Am I proud of being a Punjabi Girl?
Punjab is the worst state in India on the front of sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years due to the rampant practice of female foeticide there, the UNPF says in its latest report. According to the UNPF survey which gives the sex ratio figures till 2001, Punjab which had an average of 875 girls for every 1000 boys in 1991 fell to an average of 798 girls to every 1000 boys.
Being a Punjabi girl myself, I do tend to question my existence after reading such graphic figures. The culture that I was raised to be proud of is the same that seems to be snuffing out girls before they are even born. I've seen ladies cry when a girl was born in neighboring houses. I've heard elders feeling sorry for the family that a baby girl was born into. I've seen mothers curse their daughters for being born, but I was never prepared for something as cruel as female foeticide. Despite such gruesome acts against the women kind, we still remain an overtly narcissist culture and that has begun to irk me since I've been learning of the stark realities of the dwindling sex ratio in the state.
I am a big collector of Punjabi music and have all varieties ranging from Asa Singh Mastana to the current hip young things. I've always enjoyed Punjabi tunes and anything that made me feel proud of being Punjabi, all the better. However, recently, whenever a Punjabi song breaks into praising the Great Punjab where everyone seems to be Proud of being Punjabi, I rush to my Ipod to turn the song off and later delete it as well. An example of such a song is:
The song chorus:
Aseen Jatt Punjabi Dosto
Saanu Maan Punjab Hon Da
Translation:
Friends, we are Punjabi jatt
We are proud of being Punjabi
(Video is enough to translate the rest)
There are many such songs in Punjabi music scene and I used to enjoy listening to them too. Strangely enough, during my teen years, my MSN username used to be punjabi_jattis_kickass (or something like that) as well. That's how complete the brainwashing was. Not to say that I am not proud of my culture, I am very proud of my roots. I am glad that I got to be a part of culture that knows how to spread love and welcome strangers with open arms. I am glad that I got to be a part of culture that is vibrant, colorful, and very musical (my alter-ego's a dancer). However, I no longer am able to tolerate self-praise that is being churned out by the music industry every day despite the stigma of female foeticide overshadowing the Punjabi society.
Punjabi women, not just in Punjab, but all over the world are aborting their daughters. Sex-ratio amongst the Canadian Punjabi families is dwindling; same is the case in US, UK and rest of the world. Punjab in India, of course, tops the worst sex-ratio list every time. Isn't it mind-boggling that this is the same state that is the most economically prosperous in India? This is the same state that has a healthy emigrant population who are financially very well settled in many countries across the world. This is the same culture that is a representative of Indian music all over the world. This is the same culture whose cuisine rest of the world loves and knows as 'Indian'. And, yet, it is the poorest in valuing its female population that it'd rather just wipe them out.
Am I proud of being a Punjabi girl? Am I proud of being a part of a culture that would've rather seen me as a boy? (Bless my parents for never having made either me or my sister realize that.) Yes, I am proud of being born to my parents. Yes, I am proud of being born a Punjabi. But, no, I cannot be proud of being born a Punjabi Girl! And, no, I can no longer accept being told by the music industry or any other pseudo-patriot that we are the best species in existence ... well, for the simple reason that we won't be existing for much long anyway. We'd be breeding ourselves out of existence soon if the trend of female foeticide continues. Why not start preparing ourselves now for the inevitable future instead of creating a world of fiction for ourselves?
Perhaps I am being a tad harsh, but am I to blame?
Being a Punjabi girl myself, I do tend to question my existence after reading such graphic figures. The culture that I was raised to be proud of is the same that seems to be snuffing out girls before they are even born. I've seen ladies cry when a girl was born in neighboring houses. I've heard elders feeling sorry for the family that a baby girl was born into. I've seen mothers curse their daughters for being born, but I was never prepared for something as cruel as female foeticide. Despite such gruesome acts against the women kind, we still remain an overtly narcissist culture and that has begun to irk me since I've been learning of the stark realities of the dwindling sex ratio in the state.
