Punjabi nationalism

With its origins in post-Mughal Punjab, early forms of Punjabi nationalism spurred the coalescence of Punjabis into a broader common "Punjabi" national identity in the wake of Afghan and Maratha invasions of Punjab. Various independent Punjabi states arose during the Mughal decline, including several Muslim states (most notably Bahawalpur, Pakpattan, Pothohar, Sial State) and twelve Sikh Misls.

Punjabi nationalism arose as a prominent ideology during the process of Punjabi Unification initiated by Ranjit Singh under which foreign powers such as the Durrani Empire were forced to retreat from Punjab. As Maharaja of Punjab, Ranjit Singh established an inclusive and secular Punjabi state under the Sikh Empire. During the British colonial era, Punjabi nationalism was largely driven by the Unionist Party, and other Punjab-based anti-colonial movements.

Punjabi nationalism — closely linked with Sikh nationalism in India — arose under the Singh Sabha Movement to protect the Punjabi language and Gurmukhi script, due to the advent of the notion of Hindi and Devanagari's association with Hindu nationalism, with the Arya Samaj advocating for the use of Devanagari. Following the partition of Punjab in 1947, the prior Sikh movement culminated in the Punjabi Suba movement in East Punjab where Sikhs who mostly identified Punjabi as their mother tongue — with Hindus identifying with Hindi in the census — demanded a separate state leading to the trifurcation of East Punjab on a linguistic basis in 1966 and the formation of the sole Sikh-majority and Punjabi state in India. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee had declared the Punjab region as the natural homeland of Sikhs in 1946; with the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973 also linking Sikhism to Punjab as a Sikh homeland. During the Khalistan movement, Sikh militants enforced the Punjabi language, the Gurmukhi script, and traditional Punjabi clothing in Punjab.

In Pakistan, Punjabi nationalism emerged in the 1980s as a reaction to the Saraiki movement, a political movement which sought to separate the southern Punjabi dialects from the Punjabi language, and to instead declare them to constitute a separate language for which the term Saraiki was adopted — separating erstwhile southern Punjabis from their Punjabi ethnic identity and subsequently giving rise to the Saraikistan province movement. Punjabi intellectuals considered the Saraiki movement as "an attack on Punjabi"; with Punjabi nationalists, and by extension many Punjabis, still refusing to recognise Saraiki as a separate language, citing its linguistic status as a variety of Punjabi. The Punjabi Language Movement, driven by Punjabiyat and Punjabi nationalism, demands official recognition of the Punjabi language in Pakistan.

The goals of Punjabi nationalist movement are widespread, but the promotion Punjabi culture, language and unity is common to all. Supporters in the Punjabi diaspora also focus on the promotion of a shared ethnocultural heritage.

Pre-colonial history

The coalescence of the various tribes, castes and the inhabitants of the Punjab region into a broader common "Punjabi" identity initiated from the onset of the 18th century CE. Historically, the Punjabi people were a heterogeneous group and were subdivided into a number of clans called biradari (literally meaning "brotherhood") or tribes, with each person bound to a clan. With the passage of time, tribal structures became replaced with a more cohesive and holistic society, as community building and group cohesiveness form the new pillars of Punjabi society.

The Punjab region's history of warfare and foreign invasions has contributed to a culture of engaging in warfare to protect the land. During the Mughal rule, Dulla Bhatti, a Punjabi folk hero led the Punjabis to a revolt against Mughal rule during the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar. He is entirely absent from the recorded history of the time, and the only evidence of his existence comes from Punjabi folklore, and took the form of social banditry. According to Ishwar Dayal Gaur, although he was "the trendsetter in peasant insurgency in medieval Punjab", he remains "on the periphery of Punjab's historiography".

Both his father, Farid, and his grandfather, variously called Bijli or Sandal, were executed for opposing the new and centralised land revenue collection scheme imposed by the Mughal emperor Akbar.

His general anti-authoritarian, rebellious nature is described to "crystallise" with the Akbar regime as its target, although not as a means of revenge specifically for the deaths of his relatives but in the wider sense of the sacrifices made by rural people generally. Bhatti saw this, says Gaur, as a "peasant class war". Bhatti's class war took the form of social banditry, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Folklore gave him a legendary status for preventing girls from being abducted and sold as slaves.

His efforts may have influenced Akbar's decision to pacify Guru Arjan Dev Ji, and through Guru Arjan Dev Ji's influence the people of Bari Doab, by exempting the area from the requirement to provide land revenues.

The end for Bhatti came in 1599 when he was hanged in Lahore. Shah Hussain, a contemporary Sufi poet who wrote of him, recorded his last words as being "No honourable son of Punjab will ever sell the soil of Punjab". The memory of Bhatti as a saviour of Punjabi girls is recalled at the annual Lohri celebrations in the region to this day, although those celebrations also incorporate many other symbolic strands.

During the rule of the Mughal Empire in India, two Sikh gurus were martyred. (Guru Arjan was martyred on suspicion of helping in betrayal of Mughal Emperor Jahangir and Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb) As the Sikh faith grew, the Sikhs subsequently militarized to oppose Mughal rule.

In the late 18th century, during frequent invasions of the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Misls were in close combat with the Durrani Empire, but they began to gain territory with the capture of Lahore, by Ranjit Singh, from its Afghan ruler, Zaman Shah Durrani, and the subsequent and progressive expulsion of Afghans from the Punjab, by capitalizing off Afghan decline in the Afghan-Sikh Wars, and the unification of the separate Sikh misls. Ranjit Singh was proclaimed as Maharaja of the Punjab on 12 April 1801 (to coincide with Vaisakhi), creating a unified political state.

Despite the religious diversity of the Sikh Empire, the people of Punjab were united by a shared identity as Punjabis and a growing sense of Punjabi nationalism.

In her 2022-book Muslims under Sikh Rule in the Nineteenth Century, Dr. Robina Yasmin, a Pakistani historian who teaches at the Islamia University Bahawalpur, tries to give a balanced picture of Ranjit Singh, between the contradictory images of "a great secular ruler" and that of "an extremist Sikh who was bent upon eliminating Islam in the Punjab", Dr. Robina Yasmin's own assessment after her study being that Ranjit Singh himself was tolerant and secular and that the mistreatment of the Muslim population often ascribed to him based on dubious anecdotes in fact came from his subordinates.

This sense of identity was bolstered by the secular rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a Sikh Punjabi who had successfully expelled the Afghan invaders from Punjab and established a powerful Sikh kingdom in the region. As a result, Punjab was a secular nation with a strong sense of Punjabi nationalism.