Punjabiyat did not begin with borders, states, or even religions.
It began with rivers.
Long before Punjab was named, this land was a corridor — of tin, lapis lazuli, ideas, languages, and philosophies. Harappa traded with Mesopotamia. Thought travelled faster than armies ever would.
Punjabiyat is not merely Punjabi.
It is a civilizational temperament.
It values debate over dogma.
Song over sermon.
Work over display.
Guru Nanak did not rupture history — he continued it. His proclamation, “Na koi Hindu, na koi Musalman,” was not rebellion; it was memory speaking back to power. A reminder that identity precedes labels.
From Nanak to Gobind Singh, from sparrows facing hawks to Ranjit Singh establishing the first native sovereignty of North India in centuries — Punjabiyat has always resisted erasure, not through conquest, but through continuity.
That continuity is fragile today.
Languages are shrinking.
Rituals are becoming content.
Objects are becoming disposable.
Punjabiyat exists to push back.
Not loudly.
Not nostalgically.
But deliberately.