In fact it was an intended play on words. The English abbreviation PAK 'Punjab and Kashmir' also, as P G Dave correctly points out, becomes 'paak': Persian > Urdu 'pure' so 'the Land of the Pure'. A happy (if you are Muslim) linguistic coincidence. The way it is pronounced and written in modern Urdu leaves only the Persian/Urdu element showing.

James

.

----- Original Message -----
From: P G Dave
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Pali] Re: Indus, Sindhu, Hindu (was: Meditation Stage)


quickly, too ... :-)

1. pre-partition punjab was divided during partition so both india and
pakistan have a portion punjab today -- west punjab went to pakistan and
east punjab to india, just as bengal was divided during partition -- west
bengal going to india and east bengal forming erstwhile east pakistan (now
bangladesh).

2. unlikely that p in paskistan stands for punjab. infact, "paak" in urdu
means pure. thus paakistaan (the a's doubled to indicate pronunciation)
would mean the pure land.

with metta,
____________________

On Sat, Mar 21, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Ong Yong Peng <palismith@...> wrote:

> Dear James and friends,
>
> my sincere apologies. To me, it is history, and while we looked back, let's
> only learn the good and not the bad from the past. Quickly, the P in
> "Pakistan" did stand for Punjab; separatist ideas along the lines of ethnic
> or religious division are usually big mistakes.
>
> metta,
> Yong Peng.
>
>
> --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com <Pali%40yahoogroups.com>, James Whelan wrote:
>
> It is sad to see this wonderful Pali group facility used for ill-informed
> political criticism. Pakistan was created at the insistence of a powerful
> Muslim faction under Jinna, very much against the wishes of the vast
> majority of the Indians, and of the departing British. As for the comical
> comment about the Punjab being a province of Pakistan, please look at an
> atlas. Let's stick to Pali and Buddhism!
>
> > Can we not say the same of Punjab, where the Sikh religion and people
> originated but now also a province of Pakistan? Pakistan was but the
> invention of the colonial British government.
>
>
>

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