Culture and Religion: Are they compatible
The Sikhs have often been described as an ethnoreligious community. This is because the overwhelming majority of Sikhs worldwide are Punjabi, or are of Punjabi ancestry. Nevertheless, it must be emphasised that Sikhi is not somehow exclusive to Punjabi people. This may be a misconception caused by the tendency of Sikhs to generally shun proselytism outright or aggressive missionary tactics, in favour of interfaith exchange and educational dialogue. Indeed, white European and American conversions to Sikhi have accompanied increased contemporary Western interest in Eastern philosophical traditions.
The cultural practices of the Punjab region in the Indian subcontinent are separate from (and in some cases, diametrically opposed to) Sikhi in its pure, unadulterated form, and must be clearly differentiated in that respect from the religion. Nonetheless, they form an important part of the everyday lives of many – if not most – Punjabi Sikhs, as well as other communities in the region.
Punjab is a diverse and heterogeneous region, which has experienced a plethora of invasions and migrations throughout the centuries – from the Greeks, to the Persians, to the Arabs, Turco-Mongols and the Afghans - and therefore it can be argued that there is no singular Punjabi ‘ethnicity’. Then what is it, you may ask, that binds Punjabis together? A common culture and a common language.
The Punjabi language is an Indo-Aryan language related to neighbouring languages such as Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu), Kashmiri and Gujarati. It has a considerable degree of regional variation, with Punjabi dialects spoken on Punjab’s geographical extremes being considered entirely separate languages altogether, in some quarters. You may notice that the Punjabi you learn in school, or at the Gurdwara, is somewhat different from the Punjabi that your grandparents speak. You may notice that Punjabi spoken in the Amritsar-Lahore area, or across the border in Multan, is slightly different from the Punjabi spoken in the Doab region. In India, Punjabi is generally written in the Gurmukhi (‘from/of Guru’s mouth’) alphabet of the Sikh scriptures, a modification of existing regional alphabets originally pioneered by Guru Angad Dev-Ji, the second Guru. In some parts of Haryana and Rajasthan, Punjabi Hindus use the Devanagari script, the prevalent alphabet of India. In Pakistan, Punjabi Muslims use the Shahmukhi (‘from/of King’s mouth’) script, a modification of the Arabic alphabet used for Persian/Farsi and Urdu, among other languages.
There are ongoing debates and controversies with regards to the fundamental compatibility of culture and religion, especially in the Punjabi context where one’s surname can be very significant and a great source of personal pride. For instance, the Jats purport to be descended from Iranian-Scythian equestrian migrants. Many Punjabi Hindus claim descent from Rajput kings in the neighbouring sandy tracts of Rajasthan. And likewise, many Punjabi Muslims trace their family history back to Arab conquerors (who arrived into Punjab via Sindh), Pashtun tribesmen (who originated from Afghanistan) or Turkic-Mughal chieftains (who came from Central-Asia). In the most extreme cases, this tribalism has manifested itself as discrimination, supremacism, intercommunal animosity and violence.
However, notions of casteism and racialism are generally regarded as completely irreconcilable with the universalist, inclusive philosophy of Sikhism, as well as the other religions of the Punjab region. While most aspects of Punjabi culture are generally harmless, interesting at least from a sociological perspective, and something perhaps to even be celebrated – it is essential that we distinguish culture from religion in the Sikh context, as they are frequently conflated and this leads to many misconceptions regarding the nature of the religion itself.
