punjabi renaissance

[adityagrover]

so ive been thinking about this for the past couple of days. i think we're currently in a punjabi renaissance. our culture is being revived all around the world, with a growing popularity in folk songs and folk bhangra/giddha. folk instruments (dhaadi, algoja, tumbi, sarangi, etc) are growing in popularity not only in punjab but in the us/canada/uk.
i wanna know what everyone else thinks about this topic. feel free to express your opinion for or against what my stance is

 

[thisguy]

All thanks to the power of the internet

 

[HarmanSingh]

Punjabis abroad are forgetting how to read, write and speak Punjabi, entire generations of young Punjabi males are addicted to drugs and alcohol in Punjab, Punjab is aborting female fetuses at alarming rates, Punjab's farming situation horrible

...but yeah we are dancing a lot. If that is a renaissance of Punjabi culture, I guess.

 

[yraparla]

so ive been thinking about this for the past couple of days. i think we're currently in a punjabi renaissance. our culture is being revived all around the world, with a growing popularity in folk songs and folk bhangra/giddha. folk instruments (dhaadi, algoja, tumbi, sarangi, etc) are growing in popularity not only in punjab but in the us/canada/uk.
i wanna know what everyone else thinks about this topic. feel free to express your opinion for or against what my stance is

Like Harman said, everything you said is related to music and/or dance. The music is only because it's 'in vogue' to be fold right now. In two years it'll go back to heavy fusion. It's not a renaissance per se, but part of the ebb and flow of assimilating globalized cultural commodities.

Culture is literature, arts, lifestyle, traditions, customs, etc. I'm not punjabi so I don't know but I feel like outside of bhangra it's very limited in growth (even in arts, we're talking punjabi art, plays, folk music, etc....not just the popular artists who do folk song, there's a difference)

 

[Saleem]

+1 to what Swi and Harman have said. While Punjabi music and dance is gaining popularity and familiarity abroad ["Oh, your Poonjaabi?!"], the problems that Punjab and Punjabis face are serious and outweigh the gains mentioned above.

 

[Meistro]

Punjabis abroad are forgetting how to read, write and speak Punjabi, entire generations of young Punjabi males are addicted to drugs and alcohol in Punjab, Punjab is aborting female fetuses at alarming rates, Punjab's farming situation horrible

...but yeah we are dancing a lot. If that is a renaissance of Punjabi culture, I guess.

I don't think we are in a Punjabi renaissance at all. Far from it. But Harman, what do you think we should do? Stop dancing? I would really like to hear your opinion about this. We shouldn't stop living our lives here because of all these issues going on in Punjab. The system, the government is corrupt as f*ck. What can we do? Should we all live sad and depressed lives because Punjab is going through all this turmoil on the other side of the world? Im not taking any of these issues lightly so please don't get that confused. I just get the feeling sometimes that you think we shouldn't dance (although you dance yourself) out of respect for the issues? What, are we going to be holding a political protest by NOT dancing? I might be taking this out of context and please by all means correct me if Im wrong.

 

[COMTONDAJATT]

It is not like the music or folk culture has evolved. In fact it has stayed static outside of Punjab, especially among the diaspora who have a notion of Punjabi culture that is not the reality nowadays. Renaissance denotes a step forward in terms of culture, art, and society and I don't see that here. Only time you could argue that happening is during Ranjit Singh's reign or maybe in the middle of the century with poets like Amrita Pritam, Shiv and Najam Hussein.

 

[zagreus]

It is not like the music or folk culture has evolved. In fact it has stayed static outside of Punjab, especially among the diaspora who have a notion of Punjabi culture that is not the reality nowadays. Renaissance denotes a step forward in terms of culture, art, and society and I don't see that here. Only time you could argue that happening is during Ranjit Singh's reign or maybe in the middle of the century with poets like Amrita Pritam, Shiv and Najam Hussein.

yeah, i'd argue it's either the same, or worse off than it was. That's great to see bhangra music videos played in a mainstream way, but that really is only A facet of the culture. Like Harman said, there is now more than before an even more glorification of alcohol, drugs, and music videos now are even more highly sexualized than they have been. When i say that, i mean there's a greater disparity between men and women. And hell, i'm not even just talking about Punjab either.

