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Harmeet Dhillon, Trump Nominated Lawyer, Wades Into 'Punjab' Debate

December 17, 2024

Indian-origin lawyer Harmeet K Dhillon, who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump as the Assistant Attorney General in his new administration has entered into the debate of 'Punjab v/s Panjab' after a post on X.

In a post on X, Dhillon wrote, "Pnjab"

This comes days after Indian singer Diljit Dosanjh, in a post on X referred to the state of Punjab as "PANJAB" in an announcement for his upcoming tour in Chandigarh.

After netizens expressed outrage over the alternative spelling of the state, the singer issued a clarification criticising the undue conspiracy people were getting into.

"If I mention Punjabi with the Indian flag in a tweet then there is a conspiracy, if I write Punjab as Panjab then it is considered a controversy. Whether you write Punjab as Panjab it will still remain Punjab. Panja-Aaab-5 Rivers. Those who are using the White man's language-English to generate a controversy -Congratulations. Keep going, how many times do I have to prove that we love India...do something new or is this the only task you have been assigned? "

As per the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the earliest known use of the noun Punjab is in the 1830s with OED's earliest evidence for Punjab is from 1833, in Journal of Royal Geographical Society.

As per the official website of the Government of Punjab, the first known documentation of the word 'Punjab' is in the writings of Ibn Batuta, who visited the region in the fourteenth century. The term came into wider use in the second half of the sixteenth century, and was used in the book Tarikh-e-Sher Shah Suri (1580) in Persian.

"The name Punjab is made of two words Punj (Five) Aab (Water) i.e. land of five rivers. These five rivers of Punjab are Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, and Jhelum. Only Sutlej, Ravi and Beas rivers flow in today's Punjab. The other two rivers are now in the state of Punjab, situated in Pakistan", the website mentioned.

The Indian State of Punjab was created in 1947, when the partition of India split the former Raj province of Punjab between India and Pakistan, the website noted.

Hence, the usage of the word 'Panjab' has often been associated with the entire region as one state before the partition of India and Pakistan.

In this background, the post by Dhillon becomes significant as she would take up the post as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Department of Justice under the upcoming Trump administration.

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice plays a significant role in major civil rights issues of the US and also has prominence in key international issues as it is involved directly in addressing issues such as justice for victims of overseas terrorism, organised crime and cyber security amongst others.

In the post announcing her nomination, Trump had said, "I am pleased to nominate Harmeet K. Dhillon as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Department of Justice."

"Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished Civil Liberties, including taking on Big Tech for censoring our Free Speech...Harmeet is a respected member of the Sikh religious community. In her new role at the DOJ, Harmeet will be a tireless defender of our Constitutional Rights, and will enforce our Civil Rights and Election Laws FAIRLY and FIRMLY."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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