The Bhangra Empire Phenomenon

[Kartik]

It was till like 07-08 when traditional bhangra was done, now every team can be considered modern, going by their style. A team can only be considered traditional today by how they execute their actions, not what they do in their routine.

well said jabar

very very very well said jabar. I hate when people say "oh how can you hate on this team for not being "traditional" they did the following traditional steps in their routine: etc. etc.

 

[dodobird]

Without trying to start another dodobird v. the world debate, I just had a couple of questions/observations I'm hoping you guys can help me out with.
My reading of the forums, sparked by this thread with the discussion on Bhangra Empire and its appeal to audiences, has shown that there is almost a new microcosm of bhangra in North America. I guess one would point to new formations, different kinds of moves, mixes involving rap/hip-hop - more broadly, what Mojo said about modern teams being more receptive to audiences.


Personally, I think this is true - I've shown some of my non-Indian and Indian friends "traditional" bhangra and they're bored by it.
Can anyone point me to some videos of teams either in India or the UK or other countries which show the same kinds of changes? I'm not talking about subtle changes in moves, but large scale changes including music and 'gimmickry' (a la the Joker in the VCU Elite 8 video) or anything else you can think of.


I take issue with autonomously terming these changes as ''modern bhangra'' if they haven't caught on in other countries - rather than being broad-based and discussing what is going on on a modern/traditional basis, would it be more sensible to term this "North American bhangra"? I'm not based in North America so I'm just a detached, passive observer when it comes to these competitions and the videos I see on YouTube.

 

[Govind]

Not trying to be an asshole, not so much. The farmers of bygone eras didn't have bhangra in the first place. But its fun to think they did.

Please enlighten me, kind sir. Who was involved in the history of bhangra?

Everyone. A lot of the people who helped codify it into "bhangra" post partition were low-caste non-farmers (See Garib Dass). Sure, Punjab is primarily agricultural so obviously a lot of people doing fok dances would be farmers, but they wouldn't be doing bhangra. They'd be doing whatever folk dance was endogamous to their region. Homies in patiala didn't know what sialkot (the "move" not the place) was until after partition.

I actually disagree here Ashveer as far as your quote goes, AND i agree with you COMPLETELY in so far as what is acceptable bhangra.
First off, after having spent time with Ustaadji Garib Das, I don't think he in particular really helped reconstruct post-Partition bhangra as we know it today. He was a baazigar (more on his community's influence next paragraph). That was done at a much larger level with the involvement of the government, and many many people (more associated with the Patiala scene...and then to a major extent when it came to Republic Days and bringing bhangra to national attention (Naya Daur, Jagte Raho), Banno Ram and Master Harbhajan Singh).

Here's where I support Bhangra Empire. As far as those self-proclaimed elitists, who think that stunts should not be a part of "bhangra"...stunts (or "kartab")...They were just as much part of folk "performance" as any of the other folk dances that have now been recreated and put on stage and compartmentalized. For us to deny the contribution of a community of baazigars who carried on the legacy of dhol playing and stunts (that often went hand in hand...and Gibb can add to this discussion, or correct me for that matter, as I defer to him given his rather extensive study of this subject), is to deny the many components of Punjabi folk dances that we now include as part of our presentation of stage "bhangra."

Bottom line...Stunts are fun...They are part of our dances' (note: NOT dance's...dances' (plural)) history! AND...folk dance evolves with time...for anyone to proclaim they are purists wanting to preserve what Punjabi dance once was...please I hope that you realize that that is now gone and unfortunately lost (unless you desire to go to Khokhar Fauji and learn from one of the oldest, living masters himself)...but what their crew does is absolutely...nothing like what we have now put on stage.

-Govind
PS - if anyone is going to Gurdaspur, please let me know...i have a letter/pictures to send to Master Harbajan Singh (Khokar Fuaji Pindh) and would really appreciate it if I could send it through someone THANKS!

 

[Govind]

S

Without trying to start another dodobird v. the world debate, I just had a couple of questions/observations I'm hoping you guys can help me out with.
My reading of the forums, sparked by this thread with the discussion on Bhangra Empire and its appeal to audiences, has shown that there is almost a new microcosm of bhangra in North America. I guess one would point to new formations, different kinds of moves, mixes involving rap/hip-hop - more broadly, what Mojo said about modern teams being more receptive to audiences.