I am a big collector of Punjabi music and have all varieties ranging from Asa Singh Mastana to the current hip young things. I've always enjoyed Punjabi tunes and anything that made me feel proud of being Punjabi, all the better. However, recently, whenever a Punjabi song breaks into praising the Great Punjab where everyone seems to be Proud of being Punjabi, I rush to my Ipod to turn the song off and later delete it as well. An example of such a song is:
The song chorus:
Aseen Jatt Punjabi Dosto
Saanu Maan Punjab Hon Da
Translation:
Friends, we are Punjabi jatt
We are proud of being Punjabi
(Video is enough to translate the rest)
There are many such songs in Punjabi music scene and I used to enjoy listening to them too. Strangely enough, during my teen years, my MSN username used to be punjabi_jattis_kickass (or something like that) as well. That's how complete the brainwashing was. Not to say that I am not proud of my culture, I am very proud of my roots. I am glad that I got to be a part of culture that knows how to spread love and welcome strangers with open arms. I am glad that I got to be a part of culture that is vibrant, colorful, and very musical (my alter-ego's a dancer). However, I no longer am able to tolerate self-praise that is being churned out by the music industry every day despite the stigma of female foeticide overshadowing the Punjabi society.
Punjabi women, not just in Punjab, but all over the world are aborting their daughters. Sex-ratio amongst the Canadian Punjabi families is dwindling; same is the case in US, UK and rest of the world. Punjab in India, of course, tops the worst sex-ratio list every time. Isn't it mind-boggling that this is the same state that is the most economically prosperous in India? This is the same state that has a healthy emigrant population who are financially very well settled in many countries across the world. This is the same culture that is a representative of Indian music all over the world. This is the same culture whose cuisine rest of the world loves and knows as 'Indian'. And, yet, it is the poorest in valuing its female population that it'd rather just wipe them out.
Am I proud of being a Punjabi girl? Am I proud of being a part of a culture that would've rather seen me as a boy? (Bless my parents for never having made either me or my sister realize that.) Yes, I am proud of being born to my parents. Yes, I am proud of being born a Punjabi. But, no, I cannot be proud of being born a Punjabi Girl! And, no, I can no longer accept being told by the music industry or any other pseudo-patriot that we are the best species in existence ... well, for the simple reason that we won't be existing for much long anyway. We'd be breeding ourselves out of existence soon if the trend of female foeticide continues. Why not start preparing ourselves now for the inevitable future instead of creating a world of fiction for ourselves?
Perhaps I am being a tad harsh, but am I to blame?
Labels: Female foeticide, Media, Opinions, Sex-selective abortion, Statistics of sex ratio, Videos
posted by Roop Rai at
9:42 AM
12 Comments:
You have me thinking. Does pride mean ignoring the negatives? Does pride mean only projecting a "false" feel good? Or is pride and belonging about focusing on the negative in the hope of creating change? I think it is the last. And so, Roop, you are a really proud Punjabi and worthy enough of carrying on the honor of being one.
By
Alankrita, At
March 19, 2008 12:38 PM
I personally find the conflation of caste ('Jat') and 'Punjabi' to be the most repuslive and obnoxious thing in this whole culture of 'Punjabi Pride'. I think alot of our problems derive from this caste pride, embedded with 'izzat', treating girls as agricultural chattel, and all the rest that follows from it, including oppression of women and female foeticide.
~Pablo~
By
Anonymous, At
March 20, 2008 7:50 AM
There have been some songs that have fought against female foeticide. I know that the singer Sarbjit Cheema produced a song and video all about female foeticide and he campaigns against it. I remember watching a Punjabi TV channel once and they had these traditional folk singers on, that would go around Punjab singing at melas and weddings or whatever, singing traditional Punjabi folk tales. And one of the songs they sang was about the dysfunction that causes female foeticide and the preference for boys, and they went round Punjab in villages and towns singing this song. And these were old men, old-school, traditional types, with grey moustaches and beards. So it shows that there is at least a grassroots consciousness of sorts developing. I personally just don't listen to the narcisisstic songs about how great Punjabis are, especially when they involve declamations of caste Jat pride. There is plenty of Punjabi music rooted in the poetry and lyricism of Punjabi culture, folksongs, love songs, as well as spiritual and religious music, and you can enjoy bhangra in a pure beat form, without having to listen to all that sententious, self loving, obnoxious caste-punjabi pride nonsense.
