[🇵🇰] History of Sindhis

[ghazi]

Sindhis are inhabitants of Sind (or Sindh), the region of arid plains and deserts located along the lower course of the Indus River as it flows on its journey from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. Both the terms Sindhi and Sind are derived from "Sindhu," the ancient name of the Indus. Modern Sindhis are descendants of the many peoples who have settled in the area from earliest times.

The Indus is central to the history of the Sindhis. It was along this river that the Harappan (or Indus Valley) civilization developed during the 3rd millennium bc. Usually identified with Dravidian peoples, this sophisticated urban culture matched the achievements of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. The Harappans left an archeological record of contemporary life in Sind, but we know less of the centuries following their decline.

From around 1700 bc onward, successive waves of Aryan invaders entered the Indian subcontinent from the northwest. The earliest of these nomadic tribes settled in the Punjab, where the outlines of Hindu Vedic religion and society emerged. This was quite different from urban Harappan culture. It was nonurban, based on the herding of cattle; its religion was dominated by male deities and sacrificial ritual; and its society was organized into a hierarchy of classes (castes), with the Aryans at the top and local non-Aryan peoples at the lowest levels. As the Aryans pressed steadily southward along the Indus Valley, their culture replaced that of the Harap-pans.

The Harappan towns and cities disappeared, with Aryan (Hindu) civilization emerging as the dominant culture of Sind. Subsequently, groups such as the Persians, Greeks, Scythians, and White Huns who entered the region were absorbed into the existing structure of the Aryan-dominated society. During the 3rd and 2nd centuries bc, Sind formed part of the Mauryan Empire. At this time, Buddhism was the main religion in the region, though it was subsequently reabsorbed by Hinduism.

Arabs reached the mouth of the Indus by sea in ad 711 and within a few years gained control of Sind. From this time on, the region was dominated by Muslims and the culture of Islam. Around ad 900, the Arab governors of Sind—at first subject to the Caliph in Baghdad—established their own dynastic rule. Of mixed Arab and local blood, Sumra and Samma chieftains governed for several centuries, eventually being replaced by invaders from Afghanistan between 1518 and 1522.

By the end of the 16th century, Sind was annexed by the Mughals. It remained part of the Mughal Empire until the mid-18th century. Sind was conquered by the British in 1843. (The British General, Sir Charles Napier, in charge of the operation, garnered a degree of notoriety when, after his successful campaign, he sent his superiors the one word dispatch "Peccavi," which is Latin for "I have sinned.")

Sind formed part of the Bombay Presidency of British India until 1937, when it was made a separate province. Following Pakistan's independence, Sind was integrated into West Pakistan in 1955. In 1970 Sind was reestablished as a province of Pakistan.

 

[ghazi]

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

Sind lies in southern Pakistan. It shares a common boundary with the Republic of India on the east. The Pakistani province of Baluchistan lies to the west and north, while the Punjab is located to the northeast. Sind covers an area of 140,913 sq km (54,407 sq mi), which is slightly larger than New York State. Geographically, Sind falls into three distinct regions.

In the west lies the Kirthar Range, a steep wall of mountains rising from 1,220 m (4,000 ft) in the south to nearly 2,400 m (approximately 8,000 ft) in the north. This forms a sharp line of separation between the rugged hills of Baluchistan and the fertile Indus plains. The Indus River flows in a southwesterly direction through the heart of Sind. It is here that agriculture and population, as well as Sind's major cities, are concentrated. To the east of the Indus plains, Sind extends into the Th ar or Great Indian Desert.

The climate of Sind is subject to extremes. The mean maximum June temperature in Jacobabad in northern Sind is 45.5°C (114°F). Jacobabad has also recorded the highest temperature in the subcontinent, at 53°C (127°F). Temperatures drop to 2°C (36°F) in winter and fall below freezing at higher elevations. Annual rainfall averages less than 20 cm (approximately 8 in) and in some areas falls below 10 cm (4 in). This extreme aridity is reflected in the natural vegetation, which consists mainly of thorn scrub, acacias, and tamarisk.

Population statistics for Sind are notoriously inaccurate. In 1998 Pakistani government sources placed the population of Sind Province at 30,439,893, which, given natural increase since the beginning of the 2000s, led to 35 million as an estimate of the population of Sind by 2008. With several millions of Sindhis living in India and elsewhere (Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States, etc.), the world-wide population of Sindhis is estimated to be over 40 million. Although unified by religion and language, this population reflects the diversity of Sind's past in its ethnic composition. Many Sindhis are descended from Rājput and Jat groups of western India and are known as Samma Sindhis (descendants of Yadavs) and Sumra Sindhis (descendants of Parwar Rājputs).

