Sindhi people
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1st row: Ubaidullah Sindhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto 2nd row:Benazir Bhutto, Danish Kaneria, L.K. Advani |
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Sindhis (Sindhi: سنڌي , Urdu: سندھی , Devanagari script: सिन्धी, Sindhī) are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province of Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Muslim, Zorastrian, Hindus and Christians. After the Partition of India in 1947, a large number of Indian Muslim refugees (Muhajirs) flocked into Pakistan and settled in the prosperous Sindh region. At the same time Sindhi Hindus migrated to India in large numbers.
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History
Prehistoric period
The Indus Valley civilization is the farthest visible outpost of archaeology in the abyss of prehistoric times. The original inhabitants of ancient Sindh were believed to be aboriginal tribes speaking languages of the Indus Valley civilization around 3000 BC. The prehistoric site of Kot Diji in Sindh has furnished information of high significance for the reconstruction of a connected story which pushes back the history of South Asia by at least another 300 years, from about 2500 BC. Evidence of a new element of pre-Harappan culture has been traced here. When the primitive village communities in Balochistan were still struggling against a difficult highland environment, a highly cultured people were trying to assert themselves at Kot Diji, one of the most developed urban civilizations of the ancient world that flourished between the 25th century BC and 1500 BC. The ancient civilization centered around the towns whose modern names are Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. The people were endowed with a high standard of art and craftsmanship and well-developed system of quasi-pictographic writing, which remains undeciphered today despite ceaseless efforts. The remarkable ruins of the beautifully planned Moenjodaro and Harappa towns, the brick buildings of the common people, roads, public baths and the covered drainage system indicate the life of a community living happily in an organized manner.
The Indus Valley Civilization went into decline around the year 1700 BC for reasons that are not entirely known, though its downfall was probably precipitated by a massive earthquake that dried up the Ghaggar River. This decline coincided with the arrival of Aryan tribes from Central Asia. The Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic civilization that existed between the Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BC. This civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia.
In his book Kitab-ul-Hind, the Persian scholar Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī (Al-Beruni) declared that even before the advent of Islam into Sindh (711 A.D.), the Sindhi language was prevalent in Sindh.
Historical period
Because of its location at the western edge of South Asia, Sindh was one of the earliest regions to be influenced by Islam. It was part of the Islamic empires of the Abbasids and Umayyids. Sufi missionaries played a pivotal role in converting millions of native Sindhis to Islam. At the same time, Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to the Islamic Sultanate in Sindh. Settled by Turks, Pashtuns, and Mughals. Habbari, Soomra, Samma, Arghun dynasties ruled Sindh. The Baloch tribes migrated and settled in Sindh. These Baloch assimilated with Sindhis and now they constitute a significant population of Sindh. Sindh continued to evolve as a frontier state; by the time of British colonial occupation it was ruled by Baloch kings.
Independence
In 1947, Pakistan gained independence from British India. Sindh was a Muslim-majority province and its elected provincial assembly voted to join Pakistan. Many Hindus opted to remain in Sindh after independence of Pakistan since there was no history of conflict between Hindus and Muslims in Sindh. Muslim refugees who had escaped from violent communal riots and genocide in northern India started to come and settle in Sindh. These Muslim refugees from India, known as Muhajirs, who have lost everything in India, took out their anger on local Hindus. Many Hindus were forced to flee Sindh after communal riots, leaving everything behind.[3] The Hindu Sindhi writer Popati Hiranandani writes in her autobiography[4] that the local police were complicit in the anti-Hindu violence. These Hindus were settled in refugee camps in India, and went on to assimilate into the local population, mainly in Western India. Many cities in India, including Ulhasnagar, Gandhidham, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Pimpri-Chinchwad, served as refugee camps for Sindhis who fled from Pakistan and now house a large number of Hindu Sindhis.[5]
Sindhi people have dominated both provincial and federal politics. The Sindhi politicians have held the offices of President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the National Assembly, Chairman of the Senate, and other senior ministerial positions in Pakistan.
