The shalwar was a loose trouser with a stiff border at the ankle, while the kameez was a loose shirt falling to the knees. This dress came to popularly be known as the ‘Punjabi suit’ in India. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, men still wear its variant — the ‘Pathan suit’.
Milkha Singh of Gurdwara Darshani Deohri Amritsar, first narrated this story to the author. Many others corroborated it since.
(Source: Nalwa, V. 2009. Hari Singh Nalwa - The Champion of Khalsaji New Delhi: Manohar, p. 264)
The twenty-first century, the Wali of Swat confirmed that the above was indeed a fact:
The following is the gist of an open letter written by Miangul Aurangzeb, the present Wali of Swat, to the Taliban when the Taliban were preaching and enforcing strict dress and conduct codes for the women in the areas that fell under their control.
"At the outset I want to record that you all must love me very much as you have decided not to take over my property in Swat unlike those you have taken over of other landed families. I am therefore emboldened to believe that I have the privilege of sharing some historical facts for you to know about and I urge you to absorb the same before you continue your campaign of moral policing, especially when it comes to the manner of dressing and code of conduct for women.
The Sikh army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, under the leadership of Hari Singh Nalwa came to the Frontier in the 1820's and swiftly conquered our ancestors. It is the only time in recorded history that our people were ruled over by foreigners. The locals were so utterly terrified of the Sikh army that they used to hide every time the Sikhs came into view. Those that decided to resist were met with ruthlessness. During this time, the word was spread around that the Sikhs did not harm elderly people, women and children and that the local men who did not wish to earn wrath of the Sikhs should wear the garb of Punjabi women, which was the Salwar-Kameez. At that time in our history both men and women alike, wore only a single-robe garment (similar to that worn by the Arabs) and the Sikhs would not harm any man either when wearing the Salwar-Kameez.
So you see, our men happily adopted the garb of Punjabi women since they were too terrified to stand up and they have adopted the garb as being theirs' ever since. I am very intrigued to see that you are following in the footsteps of your ancestors by wearing the adopted Punjabi women's garb as your own, but now go around preaching and coercing our women as to how they should be living their lives! I suggest that take a deep look inside yourselves, given this historical perspective."
Sincerely,
Miangul Aurangzeb, Wali of Swat
(Source: Nishaan, Swat: Sanctuary for the Sikhs, III/2009, New Delhi: Nagaara Trust, p. 45)
(Source: http://www.harisinghnalwa.com/legends.html)
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ReplyDeleteOh really? How do you explain the fact that Shalwar Kameez has been documented being used in Afghanistan by Pashtuns in paintings several decades before the existence of the sikh empire? Are you forgetting the fact that the traditional Punjabi female dress is a lengha? Has your kind reached that level of stupidity that you've forgotten your own traditional clothes? How do you explain the fact that the version of male Shalwar Kameez that is mainstream in Pakistan is called the "Punjabi Suit"? You also seem to be unaware of how much your religion has taken from Islam, considering your religion's founder went for Hajj, but i guess that's typical of a group of people who have more Dravidian (Negroid) blood than anything and still somehow call themselves "Aryan". The fact of the matter is that Guru Nanak told his female followers to dress like the Muslims at the time, nothing else. Even then the lengha is worn by many Punjabi women to this day. The sikhs themselves had stolen the Shalwar Kameez from Muslims long after it's arrival in the subcontinent. Your only source to your moronic allegations seems to be a letter allegedly written by the wali of swat which itself fails to address the inconsistency of Shalwar Kameez being documented long before the existence of a sikh empire and fails to back up it's allegations with legitimate sources. You also seem to be forgetting that the sikh empire ruled over Pashtuns for a mere thirty years with the help of the British before being kicked out while you Punjabis have been ruled over for centuries by Turks, Persians and Pashtuns lol. But naturally you don't want to accept your inferiority so you people make up stories and lies about the people who ruled over you all while practicing a culture stolen from them and pretending it is your own. It is also evident that you know nothing about Pashtuns as you claim they were afraid of your kind yet history shows that they continually fought back against the Sikhs and managed to assassinate prominent figures in the empire. This is not something people who are afraid do, rather this is something people who are outraged do. The insinuation that Pashtuns are and were afraid of Sikhs is as funny, stupid and ridiculous as someone claiming themselves to be Superman. Rather the Pashtuns are annoyed with or amused by the Sikhs more than anything. Next time you and your kind would like to make fools of yourselves i would suggest doing a little bit of in depth research beforehand and providing legitimate evidence.
ReplyDeleteAnother point i would like to make is considering how extremely distinct the shalwar kameez worn by men is as compared to women and how different men look compared to women that even if this story were true at all, all it shows is how utterly retarded and lacking in brain cells the Punjabi soldiers were
ReplyDeleteGreat post. The fact is most of our pathan 'men' realised that they were no match for real sikh warrior manhood and so accepted their submission in front of them. Its as simple as that. They have continued doing so because they realised their natural femininity as opposed to sikh masculinity back then and celebrate it even today by wearing the dress of punjabi women. Infact me and many of my 'male' friends buy salwar from the same shops, same colour and same line. In future, all of Pathans whether 'men' or women will start mimicking punjabi women in everything they wear, behave and look like in hopes of getting placed by punjabi men among their women and being accepted by punjabi women as one of their own. The day will come when evey pathan will be the same as a punjabi women.
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