The Bhutto tribe, which gave Pakistan two prime ministers (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and more recently his daughter, Benazir), are Sumras. Other Rājput and Jat groups are more recent converts to Islam. Some Sindhis, such as the Sayyids and Pathans, trace their ancestry back to Muslim invaders of the past. The Mallahs are fishing peoples settled along the river and in the delta region. The Talpurs, former rulers of Sind, are Baluchs from Baluchistan. However, they now speak Sindhi as a mother tongue and have been assimilated into Sindhi society.

Most Sindhis are Muslim, but before the creation of India and Pakistan some 20% of the Sindhi population was Hindu. In 1947, when the successor states to British India gained their independence, there was a mass exodus of Hindu Sindhis to India. Sindhi communities in India are concentrated in Delhi and the states of Gujarat, Rājasthān, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. At the same time, many Muslims in India fled their homeland and settled in Sind. Known as muhājirs, these immigrants and their descendants are culturally quite distinct from the Sindhis.

 

[ghazi]

LANGUAGE

The peoples of Sind speak the language known as Sindhi. It is an Indo-Aryan tongue but has a large number of Persian and Arabic words, reflecting centuries of Muslim influence in the region. Vicholi is the standard dialect of Sindhi, while Siraiki, Thareli, and Lari are other local forms of the language. Kachchi, a dialect of Sindhi, is spoken in neighboring areas of India (the Rann of Kutch, and the Kathiawar Peninsula). The Sindhi script is similar to that used for Urdu, yet different enough not to be read easily by a person who has learned Urdu. The script is Perso-Arabic in origin, even though Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language. Hindus use a form of the Devanagari script for writing Sindhi. Some 2.5 million Sindhi-speakers lived in India as of 2008.

Perhaps the language closest to the original Prakit and Sanskrit of all the tongues of north India, Sindhi has a literary tradition that extends back to the 11th century. The earliest Sindhi works were poetry showing both Islamic and Hindu influences, though later epics emerged as important. Perhaps the best known Sindhi poet, Shah Abdul Letif (1690-1773) emerged during the early 18th century, while modern Sindhi literature consists of works of both poetry (dominated by the giant figure of Shaikh Ayaz [1923-1997]) and prose.

 

[ghazi]

CULTURAL HERITAGE
Important sites, such as Mohenjo-Daro, Amri, and Kot Diji, have left a record of the achievements of the ancient Harappan civilization in the areas of city-planning and building, economic production, social organization, and religion. It is generally held that there is little direct continuity of cultural tradition between the Harappans and modern-day society. However, some writers trace elements of modern Sindhi folk culture to Harappan times. They argue, for example, that the bullock carts used by farmers along the Indus today, or the pipes played by Sindhi shepherds, differ little from those used by the Harappans, as revealed by the archeological record.

Sindhis have a rich tradition of folk literature and mystical Sūfī poetry dating to the 14th century ad or even earlier. The legend of Dodo Chanesar, for example, an early Sindhi folk tale, is thought to date to the time of the Sumras. The most famous Sindhi poet, however, is Shah Abdul Latif, whose work, Shāh Jo Risālo, is known and recited throughout Sind. Sachal Sarmast (ad 1739-1829) is another eminent Sūfī in the Sindhi literary tradition. In addition to poetry, Sindhi folk culture embraces music, using instruments, such as the sahnāī (a wind instrument), dances, songs, and riddles.

WORK

Traditionally, Sind lacked the pan-Indian four-tiered caste system (Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra). Brahmans, who elsewhere in the Indian subcontinent enjoyed high ritual status, were numerically insignificant. They were neither learned nor affluent, functioning only as priests to the Hindu trading castes. There was no question of royal patronage as the region was under Muslim rule. Since no Sindhi Hindus formed part of the nobility or army, Kshatriyas were notably absent from the region, as were Sudras, the castes who were tillers of the soil (these were mainly Muslims) or the service castes. The main Hindu communities in Sind were, thus, of the trading caste—e.g. the Lohanas, Bhatias, Khatris, Chhaprus and Sahtas—and social hierarchies among these groups were primarily based on wealth. This social structure was unique to Sind, and regional identity became more pronounced than caste identity.

