Punjab (pop. 27,743,338) is a state in northern India. It is the home to most of India’s Sikhs (see Sikhism). Punjab is one of the most prosperous states in India. Incomes are higher than the national average, and nearly every village has electric power. The soil is fertile and well watered.
Punjab is the leading wheat-growing region of India. Crop yields are consistently much higher than anywhere else in the country, giving India a regular surplus of wheat. Punjab is also a major rice-growing state.
People and government
People.
Most of the inhabitants of Punjab are descendants of ethnic groups that invaded northwest India from around 1500 B.C. onward. The descendants include the Jats, Rajputs, and Punjabis. 
About 90 percent of the people speak Punjabi (also spelled Panjabi), which is an Indo-European language. Most of the remainder speak Hindi. Punjab is the homeland of the Sikhs and the only state where they form the majority. Sikhism, called Gurmat (the Guru’s doctrine) by orthodox Sikhs, is the most recent of India’s religions. It was founded by the first Guru (religious teacher), Guru Nanak, who lived from A.D. 1469 to 1539 (see Nanak). Receiving God’s message, Guru Nanak was believed to have absorbed the divine spirit and become one with God. The divine spirit was believed to have been handed on through nine further gurus. The 10th Guru, Gobind Singh, decreed that in the future the granth (holy scripture) and the panth (Sikh community) would take the place of the guru.
Guru Nanak composed nearly 1,000 hymns in a mixture of Old Punjabi and Old Hindi. Sikh music is immensely popular, and singing and playing religious music is part of many Sikh religious services. Guru Nanak believed that meditation should be a central part of worship. It is a path of the life of every devout Sikh today. Many Sikh homes have a room where the Guru Granth Sahib, the book considered to be the last living guru, is kept. Some members of the house start each day with private meditation. They also recite the verses of Guru Nanak, called the Japji. From the time of the third Guru, Sikhs have also worshiped as congregations in temples. These are known as gurdwara (gateway to the Guru). The Golden Temple in Amritsar, built by Guru Arjan at the end of the 1500’s, is the holiest shrine of Sikhism. 
Hindus make up much of the population of Punjab. They celebrate many festivals, including Dasara and Diwali. Islam in the region is strongly influenced by Punjabi culture and displays a distinctive character of its own. Its literature has strong connections with Sufism (Islamic mysticism). There are small numbers of Buddhists, Christians, and Jains.
Both men and women wear the traditional Punjabi shalwar kameez, which consists of a long khurta (shirt) and baggy pants drawn in at the ankle. Women usually wear an accompanying dupatta (shawl or long scarf).
Sikh men’s dress is often associated with the “five k’s:” kes (uncut hair), kangha (comb), kirpan (dagger or short sword), kara (steel bangle), and kachh (boxer shorts). The most important of the five is the uncut hair. It is sometimes claimed that the comb must be wooden. The dagger and the shorts reflect military influence. The bangle may be a form of charmlike thread that Hindu girls may tie on their brothers’ arms.
Government.
The governor of the state is the constitutional head of government and is appointed by the president of India. The chief minister and the cabinet advise the governor. The state legislative assembly has 117 members. Punjab has 13 elected members in the Lok Sabha (House of the People) and 7 nominated representatives in the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) of the national Parliament. The collector is the chief executive of government at the district level. The gram panchayat (village council) system operates at the village level.
The state capital is Chandigarh, which is also the capital of Haryana (see Chandigarh). The High Court is in Chandigarh and is shared with Haryana.
Economy
Agriculture.
Most of the land in Punjab is under cultivation, and much of the population works in agriculture. The state grows a surplus of grain, especially wheat and rice. Other important crops are barley, corn, millet, and pulses, such as beans, peas, and gram (lentils). Major cash crops are cotton, oil seeds, potatoes, and sugar cane. The great productivity of Punjab is due to the combination of rich alluvial soils (soils built up by river silt), a good water supply, and a favorable climate. Farmers have also benefited from new technology, more fertile varieties of plants, and fertilizers. Nearly all of Punjab’s agricultural land is irrigated. Important irrigation works developed since 1947 include the Bhakra-Nangal Dam Project, one of the largest of its kind in Asia.
Punjabi farmers have shown great skill in adopting new varieties of seed. Punjab’s high production of wheat has made it the breadbasket of India. Landholdings are small—only 35 to 50 acres (15 to 20 hectares). However, Punjabi farmers have formed cooperative societies and taken part in community development programs, which have made them the richest in India.
Manufacturing.
Much of the state’s industry is concerned with agriculture and the production of consumer goods. These goods include bicycles, electronic equipment, flour, hand tools, leather goods, machine tools, sewing machines, sugar, surgical goods, textiles, vegetable oils, and vehicle parts. Ludhiana has the majority of the country’s woolen hosiery industry. Jullundur produces sporting goods, and Batala is noted for its manufacture of agricultural equipment.
Transportation.
The state has a full system of roads and railroads. The remotest parts of the state are linked to the road network, making the collection and distribution of agricultural produce easier. Amritsar has connections with Delhi and other north Indian centers. There is also a rail link with Pakistan, to the west. Punjab has several airports.