Personally, I think this is true - I've shown some of my non-Indian and Indian friends "traditional" bhangra and they're bored by it.
Can anyone point me to some videos of teams either in India or the UK or other countries which show the same kinds of changes? I'm not talking about subtle changes in moves, but large scale changes including music and 'gimmickry' (a la the Joker in the VCU Elite 8 video) or anything else you can think of.


I take issue with autonomously terming these changes as ''modern bhangra'' if they haven't caught on in other countries - rather than being broad-based and discussing what is going on on a modern/traditional basis, would it be more sensible to term this "North American bhangra"? I'm not based in North America so I'm just a detached, passive observer when it comes to these competitions and the videos I see on YouTube.

So dodobird...Here I kind of agree with you in that we have almost recreated a "North American Bhangra"...and you know what...there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with it!!! b/c that's what folk dance is. It evolves over time, with the people who perform it, and with the situational, cultural influences placed on it.

I humbly ask people who loosely use the term "Traditional bhangra" to qualify their use of those words. Because their own definition of that term, will provide significant insight into their understanding of bhangra "as it SHOULD be" (i.e. as a definable entity) one that as far as my studies and knowledge go, is an absolutely incorrect construct...or..."as a malleable entity"...that has luscency (sorry medical term!) and has the ability to grow and evolve with different interpretations.

 

[Govind]

BTW, dodobird...I and a friend taught a bunch of random, medical students, non-desi kids a folk routine this semester...and you know what? They LOVE it! folk, traditional...doesn't have to be boring! ...we were able to do something as exciting (okay not BE level!!! hehe ~ that incorporated bhangra, dhamaal, sialkoti, jhummar, luddi, and phummania/jugni/mirza (which aren't real dances btw, besides phummania which IS a dance, but doesn't resemble the steps we do at all!)...and they still had a blast!

so of course, something that's traditional doesn't mean that it automatically doesn't appeal to an audience that is unacquainted with the nuances of the dance ~ good point though and I would like to hear what more you have to say about this. none of this dodobir vs. the world...we're all in this discussion together so long as we make rational arguments!

 

[Ashveer]

Not trying to be an asshole, not so much. The farmers of bygone eras didn't have bhangra in the first place. But its fun to think they did.

Please enlighten me, kind sir. Who was involved in the history of bhangra?

Everyone. A lot of the people who helped codify it into "bhangra" post partition were low-caste non-farmers (See Garib Dass). Sure, Punjab is primarily agricultural so obviously a lot of people doing fok dances would be farmers, but they wouldn't be doing bhangra. They'd be doing whatever folk dance was endogamous to their region. Homies in patiala didn't know what sialkot (the "move" not the place) was until after partition.

Sorry ashveer, you lost me way before the sarcasm about wikipedia. Obviously not a resource indicative of truth, but nor are any of your statements (with all due respect). I'm not pretending to have the answer, but please elaborate on how, since bhangra was a nonexistent dance made up of the congregation of a multitude of local dances, it adopted this "farmer" myth? How, all in all, did it originate? maybe not under the name bhangra? maybe looking NOTHING like we have in recorded history? my understanding based on little knowledge is that even if bhangra in its "traditional form" was never performed at length or in consistency as it is today, some elements must have existed, compartmentalized into its different originas. Now if im from pind X and your from pind y, dating back to before when you say bhangra was essentially formed, and, in celebration, revelry, and for the sake of entertainment, i do the "go-to" dance from my region, am i not, in its most basic form, dancing bhangra??? Unless youre saying that people just never danced, in which i'd have to point out the ludicrous nature of such an argument. I guess, in short, i'm asking you to elaborate, because youre one line responses are simply HINTING at a deeper understanding of the roots of our beloved dance, rather than actually demonstrating that comprehension. gratzi.


Now to answer Arjun Barua's "who is with me" question. Dude... you KNOW i am. A. i dont dance to entertain, i dance because i love to dance. The fact that i entertain with my dance is just something that adds pleasure to the experience. B. WHere in god's name does a statement like "modern teams understand that better" come from? Because they go far outside what the traditional borders are to do anything to make a crowd respond? Next time i'm on stage, i'll pull a rabbitt out of a hat! thats entertaining right? magic?... The goal is to entertain WITHIN THE CONFINES OF YOUR CRAFT, PARTICULARLY WHEN YOU ARE USING SAID CRAFT TO... ENTERTAIN. lol circular statement but it still make sense. If i'm going to entertain you with magic, i'm not going to get on stage and start singing/acting... because i'm a MAGICIAN. if i'm a bhangra dancer, i should be entertaining you with BHANGRA... not (insert reference to any modern gimmick that people here love to hate on, i could care less which). Again, i LOVE modern bhangra for alot of what it brings, and have respect for its creativity, performance, everything. But please do not insult me or my taste/performance by saying that those people who choose a certain form REMEMBER to entertain better than i do. Maybe dumb and dumber makes you laugh. It's entertaining. Me? I prefer Extras, Modern Family, or some completely different characterization. And people who have that appreciation as well, WILL BE ENTERTAINED.
wowza. i think that fills my quota for the day. Much love everyone

