Sindh Through Centuries!

Arts & Culture History
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This thread is about political, social and cultural history of Sindh.

Its about local heroes of the land, struggle of people against invaders, raising for their rights.

Its about commitment and attachment with the land, atmosphere, river.

Will try to cover cultural aspects music, art, artists, folklore of the region in this thread.

So stay connected and participate interactively.

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Bhagwan Gidwani writes in his book ‘Return of Aryan’:

‘Sindh is the land where our ancestors resided, where the ancient Sanatana Dharma was formed in 8,000 BCE, leading to the formation of the roots of Hinduism. It was on the banks of our rivers of Sindh—Sindhu and Saraswati—where the Vedas were composed, where the ‘Om’ mantra was first uttered. Sindh it was under whose guidance Bharat Varsha, and later Arya Varsha, was formed. Nor do I forget the inspiration of Latif Shah Bhitai, Sachal “Sarmast”, Sami and other Sufi saints. We are the survivors and inheritors of that glorious heritage.’

Sindhishaan - L K Advani

I recently come across that there was petition moved to delete name of ‘Sindh’ from Indian national anthem @Arleitter

The petitioner said the reference of “Sindh” was meaningless because the province, whose capital is Karachi, became part of Pakistan when the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947 at the end of British colonial rule.

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Muqqawwee Bhai,Sindh is a national sentiment.This identity indeed,it is in the blood and I believe that is the reason Sindhis being secular from head to toe.

I think this peitition was launched in 2005 but the central government of that time reacted to that petition saying it would result in the ressentiment of Sindhis living in India.

I remember many Sindhi scholars standing against the petition and a widespread protest was conducted.

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OPEN LETTER****

Appeal for Intervention to Shri Ram Jethmalani . . . .

