the langar tradition, the Namdhari movement, etcetera are also included.

The second section shifts the focus on the dreadful events that have taken place in Punjab. Partition, the Khalistan movement, the riots of 1984 are the issues that this section deals with. The third section, titled Punjabis, contains eight pieces of writing on famous personalities of Punjab.

*My Verdict

I enjoyed reading this book. I loved the first part in particular. While reading those chapters, I had a smile on my face. Being a native of Punjab, I could conjure up all that I was reading. So, it was certainly a very delightful experience.

It was also interesting to read about the issues of the recent past as discussed in the second part. These chapters, however, were not as I expected them to be. I was very much looking forward to read about the riots of 1984. But to my dismay, what I found here were brief summaries of the events of each month of the year, as recorded by the author. These are certainly not sufficient if anyone wishes to know about the actual events.

I enjoyed the third section the least, for the portraits belong not to those who are generally hailed as the prominent figures of Punjab, but to those who are perhaps Singh’s own favourite. These can be still enjoyed and read as portraits of the unsung heroes. Of all the writings, the best one was that about Singh’s native village. It is a very compelling piece.

All in all, this is a lovely book. But I won’t recommend it if one wants to read about Punjab. This is a book to be cherished only by those are Singh’s fan or already have read about Punjab. But then that’s thing about the compilations done posthumously.

My Rating: *** (3.5/5)

*I received a copy by the Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Views expressed are entirely personal & unbiased.*

[Khizra · Rating 3 out of 5]

*This Book is not about overall punjabi history *

History of Sikhism, collection of khushwant Singh's different articles. I enjoyed the part of the book where the writer talked about the start of Sikhism and it's history; rest of the book was okaish.

[Umar Riaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

(New) Book of the week ; Punjab, Punjabis and Punjabiyat
by khushwant singh

Being Punjabi comes naturally to all of us born and raised in the Province. Then there is the language and the ethnicity cycle is completed. There are people of similar descent, there is common language and there is a demarcated area. But the cycle is not that simple. Punjab as a designated territory did not exist before the early nineteenth century, the organised language a few centuries earlier and the people somewhere in between.

The book by Khushwant Singh tries to answer the questions; about the area-Punjab, about the people-Punjabis and about the culture-Punjabiyat. Though one must warn that the book is neither exhaustive nor thorough. It is, at best, a collection of snippets based on personal impressions of Khushwant Singh. The looking lens is also singular and narrow, and looks at the picture from mostly Sikh perspective. This is at times helpful and at times confusing. It is useful because even a decently educated Pakistani does not know much about origin and evolution of Sikhism or Sikh religion. It is incomplete because the other ‘people’ in the picture appear as just supplementary.

The Punjab as an area or as a province owes its establishment to Ranjit Singh , perhaps the first and only King of Punjab. Before that there were Subas but these Subas were centered in the cities. So there was Suba Multan , Lahore and Kabul but these were pretty independent and not much in between except few forts like Sheikhupura , Sialkot , Rohtas and some regional towns like Deepalpur and Shahpur. The rest were scattered and self-sufficient villages alongside the rivers and natural nullahs or streams. The conquerors coming from North had to cross the plain rivers and thus the area divided between the rivers or do-abas. Needless to say, there never was any resistance because there was no central authority, no cities and no force. Ranjit Singh being from hinterlands brought the long awaited authority by combining other communities and British did the rest with canals, roads and mandi or markets.

The people or Punjabis are a curious lot. One gets amazed when older, cohesive and tribe based ethnic groups brand the people of Punjab as ethnicity. In fact, the people of the river lands never called themselves as Punjabis. It’s the name given to the people of plains first by British and then by those around them and it has stuck indeed. What would the people of plains called them if not Punjabi? Well, they would call them by their castes i.e Rajputs , Jats , Bhattis and so on. When Akbar quelled rebellion of plains, he did not do it against Punajbis but against Bhattis. It was so till the plains got an in-house religion i.e Sikhsim. Khushwant Singh goes at length to establish that the Ranjeet Singh’s rule was essentially a Punjabi kingdom but any curious reader would probably find it hard to digest. There have been few principalities following the disintegration of Mughal empire post-Aurangzeb which Rajmohan Gandhi discuss in his book in Punjab. Most notable of those was Adina of Arain caste from Sharqapur but he became Adina Beg following the acceptable title and shifted his capital on the road going to Delhi. It was not until the arrival of British that the province got its name and the people got their identity.

The language is third pillar of the loose Punjabi identity and the oldest one, though still not that old like the other south Asian languages. Now a days, there is trend in South Asia to assign historical and cultural superiority to the language and other trappings but Punjabi language appears just a mixture of the dialects spoken around it. Its most distinct feature is sheer absence of written tradition. Punjabi is an oral medium and remains so till today. Most of those who speak cannot read and write. The sole repository of literature is the poetry of Sufi saints starting from Baba Farid Ganj Shakr or the romantic tales like Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahinwal and Mirza Sahiban. The arrival of Sikhism has proved both bane and boon for the Punjabi language. The positive is the perpetuation of oral tradition but at the same the Gurmukhi script has restricted it to just the followers of Sikh religion. Khushwant Singh considers it an asset though one thinks that to be myopic and narrow perspective.