@Gobind, I'm sorry to have been misinformed, I myself spent time w Garib Das and was under the impression that he was a part of the groups that traveled internationally to promote bhangra in the earlier times...and I assumed (wrongly so) that baazigars were in fact an important group to the formation of the dance. My main point was that it wasn't people who were farmers and that it was quite a diverse group of people who contributed, and it definitely wasn't Sikh-centric.

@Khush
I'm not exactly well versed on the myth-making, but I think that the association with farmers had to do with the "presentation of culture" bit that Dodo talked about in a previous thread. Punjab was the breadbasket to the Empire and the breadbasket to the nation, and perhaps that had something to do with it. Just as its absurd to argue for no dances, its absurd to think that only farmers did folk dance, and that only the dances of farmers contributed to bhangra.
The "when" or "where" of bhangra is the post-partition refugee camps where people started putting dances together, coalescing into the republic day parade performance. Funnily, the chimta and the kato are "new" additions to Punjabi folk dance. What we do now doesn't have an analogy pre-1947. When you talk about the "basically dancing SOME form of bhangra" those people were likely dancing bits and pieces of what is recognizable to us now...like the move sialkot, if you went to Sialkot in 1930, you'd probably see that. If you want to call that "bhangra" because 60 years later it would be done as part of an amalgamation, I'm sure you could, I guess I wouldn't. And of sadly, there was a bit of violence in the creation of bhangra, as other dance moves and forms fell out of favor. Dandaas (from Multan) is really beautiful, but we don't do it. There is a women's nursing team right outside of chandigarh who does it well. Same thing with luddi, I saw an entire "luddi set" being done in Punjab as well, effin' nuts. But those moves etc. didn't get a place in bhangra. Which then leads to your question about the "confines of your craft." Should we go to the more remote areas of Pakistan where there is less presence of big Bhangra to unearth other more "authentic" folk dances? I think that would be mad folk. But then it would take some re-tooling of those dances to fit our current aesthetic. The chimta didn't appear until after partition, so should we drop it to be more traditional? Of course not, we like it. I think the irony is, that just at the moment when folk dances came to be "Bhangra", folk dance stopped being "just cuz" and became a performative thing, it stopped being dance for dance's sake and became a spectacle. A presentation of culture. A commodity.

My understanding of all of this comes from spending time with and hearing presentations from Gibb, spending time w Garib Das, and going to the IPFA bhangra comp/festival in India, Gibb's dissertation, and book chapters/articles like Ballantyne's chapter in his book on Sikhs. I'm not claiming an iron-clad authority (i.e. Govind's commentary on baazigars), and if I come off abrasively, sorry about that.
Lastly on the notion of entertaining...I think its important to note that none of the Elite 8 teams of last year (and so far this year) are traditional in the sense of doing live only. What do we like about them? formation changes, crazy fast moves that betray the pace of 'traditional' bhangra, and...magic tricks. I'm not hating on it, we're all all a part of it, I just think we need to be more honest about it. Maybe calling it North American bhangra is more true-to-form.

 

[Mojo]

This has turned into a great discussion, but I'd like to please ask everyone to keep on topic and be respectful of other people's opinions/posts.

S

Without trying to start another dodobird v. the world debate, I just had a couple of questions/observations I'm hoping you guys can help me out with.
My reading of the forums, sparked by this thread with the discussion on Bhangra Empire and its appeal to audiences, has shown that there is almost a new microcosm of bhangra in North America. I guess one would point to new formations, different kinds of moves, mixes involving rap/hip-hop - more broadly, what Mojo said about modern teams being more receptive to audiences.