Around 70% of Sindhis, the majority of these being Muslims, derive their living from cultivation. Given the meager rainfall totals in the region, agriculture is dependent almost entirely on irrigation. The principal source of water is the Indus River, on which there are three major irrigation dams (called "barrages") in Sind. They are the Ghuddu and Sukkur Barrages in the north, and the Kotri Barrage in the south near Hyderabad. The major crops grown include wheat, millet, maize, rice, cotton, and oilseeds. Fruits, such as mangoes, dates, and bananas, are also cultivated. Away from the Indus Valley, herding sheep, goats, and camels has become the dominant economic activity. Fishing is important along the Indus River and the Arabian Sea coast, where prawns, shrimp, pomfret, shad, and catfish are caught.

Although Sind is essentially a rural province, the provincial capital, Karachi, is Pakistan's largest city, with a population of over 13 million inhabitants. Karachi is Pakistan's leading commercial and industrial center, giving Sind an important role in the country's economy. Industrial plants include cotton mills, sugar refineries, cement factories, steel mills, and automobile manufacturers.

 

[ghazi]

Ethnolinguistic group

Description​

Sindhis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who speak the Sindhi language and are native to the Pakistani province of Sindh. The historical homeland of Sindhis is bordered by the southeastern part of Balochistan, the Bahawalpur region of Punjab and the Kutch region of Gujarat.

Languages spoken: Sindhi, Hindi, English Language, Urdu, Sanskrit, Assamese, Hindustani language, Classical Arabic

Australia: 2,635
Bangladesh: 15,000
Canada: 12,065
Hong Kong: 20,000
India: 2,772,364
Pakistan: 34,252,262

Australia: 2,635
Bangladesh: 15,000
Canada: 12,065
Hong Kong: 20,000
India: 2,772,364
Pakistan: 34,252,262

 

[ghazi]

Nagarparkar:
Land of History and Architectural Marvels
A small town neighboring the Indian border in Sindh. Situated at the foot of the dramatic and mineral-rich Karunjhar hill, the desert is home to centuries-old Jain and Hindu temples, a white-marble mosque, a magical well and thousands of resident snakes!

Born from under the sea, Nagarparkar is a small town situated at the foot of the dramatic and mineral-rich Karunjhar hills, and neighbors the Indian border in Sindh. Surrounded by rocky belts and sand dunes, the desert is home to centuries-old Jain and Hindu temples, a white marble mosque, a magical well, thousands of resident snakes, memorial stones, granite deposits and rare flora and fauna.

It is said that the Karunjhar hills provide 1.25 kg of gold every day in the form of red granite stone, china clay, and honey. An embodiment of remarkable architecture, there are over twelve Jain temples found in the area.

These date back to as far as the 14th century – the era when the Jain architectural expression was at its ultimate – and are now one of the important heritage sites of Pakistan. Some of the notable shrines include; Karoonjar Jain, Virvah Jain, Gori and a cluster of three temples at Bodhesar etc.

The Gori temple in Nagarparkar area of Tharparkar district

These are richly decorated with sculptures and paintings. The carvings on the pillars and entrances of these temples are magnificent for their intricacy. One of these sanctuaries is believed to have been built by a Jain woman and is locally called Poni Daharo.

The walls of these abandoned buildings are geometric steps of marble — a particular style that shows up everywhere from the temple’s steps to the frames carved inside some of its walls and are widely seen among Jain constructions.

A glimpse into desert life
The canopies at the entrance of these temples are decorated with paintings that represent Jain mythology. It is believed that the frescoes at Gori temple are some of the oldest Jain frescoes in existence.
Unfortunately, not much has been done to conserve these heritage sites and some are merely ruins of what were once considered architectural wonders. Nagarparkar is home to almost 200,000 inhabitants, who mostly belong to modest backgrounds.

The town is majorly inhabited by Hindus, who have historically lived in harmony with the Muslim minority. In fact, the famous temples of the area make it mostly a town of the Hindus and Muslim pilgrims who visit each year to perform religious rituals or attend meals at the local shrines.

Women carrying water in Tharparkar district, Sindh

Bhodesar Mosque

Alongside the pond at the foothill of the Karunjhar lies a beautiful, shining white mosque. This remarkable structure, built entirely with cold and welcoming marble, is said to have been built by Sultan Mehmood Begra, the ruler of Gujarat. An inscription on the mosque lists the year 1505, which is also a reminder of the Jain-inspired architecture at the mosque.

