1 Reclaiming the Forgotten History of Punjab (Exploring the History of Punjab: Legacy and Relevance in contemporary times) Dr. Ravinder Singh, Associate Professor, Dyal Singh College, Delhi The History of Punjab is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions of South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia. Historically known as Sapta Sindhu, i.e., the Land of Seven Rivers, the name Punjab was given by later Muslim conquerors who invaded Indian subcontinent. The first question that arises when talking about the history of Punjab is what is Punjab? Which Punjab's history do we want to talk about? What kind of history do we have so far? How much does this history succeed in telling the story of Punjab? There are many such questions which need to be addressed. To find answers to such questions, we must also consider the method of historiography and its tools. The process of writing history is centuries old but with the passage of time the approach towards writing history and deciding on the reliability of historical sources have also changed a lot. A very detailed discussion is required to understand all these issues, but this paper is limited in its scope and topic. The first question is which Punjab and its history we are talking about. We can relate this question through the geographical location of Punjab and the appearance of the word ‘Punjab’ as the name of this region in the travelogue of Muslim traveler Ibne-Batuta in the 14th century for the first time. It is literally Panjnad rephrased. This word gives us the actual geographical description of the region. Any other description whether it is ethnic, religious or socio-political will be inadequate in the sense that it is bound to be one-dimensional in view of the historical fact that the ancient society of the region has been the product of ethnic, religious, cultural and social diversity and plurality. (Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2015 https://www.dawn.com/news/1154588) From the time when Punjab is known as Punjab, its period is limited to the middle ages only. The reason for this is that the land with five rivers at that time was marked as Panj-Aab or Punjab from the non-Punjabi point