SOCIOLOGY KALEIDOSCOPE: 'O! East is East: and West is West, …' and the 'twain did meet at great cost & will continue to meet in the Punjab: 5 'Aab': the Land of the Five rivers: JEHLUM, CHENAB, RAVI, BEAS, SUTLUJ; which since ancient times continue to flow from the roof of the world: the Himalayas, along the plateaus, foothills, plains, deltas; into the Arabian Sea: for all successive R. INDUS VALLEY civilizations: a very sacred land: every inch an imprint of almost all the major ancient religions of the East and of the West: whose priests and soldiers, one after another, all had their wave and ways, wars and warriors, sword and sway, seekers of fame and faith: forging each other here, till some seekers from amongst themselves, led by Guru Nanak, revolted proclaiming -'Naa Mai Hindu! Naa Mai Musulmaan'- Neither am I a Hindu! Nor am I a Muslim! - ushering in the latest revolutionary religion :Sikhism, of -'Ek Onkaar Sat Naam'- There is One God: The True Name - :: and the Seeker followers of this new faith -'the Sikhs' ! Hence this pot pourri *excerpts glimps facets: before/ during/ after: - 'The Gurus'- of the Punjab & their Punjabiat: -

'… To the student of
Sociology,
the region of '5 Aab'
- the Punjab -
presents features of
peculiar interest

. Since the earliest days
the social customs
which still survive
in full force among the majority
of the nominal adherents of
Hinduism and
Islam and
the peculiar cults of the
inferior and
outcast races,
offer an almost virgin
field full of the richest promise
for investigation.

In the Punjab hills the
Hindu religion and
the caste system to which it gave birth
are to be found free
in a very unusual degree
from alteration by external influences,
though doubtless
much deteriorated
by decay
from within.

Among the
Bishnois of the
Hariana
is to be found
a curious offshoot
from the national social customs
which is peculiar
to them alone.

For the inquiry into
primitive institutions and
the early growth of
property in land
the Punjab and the
North-West Frontier Provinces
afford material of
singular completeness and importance.

Tribal
organisation and
tenures are to be found
nowhere in India
in such primitive integrity
as on the western frontier of the
NWFP Province.

In the eastern plains of the
Punjab
the village communities are
typically perfect
in their development.

Between
these two extremes
every step in the gradation
from one form to the other
is exemplified.

In the hills of
Kangra and
Shimla
community of rights,
whether based on the
tribe
or on the village, is
unknown."

[ * Excerpts from: A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North - West Frontier Provinces: compiled by H.A. ROSE. Based on the Census Report for the Punjab, 1883 : By Sir DENZIL IBBETSON, K.C.S.I., and the Census Report for the Punjab, 1892, and the Hon. Mr E.D.MacLAGAN, C.S.I., Pub : Director, Language Department, Punjab. ]

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