Bhodesar Temples (Jai), Nagarparkar, Built around the 9th century CE by a Jain woman named Poni Daharo

 

[ghazi]

Makli Graveyard World Heritage Site Thatta, Sindh,

 

[Ghazi52]

Sindhis have been missing in India’s Partition story. Now, they finally get an exhibition​

The Partition Museum in Delhi now pays tribute to the unacknowledged pain of Sindhis, blending oral histories, archival material, memory artefacts, and contemporary art from a scattered culture.

Rama Lakshmi
16 Oct, 2024

Alarge wood-carved balcony is the first artefact at the entrance to a new exhibition about the Sindhi experience of the India-Pakistan Partition. A common design from Shikarpur, Pakistan, it allowed Sindhi women from enclosed homes to engage with the world outside. These balconies were called Muhari.

It is a smart artefact to showcase at The Lost Homeland of Sindh exhibition gallery in Partition Museum in Delhi. Through it, outsiders must now enter the very private pain of the Sindhi community.

“This exhibition is quite significant. Members of the Sindhi community now think that their story should be told. They didn’t, all these years,” said Rita Kothari, English professor at Ashoka University and visiting professor at Ann Arbour, Michigan. “It had to take two to three generations to register the nature of loss. The museum has grappled with the impossibility of articulating loss.”

The entrance at The Lost Homeland of Sindh exhibition gallery in Partition Museum in Delhi | Rama Lakshmi, ThePrint


The word ‘resilient’ came up several times at the opening of The Lost Homeland of Sindh gallery to describe the dominant emotion of the Sindhis toward Partition. It is this prideful self-image that often stood in the way of publicly reminiscing their pain. The dictum ‘sharanarthi nahin purushaarthi’ stuck, Kothari said. (human pursuit and resolve, not refugees).

The exhibition is the first attempt in India to curate the Sindhi experience as sufferers of Partition. The one-year-old Partition Museum in Delhi now has a separate gallery, its eighth, to pay tribute to this unacknowledged pain. It combines oral history with archival material, memory-artefacts, and contemporary art of a displaced and scattered culture.

It is a long-awaited curatorial intervention to plug a gaping hole in the Partition iconography, largely dominated by the Punjabi narrative. Even the Bengali experience was mostly muted. But the silence around Sindhis has been deafening.

“This was a very important but missing component of the Partition narrative,” said Kishwar Desai, Founder, Partition Museum and Chair of The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust. “Sindh was always left out of the narrative, perhaps because it was entirely left behind in Pakistan. This exhibition needed to be done.”

Another reason could be that the Sindhis are scattered all over the world and a memory-keeping community didn’t emerge organically in one geography.

“There was no Sindh in India, unlike Bengal and Punjab,” Kothari explained. Their Partition experience was also not as violent as that of Punjab, making the evidence of impact slower to emerge.

A giant handmade map of the Sindhi banking and merchant network from 1750 to 1947 welcomes the visitor. It signals that this is an entrepreneurial, mercantile community of affluence that was displaced. Their banking and trade route spanned from Kobe in Japan to the Middle East.

The Sindhi banking and merchant network from 1750 to 1947 | Rama Lakshmi, ThePrint


But the non-Muslim Sindhis who came to India didn’t just lose a house or farm or jewellery. They lost an entire homeland forever, as Narayan Bharti wrote in the haunting story titled The Claim about a Sindhi man who goes to a clerk at the refugee camp to fill out a compensation form for all that he had lost. When the clerk asks him the details about the haveli he has lost, he replies that he has lost all of Sindh province.

The claim for haveli | Rama Lakshmi, ThePrint

 

[Ghazi52]

At the exhibition, a hand-filled claim form—case no 405 of 1951 by Seth Naraiandas Hiranand—is displayed prominently with images of a Shikarpur haveli left behind.

Another map of Sindh shows different regions marked by patterns of Ajrak, a traditional block printing technique believed to be from the era of Mohenjo Daro.

Peengho, a swing part of Sindhi households | Rama Lakshmi, ThePrint


Other artefacts include family belongings such as a Bukhara carpet, and peengho—a traditional wooden Sindhi swing. The exhibition said that many families miss their family peenghos, which were too big and heavy to carry when they were fleeing Pakistan. A gentleman’s red velvet vanity case, haveli doors, prayer books and Jhule Lal shrines, wedding saris, wedding announcements and photographs, line cupboards with Roman design sliding doors, nose ring, braid decorations, lacquered bowls and vases, and metal traveling trunks.

A gentleman’s red velvet vanity case, wedding saris and other artefacts | Rama Lakshmi, ThePrint


The exhibition also featured a clip from Abana (1956), the first Sindhi-language film, capturing the refugees’ spirit of resilience.