  My dear ***Ram Jethmalani***,

I express my distress over Notice by the Supreme Court of India to Government of India in respect of the petition to delete ‘Sindh’ from the National Anthem. On the flimsy ground of the territory of Sindh being a part of Pakistan and to substitute it possibly with ‘Kashmir’ or other words. I request that you may kindly consider intervening and appear in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Sindhi community to contest the Notice and all such associated proceedings. . . .
We must contend with the situation that if Sindh is dropped from the national anthem, Sindhis may not readily rise to respect or honour the national anthem whenever and wherever it is sung or played. The need to include Sindh in the National Anthem was clearly understood and appreciated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and all National leaders when the Constituent Assembly adopted it in 1950, long after the territory of Sindh was absorbed in Pakistan. If the issue is properly addressed, I refuse to believe that the Supreme Court can ever take a decision to delete Sindh from the National Anthem as such a decision would militate against the unity and integrity of the Indian nation itself.
I must also question the authority or jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to interfere with the decision of the Constituent Assembly and the Parliament of India. Any such interference by the Supreme Court is not warranted by the system of the Separaiton of Powers enshrined in the Constitution of India. It is not enough that the Notice by Supreme Court is served only on Government of India. The Sindhi community in India and elsewhere is directly concerned. The community must therefore be given the right and opportunity to intervene before the Supreme Corut and to present its case on the issue.
The Petition ab initio is inadmissible as the petitioner has failed to show any loss, damage or grievance suffered by him or anyone in this behalf by the retention of Sindh in the National Anthem. Approach to the Supreme Court cannot be permitted simply on the basis of personal beliefs, individual theories, ‘semantics’ or a general desire to improve, abridge or enlarge the National Anthem when not hurt or harm is evidenced. If such pleas without showing hurt, harm or prejudice could be permitted, surely any atheist, purist or a seeker of ‘separation of god and Nation’ or anyone wishing to attract publicity could on ground of spurious and specious considerations of logical construction be permitted to occupy the time of Supreme Court to seek further amendments to the National Anthem.
The petitioner has quoted Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore selectively and irrelevantly without understanding the broad approach with which Gurudev was concerned. The burden of proof lies with the petitioner to show that Gurudev had sought to delete Sindh and had in fact deleted Sindh from the National Anthem; but even assuming for the sake of argument that Gurudev had wished to delete Sindh or had gone to the extent of deleting Sindh from the National Anthem, the decision of the Constituent Assembly, the Parliament of India, national leadership and popular will would negate any such reservations or actions by the revered author of the National Anthem.
If the Supreme Court were erroneously to arrogate to itself the right to “reconstruct” the National Anthem, obviously, the issue cannot end with the mere deletion of Sindh. This exercise in futility will have to pursued with greater and more ambitious games of how to “reconstruct” the National Anthem to fit all the creation of Pakistan brought about. How should we refer to truncated provinces of Bengal and Punjab? Do we redesignate them as “Bengal without Bangla Desh” and “Punjab but without what was surrendered to Pakistan”. Then there is also the question of certain territories of India and even rivers that flow in India which do not find a mention in the National Anthem. Do we put them in the revised national anthem? Indeed the effort would then be a soulless geographical directory instead of a soulful National Anthem that Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore created and the people of India accepted. And who will be in charge of crating such a geographical directory to replace the present National Anthem? The Supreme Court? Nowhere in the world has this task been performed by its courts and the Supreme Court of India would be the first to do so – and I cannot believe that the highest legal body in India would engage in such an act of lawlessness.
I have raise only Preliminary Objections to the Petition as I do not wish to go into its merits at this stage. The merits of the case, along with these Preliminary Objections, must be left toyou as you alone can deal with them ably and effectively. All I can say is that the Supreme Court, in entertaining the Petition to delete Sindh from the National Anthem, will be ignoring history and constitutionality along with the inherent rights of Sindhi community. More so, it will be ignoring the sacrifice of Sindhis in the cause of India’s freedom in 1947 and the glorious role played by Sindhis right from the dawn of history even prior to 8,000 BCE when the ancient order of Sanatanah and Sanatana Dharma were formed prior to 8,000 BCE leading to the roots of Hinduism, and later when on the banks of our rivers of Sindh – Sindhu and Saraswati, - the Vedas were composed and OM mantra was first uttered – and Sindhis were in forefront in the formation of Bharat Varsha – and later Arya Varsha. Also note please that Sindh was amongst the home-ground and cradle-grounds of Aryans of Bharat Varsha when they moved out to distant lands such as Iran, Sumeria, Egypt, Russian lands & Scythia, Lithuania, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Greece and Germany, and finally returned to their hometown and heritage of Sindh and the rest of Bharat Varsha. We are the survivors and inheritors of that glorious heritage and tradition. And to contemplate the removal of ‘Sindh’ from the National Anthem would amount to robbing us, our children and their children to whom this legacy left to us by our ancestors, rightfully belongs.
I must reiterate that Creation and continuance of Pakistan is ordained neither by heavenly forces nor by a rational historical process. Pakistan came about simply as the result of Indian leadership growing old and weary and worried that they will not be able to secure power for themselves in their own life-time. Those leaders had at one time sacrificed much, remaining true to Gandhian ideals, but in the end they betrayed Gandhiji, their own ideals, and could tolerate no more delays in protracted negotiations; nor could they resist the charm and guile of Mountebattens, and quickly agreed to partition the country, so that power comes into their hands for themselves and for benefit of their own children. Sacrificing Sindh and Sindhis meant nothing to them unlike Kashmir which was personal and emotional, and near to their heart. Everyone realizes that the “Two Nation Theory” on which Pakistan was founded was false and frivolous, and has been eroded by realities on the ground. It must be understood clearly and without any doubt and ambiguity, that Sindhis will not react kindly to any attempt to so “reconstruct” the National Anthem in order to exclude Sindh . . . .
Dear Ram Jethmalani! I therefore appeal to you to intervene on this case before the Supreme Court. Ram, your love for Sindhis is inexhaustible. Also your quest for justice is well known. Equally well-known is your spirit of independence that will bow only to truth but to no individual, howsoever high and mighty. You need none to assist you in this case but should you constitute a team of legal and other assistants for this case to serve under you, I shall deem it a privilege to serve on that team.
With respect,
Sincerely,
Bhagwan S. Gidwani.

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It was just about national anthem. Probably, the petitioner missed the point that name 'Sindh' is mentioned in scriptures as well. How would he go for removing that from scriptures in the context that now it belongs to country which was built in the name of separate religion. Really absurd idea. It is like I stand up and say to exclude 'Sur Moomal Rano' from Shah jo Risalo as Moomal was from Jaisalmer now in India.

