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Cultural
Complexity
Not a single village in the Punjab is homogeneous. Every community has its
own social customs which are different to some extent from those of others.
Religion further determines this cultural difference and mode of living. Even
when a Jat and a Khatri are next-door neighbours, some of their cultural traits
remain different from each other. The practice of widow remarriage, for
instance, is accepted by Jats but it is almost a taboo among the Khatris. The
Jats and the Khatris are further sub-divided into many clans which have their
characteristic differences in customs pertaining to birth, death, marriage, etc. Then there are the
erstwhile low-castes who differ from all the other people in their habits and
social customs. Besides, the three geographical strips, Majha, Malwa and Doaba
have certain local cultural traits. It is marvelous that under all these peculiarities
a thread of homogeneity binds the Punjabis together as a whole. The Greeks, the
Scythians, the Parthians, the Huns, the Pathans and the Mughals came here,
settled down and got woven into its cultural fabric.
Socio-Economic
Structure
As the majority of its population is rural, village is the unit that
determines the social and economic set up of the Punjab. Every village is linked
in one way of another with the adjoining villages.
Agriculture being the main occupation of the people, their economic
dependence upon each other mainly pertains to their agricultural activities. All of them carpenters, blacksmiths,
oilmen, sweepers and others invest their interests in agriculture. Carpenters
and blacksmiths make and repair agricultural implements for the farmers. Labourers lend a hand at harvesting and in return get wages. Similarly,
barbers, water-carriers, cobblers, potters and all others earn their living by
serving the farmer in one way or another.
Many villages have grown up in the middle of large fields. A village in the
Punjab generally springs up on the land of an ancestor, his offspring forming
the nucleus. Many villages of Majha are divided into pattis, and each member of
a patti is said to have descended from a common ancestor. In some villages each
patti has its separate Panchayat to sort out is quarrels and bring about
reconciliation. But in case of interpatti disputes, the Panchayat of the main
village decides the issues.
Working classes like
Labourers and backward classes like sweepers live in
mud houses on the out skirts of the village, or in some remote corners.
The artisans and craftsmen like, carpenters, blacksmiths, cobblers etc. have
their own separate locality.
Although the villages of
Punjab are inhabited by different castes and
creeds, the people of one village do not marry into the same and in this respect
each village in an exogamous unit. matrimonial relations are transacted in
nearly villages only. If a distant village has to be chosen, it must be of the
same geographical strip. In the urban there is no such consideration.
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