Punjabis; Punjab

Among those who came from the Subcontinent with the British in the nineteenth century (see Burma over Time) and later on, in the course of the Second World War, were a large number of people from the Punjab. That’s the area, divided now between India and Pakistan, that is a fertile wheat-growing region watered by five rivers (panj in Punjab means five). Although many Punjabis left Burma after the 1962 coup, many others stayed on. Some are Sikh, others Muslim or Hindu. See also “Echoes of the Past”.