History of the Punjabees

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This book examines the historical contributions of the Punjabee community of North West India towards the prosperity and security of India. Tracing their history, it deals with the various aspects of their life-their geographical domain, their language, their cultures, both Harappan and Vedic, and their political participation. Also, it takes a close look at the socio- cultural and political status of Punjabees during the Muslim rule in India, with special focus on their sufferings and sacrifice, the teachings of Guru Nanak and the emergence of Sikhism, community life of the Sikhs, their role in India's struggle for independence, the separatist movement led by Bhindranwala, and the secular ideology of the Punjabees.

Prof. J. N. Nanda is a distinguished writer and a scientist. He was awarded the 2008 distinction of "An Eminent Scientist" by the Science and Culture Forum of the Panjab University, Chandigarh. In the past he was invited to inaugurate a session at the International Conference of Washington D.C. on the Unity of Science. He has been the leader of Government participation in International conferences in Australia and U.K. and had invitation visits to London, Tokyo, Prague and USA. He has founded the Secular Life Society of India. He has discovered the existence of large amounts of iron in the moon which has been projected there from the earth and which started the precipitation of the moon so close to the fully formed earth. His book on "Science and Technology in India's Transformation" is now a classic. It was released by the Rashtrapati in 1986. His book "Glimpses of Indian History and Culture" was published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; other titles from Concept Publishing Company include 'Cooperative Development of Marine Resources', 'Religion and Philosophy for Modern Youth', 'Bengal, the Unique State', 'North East India' and 'Human Eternity: Stone Age to Mustopia'. His major contributions to human advance are: A philosophy of New Mahayana or the Co- existence of various religious and political organizations.

A commitment to un-adulterated democracy, human rights and global development.

True appreciation of Indian History and Hinduism eliminating the artificial distinction between all inclusive Hinduism and Buddhism, and religion being personalized individual affair without the need of conversion or an abjuration.

The Punjabees spoke many dialects usually understood all over north-west of India. The main group speaking these dialects was occupying the region of the Sapt Sindhu, i.e. the territory between the legendary Saraswati, and five tributaries of the river Sind flowing from Kashmir into India and Pakistan and flowing in combination as Panchnad into Sind (river). The two other rivers of the Sapt Sindhu being the rivers Kabul and Sind itself. This region is now covered by North West India and North Pakistan. Archaeologists have discovered many stone age inhabited sites in India dating from past 60,000 years or so. Settled life in agricultural villages in India was developed first by the Punjabees. The Punjabees occupied the gateway of India from the west. Whole of western India became a single (Punjabi-Gujarati) village and had a flourishing civilization known now as the Harrapan civilization. Later archaeological sites have been found all over the Punjab and extend towards Gujarat and on both banks of the Indus river. In the Harrapan days, the Punjabees must have learnt to believe in supernatural rulers of plants and animals and deified natural blessings and features of the lands they had occupied. Their adoration was for trees, bulls, rivers and mountains. With the mixing of some immigrants from across the Himalayas, i.e. from Kashmir and the Pamir region, the Punjabees became Aryas. They composed the Vedas and Vyas in his hermitage on the banks of the river Beas composed the epic of gigantic size and coverage, the Mahabharata describing the events and the environment that led to the legendary civil war involving the whole of the Aryan world, fought at Kurukshetra.

In order to write a history of modern Punjab, one has to expand the canvas to cover the entire ancient history of western India, i.e. west of Yamuna and the desert country of Rajasthan, that was peopled by Punjabees speaking languages allied to the Punjabi language. The initial common language and culture beginning from the stone age was the Harappan culture and next common culture of the classics was the Aryan culture. The Punjabees when interacted with the people of the Hindu Kush region to the north of the Iranian plateau assimilated their beliefs and name and came to be known as Hindus. The whole process occurred through social intercourse, trade and love of learning. The basic anchor of the people has been humanism and care for others during peaceful life pursuits. The style was of limited horizon of village land, village forests and village level governance. Tribal and village deity and the village raja (king) had complete loyalty of the Punjabees. The system was self- contained and self-propagating. There are no memories of conflicts during the Harappan age excepting the invitation sent to Krishna, the patron of the Pandavas of Indraprastha (Delhi) by the Harappans to live among them at Dwarka to help them against a possible threat from the foreign trade rivals. The record of local conflicts during the Vedic age are overwhelming. Punjabees, evidently had only racial arrogance against the forest produce gathering wild tribes. This stayed with them up to recent times when they regarded the Pachadas of the central Punjab as ignorant butts. (The Sansis, dubbed as a criminal tribe by the British were actually freedom loving wanderers usually against the "foreign" rulers but had given good horsemen to Maharaja Ranjit Singh.) The Aryas lived in villages and similar life was led by the non-Aryan Punjabees. There were innumerable kings in the country and a recognized sport of kings was to expand their kingdom at the cost of the neighbours. There was little attention to a larger national state but everyone thought of a large empire of own king. This bane has come down to our times in the so called groupism and partiality for family relations.

**Contents and Sample Pages**