Indian Punjab vs Pakistan Punjab
Indian Punjab and Pakistan Punjab were part of India before the division of Pakistan from India in 1947. With the partition of British India in 1947 into India and Pakistan, the state that most bore the effect of division was Punjab. Larger part of Punjab on the western side went to Pakistan and the remaining to India. The Indian state of Punjab was subsequently divided into smaller states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan for India, while Muslims sought a home in Pakistan. Today, Punjab Province in Pakistan is 97 percent Muslim and 2 percent Christian, with small numbers of Hindus and other groups. Sikhs account for 61 percent of the people in India’s Punjab State, while 37 percent are Hindu, and 1 percent each are Muslim and Christian. Small numbers of Buddhists, Jains, and other groups are also present. Hindus and Sikh refugees from west Punjab who migrated to India settled predominantly in the states of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana.
Punjab has been home to many religions. Hinduism florished in Punjab through ancient times, followed by Buddhism. Followers of Islam held political power in the area for nearly six centuries. Sikhism has its origins in Punjab, where Sikh states survived until the middle of the twentieth century. After the British annexed Punjab in the 19th century, they introduced Christianity to the region. Thus Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Christianity are all represented among the Punjabi people.
In Pakistan, Punjabi is written using the Persian-Arabic script, which was introduced to the region during the Muslim conquests. Punjabis in India use the devanagri script. Punjabi is spoken by two-thirds of the population of Pakistan. In India, by contrast, Punjabi is the mother tongue of just under 3 % of the population. Punjabi was raised to the status of one of India’s official languages in 1966. However, Punjabi continues to grow and florish in India, whereas in Pakistan, Punjabi never received any official status and has never been formally taught in schools. Punjabi vocabulary in Pakistan is heavily influenced by urdu, whereas punjabi in India is influenced by Hindi.