~Pablo~
By
Anonymous, At
March 20, 2008 8:09 AM
Pablo: I agree with you. In fact, the second video that I posted is a song against Female Foeticide. The best I heard. Amrinder Gill is the singer, I am merely guessing. There is consciousness, there are laws, but still nothing seems to be changing. It's really odd.
You are also right about the 'jatt pride'. Strange that the religion that was designed to remove casteism thrives on casteism. Growing up, it was imbibed into us how great being from a jatt family was, which, of course, seems all meaningless now. So, I guess there is a market for such pompous music as well. I'm sure my maame listen to it with much pride!! :D
cheers and thanks
hope to hear more from you
roop
By
Roop Rai, At
March 20, 2008 8:15 AM
alank: quit boosting my ego which i am trying to control by not listening to ego-boosting music. thank you very much. :pp
By
Roop Rai, At
March 20, 2008 8:16 AM
Roop
Here is the link to Sarbjit Cheema's song against female foeticide.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n4heY3OVyE0
You have to have belief, that the long, slow, hard road to change begins with consciousness of the problem. That consciousness will lead to change, change that will be slow, that may sometimes seem like you're pushing against the entire forces of the world, that may take a generation or even more to begin to show signs of changing, but that consciousness is the beginning. When Sarbjit Cheema can sing these songs and begin to bring awareness, you can at least see that there is a grassroots consciousness brewing. Be positive and have belief and faith. In a bleak world the only thing that prevents total darkness is that belief is not yet snuffed out. Stay strong and positive and full of chaardi kalaa.
~Pablo~
By
Anonymous, At
March 20, 2008 8:25 AM
Hey thanks P for digging it up. I've seen it on TV. There was a film also made a few years ago and there are a few adverts on indian tv channels against it. yeh, the process has started. Let's see how quick it goes. We'll continue to do our bit here. :)
Thanks again. I'll upload to blog. :) cheers.
By
Roop Rai, At
March 20, 2008 11:08 AM
I'm 31 year old now, only 3 years ago did I found out that was jatt. My somewhat whitewashed parents never ever talked about that. Plus the fact that I grew up in town that was 98% white.
But ever since living in the Vancouver area all I hear is jatt this and jatt that and it gets old all the time.
Also I can say despite it being my background I have no punjabi jatt pride.
By
Suki Dillon, At
May 7, 2008 3:30 AM
Don't the jatts have the worse sex ratio of the groups in the Punjab.
By
Suki Dillon, At
May 7, 2008 3:31 AM
Yeah, they/we do, Suki. I am very proud of your parents!! I knew I was getting the privilege of being born into a jatt family the day I was conceived!! It was rubbed down our throats every minute of our existence .... not just by parents but society too ... jattness was our identity. thank god i broke out of the mess. btw, my mum's family is part- dhillon. :D
By
Roop Rai, At
May 7, 2008 11:09 AM
I think because we are too proud of our culture in the west. We are better off to grow up in areas with small punjabi communties instead of places like Vancouver, London or Northern California.
From what I've seen is that people who grow up like I did are more open-minded and not stuck with the backward way of thinking that happens in bigger punjabi communties.
Since I have lived in Vancouver the last 6 years I found a big part of the punjabi community sexist and stuck with 1950 village way of thinking.
By
Suki Dillon, At
May 7, 2008 3:16 PM
Every since i went away to college, i have been bombarded with people constantly classifying others with the simple question of "what is you last name?" I come from a family that is religous so i was never taught about the different castes. I always heard the word jatt in songs and stuff, but it didn't really mean anything to me. I still find it hard to believe that we, as Sikhs, still value such a thing. Wasn't our religion founded on the premise that everyone was equal? Weren't the panj piyara from different castes? we are proud of our ignorance and that is just a shame.
By
Anonymous, At
February 25, 2011 11:50 PM
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