LastOfTheDinosaurs

If you look at them, they follow many religions. They are Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Ahmadis (in fact the Ahmadi prophet Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and Sikh prophet Goro Nanak were Punjabis), and christians, etc.

My question to Punjabi friends here is, who actually represent Punjabis or are the rightful claimants to the Punjabi identity?

Slickstar

Indian Punjabi's are proud to be Punjabi. Pakistani Punjabi's have been told while growing up that the Punjabi language is pindu, our culture is backward and we must look towards the language of the state ie Urdu to be sophisticated and articulate.

I would say that Indian Punjabi's even a quarter in numbers hold the Punjabi identity in tact which we should give them credit for.

LastOfTheDinosaurs

Slickstar, I would agree with you...I have interacted with a few Sikhs and I have observed that Punjabiath is so thoroughly imbibed with their religion and that they are so conscious about their religio-ethnic identity that they can be considered the rightful claimants to the Punjabi identity.

Slickstar

Being Punjabi is an ethnicity. Not a religion. What one could say that Punjabi Sikhs are far more proud of their ethnicity than Muslim Punjabi's who have been brought up believing in the Ummah etc etc and any notion of pan ethnic identity is shot down by the religious front and the establishment. In my honest opinion I believe that the Punjabi identity was reignited across the border in India as a religious ethnic identity after operation blue star. However, that does not in the anyway correct way of identifying an ethnic group as I am just as much Punjabi than a Sikh and a hindu Punjabi.

Dil Pakistan

All Punjabis own the punjabi identity
Kisi ek group ka akaila haq nai hai iss pe.
If there are a few ones who feel ashamed of it, then good for them

kakaballi

We should understand that Indian Punjab and Pakistani Punjab (the provinces) are different. Pakistani Punjab is populated with different ethnic groups (e.g. in south and west Punjab) loosely held together. There is no strong 'Punjabi' identity as we see that in India.

Nosherwan

What a stupid question.

Punjabi is an ethnicity, it has nothing to do with religious identity.

Punjabis can be Muslim, Sikh, Hindu or even Christian (I knew a convert to Islam whose parents were Indian Punjabi Christians).

Not all Sikhs are Punjabi, I've seen some English ones on TV even though Punjabi is probably the language of liturgy for them as Arabic is for Punjabi Muslims and Latin is for Punjabi Catholics.

Nosherwan

Some Paki Punjabis do have a inferiority complex but that's nothing to do with Ummah, the Ummah is a bouquet of various flowers who respect and love each other whilst celebrating their diversity.

Islam or the concept of the Ummah is not the reason for Punjabi ppls inferiority complex rather their love for fair skin and their desire to associate with fair skinned Central Asian and West Asian people through the common Persian/Arabic words in Urdu is (even though Urdu in actual fact has the opposite effect and makes them closer to India)...