Lost Heritage - The Sikh Legacy In Pakistan

[AmardeepSinghRanghar]

'LOST HERITAGE - The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan" a book to be released in Dec 2015, offers a narrative in 500 pages, interspersed with over 517 photographs of the very detailed exploration of the remnant Sikh legacy across Pakistan in the states of West Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.

Visit the books website at

www.lostheritagebook.com

[Singh, Mahan]

Some pictures from the book @

http://lostheritagebook.com/

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[JagsawSingh]

Looks like a really interesting book. Look forward to reading it.

However, I'm gonna go ahead and say what needs to be said. Looking at the map of Pakistan that the author has provided, i.e the areas he is concerned with, it is clear that this book is more of a personal journey for him to re-discover his own family's urban roots and thus has little or none that is relavent to our collective family history. For example, 95% of the jatt Sikhs that migrated into India from Pakistan in 1947 came from the canal colonies, i.e Lyallypur (Faisalabad) and Montgomery (Sahiwal) and yet the author has decided to ignore those areas so comprehensively he has't even menioned them on his map.

[proactive]

95%??

Not really. The Jats from Lyallpur and Montgomery made up only about less than a third of the Sikh Jats who migrated from West Punjab to East Punjab, In fact there were more Sikhs Jats in the Lahore district than in the two canal colonies combined and owned nearly 58% of the total land in the district. Added to these Jats, the Sikh Jats of Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura districts these Jats constituted the a vast majority of the Sikh Jat migrants into East Punjab.

The author probably did not consider the canal colonies which apart from a small original Sikh population were mainly populated by migrants from various districts. However, the Sikh populations of the other districts were a part of the original population of the districts. This is why they would have felt the loss of their lands much more than the ones from the canal colonies. From personal family experience our connection with the canal colony area of Khanewal in Multan district only went back to 1920s when land was allocated due the war service of a family member.

You are right about the way the author appears to based the book on his family history, there has always been a tendency for West Punjab Urban Sikhs to think that their family experiences constituted the history and culture of the entire Sikh community. Based on Khushwant Singh's family/clan history in West Punjab, the oft repeated story of the elder son of a Hindu family becoming a Keshdhari Sikh has been universally accepted as something that happened in all areas of Punjab when it was only the case in the Pothohar region and was mainly from the Sehajdhari Sikh community rather than the Hindu community. The stories of these Sikhs were used by Doordarshan to make propaganda BS serials about how great the Hindu-Sikh relationship in Punjab had been prior to the 1980s.

[Ranjeet01]

95%??

Not really. The Jats from Lyallpur and Montgomery made up only about less than a third of the Sikh Jats who migrated from West Punjab to East Punjab, In fact there were more Sikhs Jats in the Lahore district than in the two canal colonies combined and owned nearly 58% of the total land in the district. Added to these Jats, the Sikh Jats of Sialkot, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura districts these Jats constituted the a vast majority of the Sikh Jat migrants into East Punjab.

The author probably did not consider the canal colonies which apart from a small original Sikh population were mainly populated by migrants from various districts. However, the Sikh populations of the other districts were a part of the original population of the districts. This is why they would have felt the loss of their lands much more than the ones from the canal colonies. From personal family experience our connection with the canal colony area of Khanewal in Multan district only went back to 1920s when land was allocated due the war service of a family member.

You are right about the way the author appears to based the book on his family history, there has always been a tendency for West Punjab Urban Sikhs to think that their family experiences constituted the history and culture of the entire Sikh community. Based on Khushwant Singh's family/clan history in West Punjab, the oft repeated story of the elder son of a Hindu family becoming a Keshdhari Sikh has been universally accepted as something that happened in all areas of Punjab when it was only the case in the Pothohar region and was mainly from the Sehajdhari Sikh community rather than the Hindu community. The stories of these Sikhs were used by Doordarshan to make propaganda BS serials about how great the Hindu-Sikh relationship in Punjab had been prior to the 1980s.

Weren't these Potohar Sikhs mainly of Khatri background?