The biggest worries i have within punjab would be the high HIGH rate of female infantacide, the amount of people suffering from alcoholism has risen dramatically, and the inequality. As a sardar, i'm worried about the further loss of other sardars to this idea of simply "fitting in".

 

[faizan]

Punjabi renn. my ass...the punjabi renn. came and left centuries ago...the traditional culture is slipping away as we speak...

 

[KingGeorge]

Most of our people can't pronounce "renaissance" let alone define it.

May this possibly be a renaissance of Punjabi folk dance and music? Yes. Does that mean that we are experiencing a renaissance of Punjabi culture as a whole? Nay.

 

[Varun]

The Renaissance of the Europeans in the 15/16th centuries was a revival of old ideas-particularly those of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. I would say Punjabi Culture is also going a transformation, but not the kind that includes the revival of old ideas.

Its changing. The identity, the language, the cultural capital (ideas, politics, song, dance, livelihood, religion)...it is adapting to a new age where a region like Punjab is at the forefront of globalization (via consumer markets, diaspora immigration, new wealth. and even globalized war (West Punjab-Taliban-Al Quaeda). So culture is always reinventing itself and changing. No need to sound so damn apocalyptic. There never was a "Golden Age". Good and bad things happen in every era.

 

[faizan]

There never was a "Golden Age".

I'd say there was. Somewhere between the Punjabi Bhakti period (Guru Nanak etc.) till about the end of the Sufi Poetry period (Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah etc.)

 

[Varun]

There never was a "Golden Age".

I'd say there was. Somewhere between the Punjabi Bhakti period (Guru Nanak etc.) till about the end of the Sufi Poetry period (Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah etc.)

For sho. Maybe on the level of poetry and new ideas, it was Golden. But other facets of the culture at that time = wack. Poverty, Political Instability, Ridiculous taxes levied by the Aurganzeb and Jehangir, no iphones.

 

[HarmanSingh]

Punjabis abroad are forgetting how to read, write and speak Punjabi, entire generations of young Punjabi males are addicted to drugs and alcohol in Punjab, Punjab is aborting female fetuses at alarming rates, Punjab's farming situation horrible

...but yeah we are dancing a lot. If that is a renaissance of Punjabi culture, I guess.

I don't think we are in a Punjabi renaissance at all. Far from it. But Harman, what do you think we should do? Stop dancing? I would really like to hear your opinion about this. We shouldn't stop living our lives here because of all these issues going on in Punjab. The system, the government is corrupt as f*ck. What can we do? Should we all live sad and depressed lives because Punjab is going through all this turmoil on the other side of the world? Im not taking any of these issues lightly so please don't get that confused. I just get the feeling sometimes that you think we shouldn't dance (although you dance yourself) out of respect for the issues? What, are we going to be holding a political protest by NOT dancing? I might be taking this out of context and please by all means correct me if Im wrong.

You are extrapolating a lot from what I said. No, I don't think you should be depressed or stop doing things you enjoy. No, I don't think dancing is the cause of these problems nor does dancing necessarily stop anyone from being aware of these problems.

The issue is teams who claim to represent Punjabi culture and care so much about being Punjabi can put 40 hours a week into practice but fail to show up for events/issues that matter or organize events in their communities to raise awareness on these issues.

It is when people think doing bhangra makes you Punjabi or that knowing the lyrics to a Jazzy B song means you understand what our culture is about. Go to a competition and see how many people there can read a basic sentence written in Punjabi or write something in Punjabi beyond their name. If teams claim to care about Punjabi culture, instead of constantly organizing bhangra workshops, organize a workshop to learn or teach Punjabi to the youth, that is if the team members know Punjabi themselves. Mentor Punjabi youth away from bhangra. Not everything has to be about dancing, but that is what we have made it out to be. Think about the time, resources, energy, money the bhangra community spends doing a competition and how little time, resources, energy, money we spend on raising money to get clean water to Punjab. We can't solve the issues that face Punjab, but we DO have more power than you are making it out to be.

