Codebook and Themes
This page documents the codebook used to organize the Reddit posts gathered for this project. A codebook is the set of categories, or themes, that a researcher uses to make sense of a body of text. Each post was read and sorted into one or more of these themes, so that patterns in how Punjabi and South Asian communities talk about identity, memory, and belonging could be compared in a consistent way.
Publishing the codebook in full is a matter of transparency. It lets a reader see exactly how the material was coded, what each theme is meant to capture, and where the boundaries between themes were drawn. The nine themes below were developed from a first reading of the data and then refined as the coding progressed. For each one, you will find a short definition, a note on why the theme matters to the larger argument, and one anonymized example post that illustrates the kind of language the theme is meant to capture.
A note on the examples: the posts quoted below are drawn from public Reddit discussion and have been stripped of usernames and identifying detail. They are included to show the texture of the conversation, not to single out any individual.
1. Nostalgia
Definition: Posts that look back with longing on an earlier Punjab, a home village, or older family members, often through memory passed down across generations rather than lived experience.
Why it matters: Nostalgia is the emotional engine of much of this discussion. It shows that attachment to Punjab survives migration and the passage of decades, and that younger and diaspora users inherit a sense of place they may never have seen firsthand.
Example post: “He was born in a small village in Jallandhar in what is now East Punjab in 1924. He died in 2021 in Lahore. He was not a man but an era. He saw a lot of things during his time. He saw the creation of Pakistan, Partition and all the violence with his own two eyes… He got land in a small village in Bahawalnagar after coming from India. There he spent his entire life. He had 2nd position in Jallandhar in his 8th Board exams. He was very proud of it. He told this to us many a time. But he couldn’t continue his education due to partition. It was his dear wish that his sons be educated. And he made sure that happened… During the British era there was a railway line to our village in Bahawalnagar which now is abandoned. He was disappointed in Pakistan to some degree but proud of it nonetheless.”
2. Shared Identity
Definition: Posts that emphasize a common Punjabi belonging that crosses the India–Pakistan border or religious lines, framing Punjabis on both sides as fundamentally one people.
Why it matters: This theme captures the impulse toward unity. It runs against the grain of national division and shows that some users locate their primary identity in being Punjabi first, before any national or religious label.
Example post: “Understanding the distinction between ethnicity, country, and religion requires recognizing that individuals from various religious backgrounds, including Punjabi Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and atheists, are all part of the Punjabi identity. Despite their differing beliefs, they share a common bond as Punjabi people. As a member of a Punjabi Muslim family in Pakistan, I find more commonalities with Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus than with Muslims from other regions of India or Pakistan… Religion does not define people, but rather their language, food, culture, and shared history that unite them.”
3. Language
Definition: Posts about the Punjabi language itself, including the Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi scripts, the place of Urdu and Hindi, and anxieties about Punjabi being lost across generations.
Why it matters: Language is one of the most emotionally charged markers of identity in the data. It is where questions of transmission, pride, and loss become concrete, especially for diaspora families deciding whether to pass the language on.
Example post: “I grew up in a Punjabi household but my parents didn’t speak the language. My grandparents (on both sides) were unsuccessful in passing down the language to their children, probably because they had to leave their community behind after Partition and it was convenient to speak Hindi once they settled in North India. As a child I was deeply unsettled with the fact that I was a Punjabi but couldn’t speak the language — language is such an evident marker of one’s cultural heritage. As an adult, I’ve been making conscious efforts to learn Punjabi and consume media in it… Sometimes I can’t articulate how happy it makes me to be able to relate again to a community lost generations ago through language.”
4. Partition Trauma
Definition: Posts that reference the 1947 Partition, displacement, refugee experience, and the violence and loss carried within family histories.
Why it matters: Partition is the historical rupture that underlies nearly every other theme. The memory of 1947 shapes how communities understand the border, their losses, and their relationships to the other side.
Example post: “As the title says, my dadaji came to India’s Punjab during partition when he was 9 years old. Seeing as how he’s almost 80 years old, I want him to visit his birthplace one last time. Any and all advice or help would be appreciated. Thank you so much.”
5. Diaspora Identity
Definition: Posts from or about Punjabis living abroad, including the second generation, and the experience of holding onto culture in Canada, the UK, the United States, and elsewhere.