Personally, I think this is true - I've shown some of my non-Indian and Indian friends "traditional" bhangra and they're bored by it.
Can anyone point me to some videos of teams either in India or the UK or other countries which show the same kinds of changes? I'm not talking about subtle changes in moves, but large scale changes including music and 'gimmickry' (a la the Joker in the VCU Elite 8 video) or anything else you can think of.


I take issue with autonomously terming these changes as ''modern bhangra'' if they haven't caught on in other countries - rather than being broad-based and discussing what is going on on a modern/traditional basis, would it be more sensible to term this "North American bhangra"? I'm not based in North America so I'm just a detached, passive observer when it comes to these competitions and the videos I see on YouTube.

So dodobird...Here I kind of agree with you in that we have almost recreated a "North American Bhangra"...and you know what...there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with it!!! b/c that's what folk dance is. It evolves over time, with the people who perform it, and with the situational, cultural influences placed on it.

I humbly ask people who loosely use the term "Traditional bhangra" to qualify their use of those words. Because their own definition of that term, will provide significant insight into their understanding of bhangra "as it SHOULD be" (i.e. as a definable entity) one that as far as my studies and knowledge go, is an absolutely incorrect construct...or..."as a malleable entity"...that has luscency (sorry medical term!) and has the ability to grow and evolve with different interpretations.

Govind, I think you bring up a great point. Because there is no standard definition of what "traditional bhangra" means, I agree that people (myself included) who use that term should define it for everyone else.


When I use the term "traditional", I'm thinking about the style of teams who don't really incorporate hip-hop/other western influences. For me, live teams are the most emblematic of what I see as traditional. "Traditional" for me also means preserving the standard form of moves and not giving them "twists" by adding their own swagger. Again, this is just a loose, personal definition.

I think that often times, the concept of why we dance is lost. We dance to entertain. Modern teams just seem to understand that better.

Hmmm bold statement. But you're entitled your opinion. For me, that's certainly not the main reason why I dance...

I dance because it's something I enjoy whether or not someone is watching. Practices for me are just as fun as performing on stage in front of an audience.

Who's with me?

I know the farmers of Punjab are, along with these guys:

http://bhangrateamsforum.com/discuss/post-mixes-and-video-links/rooh-punjab-dee-12467/

I see what you're saying, but that still qualifies as "dancing to entertain". Whether it's ourselves or an audience, dancing is for entertainment. I don't think I was clear when i first said that, but I meant to emphasize that we dance for fun/entertainment, since bhangra isn't a religious or ceremonial dance.

 

[Govind]

Ashveer, I didn't know that you spent time with Ustaadji! that's really really great and i'm glad you had that opportunity. So taking what Ustaadji had to say at face value about the role of baazigars in establishing bhangra as the dance we know it today, I would totally agree with you...B/c he told me the same thing! Now this is certainly up for debate, and I would like to hear more from Gibb who traveled much more than I did...but that information wasn't corroborated by other people (although baazigars' role was acknowledged for sure, it wasn't assigned the same importance) I spoke to...

 

[Gabbah Shareef Bhalwan]

Earliest reference I've seen to 'bhangra' (using that word) is from the late 1880s. We simply can't say how much earlier it existed.
The dance called 'bhangra' was limited to a small-ish area of Punjab, including Sialkot, Gujranwala, etc. area. It seems to have been specific just to the Visakhi time of year. However, it is hard to say whether the dancing at that time was totally unique and recognizable in its content, or if it kinda resembled and shared 'moves' with dancing of other times in that region. The reality may be that there really wasn't much men's dancing done by lay people at other times of the year, in which case the issue becomes sorta moot.


The "farmers" were definitely doing a lot of the bhangra. Muslim Jatts were perhaps the biggest community in the area, so they may have been the best represented, but there is no hard info on that. We know that many castes/communities danced bhangra. I believe that there was probably a bit of segregation and (put more positively) people "doing their own thing," but it wasn't a rule -- just the way society would break down into groups.


From whatever its form in the 1880s up to Partition, bhangra had changed; change didn't come only after Partition. Jim Dhanoa's research shows that there were bhangra *competitions* even before Partition. Thus there were both "purely for fun" and exhibitional modes of performance even before the '50s.


What exactly became of bhangra in Pakistan (where it is mainly located) has, to my knowledge, not really been documented. However, for all intents and purposes, bhangra as a community social practice "ended" around that time.


