I AM PUNJAB, I AM FARMER: COLONIAL LEGACIES AND POSTCOLONIAL ETHICAL RESONANCE IN PUNJAB

Abstract

In this paper, Punjab-i-yat is considered as a transhistorical and transnational kind of ethnicity that goes beyond the territorial borders and the political lines. Based on a Pakistani song titled Punjab, penned by Waqar Bhinder in protest against the Indian Farmers Protest (20202021), the paper holds that agrarian identity is a cohesive ethnic marker between the East Punjab (India) and the West Punjab (Pakistan). The fact that Bhinder says we are one, we share the same language and we are farmers as well (n.pag.) makes farming both a tradition and a resistance. The song functions as a cultural text where there is articulation of shared descent, language and historical memory on the song especially the two lines Charda Punjab nayi o kalla soch lo, lehnde walon aaoo ga jawab gadwan (2:10 2:16), which confirms unbound solidarity. Through the Farmers’ Protest and the song, the paper follows the development of the Punjab-i-yat as the moral reaction to the postcolonial marginalization, leading to the following statement: I am Punjab, I am farmer