And it is not necessarily about "issues in Punjab" but how we lack knowledge about those issues and fail to see any issues with our generation abroad. When our language is dying, we know little about our history and place bhangra as our top priority...that is a problem. And we can change that without being "sad and depressed".

 

[Meistro]

Punjabis abroad are forgetting how to read, write and speak Punjabi, entire generations of young Punjabi males are addicted to drugs and alcohol in Punjab, Punjab is aborting female fetuses at alarming rates, Punjab's farming situation horrible

...but yeah we are dancing a lot. If that is a renaissance of Punjabi culture, I guess.

I don't think we are in a Punjabi renaissance at all. Far from it. But Harman, what do you think we should do? Stop dancing? I would really like to hear your opinion about this. We shouldn't stop living our lives here because of all these issues going on in Punjab. The system, the government is corrupt as f*ck. What can we do? Should we all live sad and depressed lives because Punjab is going through all this turmoil on the other side of the world? Im not taking any of these issues lightly so please don't get that confused. I just get the feeling sometimes that you think we shouldn't dance (although you dance yourself) out of respect for the issues? What, are we going to be holding a political protest by NOT dancing? I might be taking this out of context and please by all means correct me if Im wrong.

You are extrapolating a lot from what I said. No, I don't think you should be depressed or stop doing things you enjoy. No, I don't think dancing is the cause of these problems nor does dancing necessarily stop anyone from being aware of these problems.

The issue is teams who claim to represent Punjabi culture and care so much about being Punjabi can put 40 hours a week into practice but fail to show up for events/issues that matter or organize events in their communities to raise awareness on these issues.

It is when people think doing bhangra makes you Punjabi or that knowing the lyrics to a Jazzy B song means you understand what our culture is about. Go to a competition and see how many people there can read a basic sentence written in Punjabi or write something in Punjabi beyond their name. If teams claim to care about Punjabi culture, instead of constantly organizing bhangra workshops, organize a workshop to learn or teach Punjabi to the youth, that is if the team members know Punjabi themselves. Mentor Punjabi youth away from bhangra. Not everything has to be about dancing, but that is what we have made it out to be. Think about the time, resources, energy, money the bhangra community spends doing a competition and how little time, resources, energy, money we spend on raising money to get clean water to Punjab. We can't solve the issues that face Punjab, but we DO have more power than you are making it out to be.

And it is not necessarily about "issues in Punjab" but how we lack knowledge about those issues and fail to see any issues with our generation abroad. When our language is dying, we know little about our history and place bhangra as our top priority...that is a problem. And we can change that without being "sad and depressed".

Harman, thanks for your respectful post and clarifying. I think teams like Apna Virsa/Gabroo Punjabis do a good job of this. There is such strong punjabi community out in vacaville where this group of young men mentor young kids not only in dance but the way they perceive punjabi culture....through the dance. Bhangra is a good tool for getting to your goal harman. I think it would be a great way to address the problems in Punjab. Maybe have an annual charity competition(s) that focus on helping different regions in punjab. Maybe huge competitions like VIBC and Boston can collaborate and make something like this happen. And at these competitions, maybe (or maybe not) it would be a good way to inform the public about the issues (not in detail obviously) but say "hey people the proceeds of this show will go to Punjab, so and so region to help this cause"......From events and actions such as this, you can possibly get a snowball effect going that will get many many more working to help those in need in Punjab.

 

[COMTONDAJATT]

There never was a "Golden Age".

I'd say there was. Somewhere between the Punjabi Bhakti period (Guru Nanak etc.) till about the end of the Sufi Poetry period (Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah etc.)

You have a point but that is like a 300 or so year period. I guess you could split it up into many small periods of paradigm shifts, because that is what really marks a renaissance.