Some youthful revivalists from Sunam (Malwa area) took an interest in Punjabi dancing in the early 50s. The group they got together was led by the Deepaks (of Kamboj caste) from the local area and contained about half Bazigars. (I use 'Bazigar' w/ capital B becuse it is the name of their people, like e.g. J in Jatt.) Incidentally, these people (including dholi Bhana Ram, mentioned above) were from a particular 'tribe' of Bazigars that is different from Master Garib Dass'. They had come from a more southerly area of western Punjab -- close enough to the 'bhangra area' but def. not from the center of that area. Other dances, esp. jhummar, would have been more common for them. (These are also the people, and perhaps the *only* people in Indian Punjab today, that really knew women's sammi dance -- or at least the form of sammi that people seem to be shooting for.) Also interesting is that the Kamboj family of Deepaks had been canal colonists -- they'd spent some time in western Punjab, and Partition forced them back to their ancestral Malwa. Malwa (along with Doaba, and other eastern areas) really had nothing to do with bhangra. I think the Deepaks were pretty clueless about bhangra, though I'm intrigued by the idea that their brief stay in the west -- but again, areas to the south of the bhangra area -- may have given them some familiarity with some other dances. In any case, it has been pretty reasonably established that it was the Bazigar artists of the group that trained the Malwais (including a Patiala Jatt of the group, the great Balbir Singh Sekhon) in the western Punjabi dances.


The group became sponsored by the PEPSU govt. The focus was not on bhangra; various dance styles were represented. What they were doing did not match the 'bhangra' of the prime activity area in any case. It smacked more of luddi, IMO. However, the *idea* of bhangra was something that held great excitement. It's unclear whether this PEPSU team's original intent was to mix glimpses of various regional dances or if that's just what happened. At some point, however, team leader Manohar would say that their performances represented various Punjabis' dances. One narrative claims that the label of "bhangra" was not slapped onto this until their first Republic Day performance (1954), but I question this. It is clear, in any case, that they knew they were not replicating bhangra, and that the name was (whenever first applied) for incidental or whimsical reasons. This particular group was the one representing at Republic Day in Delhi from 1954 until '58 (if I remember correctly). Master Harbhajan Singh's brought a new style in 1960, which added to the development...and circa 1970, Culture Officer Sardar Bhag Singh's groups started to create even newer norms. Garib Dass (mentioned up-thread) was most active in bhangra development in that particular era.


1971 was the biggest rupture, in my opinion -- due to an event for which so many new moves were made up that came to constitute 50% or more of stage presentations. 1980s bhangra stabilized, and that form seems to be what the young generation today looks back on as "traditional."

 

[faizan]

Gibb, you are one of bhangra's most important resources, i really appreciate this information. I wish you were more active on this forum, there are countless questions we need answered!


Where did saaps originate from?

 

[Gabbah Shareef Bhalwan]

Where did saaps originate from?

I am fairly content with the narrative that one of the guys from the PEPSU team, in the 1950s, pulled a coat-rack down from the wall and made it into the "instrument." Who exactly was the person to do that (e.g. one of the Deepak brothers, one of the Bazigar members, etc) is where the story tends to vary. The sapp made a dramatic appearance in the Naya Daur film (released 1956), and I've not seen any documented existence from earlier than that period. I tend to think of it as part of the general adoption of "props," which may owe its influence to the Malwa area (ie where the performers were located)...compare to men's giddha. I don't get the sense that in the "original" bhangra (community dance of Northern area) the dancers would be holding things. If anything, they'd be holding guns, heh heh.

 

[Ashveer]

Where did saaps originate from?

I am fairly content with the narrative that one of the guys from the PEPSU team, in the 1950s, pulled a coat-rack down from the wall and made it into the "instrument."

That's money right there.

 

[Gabbah Shareef Bhalwan]

Where did saaps originate from?

I am fairly content with the narrative that one of the guys from the PEPSU team, in the 1950s, pulled a coat-rack down from the wall and made it into the "instrument."

That's money right there.

Actually I wasn't sure -- Is this a fairly "known" story among North American bhangra dancers, or is it just maybe that I have heard it a number of times and I no longer can distinguish it as news?


***
General disclaimer: While I've done plenty of research on bhangra, it's never been my true focus in the sense that I've never made it a mission to comprehensively interview the really important "bhangra" people and get to the bottom of each of these details. For that work, I defer to Dr. Jim Dhanoa, who has talked with by far the greatest number of "history makers" in bhangra, and heard the stories directly from them. My focus has been dhol, musicians, rituals, other dances (jhummar, sammi), and things like that, which tell their own interesting stories and fill out the picture of Punjabi music/dance beyond bhangra lore.