But the difficulty of belatedly collecting Sindhi Partition-related artefacts is not lost on the community.

“It’s very hard to find. Most homes probably have one photograph. They have nothing, they came with nothing,” said curator Aruna Madnani, who is the founder of the Sindhi Culture Foundation.

 

[Ghazi52]

Designed sliding doors | Rama Lakshmi, ThePrint


Pratibha Advani, a former media professional and the daughter of BJP leader LK Advani, recounted the story of how her father rolled up two or three sets of clothes in a towel and crossed over to the other side of the newly drawn, blood-stained border.

The organisers said the exhibition was just a small, first step. They hope it will grow into a resource hub for community conversations, reconciliations, and exchanging ideas about heritage preservation.

Jhule Lal shrine at the exhibition | Rama Lakshmi, ThePrint


“There’s a lot more to be done. This is just a beginning,” said Jitu Virwani, Chairman and Managing Director, Embassy Group, and a donor. He spoke about a 40-acre complex called the Jhulelal Tirathdham that is being developed in Bhuj, Gujarat. It will include a larger Sindhi community cultural centre and museum.

Cover image: The Sindhis who came to India didn’t just lose a house or farm or jewellery. They lost an entire homeland forever | Rama Lakshmi, ThePrint

 

[ThunderCat]

Sindhis are inhabitants of Sind (or Sindh), the region of arid plains and deserts located along the lower course of the Indus River as it flows on its journey from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. Both the terms Sindhi and Sind are derived from "Sindhu," the ancient name of the Indus. Modern Sindhis are descendants of the many peoples who have settled in the area from earliest times.

The Indus is central to the history of the Sindhis. It was along this river that the Harappan (or Indus Valley) civilization developed during the 3rd millennium bc. Usually identified with Dravidian peoples, this sophisticated urban culture matched the achievements of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. The Harappans left an archeological record of contemporary life in Sind, but we know less of the centuries following their decline.

From around 1700 bc onward, successive waves of Aryan invaders entered the Indian subcontinent from the northwest. The earliest of these nomadic tribes settled in the Punjab, where the outlines of Hindu Vedic religion and society emerged. This was quite different from urban Harappan culture. It was nonurban, based on the herding of cattle; its religion was dominated by male deities and sacrificial ritual; and its society was organized into a hierarchy of classes (castes), with the Aryans at the top and local non-Aryan peoples at the lowest levels. As the Aryans pressed steadily southward along the Indus Valley, their culture replaced that of the Harap-pans.

The Harappan towns and cities disappeared, with Aryan (Hindu) civilization emerging as the dominant culture of Sind. Subsequently, groups such as the Persians, Greeks, Scythians, and White Huns who entered the region were absorbed into the existing structure of the Aryan-dominated society. During the 3rd and 2nd centuries bc, Sind formed part of the Mauryan Empire. At this time, Buddhism was the main religion in the region, though it was subsequently reabsorbed by Hinduism.

Arabs reached the mouth of the Indus by sea in ad 711 and within a few years gained control of Sind. From this time on, the region was dominated by Muslims and the culture of Islam. Around ad 900, the Arab governors of Sind—at first subject to the Caliph in Baghdad—established their own dynastic rule. Of mixed Arab and local blood, Sumra and Samma chieftains governed for several centuries, eventually being replaced by invaders from Afghanistan between 1518 and 1522.

By the end of the 16th century, Sind was annexed by the Mughals. It remained part of the Mughal Empire until the mid-18th century. Sind was conquered by the British in 1843. (The British General, Sir Charles Napier, in charge of the operation, garnered a degree of notoriety when, after his successful campaign, he sent his superiors the one word dispatch "Peccavi," which is Latin for "I have sinned.")

Sind formed part of the Bombay Presidency of British India until 1937, when it was made a separate province. Following Pakistan's independence, Sind was integrated into West Pakistan in 1955. In 1970 Sind was reestablished as a province of Pakistan.

The usage of the term "Hindu" is misleading. The rest seems fine.

 

[Dogun18]

The usage of the term "Hindu" is misleading. The rest seems fine.

Are you of Sindhi background, Thunder?

 

[Sharma Ji]

Syed Kirmani - Indian cricketer, musalman Sindhi iinw

Lalwani, Mirchandani, Moolchandani, Wadhwani <- I've known folk with these surnames, regular folk, couldn't really spot much of a cultural difference from regular Dilli people, maybe because they were regular Dilli people.. hmm

@Vsdoc .. aao, anthropological waali baatein karein