The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
What Maryam spoke about: Punjabiyat, cultural bonds that tie India, Pak Punjabs
ON THURSDAY, the Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, spoke of her Punjabi identity while advocating better ties with India before 3,000 Sikh pilgrims at Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.
“You are from Punjab [India], I am from Pakistan, but I am also a true Punjabi,” Maryam said, and quoted her father, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif: “Don’t fight wars with neighbours, open the doors of friendship, open the doors of your hearts.”
The shared Punjabi identity has been invoked on several occasions by politicians on both sides of the border to advocate closer bilateral ties. Where is Punjabiyat (literally, Punjabiness) placed in the relationship between the two countries?
Common Punjabi identity
Maryam said she was Pakistani, but “also a pure Punjabi”, there was a relationship between Punjabis on both sides, and “Punjab resides in our hearts”.
More than 75 years after Punjab was divided in 1947, and in spite of the four wars between India and Pakistan, there are many who continue to feel the bond. They feel united by their common culture and identity — by Punjabiyat.
“While there are traumatic memories of Partition, there are also bonds of empathy, and a shared culture. Many on both sides of the border share a sentiment that thetimehascometoovercomethetragedy, restorethesenseofloss,”foreignpolicyand strategic affairs expert C Raja Mohan said.
Several attempts have been made to unite members of families that were torn asunder during Partition. Punjabi diaspora communitieshaveactedasaunifyingforce. Indian and Pakistani actors came together in the Punjabi film Aaja Mexico Challiye (2022), which was about the dangerous donkey route taken by Punjabis from both countries trying to migrate to the West.
Punjabi films from India are extremely popular in Pakistan, despite an official ban on their screening since 2016. Carry on Jatta 3 (2023) was a huge hit in Pakistan, where the film skirted the ban by working with Pakistan-based distributors, and production houses based in the UK or Canada. Maujaan Hi Maujaan (2023) was far more popular in Pakistan than in India.
There are deep cultural connections in music too, from the poetry of Bulle Shah to the Punjabi rap of Sidhu Moosewala, who was as popular in Pakistan as in India.
Space for paradiplomacy
Punjabiyat has long been used in attempts to improve Indo-pak relations, with Punjabi politicians from both sides taking the lead.
Then Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal visited Pakistan as part of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s delegation in 1999 to discuss trade and the maintenance of Sikh shrines in Pakistan.
During his first term as Chief Minister (2002-07), Capt Amarinder Singh made two trips to Pakistan, for the World Punjabi Conference in Lahore in 2004, and the inauguration of the Nankana Sahibmannawala dual carriageway in 2006.
In 2004, Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi, then Chief Minister of Pakistani Punjab, came to Patiala for the All Punjab Games.
In 2012, then Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal visited Lahore for the final of the Asia Kabaddi Cup, and jointly inaugurated with then Pak Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Punjab Youth Festival and Indo-pak Dosti Cup for the differently abled.
That same year, Shehbaz Sharif visited India for the inauguration of the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at the Attariwagah border.
Shehbaz, who is now Pakistan’s Prime Minister, came back in December 2013 as the chief guest at the World Kabaddi Tournament final between India and Pakistan in Ludhiana. He met then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
“In international relations-speak, this is known as paradiplomacy,” Raja Mohan said. “Beneath the level of nation states, there is often a scope for provincial, or even local transnational exchanges, which ultimately aid relations between nations. People-to-people contact, and trade [between the two Punjabs] can ultimately be a bridge for national reconciliation between India and Pakistan,” he said.
The role trade can play
The Attari-wagah land route was opened in 2005, with truck movement beginning in 2007. The ICP at Attari provided facilities for fast and cost-effective land trade between India and Pakistan. According to agovernmentcalculationin2014,thetrade potential for the ICP was $10 billion.
This route was shut in 2019, after Pakistansuspendedtradefollowingtheabrogation of Article 370. But many on both sidesareconvincedthattradebetweenthe two Punjabs, and between India and Pakistan, is mutually beneficial.
Taranjit Singh Sandhu, former Indian Ambassador to the United States and now the BJP candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, told The Indian Express that he “will certainly push for opening the route for trade” once again.
In March, Pakistan Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar said at a press conferenceinlondonthat“pakistanibusinessmenwanttradewithindiatoresume”,and that the new government will “seriously look into matters of trade with India”.