A Cultural Materialist Critique of ‘Punjabiyat’: Haryana Perspective

Abstract

‘Punjabiyat’ connotes a common approach, a shared perspective, and a co-inherited value system that can deliver the two striving nations, India and Pakistan, out of the clutches of divisive politics. Punjabiyat could be the key to building a stronger regional partnership that could eventually empower SAARC and create a balance of interests in favour of South Asia. By corollary, Punjabiyat, associated with the Punjab region of South Asia, could serve as a bulwark against neo- imperialism and ward-of Western hegemony. In fact, the foundations of a stronger South Asia can be based on the principles of Punjabiyat that rise above religious and communal divides upholding egalitarianism, brotherhood, democracy, syncretism, grassroots spirituality combined with scientific approach that are remarkable characteristics of Undivided Punjab found still extant and demonstrated in residual forms wherever people of Punjab reside in their region or as diaspora. For the purpose of the paper, the social structure of the Undivided Punjab is investigated and juxtaposed with the socio-political scenarios emerging in contemporary times, especially on the Indian side and viewed from the perspective of Haryana, a state on the Indian side. The article makes use of the anthropological concept of cultural materialism reflected in the literary approach of critics including Raymond Williams, Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault and Louis Montrose.