[Bhau]

I have to agree with brother proactive on this one. The areas of lyallpur and montgomery(sahiwal) are referred to as 'Bars'. The name Bar was given to areas which were covered with thick forests but fertile soil and were recently sparcely populated until the advent of canals by the British. As a result large tracts of lands became available and large number of people including jatt sikhs settled here from as far as jalandhar district. District lyallpur is known as 'Sandal Bar' and montgomery is known as 'Neeli Bar'. Its from this area that the famous buffalo species 'Neeli Ravi' derives its name. But strictly speaking the areas of bar are not included in historical Majha because of their own Bari culture. My own family is from village Kalu Khara Tehsil Kasur Dist. Lahore. Its only about 10 km from Khem Karan Dist. Tarn Taran but on the other side of border:(

I remember my grandparents always talking and longing to go see our village and cities of lahore and kasur. It was always on their minds. My grandfather used to say famous proverb ' Jine Lahore ni vekhya, oh jammya e koni. '

Jatt sikhs were the most dominant community in western punjab owning most of the land along with one of the best irrigation system in Asia.

[JagsawSingh]

I have to agree with brother proactive on this one. The areas of lyallpur and montgomery(sahiwal) are referred to as 'Bars'. The name Bar was given to areas which were covered with thick forests but fertile soil and were recently sparcely populated until the advent of canals by the British. As a result large tracts of lands became available and large number of people including jatt sikhs settled here from as far as jalandhar district. District lyallpur is known as 'Sandal Bar' and montgomery is known as 'Neeli Bar'. Its from this area that the famous buffalo species 'Neeli Ravi' derives its name. But strictly speaking the areas of bar are not included in historical Majha because of their own Bari culture. My own family is from village Kalu Khara Tehsil Kasur Dist. Lahore. Its only about 10 km from Khem Karan Dist. Tarn Taran but on the other side of border:(

I remember my grandparents always talking and longing to go see our village and cities of lahore and kasur. It was always on their minds. My grandfather used to say famous proverb ' Jine Lahore ni vekhya, oh jammya e koni. '

Jatt sikhs were the most dominant community in western punjab owning most of the land along with one of the best irrigation system in Asia.

We know all that but what we're saying is that the author has deliberately chosen to neglect from this book everything about the legacy in Pakistan of the jatt Sikhs, choosing instead, to make the cultural legacy of the urban sikhs the defining legacy of Sikhs in that part of Punjab. What we're saying is that historically, all our authors have been doing this for the last 100 years. Mostly because, for the last 100 years, most of our authors have been from that privileged elite urban stock but the result, as proactive has mentioned, is that it has given the wider world a false and unbalanced window into the 'Sikhs'. This book then is aptly has the word 'legacy' in its title because it is continuing the legacy of pretending that the jatt Sikhs just ain't there and certainly just don't matter. In previous generations, the authors used to get away with that scott free because most of the jatt Sikhs were not book readers and didn't even know what what happening in the literary world. Today, however, the western world is choc a block full of educated jatt Sikhs who are not only vocal but also very capable of pointing out the clear faults with this new book.

[StarStriker]

Weren't these Potohar Sikhs mainly of Khatri background?

Yes they were mainly khatri, arora and rajput hindus who practised this whole eldest son being a sikh etc. Then u get hindus panjabis tellin us how ALL of the sikh kaum has come out of this practise. If that was the case, how come khatri/arora/rajput sikhs BARELY make up 10-15% of the sikh population now, n not 100%?

[MisterrSingh]

#JattLivesMatter.

[Ranjeet01]

Yes they were mainly khatri, arora and rajput hindus who practised this whole eldest son being a sikh etc. Then u get hindus panjabis tellin us how ALL of the sikh kaum has come out of this practise. If that was the case, how come khatri/arora/rajput sikhs BARELY make up 10-15% of the sikh population now, n not 100%?

Is it these Sikhs of urban mercantile backgrounds who left West Punjab that make up the bulk of the Delhi Sikh population?