Why it matters: The diaspora is where Punjabi identity is tested away from the homeland. These posts reveal how belonging is rebuilt around community institutions, religion, and host-country life rather than geography alone.
Example post: “I am new to this Reddit, was just wondering if there is anyone who grew up Sikh American in an area with no Punjabis or Sikhs around ever who have ever felt behind in Sikhi, or not as traditional as Sikh Americans who grew up going to the gurdwara every weekend. In summary, I was born and grew up around a really large and well known Sikh community when I was young but due to my parents’ work/life goals, we ended up settling in an area of America that doesn’t have Sikh ppl around. I’ve loved my life. I love being Punjabi Sikh and I also love being American… Growing up after we moved, going to the gurdwara was a couple times in the year.”
6. Reconciliation
Definition: Posts expressing a wish to meet, visit, or reconnect across the border, including hopes for friendship, peace, and crossing into the other Punjab.
Why it matters: Reconciliation is the forward-looking counterpart to Partition trauma. It shows that some users move from mourning division to actively imagining contact and repair across the line.
Example post: “I shifted to Lahore as a kid from a non-Punjabi city in 2001. While growing up, I always observed a weird sense of inferiority in Punjabis about their language. It wasn’t taught at school as a subject. Let alone teaching it, it was considered bad and illiterate to speak Punjabi in schools… However, with time, we had the Punjabi movies coming in, in addition to Punjabi singers’ work from across the border. What it did was, it made the Punjabis feel something about what they spoke. Slowly, but surely, the language is coming back to the status it always deserved… Maybe, if not for cultural exchange from the Charda Punjab to the Western side, we might not have had this revival.”
7. Nationalism
Definition: Posts that frame identity in national terms, foregrounding India or Pakistan, contested claims of authenticity, or antagonism between the two sides.
Why it matters: Nationalism is the friction point in the data. It marks where a shared Punjabi identity gives way to national loyalty, and where conversation turns from kinship to rivalry.
Example post: “I have been thinking about this and started to realize how crazy hard we punch above our weight in every single field. Punjab was the richest state until India ruined it post-1984. The original Punjab region is still way above most of India except the South… We created Bollywood and dominate it to this day. Historically every superstar always had roots in Punjab… The most successful independent music scene. Super successful diaspora overseas that achieved incredible success in a short period. The first UK Coloured Prime Minister was a son of the soil of Punjab. The country that colonized and ruined all of South Asia is now being led by a Punjabi.”
8. Religion
Definition: Posts where Sikh, Muslim, or Hindu belonging is central, including references to gurdwaras, mosques, and sites such as Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur.
Why it matters: Religion frequently overlaps with, and sometimes substitutes for, regional identity. This theme tracks how faith both binds communities together and marks lines of difference.
Example post: “I was born out of a multi-faith Punjabi wedding between my Hindu Punjabi mom and my Sikh father. My immediate family doesn’t keep kesh, but my grandparents and cousins do… I don’t really know how to balance my Sikh side with my Hindu side, especially given my mom’s side of the family’s fierce loyalty to India as a state and their connection to Sikhi. I’ve recently tried to adhere more closely to the Panth (5 Ks, etc.), but I can’t seem to untangle the overlap of the two faiths in my household.”
9. Food and Music
Definition: Posts about Punjabi food, music, film, and cultural expression such as bhangra and dhol, where culture is celebrated through shared practice.
Why it matters: Food and music are the most accessible and least contested forms of Punjabi identity. They often function as common ground that unites users across borders and generations even when other topics divide them.
Example post: “Lohri: It is celebrated in the month of January, marking the end of winters. It’s a very popular and much awaited folk festival of Punjab… Maghi: It is celebrated the next day of Lohri by cooking Rauh di kheer (rice cooked in sugarcane juice) served cold with red-chili mixed curd. Khichri mixed with lentils is also prepared and raw sugarcane and jaggery are consumed. Fairs are also held to celebrate the festive day… Basant: It marks the beginning of Spring season. Punjabis wear yellow dress and eat yellow coloured food items. People fly kites, fairs/melas are conducted, music is played and people dance on dhol. Vaisakhi – Festival of Harvesting: It marks the end of rabi season (in April) and start of harvesting season. It also commences the Punjabi New Year.”
The keyword definitions behind this codebook, along with the full collection and cleaning workflow, are documented on the Methods and Data Sources page.