punjabi antenna
Tradition, culture, phulkari
Randeep Wadehra 

WHY would anyone settle here?" asked the bemused anchor of DD Jalandhar’s episodic show Aaja mera pind dekh ja, which features different villages of Punjab. He was talking of Lehroon — a village in Gurdaspur district that lies on the state’s border with Himachal Pradesh. Till a bridge was constructed a couple of years ago, the villagers generally remained cut off from the rest of the world. In order to go to other villages, the people had to cross a choe, which claimed many lives annually, including that of the village sarpanch and a bridegroom.

But things are better now. The bridge has brought several modern amenities to the place — a dispensary, private and government schools, electricity etc. Strikingly, men from every house here are either in the Indian Army or the paramilitary forces. Although proud of their achievements, the villagers point out that not a single person has ever been employed in the state’s civil services — "not even as a chaprasi." They feel aggrieved on this count.

Although the term phulkari literally means flower work or flower craft, this traditional form of embroidery displays prominently other rural motifs, too — wheat and barley, stem and ear. On June 21,DD Jalandhar telecast a documentary on phulkari in its Virasat slot. There were young women in shawls and odhnis — the richly embroidered head-scarves — decked up in the best of traditional finery meant for wedding-related celebrations. They performed giddhaas and tappaas, too.

Although the accompanying commentary dwelt upon phulkari’s close association with Punjabi culture, rituals and traditions, many details were left out; or, perhaps, they escaped my attention. For example, several experts claim that phulkari has roots in Iran’s gulkari art of embroidery, which has flowery motifs. According to several scholars and folklorists, this craft came from Central Asia when tribes from there migrated to the subcontinent. Consequently, Pakistani Punjab’s northern regions of Hazara and Chakwal boast of some of the best phulkari designs and products. Moreover, phulkari embroidery is generally sparse. Its richer version — used on garments that cover the entire body — is called bagh, or garden, wherein the embroidery covers the entire fabric. Originally, phulkari used to be done by hand on khaddar fabric with silk thread; shades of red and gold predominated, while black and blue were avoided.

Today it is done by machines on other fabrics, too, and the thread may not necessarily be silk.

Talking of women in the region, Haryana Speaks on PTC News compared the socio-economic conditions of Haryanvi women with that of their sisters in Punjab — to the former’s disadvantage. Several reasons were trotted out like Haryana’s belated economic progress, prevalence of medieval customs and practices that tend to keep women in Haryana educationally backward and economically dependent on their men-folk. However, there is the upside, too. Women in Haryana are firmly on the path to emancipation despite the rather violent backlash from the society’s patriarchs epitomised by the Khaap Panchayats.

Nonetheless, an absorbing debate wherein Randip Surjewala’s well thought out and reasoned comments proved to be the show’s highlight.