In order to have some understanding of the role the Bar region - area between river Sutlej and Jhelum - played in shaping Punjab, it would suffice to look at the history of last 1,000 years. Can one imagine Punjab’s culture without evoking the images of the protagonists which defined the soul of our people?

Punjab’s two great legends, Heer Ranjha, and Sabiban Mirza, were born in Jhang in the Sandal Bar. Heer symbolised the birth of a new woman who defied class barrier in forming human relationship and openly confronted patriarchy. She became an eternal symbol of gender equality, freedom and love. Ranjha voluntarily and peacefully rejected the institutions based on property due to his consciousness born of artistic vision of life. He is celebrated as a metaphor of a non-chauvinist loving male.

Another highly thrilling tale was Sahiban Mirza. Sahiban, young and defiant, represents the emergence of modern woman torn between her traditional aristocratic world and her world of dreams. She, unlike Heer and other heroines, has to negotiate a grey area displaying the contradictory complexity of an emerging modern world. Mirza wrongly perceived as a symbol of machismo is as shown by great poet Hafiz Barkhurdar as highly democratic who unconditionally gives the woman he loves a choice to accept and reject him as her companion. These two legends, you will be surprised to know, are celebrated most by the East Punjab and the settlers who migrated from there to the Bar.

Now let’s have a fleeting look at the classical literary landscape of the Bar.

Baba Farid, the pioneer of Punjab’s literary tradition, after becoming head of Chishti Mystic Order lived on the borders of Neeli and Ganji Bar at Ajodhan (now Pakpattan) till his last breath. Baba Guru Nanak, a larger-than-life sage and inimitable poet, was the son of Sandal Bar. Damodar Das Gulati, the first to pen the legend of Heer in the late 16th century, lived in Jhang. In the 17th century, we find Hafiz Barkhurdar, another poet from the Bar, composing, in his own words, the earthly tale of Sahiban. In the same century emerged Sultan Bahu, a mystically inclined poet, from the Bar who enriched our literature with his skillfully crafted quatrains in which we find our literary language at it apogee.

Nijabat was also from the Bar who composed the most celebrated Var (epic) of our literature on the ruthless invasion of Nadir Shah that devastated Punjab and Delhi. It’s a unique historical document which apart from being one of our finest poems is a testament to the historical resistance our people put up against invaders. Then we see yet another classical poet Ali Haider from Ganji Bar mounting the stage of history with his romantic and fiercely patriotic verses naming and shaming the invaders and the collaborators alike. And who can forget Waris Shah? His magnum opus Heer is taken as nothing less than the cultural Bible of Punjab. He too was a son of the Sandal Bar whose narrative as well as his creative use of language is the envy of poets. These masters are as much owned by the settlers in the Bar as by others in the different regions of Punjab. Can a settler dare call any of these greats ‘Jangli’? But still out of regional chauvinism and parochial mentality settlers call the ordinary mortals of the Bar ‘Jangli (persons /people from the jungle)’ who inherited illustrious cultural and literary traditions.

It will not be out of place to refer to some of the milestones in the Bar’s political history. It’s mentioned in the Rig-Veda that people of this area, descendants of Harappa society, used to pester and harass the newly arrived Aryan settlers by hustling their cattle. This was their way of resistance. Gradually, theft became a habit with the Bar people.

Practice of stealing turned into a matter of defiance and a source of pride. It continued till 20th century. And stealing was what rattled the latest settlers most especially the cattle stealing. Cattle were crucial to their agrarian economy. If oxen/bulls were hustled the owner wouldn’t be able to plough his fields. If buffalo or cow was stolen the owner’s domestic economy would collapse. If a milch animal is snatched from the family, it would lose literally its butter without which it’s difficult if not impossible to eat bread.

In the 16th century, a peasants’ rebellion led by indomitable folk hero Dullah Bhatti raised its head in the Sandal Bar against the unbearable taxation imposed by the Mughal administration. He, defiant till his last breath, died a hero’s death in Lahore to the dismay of the Great Mughal.

In the 19th century, a revolt took place in the Ganji, Neeli and a part of Sandal Bar in the wake of the 1857 insurrection. Ahmed Khan Kharal, the leader of the movement, organised the tribes against the foreign occupation in a large area. This historical event has not been given the importance it deserves by the so-called standard historians. But local balladeers have kept the memory of the freedom fighters alive in their ballads who laid down their life in hundreds for our freedom.

Fortunately, with the passage of time the locals and Abadkars have come closer bridging their social and cultural differences because after all both inherit the same overarching culture of Punjab. It isn’t that the locals haven’t ridiculed the ways of the settlers. They ridiculed the settlers by calling them ‘shohday abadkar (poor settlers) and ‘Bhukhay panahgir’ (starving refugees). Both the groups have influenced each other and the interaction has yielded dividends.

The locals have learned from the settlers in matters of agriculture, education, business and cuisine. Chili and spicy food was popularised by the settlers. The settlers have benefited from the locals’ experience of cattle raising; the locals have the finest breed of buffalo, a milk machine.

They have also been enriched by the locals’ music and dances. The carefree social mores and eloquent speech of locals have also influenced the settlers. Consequently, in the Bar region we can witness a new blend of language in use; a mix of Majhi, Doabi and Lehndi dialects that is close to urban speech.

Migration invariably results in development and growth in ways not foreseen; it helps cultures to overcome their stagnation. And this is precisely what the migration has done in the Bar.

(Concluded)

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2024