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The petitioner raised a real absured demand.

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Taken from Dawn.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1036021

Are all Pathans stupid? It can’t be. Then why are they normally the butt of every other joke? Is there something sinister behind this stereotyping? Since most of these jokes are community creations, I would rather not look for a ‘well-hatched’ conspiracy theory. But then why are Pathans portrayed the way they are? I recalled all the Pathans that I have ever interacted with, one by one, from my college days, from my professional life, from my neighborhood, my social circles, Facebook friends. The identification parade told me that some of them did live up to the stereotype, but there is no indication of an abnormally high tendency for joke-worthiness among Pathans.
All communities carry all colors and characteristics, and it is the competing and conflicting interests of various communities that make them exaggerate and twist some of those. I have used this formulation to explain away all the community stereotypes that we frequently encounter. While I still may not mind laughing at a Pathan joke, this explanation helps me guard against letting this fun convert into a discriminatory attitude. But let me admit, that I have struggled with the stereotype of a Sindhi far longer. Are Sindhis docile, smug and the least entrepreneurial people? Most of my friends think so. One joked that if a Sindhi has to go to even the railway station in his hometown, he falls homesick and immediately starts calling himself a pardesi! This proved to be a tough test for my formula to fight off such stereotypes.
I decided to hold an identification parade for all the Sindhis that I had ever interacted with – my college fellows, colleagues, neighbours, friends and all. That’s when I realised all the Sindhis I knew could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Had I not attended a college that had a quota for students from all provinces and areas of Pakistan, I am sure I would have befriended none. I then decided to look into the statistics.
The last population census, held in 1998, counted a total of 18.7 million people speaking Sindhi as their mother tongue in Pakistan and 20.4 million Pashtu speakers. The two thus are quite comparable in size. But that’s where their similarity ends.
The traditional Sindhi homelands comprise of Sindh, parts of one district of Punjab, Rahimyar Khan, and some of Balochistan that is bordering Sindh. There were, in 1998 just about 50,000 Sindhi-speakers living outside this ‘Sindhi homeland’ or you could safely say that only one in every 375 Sindhis had dared to leave his/her traditional homeland looking for jobs, business opportunities, or under an economic or social compulsion.
Compare this with the trend in Pashtuns, a whooping two million of them lived in Punjab and Sindh (1998 figures) or every 10th Pashtun was living outside his/her traditional homeland. In four Punjab districts, their population exceeded 100,000. Two of these, Mianwali and Attock are either partly their homelands or exist in close proximity. But in the other two, Rawalpindi and Lahore, they had settled taking up jobs and running businesses. More importantly, the Pashtun population in the Punjab districts seems to be directly proportional to the size of that district’s economy.
The economic size logic can be extended to Karachi too, which is the biggest metropolis of the country with its economic, industrial and financial hub and the main commercial port. According to past census, half of Karachi’s 8.9 million population had Urdu as its mother tongue, another quarter was made up of speakers of Pashtu and Punjabi while Sindhis were just five per cent of the population of the capital of Sindh, and half of them lived in the suburban area of Malir. On the other hand, Karachi had more Pashtuns than Peshawar, the capital of Pakhtunkhwa!
The language barrier between the Pashtuns and speakers of other languages is linguistically bigger than the one between Sindhi and others but nothing seems to hold back the Pashtuns and conversely nothing seems to push the Sindhis out of their homes.
What complicates the matter further is that Sindhis are not stuck because their homes are cozy and their lives prosperous. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Sindh has some of the worst economic indicators of the country and most of its districts have the highest percentages of people living in abject poverty within Pakistan. And while, economic depravity generally drives people out of their homes, forcing them to search for opportunities elsewhere and prodding them to take up the riskiest of ventures. This doesn’t happen with the Sindhis, as whatever the circumstances, they remain holed up, or perhaps they are chained?
With this much statistical evidence, I could have easily concluded that the Sindhi stereotype is an exception, it is true that for some unexplainable reason this community is docile, homebound and the least entrepreneurial – if I hadn’t met an Indian friend. We were discussing politics and it was only a chance reference that brought Sindhis to the center of this chat. I was shocked to realise that our respective perceptions about Sindhis was not only different but in fact completely opposed each other. As I searched deeper, the contrast between the stereotype of Pakistani and Indian Sindhis became sharper.
I was stunned to the point of disbelief. Before writing this article, I again approached a lot of my Indian Facebook friends just to reaffirm that I was not mistaken. But they are unanimous – a Sindhi for them meant a rich businessmen, the very entrepreneurial types who can find their way through the trickiest of situations. Nifty, shrewd and cunning are the words that they used to describe them. They are flashy, ultra-fashionable, love driving big cars and send their kids to English medium schools only.
While there is no doubt that all of this cannot hold for all Indian Sindhis but it also can’t be denied that this is the dominant impression in India about them as a community. There are many Indian Sindhis running successful businesses outside India as well, mainly in Singapore but also in USA, Canada and Australia. In Lahore, however, you will find a Pashtun enterprise at every corner and even a Sikh cloth merchant but never a Sindhi businessman. The Pakistani labour working in Middle East is almost exclusively Punjabi and Pashtun.
How could the two Sindhis, Indian and Pakistani, stand at two extreme poles? I have made some effort to understand this and offer the following as a plausible explanation. The urban population of Sindh, at the time of the Partition was around one million and Hindus constituted more than half of the urban population, including Karachi. They inhabited rural areas all over the province as well.