The book addresses the Indian Punjab question in detail , the rise, fall and then again rise of Sikh fortunes. The Khalistan insurgency now appears a forgotten period but its magnitude and impact was huge and lasting. The least being the twenty thousand dead during a ten year period which saw hijacking of two planes. destruction of one flight, assassination of hundreds of officials including a chief minister and above all military operation on the Sikh’s most sacred place i.e Golden Temple. Another irony has been Sikhs closeness with BJP and their alienation from Congress which was more a consequence of circumstances than ideology. The operation was carried out by Indra Gandhi who was assassinated by Sikh body guards following which Congress led riots against Sikh in Delhi. The fissures between Congress and Sikhs thus refuse to go away to the benefit of BJP.

The book is not exhaustive as I mentioned already and at times repetitive but is quite informative about the area, the people and culture.

[Anuradha Goyal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long review - https://www.anuradhagoyal.com/punjab-...

[Gurbir Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decades ago, in 1993, I was asked about my views on Khushwant Singh as an Indian author during a job interview for the post of Editorial Assistant at the National Book Trust in New Delhi. At the time, I was unable to say much about him. My reading of his work had been limited to his regular newspaper columns—perhaps With Malice Towards One and All or Gossip: Sweet and Sour—and a short story, The Mark of Vishnu, which was part of our college syllabus. Although I was aware of his celebrated novel Train to Pakistan, I had not yet read it.

My response, understandably, was neither encouraging nor befitting the stature of such a towering writer. I failed the interview—inevitably. As I stepped out of the interview room, I learned that one of the panel members was Maya Dayal, Khushwant Singh’s daughter and the editor of the book under discussion. When the other interviewees were exchanging accounts of how their interviews had gone, a staff member casually mentioned her presence on the panel. I felt an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame. The fault was entirely mine.

Over the years, however, I went on to read Khushwant Singh extensively. I came to realise that he was not merely a great journalist and humorist, but a writer par excellence. At times, his prose did strike me as somewhat laboured, but his sincerity, insight, and unflinching straightforwardness were impossible to ignore. He possessed a remarkable memory and was, undeniably, a privileged man—one who had lived in close proximity to people who shaped society and wielded power in its corridors. I admire him deeply as a writer, a chronicler, and a journalist. Today, I feel no remorse for not being selected for that interview, even though I needed the job badly at the time.

The book under discussion—centred on Punjab, the Punjabi people, and the idea of Punjabiyat—is essentially a collection of his diverse writings on the subject. It does not delve into any one issue in great depth. Instead, it offers a bird’s-eye view of a wide range of topics: Punjab and Punjabi identity, the language and its literature, Sikhism, the lives of the Gurus, and a few notable personalities. The treatment is concise and journalistic, much like his newspaper articles. Yet, despite—or perhaps because of—this brevity, the book remains engaging.

However, there is little to almost no sustained writing on Punjabi culture as such. In that sense, the use of the word Punjabiyat in the title—introduced by the editor, Maya Dalal—appears somewhat misleading. The book gestures towards the idea rather than inhabiting it fully.

I finished it in two straight days and savoured every word.

[Zaki Khalid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never read Khushwant Singh sahib before. This collection of his writings, by his daughter Mala Dayal, offers a concise but vibrant history of Sikhism, Punjabis and a roundup of prominent personalities, including Pakistan's one-time Foreign Minister, Mr Manzur Qadir.

I felt it ended quite abruptly and could have included more writings. Perhaps it was the appeal of late Khushwant sahib's style of writing that I couldn't let go and finished it within two days. Rarely do such books evoke such odd nostalgia as did this one (although I have read collections of published works by other writers also).

[Abdurehman Mahoo · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title is misleading; it shouldn’t have been that, because the book is not about Punjab, Punjabis, or Punjabiyat—it is about Sikhism in Punjab. It discusses how Sikhism formed, how it emerged, and what its characteristics are. It seems that the writer equates Sikhism with Punjabiyat and treats East Punjab as the whole of Punjab. However, the book is a collection of miscellaneous, loosely written essays that clearly needed stronger editing. The essays are neither profound nor engaging. I would not recommend this book to anyone interested in such a broad subject.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit difficult to read for someone who's not very familiar with Punjab, its history, and its leaders. Would've been helpful to note the date when each of the essays were written because they 1) weren't in chronological order and 2) often happened decades ago, which was difficult to decipher from the text.

[Shamsher Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Read.

The author has very proficiently tried to give the reader a walk through of Sikh History, ranging from people to events, sayings to Psalms, thoughts and contradictions, overall a lovely read.

[Urvi Sikri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good introduction to punjabi history. Especially good coverage on Sikhism. Would have liked a bit more on the partition. The chapter on his native village touched my heart and the mention of his grandmother took me back to my class 11 English lecture where we read The Portrait of a Lady.

[Ghulam Qader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very good introduction of Sikhism, all Gurus of Sikhism but lack of material about Punjab and Punjabi people

[Nazam Sandhu]

A book that is bound to offend everyone in some capacity or the other. Still an important one to read.

[Nazam Sandhu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book will give everyone something to hate, in a typical Khushwant Singh fashion but I would still consider it a must read to add to your knowledge of Punjab.

[Aditya Ohri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a very intriguing collection of writings.

However, some of them could use some context. For example, in the chapter "The Spirit of Punjab" seems to be written before the creation of Bangladesh, but this can only be inferred by reading the chapter, and is never explicitly stated. Since the book deals with many time periods, including ones as early as the 2000s (in a non chronical order), not giving context to the the writings can be confusing for the reader. This can be remedied by at least adding the date each particular piece of writing was published.

[Ammar]

https://www.dawn.com/news/1467218/non...