Welcome to Panjab
Welcome to the Panjab
where my people are slaves and they don’t even know it.
Welcome to the Panjab
where the Divine once lived but has now been kicked to the curb by those who
claim to be the caretakers of the Divine’s home.
Welcome to the
Panjab that happily gave its youth to the gallows hoping to escape the chains
of colonialism, only to be shackled and killed over and over by its newly
formed nation.
Welcome to the
Panjab that gave rise to the Sikh Gurus, a land that was to be a beacon of
equality in the world.
Welcome to the
Panjab that instead creates Gurdwaras of caste, kills daughters in the womb,
and rapes its own mothers.
Welcome to the
Panjab where the poor become poorer and the richer get richer.
Welcome to the
Panjab where farmers sell their land, spend their money, and then commit
suicide.
Welcome to the
Panjab where singers sing about Sikhi for one week and then sing about the
glory of drugs and alcohol the next.
Welcome to the
Panjab that pretends history stops in 1947 and calls its own freedom fighters, terrorists.
Welcome to the
Panjab that chooses alcohol over Amrit.
Welcome to the Panjab
chooses cocaine over wheat.
Welcome to the
Panjab that removes its turbans by choice, the Panjab that once chose death
over conversion.
Welcome to the
Panjab that celebrates the day it was divided, murdered, raped, and destroyed.
Welcome to the
Panjab where lions are born in captivity.
Welcome to the
Panjab for whom I speak, because its tongue has been cut out by its own.
Welcome to the Panjab
for whom I weep, because its tears, along with rivers, have dried.
Welcome to the
Panjab that I fight for with the ink of my pen.
Welcome to Panjab.
- Jasjit Singh (Dhanoa)
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