50 Years of Pakistan in Statistics - Volume II (1947-1997); Growth of selected towns from 1901 to 1981; pg 45; Federal Bureau of Statistics, GoP. Find the total population of Sindh for years 1931, 1941 here.
Hindus not only formed the business community of the pre-Partition Sindh, they also dominated professional spheres. In present day Pakistan, the population of the two religious minorities, Christians and Hindus, is almost the same (after including the Scheduled Casts into what was earlier categorised and counted separately as Hindu-Jati). But despite this numeric equivalence, it is much too easier to find a Hindu doctor, engineer, lawyer or businessman in Sindh today than it is to identify a Christian of similar economic status in Punjab.
I think it is safe to say that Hindus were a dominant part of the pre-Partition Sindhi middle class, if not actually the Sindhi middle class themselves. Like in Punjab, the jagirdars, feudal lords, were Muslims and so was their ryot, mostly the landless farm labourers or the hari. There were substantial numbers of Scheduled Casts (not Hindu-Jati) haris also and they still form a majority in the poor desert districts of Sindh.
The upper and the lower classes are always stuck in a rut of exploitative economics. They hardly have the potential and never get an opportunity to defy the status quo. The middle class, in contrast, has the time and the relative comfort to think anew, take risks and chart new waters. They serve as the engine of change, fountain of creativity and hub of the entrepreneurial culture for every society. They are looked up at as beacons of hope by the lower classes.
And they all left Sindh in one go, in almost an overnight fashion – as India and Pakistan separated and gained independence in 1947. Most sources estimate that around 800,000 of Sindhi Hindus migrated to India. Most of the Scheduled Casts that were much poorer than the Hindu-Jatis stayed back. The total population of Sindh at that time was around five million and I suppose the size of the Sindhi middle class would not have been more than one million.
Studies of the Partition of 1947 generally lay too much emphasis on the ethnic and religious composition of the populations that had migrated to and from the two countries but little attention has been paid to their class composition and how had it impacted the societies they left behind or those they joined.
The exodus of the middle class crippled the Sindhi society. It denuded it of all the characteristics that are associated with this class. Are Pakistani Sindhis of today least entrepreneurial, docile and homebound because the class that had the skills, energy and will had quit its homeland in 1947? It is not all about a stereotype but about the overall economic aspirations of Sindh as a society – if you minus the middle class ambitions, the sum total is bound to hit rock bottom.
The niche created by the gouging out of Sindhi middle class was evened immediately by those migrating from various parts of northern India and since they found themselves in a privileged position they didn’t feel compelled to find a common cause with the other two – the upper and the lower classes of Sindh.
Amid the riotous events of the Partition, Sindh lost its cultural composure. I don’t know how it would fair if compared with the loss of geographical territory. Sindh today has a lower and upper class that is culturally and linguistically Sindhi, while its Urdu-speaking middle class is not only alien to both, it insists on a distinct identity and independent politics. The Partition choked Sindh right in the middle. It deprived it of its capacity to channelise the struggle among its various classes into a progressive political discourse.
Earlier, the economic structure of Sindh had a clear religious divide as its middle class professed a faith different from the majority of the upper and the lower tiers of the society. In 1947, it achieved a religious unanimity but lost the cultural harmony among its classes. I wonder, had it preferred the latter, would it be less divided and violent than it is today.

