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From wheat to pop: Punjab shifts its export focus
June 6, 1997
From New Delhi Bureau Chief Anita Pratap
Web posted at: 5:02 p.m. EDT (2102 GMT)NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- All through the 1970s, the prosperous Indian state of Punjab exported wheat. In the 1980s, when Punjab moved into a lethal armed revolution by turbaned Sikh separatists, terrorism became its major export. For the '90s, Punjab exports pop music.
Several artists have merged the song and dance of bhangra, Punjab's traditional folk dance, with Western pop to create a hot new genre of music, Punjabi pop.
Expatriate Punjabis living in the United States, Britain and the Middle East helped start the new trend. As they return to their roots, they are internationalizing their rural heritage.
One of Punjab's biggest pop exports is turbaned Sikh Daler Mehndi. Unlike many Indian pop artists, he sings his songs in the Punjabi language. Also unlike other Indian pop artists, he cuts albums that sell up to 1 million copies -- far more than the few thousand sold by musicians who sing in English or Hindi.
His catchy tunes have caught on far beyond India, and even people who don't understand a word of the Punjabi language are now fans of the region's pop music.
And musician Sukhbir is also a part of the Punjab pop explosion. As the son of a priest Sukhbir grew up in Nairobi singing devotional songs. Now he fuses English with Punjabi, and bhangra, the traditional Punjabi folk dance, with reggae.
(1M/23 sec. Mehndi's tunes (small)
QuickTime movie)(1.9M/23 sec. Mehndi's tunes (large)
QuickTime movie)
The philosophy of Punjabi pop is merriment: working hard, playing harder, drinking, dining and dancing -- an embodiment of the gusto and spirit of the hardy Punjabi farmer. And while the songs draw on rustic images, the setting is modern and trendy.
"It's fun, its enjoyable," said one Indian fan. "You can dance to the beat. "
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