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Punjabis

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The ethnic and linguistic community of the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the historic homeland of Sikhism and the community from which the large majority of Sikh adherents originate, though Sikh teaching holds membership open to any person regardless of ethnicity.

Facts
Traditions
Principal Religious Traditions
Sikhism, which took shape here and for which this is the homeland, though its teaching holds membership open regardless of ethnicity; Islam, the majority tradition west of the border; Hinduism, the majority east of it; and the shrine devotion shared across all three before partition. 3
Origins
Origin Region
The Punjab, the country of the five rivers, now divided between India and Pakistan. 1
Language Family
Punjabi, Indo-Aryan within Indo-European. 2
Practice
Practice Status
Living, and practised in varied local forms 3
Learn More
The Land of Five Rivers

Punjab takes its name from panj ab, five waters, the five tributary rivers of the Indus that historically watered the region spanning what is today northwestern India and northeastern Pakistan. Punjabi culture, built around the Punjabi language and a shared regional identity, long predates Sikhism and includes substantial Muslim and Hindu populations alongside the Sikh community that emerged from it; Guru Nanak himself was born in 1469 in Talwandi, in Punjab, into a Hindu family, and every one of the ten human Sikh Gurus who followed him was also Punjabi.

Sikhism's emergence within this specific regional culture left a permanent linguistic and cultural mark on the tradition. The Guru Granth Sahib is composed predominantly in forms of Punjabi and related regional languages, using the Gurmukhi script that the Sikh Gurus themselves standardized for the purpose, and Sikh devotional and social life, from gurdwara architecture to daily greeting to cuisine, remains deeply continuous with wider Punjabi regional culture rather than developing in isolation from it. The 1947 partition of India split historic Punjab between India and Pakistan and triggered a mass displacement of the Sikh population toward the Indian side, reshaping where Punjabi Sikh communities are concentrated without severing the tradition's identification with the wider region.

An Open Tradition in a Specific Homeland

Sikh doctrine explicitly rejects caste and ethnic exclusivity, teaching that anyone regardless of background may take up the faith, and Sikh communities exist today well beyond Punjab, including sizable diaspora populations in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States built up over more than a century of migration. In practice, however, the overwhelming majority of the world's Sikhs remain ethnically Punjabi, and the tradition's scripture, liturgy, festival calendar and much of its everyday devotional vocabulary are carried in Punjabi and Gurmukhi specifically, so that Punjabi identity and Sikh religious identity remain closely, though not absolutely, overlapping categories in a way scholarship on the tradition treats as historically inseparable from its founding context.

This overlap is itself a subject of ongoing discussion within the community: Punjabi Hindus and, historically, Punjabi Muslims share substantial cultural ground with Punjabi Sikhs even while differing in religion, and some Sikh institutions have worked deliberately to teach Sikhism's universal ethical claims to communities outside the Punjabi cultural sphere, including converts of other ethnic backgrounds, precisely because the tradition's own teaching holds that its message is not meant for one people alone even though its historical development and a large majority of its present adherents remain rooted in Punjab.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

This source names Punjabis directly: "Robin Rinehart's Debating the Dasam Granth, published by Oxford University Press in 2011, is the first book-length critical study in English of the Dasam Granth and of the long running controversy..."

Source Debating the Dasam GranthRobin Rinehart

This source names Punjabis directly: "The Faridkot Tika, formally Adi Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji Satik and commonly called the Faridkot Wala Teeka, is the first full scale printed exegesis of the Guru Granth Sahib."

Source Faridkot Tika (Adi Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji Satik)Giani Badan Singh of Sekhvari (first draft), completed by a revision synod of Sikh scholars chaired by Mahant Sumer Singh of Patna Sahib
Hinduism, Religions

Hinduism is the majority tradition east of the partition border in Punjab.

Islam, Religions

Islam is the majority tradition west of the partition border in Punjab.

This source names Punjabis directly: "Nanak Shah Fakir is a 2015 Punjabi language biographical drama directed by Sartaj Singh Pannu, written by Amrit Basra and produced by Harinder Singh Sikka through Gurbani Media, dramatizing the life..."

Source Wikipedia, "Nanak Shah Fakir"Wikipedia contributors

This source names Punjabis directly: "Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, born Pervez Fateh Ali Khan on October 13, 1948 in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), Pakistan, and died August 16, 1997 in London, was a Pakistani vocalist and the most..."

This source names Punjabis directly: "Puran Bhagat is a 1933 Hindi language film directed by Debaki Bose for New Theatres Ltd."

Source Wikipedia, "Puran Bhagat (1933 film)"Wikipedia contributors

This source names Punjabis directly: "Contemporary news coverage from SBS Punjabi, the Punjabi language service of Australia's national multilingual broadcaster, reporting the 2018 stage of the film's controversy: the Akal Takht's ban..."

Sikhism, Religions

Sikhism took shape in Punjab and this is its homeland, though its teaching holds membership open regardless of ethnicity.

This source names Punjabis directly: "An umbrella movement of Pakistan-based militant factions formed in 2007, distinct from but allied with the Afghan Taliban."

This source names Punjabis directly: "This multi volume reference was produced by Punjabi University's own Sikh studies faculty specifically to give the tradition a dedicated scholarly reference of its own, rather than relying on..."

Source The Encyclopaedia of SikhismHarbans Singh (editor-in-chief)

This source names Punjabis directly: "The Indo-Aryan Languages, edited by George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain, published by Routledge in 2003, is an edited scholarly volume surveying the Indo-Aryan language family, Sanskrit's descendants..."

Source The Indo-Aryan LanguagesGeorge Cardona and Dhanesh Jain (eds.)

This source names Punjabis directly: "A web article on dasvandh, the Sikh practice of giving one tenth of earnings, based on the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (Harbans Singh, ed., Punjabi University, Patiala), tracing its origin to Guru..."

This source names Punjabis directly: "This rule fixes Vaisakhi in mid April, recording the date as the thirteenth or fourteenth depending on the year."

Source Historical Dictionary of Sikhism, 3rd editionLouis E. Fenech and W. H. McLeod

This source names Punjabis directly: "The crowd sourced encyclopedia's article on the film, read directly for this entry."

Source Wikipedia, "Nanak Shah Fakir"Wikipedia contributors

This source names Punjabis directly: "A citation to Wikipedia's own article on the 1933 film, read directly."

Source Wikipedia, "Puran Bhagat (1933 film)"Wikipedia contributors

Belongs to Tradition

Sikhism, Religions

Sikhism arose among Punjabi speakers in the Punjab region and the large majority of its adherents remain ethnically Punjabi, though the tradition itself is not ethnically exclusive.

Originated In

India, Countries
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Pakistan, Countries
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Punjab, Regions
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
2. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
David M. Eberhard, Gary F. Simons and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), SIL International, 2024View the Source
3. J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (New Cambridge History of India II.3)
J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press, 1998View the Source
Sikhism
W. H. McLeod, Penguin Books, 1997View the Source
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