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Different dialects of Sindhi. Its incomplete.

Lasbela got its own Laasi dialect of Sindhi (the area remained part of Sindh).

Ari Pir – The Express Tribune

Maacko (now in Sadiqabad, Punjab) was part of Sindh before conspiracy of One-Unit and it was made part of Punjab due to collusion of two Deputy Commissioner. Machko got a different dialect of Sindhi.

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^

How did Lasbela remain part of Sindh?Hinglaj Mata temple lies in Lasbela district.

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@muqawwee123

Bhai,I think we forgot to mention about Bhagnari and Chhapru.

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will give you detailed references, but if you see at the population. Sindhi speaking people forms major part of Lasbela's population todate. The Wiki article says that it remained autonomous state before One-Unit.

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Also seldom mentioned about Dhatki,which is a blend of Kacchi,Marwari and Gujrati.

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Yes Bhai,you are right.Majority of the people are Sindhi speaking people but geographically it is a part of Balochistan.

I think a major chunk of Baloch speaking people in Karachi are from this area.(Those who acted against Arshad papu)

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Do provide details and also see the influence of Shah Latif in Kutch.

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/docu…dan-So-Hoddan-

**Synopsis: Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, a medieval Sufi poet, is an iconic figure in the cultural history of Sindh. Bhitai’s Shah Ji Risalo is a remarkable collection of poems which are sung by many communities in Kachchh (Kutch) and across the border in Sindh (now in Pakistan).

Umar Haji Suleiman of Abdasa, in Kutch, Gujarat, is a self taught Sufi scholar; once a cattle herder, now a farmer, he lives his life through the poetry of Bhitai. Umar’s cousin, Mustafa Jatt sings the Bheths of Bhitai. He is accompanied on the Surando, by his cousin Usman Jatt. Usman is a truck driver, who owns and plays one of the last surviving surandos in the region. The surando is a peacock shaped, five-stringed instrument from Sindh. The film explores the life worlds of the three cousins, their families and the Fakirani Jat community to which they belong.

Before the Partition, the Maldhari (pastoralist) Jatts moved freely across the Rann, between Sindh (now in Pakistan) and Kutch. As pastoral ways of living have given way to settlement, borders and industrialisation, the older generation struggles to keep alive the rich syncretic legacy of Shah Bhitai, which celebrates diversity and non-difference, suffering and transcendence, transience and survival.**

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Bhagnari people hail from North West of Sindh,close to Kalat,and Chhapru people belonged to the South West in the mountainous region.

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One point to be noted that most of the original settlers in Karachi were Bhagnari and Chhapru Hindus.

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have you heard about Nao-Mal? A controversial character in Sindh's history especially Karachi.

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Yes and Dawn had an interesting feature on him.. :smiley:

Here is the link..

‘Traitor of Sindh’ Seth Naomal: A case of blasphemy in 1832 - Blogs - DAWN.COM](http://www.dawn.com/news/1116294)