 

[Gabbah Shareef Bhalwan]

I got a PM from someone asking about kaato and khunde, and whether they were "relatively new" props used in dance. I am responding publicly here (while keeping the personal message private) because this seems it would be something that may come up again and I don't want to repeat it.


The "sapp" story is a bit more definitive than the "stories" of these of other items. I know even less definite about the kaato and khunda. This is exactly where, as I mentioned above, Jim Dhanoa would be most authoritative. He has talked to some of the oldest bhangra dancers still alive, and asked them direct questions like "So, did you guys dance with khunde before Partition?" As I "disclaimed," I haven't pursued such questions much. (I ask weird anthropologist's questions like "So, what's your caste?"! )


Based on what I do know, I would be inclined to think kaato came about the same time as sapp (1950s), and that it was also an introduction from Malwa (non-native bhangra area). I have one piece of published testimony that implies kaatos were there in bhangra a few decades earlier (i.e. early 20th century) in the original bhangra, but I have my doubts about that source (which was published in the 60s)--I think the person could be projecting back what he saw in the 50s and assuming or imagining it was there earlier. As for khunde, they were certainly carried by men at melas and one can imagine them at Visakhi melas where bhangra was happening, but I have no *specific* evidence or testimony that says people danced with them necessarily. The first "bhangra" team (PEPSU) did certainly use khunde in what seems to be a new and special way, and I would not be surprised to hear that they were the ones to introduce them as something special to be included.


As I said above, the whole idea of dancing with anything in hands seems kind of suspicious to me. The PEPSU team, I believe, used khunde like they were sparring with them -- a little gatka sort of fight in the middle of the boisterousness. I guess I wouldn't consider that as part of the "dance."

 

[COMTONDAJATT]

Also interesting is that the Kamboj family of Deepaks had been canal colonists -- they'd spent some time in western Punjab, and Partition forced them back to their ancestral Malwa. Malwa (along with Doaba, and other eastern areas) really had nothing to do with bhangra. I think the Deepaks were pretty clueless about bhangra, though I'm intrigued by the idea that their brief stay in the west -- but again, areas to the south of the bhangra area -- may have given them some familiarity with some other dances.

Your suspicion would probably be correct. In addition to living in what is now Pakistan Punjab, during festivals like Vaisakhi or Diwali the heads of the Kamboj clans would organize family reunion type of events in Punjab where most of the clans in the area would attend. My great uncle told me about how they would go to places like Sialkot for them and spend a good week celebrating. I can imagine that when the events were held in the 'Bhangra belt' they would have been exposed to it as well. This will be something I ask if anyone in Sunam has info next time I go.

 

[ban3rg]

I got a PM from someone asking about kaato and khunde, and whether they were "relatively new" props used in dance. I am responding publicly here (while keeping the personal message private) because this seems it would be something that may come up again and I don't want to repeat it.

Thanks for sharing Gibb! Much appreciated. I'll definitely try to ask Mr. Dhanoa about this. I hope teams keep using kaaton and finding creative ways to showcase them; even dankara would be great to watch and perform. Even if all props used today were introduced incidentally, they really liven up the dance and its celebratory mood.

 

[Ashveer]

Where did saaps originate from?

I am fairly content with the narrative that one of the guys from the PEPSU team, in the 1950s, pulled a coat-rack down from the wall and made it into the "instrument."

That's money right there.

Actually I wasn't sure -- Is this a fairly "known" story among North American bhangra dancers, or is it just maybe that I have heard it a number of times and I no longer can distinguish it as news?


***
General disclaimer: While I've done plenty of research on bhangra, it's never been my true focus in the sense that I've never made it a mission to comprehensively interview the really important "bhangra" people and get to the bottom of each of these details. For that work, I defer to Dr. Jim Dhanoa, who has talked with by far the greatest number of "history makers" in bhangra, and heard the stories directly from them. My focus has been dhol, musicians, rituals, other dances (jhummar, sammi), and things like that, which tell their own interesting stories and fill out the picture of Punjabi music/dance beyond bhangra lore.

I think a lot of the confusion and importance of the ways in which your research interfaces with this community is that as diasporic youth we hope to find history and meaning in bhangra as a part of our identity-making, which makes possibilities this a bit harder to swallow.