Im bored, Ill do something fun here. If we go literature wise then we would probably start with Baba Farid who was the 'first Punjabi poet recorded'. If we are to believe that verses in SGGS are his then he probably represents the thinking of original Punjabi Sufis/Bhaktis/Nanak.

Then maybe with Shah Hussein we get another shift with his content which was even more revolutionary than anything preached before, plus the language he wrote in resembles modern standard Lehnda Punjabi more.

Then during Guru Gobind's/Tegh Bahadur's time we get Sultan Bahu and Bulleh Shah. Bulleh Shah was so revolutionary in his poetry and thinking that when he died no one picked out his body from the streets for 2 days. Following in his line of social activism in his poetry were Waris Shah whose Heer is more social commentary than eternal love story and Khwaja Ghulam Farid who had poems about resisting the British tyranny.

In regards to music, there has definitely been a renaissance but I think it was more like a hundred or so years ago and pretty much stopped at the time of Partition. When the Sikh misls gained more and more power during the initial Mughal decline they were able to bring in classical musicians and poets to the court. Punjab was home to some of the most famous classical vocal gharanas (Patiala, Sham Chaurasi, and Kirana) and the most famous tabla one, Punjab gharana (last grand master was Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, Zakir Hussein's father). Classical music flourished even after the British because the Punjabi kingdoms still patronized it, after Partition though many artists left for Pakistan and the art was neglected there for a long time.

In regards to folk music of Punjab or lok geet kind of music I would imagine that the 80s was a type of renaissance too when people like Gurdas Maan came and did social commentary and tried to revive a spirit among Punjabi people. Lots of great artists like Shinda, Manak and others were aided by the tape cassette and gained new fame. Ok I will stop rambling on now.

 

[terabaap]

One that we manage to mess up is remembering to learn our OWN languages(whether they be urdu, sankskrit, gurmukhi, etc) but we'll gladly sit through 4+ years of french, spanish, *insert some romance language here* or mandrin because "that's the future".... that's all b.s. Try doing our best to retain our culture. Petition schools to add more languages(most easily done at the collegiate level) such as the ones i mentioned above... it's good and all to know french, spanish, etc, but we fall into a mindset that that is what WE should do.
fcuk that man, learn something that YOU can put to use. If spanish is going to help you, by all means do it. But then go on B!itching about the loss of culture. Make the effort to learn about the heritage. Sadly, i'm starting to do this after 20 odd years of life...

 

[Sukhdip S. Chhina]

I do not believe that there is any sort of renaissance that is happening. I'm actually curious to know how many people on this forum can actually read and write Punjabi?

What are people's views on club after parties for Bhangra competition's? How many people go to a Bhangra competition to watch the show and how many people go to Bhangra comps just for the sake of the afterparty to hook up with girls/guys? I know there are people that go to these parties just to hang out with their friends on other teams and have fun, but at the same time it pretty obvious a large amount of people actually go to hook up with girls/guys. What are peoples views on this? If there is any sort of renaissance that is happening, then it is clearly heading in the wrong direction.

 

[KingGeorge]

I do not believe that there is any sort of renaissance that is happening. I'm actually curious to know how many people on this forum can actually read and write Punjabi?

What are people's views on club after parties for Bhangra competition's? How many people go to a Bhangra competition to watch the show and how many people go to Bhangra comps just for the sake of the afterparty to hook up with girls/guys? I know there are people that go to these parties just to hang out with their friends on other teams and have fun, but at the same time it pretty obvious a large amount of people actually go to hook up with girls/guys. What are peoples views on this? If there is any sort of renaissance that is happening, then it is clearly heading in the wrong direction.

I think this issue has more to do with personal morals (conservative vs. liberal) than it does with the revival of specific, tangible elements of Punjabi culture.

I think many people are confusing a renaissance with a spiritual enlightenment.

 

[Sukhdip S. Chhina]

My second para had nothing to do about any sort of renaissance and were just questions that i was curious about. Like people have said before a renaissance is consider more on a broader perspective rather than on a narrow topic like music, by itself. There are more things to be considered than just music and dance when the broader concept of a renaissance is under question.