ਨਾਈ

Nai (ਨਾਈ) is the Punjabi word for a barber, a man whose work is cutting hair and trimming and shaving beards and moustaches. Khandbahale's Punjabi dictionary gives barber as ਨਾਈ, pronounced naa-ee. In Punjab the word names the trade itself and, as a community and family name, the people who have followed it for generations.

What does nai mean in Punjabi?

Nai means barber. The Khandbahale dictionary defines the barber's occupation as cutting, styling and grooming men's hair, beard and moustache, and gives the Punjabi word as ਨਾਈ. The Cambridge English to Urdu dictionary gives the same word in the Shahmukhi script, نائی, alongside hajjam, another common word for a barber. His place of work carries his name too: a barber's shop is nai di dukaan.

The word belongs to a community as much as to a job. SikhiWiki describes the Nai as a Hindu and Sikh community whose members were traditionally occupied as barbers. A profile of the Sikh Nai traces the name to a Sanskrit term related to barbering and grooming.

What did the village nai do besides cutting hair?

A great deal, which is why he knew everyone's news. The Joshua Project profile of the Sikh Nai records that beyond cutting hair, the nai often served as a messenger between families, assisted during weddings and funerals, and helped arrange marriages. The logic is plain: the man who visited homes with his scissors and razor heard each family's plans, and when two families began to talk about a match, he was a natural person to carry the first words between them.

Does the nai have a place in Sikh history?

Yes, and an honoured one. Bhai Sahib Singh, one of the Panj Pyare, the first five Sikhs to answer Guru Gobind Singh's call in 1699, came from the Nai community, as the Joshua Project profile of the Sikh Nai notes. So the trade of the village barber stands near the beginning of the Khalsa, and the word nai carries that respect in Sikh memory.

How is nai used today?

Nai is still the everyday Punjabi word for a barber, from the village shop under a tree to the salon in a Canadian city run by a Punjabi family, where customers ask for the nai. Many who carry Nai as a community name no longer follow the trade: community profiles list Sikh Nai working today in farming, teaching, driving, business, government service and the professions, alongside those who run barber's shops.