What makes you punjabi?

[Inra Shenoy]

I was wondering who you would call a punjabi. Would you only call someone who was born there?

[Inra Shenoy]

Someone please tell me! i'm really getting mixed up about all this "where do you come from?" business.

[nameeta]

All the people who are born and bought up in punjab are known as punjabi.They may be from any caste but their birth place and family roots are from punjab.

[Inra Shenoy]

I'm not actually punjabi, i was just using that as an example. I'm from Goa but we we are descendants of the saraswati brahmins from the north, whom previously came from Iran. So am i goan?

[observer]

Agreed you're a Brahmin, but you can't say for certain your descendants came from Iran :). The theory of Aryan arrival to India isn't a conclusive, established fact. It's a theory debated by many, many mainstream historians (even though they might be tagged as hindu nationalist) who say that the Aryans were always in India and the Aryan arrival from outside India is the creation of western historians.

But sorry, no idea about whether you'd be called a true Goan or not because I don't have knowledge about the Goan people distant history :)

[cindy]

hi. im a punjabi but have been in bangalore from the past decade. so i consider myself a punjabi and also a bangalorean. so u too can do that . consider urself a goan and a northie :) afterall india stands for'unity in diversity" :)