Ethnicity
Sindh, as a western frontier of the South Asia, has always been exposed to the entry of migrants from Central Asia and the Middle East. The invasion of the Aryans around 1500 BC altered the demographic composition of Sindh forever. The Dravidians were the original inhabitants of Sindh and founded the prosperous Indus Valley Civilizations, which included the cites of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. However, the arrival of the Aryans pushed Dravidian populations southward into the Deccan plateau. The people known as Sindhis today, like most of the inhabitants of South Asia, are mainly the product of Aryan-Dravidian intermarriages. Sindh has continued to experience immigration from Central Asia and the Middle East since the arrival of the Aryans. Iranians, Turks and other Central Asian ethnic groups migrated in large numbers to further curry the ethnic composition of Sindh.
As regards the composition of the non-ethnic Sindhi population, the two main groups that inhabited Sindh are related to, and common, one with the Punjab and another with Balochistan. The majority group is that of Rajputs and Jats who are the partial descendants of Sakas, Kushans and Huns. During Kalhora rule a number of Jat tribes such as the Sials, Joyas and Khawars came from the Punjab and settled in Sindh. They are called the Seraiki (i.e., people from the north), and speak Seraiki. This group overlaps and is sometimes considered transitional between the Punjabis and Sindhi people.
The two main Rajput tribes of Sindh are: the Samma, descendants of the Samma Dynasty who ruled Sindh during (1351 - 1521 A.D.); and the Soomra, descendants of the Soomra Dynasty who ruled Sindh during (750 - 1350 A.D.). Among other Sindhi Rajputs are the Bhachos, Bhuttos, Bhattis, Buriros, Lakha, Sahetas, Lohanas, Mohano, Dahars, Indhar, Chachar, Dhareja, Rathors, Dakhan, Langah, etc. The Sindhi-Sipahi of Rajasthan and the Sandhai Muslims of Gujarat are communities of Sindhi Rajputs settled in India. Closely related to the Sindhi Rajputs are the Jats of Sindh, who are found mainly in the Indus delta region.
The smaller group is that of Balochi tribes settled in various parts of Sindh mostly during the last five hundred years or so. Since they were martial people and ruled over Sindh for some time before the arrival of the British, they acquired vast lands in the province, with the result that a large number of present-day Sindhi landlords are of Baloch origin. According to the 1941 census, which was the last one held before independence, Balochis formed 23% of the total population of Sindh. Balochi tribes are spread over Balochistan, Sindh and the south-western districts of the Punjab. This group is almost entirely Muslim.
A third sub-group of the Sindhi population comprises the descendants of Muslim conquerors, administrators and missionaries who were Arabs, Persians, Afghans and Turks (including the Mughals). They are a small minority settled in cities and towns and have largely blended with the other components of the population while maintaining something of a sub-culture; they are often referred to as Ashraf or the "noble". Of this third element, Muslim Arabs have possibly contributed the most to the development of the modern Sindhi language and literature and to the advancement of its intellectual and cultural activities.
Another group of people who are largely overlooked in any discussions about groups and culture of Sindh are the Haris, whose name is derived from the term "Harijan."[6] These people are generally believed to be the descendants of indigenous Dravidian populations that were enslaved by various invading people. Many are still living in abject poverty and under slave-like conditions in rural Sindh, because of the benign neglect and only nominal efforts by the government to improve the situation. The majority of Haris are Muslims, while some are nominally Hindus. Many Muslim Haris have moved on as artisans and wage laborers.
Nearly 14 million Muslim refugees (Muhajirs) escaped from communal riots and genocide in various parts of India and settled in Sindh after the independence of Pakistan, populating mostly urban centers of the province. They spoke Urdu, Gujarati, Bengali as well as other languages that reflect their different regions of origin.[7]
Islamic influence
With Sindh’s stable prosperity and its strategic geographical possession, it is not surprising that it was subject to successive conquests by foreign empires. In 712 A.D., Sindh was incorporated into the Arab empire and became the ‘Arabian gateway’ into India (later to become known as Bab-ul-Islam, the gate of Islam). After the conquest by the Arabs, the people of Sindh were influenced by Islam.[8]
Sindhi culture is also highly Persianized as Sindh was exposed to cultural, religious and linguistic influence from Islamic Persia. Most significantly, numerous Persian loanwords made their way into the Sindhi language along with the Nastaʿlīq script, in which modern Sindhi is written today.
