Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Whenever there is talk of cultural differences between Pakistan and India, the bogey of "Punjabiyat" is invoked.

It is mentioned -

"Hey..an Amritsar has more in common with a Lahori than with a Bangalorean
Don't get bogged down with religion; Punjabi culture is a unifier"

I find this silly. Because to my mind, religion is grossly underrated as a cultural influence

To quash this argument, let's look at.a simple statistic pertaining to food habits - which is an important cultural marker

Let's take Lahore and Amritsar - Two cities separated by barely 30-40 kms.

% of Vegatarians in Amritsar
% of Vegetarians in Lahore

Now for two cities separated by such a short distance, you'd probably expect food habits to be similar

But here it is -

Vegetarian rate in Amritsar - close to 70% if not higher (going by Punjab state estimates from surveys)

Vegatarian % in Lahore : Maybe 5% of lower.

Sure, there is so much more to culture than food

But since food is so v integral to culture and co-habitation, I just picked it as an example to show the cultural chasm between the two cities that are barely 30 mins drive away!

30 minutes! Yet diametrically opposite food habits

In fact such a drastic difference in food habits between two towns separated by barely 30 minutes drive is perhaps un-parallelled in the whole wide world

I doubt if a similar contrast exists elsewhere. Would be curious to hear rebuttals