Most Punjab villages have a gate over the approach road with the village name on it, often in Gurmukhi and English, sometimes with a date, a dedication and a list of names.
Very few are older than the twentieth century and a great many were built with money sent from abroad. A gate is the standard first gift of a village's diaspora, before the gurdwara extension and the sports ground.
They carry a startling amount of the village's public history: martyrs of a particular war, a movement's slogan, a founder's name, sometimes a full memorial list. The Kishangarh gate in Mansa names the muzara movement. Depur's gate reads ਪ੍ਰਣਾਮ ਸ਼ਹੀਦਾਂ ਨੂੰ.
It is often the only written statement a village makes about itself, and nobody has photographed them systematically.
A survey of Punjab's village gates would be a survey of what Punjabi villages think is worth saying to a stranger. It has not been done and it could be done from a motorcycle.
The gate is a recent thing. Most Punjabi villages had none until the last thirty years, and they are built now with money sent from abroad and carry the donor's name.
The design is consistent: two piers, an arch, the village name in Gurmukhi and often in English, and sometimes a khanda or a portrait.
They are the most visible thing the remittance economy has built and they are the one piece of village architecture nobody has photographed systematically.