Bhangra

What it is

Bhangra is a group folk dance from the Punjab. A performance usually involves several dancers moving with energy, lifting and pushing out their arms and shoulders as they go. They dance to short sung couplets known as boliyan, and above all to the dhol, a drum with a head at each end. One end of the dhol is struck with a heavy beater, the other with a lighter stick. That gives the music its off-beat, swinging pulse, the sound most closely associated with bhangra. Traditional bhangra is danced in a circle, and it uses a set of steps passed down within the tradition.

Origins and history

The oldest and most standard form is traced to Sialkot District, with neighbouring districts of the Majha region, Gurdaspur, Gujranwala, Gujrat and Shekhupura, also named. In Gurdaspur, farmers kept a communal style of bhangra, dancing it to mark the season's work and to greet the harvest before Partition. Families who left and settled in Hoshiarpur, in Punjab, India, carried it on. The 1950s brought a staged version, encouraged by the Maharaja of Patiala, who asked for a performance in 1953. A troupe of three brothers from Sunam, Manohar, Avtar and Gurbachan Deepak, worked on it with the dhol player Bhana Ram Sunami.

Competitions and stages

Stage performances let the dance grow freer. Dancers weave in steps from other Punjabi dances, among them Luddi, Jhummar, Dhamaal and Gham Luddi, and take up boliyan singing in the style of Malwai Giddha. Competitions have run in Punjab for decades; Mohindra College in Patiala took part in the 1950s. Over the past thirty years the dance has spread worldwide. Group contests are now common, and bhangra has been mixed with hip hop, house and reggae. Moves have changed over time, but dancers still describe the dance as a marker of cultural identity, and it is taught in schools and studios.

Women and change

Bhangra was long a men's dance and was said not to be for women at all. Women's dance in Punjab had its own forms, such as giddha, with softer movement, acting and storytelling. From the 1970s and 1980s, as bhangra music grew popular abroad, Punjabi women in the diaspora took up the dance, and it was adjusted for them in steps, costumes and props. Some see this as a claim to equality; others question it against ideas of tradition and authenticity. Raaniyan Di Raunaq, described as India's first all-women bhangra competition, judges women by their own standard and welcomes transgender and nonbinary dancers. Interest in giddha and in the women's dance sammi has revived in response.

New forms today

New versions keep appearing. One is called Bhangra on Skates, where the usual steps are danced on wheels; the freestyle skater Janvi Jindal has performed it in Chandigarh. Elsewhere the dance has become a fitness class, a school activity and a fixture of Asian popular culture. It also travelled beyond Punjab in another direction. According to Ganhar, writing in 1975, bhangra was brought into Jammu and is danced there at Baisakhi, along with other Punjabi dances such as giddha and luddhi; Jammu shares Punjabi influences and a closeness to Punjab.

How Bhangra is kept

Several dancers take part at once, often in a circle. They step and turn with vigour, raising and pushing out their arms and shoulders. Short sung verses, the boliyan, carry the words, and a dhol player sets the pace. A dhol has two heads, and the drummer uses a heavy beater on one and a lighter stick on the other. Dancers may hold a long staff, the khunda. Today the same dance appears on stages, in group competitions, in school and studio classes, and in popular music shows.

When and where

Bhangra belongs to the harvest season, which in Punjab runs from April into the first quarter of May. It is closely tied to Vaisakhi, also written Baisakhi, the spring festival. Performances are no longer limited to those weeks: today the dance is also given at competitions, festivals and shows at other times of year.

The dance comes from the Punjab, and its oldest form is placed in Sialkot District and the neighbouring Majha districts. It is strongest today in the Indian Punjab, in places such as Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur, and it has been taken up by Punjabi communities worldwide. It is also danced in Jammu, and competitions run far beyond India.

What Bhangra means

For those who keep it, bhangra carries ideas about who they are. Writers link it to masculine values shaped by farm work: labour, independence, self-sufficiency, loyalty and courage, along with vigour and honour. Dancers speak of it as a marker of cultural identity. For Punjabi women who took it up in the diaspora, it has also become a way of claiming equality. At the same time, some worry that its commercial success has pushed aside older and gentler dances, and groups have worked to bring those back.

Days Bhangra is marked

Questions people ask about Bhangra

See also

Bihu danceA folk dance from Assam that celebrates spring, fertility and the new year with energetic movement and music.DhrupadThe foundational vocal and instrumental classical music tradition of northern IndiaDiwaliA five-day festival of lights celebrated across India and its diaspora to mark the victory of light over darkness.NowruzThe Iranian new year at the March equinox, kept with fire, greenery and picnics

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• Dancing and drumming on the road to graduationCBC, Article
• 12-year-old skater from Chandigarh dances her way into India Book of RecordsHindustan Times, Article
• Dancing and drumming on the road to graduationCBC, Article
• 12-year-old skater from Chandigarh dances her way into India Book of RecordsHindustan Times, Article

• Bhangra (dance) on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.