Tourism.
Punjab has many important religious and historic sites. Popular tourist destinations include Chandigarh, Jallianwala Bagh, the Bhakra Dam, and the Golden Temple at Amritsar.
Land and climate
Location and description.
Punjab covers 19,445 square miles (50,362 square kilometers). The state shares an international border with Pakistan to the west. Rajasthan and Haryana lie to the south, and Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are to the north.
Land features.
Almost the whole of the Punjab is a gently sloping plain, falling from 900 feet (275 meters) above sea level in the northeast to about 540 feet (165 meters) in the southwest. Its flat, alluvial soils are well watered and extremely fertile. There are sand dunes in the northwest, near the border with Rajasthan. To the northeast of the plain, a narrow belt of gently rolling foothills leads to the Siwalik Hills. The Siwaliks rise to about 3,000 feet (910 meters).
Climate.
Between November and February, daytime minimum temperatures range between 41 and 48 °F (5 and 9 °C). Nighttime temperatures occasionally drop to the freezing point. Daily maximum winter temperatures range between 66 and 81 °F (19 to 27 °C). Humidity in winter is very low. The summers are very hot, with an average daily temperature in May and June of 104 °F (40 °C). Temperatures occasionally reach 113 °F (45 °C).
Annual rainfall ranges from about 50 inches (125 centimeters) in the Siwalik Hills to about 14 inches (35 centimeters) in the southwest of the Punjab. Amritsar receives about 26 inches (65 centimeters) of rain per year, of which 70 percent falls from July to September, when seasonal winds called monsoons blow (see Monsoon). About 15 percent of annual rainfall is brought by cyclones between December and March.
Large areas of the Punjab were deforested as land was needed for cultivation. Much of the Siwaliks, which once supported tropical forests of such deciduous trees (trees that shed their leaves annually) as jujube, kikar (gum arabic), pipal, and shisham (a valuable building timber), now have a covering of bush.
Wild animal life is limited. Local animals include various species of deer, foxes, jackals, nilgai (blue bull), rabbits, and wild boar. The birdlife is richer, and includes coel, cranes, geese, herons, and peacocks. Cobras, kraits, and vipers are all poisonous snakes and are relatively common in summer.
Rivers.
The two major rivers of Punjab, the Sutlej and the Beas, rise in the Himalaya. Bhakra Dam in Himachal Pradesh lies on the Sutlej River.
History
Origins.
Before the rise of the Indus Valley civilization nearly 5,000 years ago, there were fortified towns in what is now Punjab. The area was brought into the Harappan civilization until about 1700 B.C. The Aryans, advancing from the northwest around 1500 B.C., completely overran the area (see Aryans). Successive invaders were assimilated with the Aryans and formed the ethnic stock of the Punjabis, Jats, and Rajputs.
The area played an important part in the development of Hindu beliefs, because the ideas of the Vedas, the most sacred of Hindu religious books, took shape there (see Vedas). In the 200’s B.C., the region was brought into the Mauryan Empire. About 1,500 years later, it became a vital region for the Muslim kings of the Delhi Sultanate. It became a central region for the Mughal emperors.
The word Punjab is derived from the Persian words panj (five) and ab (water) and was the name applied to the region of the five rivers—Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej.
Rise of Sikhism.
During the early A.D. 1500’s, the preaching of the religious teacher Guru Nanak in the Punjab region inspired the development of the Sikh religion. Nanak became the Sikh’s first guru. In 1577, the fourth guru Ram Das founded the city of Amritsar. Guru Arjan built the Golden Temple at the end of the 1500’s.
Banda Singh laid the foundations of the Punjab when he organized a band of Sikhs and won short-lived independence from the Mughals in 1709 and 1710. The Mughals executed Banda Singh in 1716. After 50 years of struggle against the Afghans and Mughals, the Sikhs established their own rule over the region in 1765. Ranjit Singh welded the separate parts of the Punjab into a powerful state.
British rule.
After the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839, there was disunity among the Punjabis, and they came into conflict with the British. After two wars, the Sikhs accepted British rule. Reluctantly, the Sikhs tried to work in harmony with the British rulers. In the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Sikhs fought in support of the British. During World War I (1914-1918), the Punjab supplied 60 percent of the Indian troops.
After the war ended, the Punjab economy worsened, and relations between the Sikhs and the British suffered. Strikes took place frequently, and the brutality of the British in quelling demonstrations worsened matters. A massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, in 1919, often called the Amritsar Massacre, was the climax of this period.
Independence.
After World War II (1939-1945), Indian and British leaders agreed to partition (divide) India into separate countries. The western part of the Punjab and eastern Bengal became the independent country of Pakistan on Aug. 14, 1947.
At that time, 5 million of India’s 6 million Sikhs lived in the newly divided state of Punjab. They constituted 55 percent of the population. Tens of thousands were killed in the fighting between different religious groups that accompanied partition.
The state of Punjab did not satisfy all of the Sikh demands. Some of the Sikhs were afraid of the social changes that were taking place as the state developed economically. Such people attacked many modern trends.
