Punjabi

The Punjabi are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group native to the Punjab region, today divided between Pakistan and India, and one of the largest ethnic groups in South Asia. Punjabi society includes Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities, and the region gave rise to Sikhism in the fifteenth century under Guru Nanak; the 1947 Partition of India divided Punjab along religious lines and triggered one of the largest and most violent mass migrations of the twentieth century. Punjabi culture is known for its Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts, bhangra music and dance, and a strong tradition of agriculture across Punjab's fertile, canal-irrigated plains, often called the breadbasket of both Pakistan and India.