Muslim Sindhis tend to follow the Sunni Hanafi fiqh with a substantial minority of Shia Ithna 'ashariyah. The Sufism has made a deep impact on Sindhi Muslims and Sufi shrines dot the landscape of Sindh. However, Sindh is also home to the Hindus as well as other religious groups such as Parsis (Zoroastrians) from Persia.
Culture
Sindhi names
Muslim Sindhis tend to have traditional Muslim first names, sometimes with localized variations. Most Sindhis have tribal and clan names as their surnames. Nearly forty percent of Sindhis have Baloch tribal names.
Hindu Sindhis tend to have surnames that end in '-ani' (a variant of 'anshi', derived from the Sanskrit word 'ansh', which means 'descended from'). The first part of a Sindhi Hindu surname is usually derived from the name of an ancestor. In northern Sindh, surnames ending in 'ja' (meaning 'of') are also common. A person's surname would consist of the name of his or her native village, followed by 'ja'.
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Sufism
Sindhi culture has been strongly influenced by Sufism. Jhulelal, the Sufi pioneer of Sindh, is revered by both Hindus and Muslims. A common greeting among Sindhis "Jhulelal Bera-Hee-Paar".[9]
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (1689–1752) was a Sufi scholar and saint, and is considered one of the greatest poets of the Sindhi language. Bhittai settled in the town of Bhit Shah in Matiari, Pakistan where his shrine is located. Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai's most famous written work is the Shah Jo Risalo, which is a masterpiece of Sindhi literature as well. The major themes of his poetry include Unity of God, love for Prophet, religious tolerance and humanistic values. Islamic philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr describes Bhittai's works as "direct emanations of Rūmī's spirituality in the Indian world."[10]
Notable Sindhis
Politics
Pakistan's political scene has been dominated by Sindhi politicians, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Ubaidullah Sindhi, G. M. Syed, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Muhammad Khan Junejo, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Asif Zardari, Fahmida Mirza, Muhammad Mian Soomro (who has served as President, Prime Minister and Senate chairman). In the province of Sindh, Sindhis have been dominant in the government and its various departments.
In India, notable Sindhi politicians include Lal Krishna Advani (former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party), Arun Jaitley and Ram Jethmalani.
Historical Sindhi leaders include Raja Dahir, Darya Khan Rind, Soreh Badshah, Hoshu Sheedi and Hemu Kalani.
Entertainment
The famous Sindhis in Bollywood include: Aftab Shivdasani, Jackky Bhagnani, Vashu Bhagnani, Tarun Mansukhani, Ritesh Sidhwani, Rajkumar Hirani , Dalip Tahil, Ramesh Taurani, Nikhil Advani, Sadhana Shivdasani, Babita, Sangeeta Bijlani, Hiten Tejwani, Shilpa Saklani, Preeti Jhangiani, Kitu Gidwani, Hansika Motwani, Ramesh Sippy, G. P. Sippy, Rohan Sippy, Ramsay Brothers, Govind Nihalani, Vishal Dadlani, Ehsaan Noorani and comedian Asrani.
See also
- Sindhi literature
- Sindhi music
- Sindhi poetry
- Sindhi language media in Pakistan
References
- ↑ Population Census Organization, Government of Pakistan - Population by Mother Tongue
- ↑ Ethnologue report for India
- ↑ http://www.iccs.edu/HEJ/History%20of%20Sindh.html
- ↑ Popati Hiranandani, one of the best-known Hindu Sindhi women writers, born in 1924 in Hyderabad, Sind
- ↑ http://www.sindhishaan.com/ourroots/sindhi_statistics.htm
- ↑ "Refugee Review Tribunal". United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/4b6fe2120.pdf. Retrieved 2007–08–01.
- ↑ The People and the land of Sindh
- ↑ http://www.usindh.edu.pk/shaikh_ayaz_conf_07/sindh.html Historical perspective of Sindhis
- ↑ http://www.jhulelal.com/infotainment/story.html About Jhule Lal Sai
- ↑ Rūmī and the Sufi Tradition
External links
- Sindhi Sangat: promoting & preserving the Sindhi heritage, culture and language.
- Sindhi Jagat: All India Sindhi Consolidating Centre.
- Sindhi Surnames Origin - Trace your roots
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Sindhi nationalism