When talking about the history of Sindh, Seth Naomal Hotchand is a name which simply cannot be left out.
Sindh’s is an ancient history, one that countless historians have played a part in documenting. Where there are the remains and relics of Moenjodaro — an ancient civilisation dating back to 3000 BCE — there are also the archaeological treasures of Kaaujodaro, which could not survive the tides of time in the same way as the former have so miraculously done.
Some other day, I’ll write more about the old Kaaujodaro in Mirpurkhas, in the southern parts of Sindh. For now, let’s get back to Seth Naomal.
History has it that Seth Naomal helped British usurpers in their attempt at conquering Sindh.
Now why would he do that? For financial gain, or maybe a British title?
Or to perhaps avenge what his father had been put through by the ‘Mirs’ of Sindh?
[HR][/HR] Also read: ‘Muhammad Bin Qasim: Predator or preacher?’](http://www.dawn.com/news/1098562/muhammad-bin-qasim-predator-or-preacher)
[HR][/HR] Before going any further, keep in mind that it was only after Mir’s dynasty rule had ended, and when the British had started ruling Sindh, that the Sindh of today became possible. The new Sindh — with urban centres, road networks, electricity, hospitals and schools, railway, modern irrigation and what not — was never possible under the Mir dynasty, when the region was alien to the idea of change for modernity.
Some history buffs are of the view that the irrigation system was established by the British to generate more revenue from the region, while the railway network was to serve the purpose of a transit system for the British troops in Afghanistan. About schools and hospitals, they say, it was all for the brown sahibs (the bureaucratic slaves to the foreigner sahib).
Seeing the British contribute to the infrastructure and services here, Hindus and Parsis followed suit, establishing welfare organisations and so on. Some of this infected the Muslims too, and thus began the story of welfare work in the Sindhi society.
But now I’m rambling again, so, let’s return to the subject of Seth Naomal Hotchand.
[HR][/HR] Seth Naomal Hotchand’s background [HR][/HR] Muhammad Usman Damohi writes about Hoatchand in the 2013 edition of his book Karachi: Taareekh Kay Aaenay Main:
“The man’s lust for wealth and status robbed Sindhi nationalist Muslims and Hindus of their freedom, forcing them to live under tyranny and endure the pains of slavery… This man helped the British defeat the Mir rulers of Sindh.”
[HR][/HR] Take a look at: ‘The Real Father of Karachi-I’](http://www.dawn.com/news/1113332) and ‘II’](http://www.dawn.com/news/1114830)
[HR][/HR] About his family background, Damohi writes:
Naomal was born in Kharadar — one of the oldest areas of Karachi — in 1804. He was the great grandson of renowned Hindu trader Bhojomal, who laid the foundation for the city of Karachi in 1729. Naomal’s father Hotchand was also a very successful merchant, with a business reach extending all across India, Afghanistan, Iran and Muscat. This was one of those powerful families who loaned money to the Mirs of Sindh, and even had contacts inside the royal court of Hyderabad.
All this information begs the question, even more - what would such a rich and powerful man be aiming for in helping the British conquer Sindh?
[HR][/HR] The ‘blasphemy’ accusations [HR][/HR] We turn to “Memoirs of Seth Naomul Hotchand of Karachi”, where he writes on page 89 (third edition, printed by the Sindhi Literary Board in 1996 and translated into English in 1915):
"It was somewhere between 1831 and '32. In Nasarpur (near Mirpurkhas, southern parts of Sindh), a young boy — the son of a Hindu peasant, and upset at his teacher for, perhaps, giving him a beating — went up to the gates of a local mosque and stood there.
When a group of Muslims spotted him, they took the boy inside the mosque. This angered the Hindu community and triggered reactions like Hindu shopkeepers refusing to sell goods to Muslims, with Muslims retaliating by throwing litter into the well in Lyari, where many Hindus got their drinking water from.
"The next day, a man named Nooral Shah, and a ‘Syed’ by lineage, came to our neighbourhood, cursing Hindus. My younger brother, Pursuram, who was standing at the outer gate of the neighbourhood, asked Nooral Shah to refrain from it, but things heated up. In rage, Nooral Shah began claiming that Pursuram had insulted the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and a huge Muslim crowd gathered to agitate.
"Later, Nooral Shah went to various cities of Sindh with a Quran held up to his chest, inciting Muslims [to act against the Hindus]. Somehow, my brother managed to slip out of city and go to Jaisalmer. Meanwhile, the matter was taken to the court of the ruler of Sindh, Mir Murad Ali Talpur. It was a sensitive matter, with a lot of pressure being generated by Muslim groups. Mir sahib sent for my father to send Pursuram to Hyderabad. Since Pursuram was not in Karachi, Mir sahib ordered my father to appear at his court. "
“When my father reached Hyderabad, Mir sahib referred him to the Qazi (religious judge) of Nasarpur, which is a small city not far from Hyderabad. The Qazi refused to hear the case. Then all of a sudden, Muslims attacked my father and kidnapped him. He was taken hostage for 10-12 days.”
“At first, they wanted to turn him into a Muslim (meaning, circumcise him). However, my father was over 50 years old, not to mention such an act was against Islamic prescriptions as well. Along with that, the Muslims feared that the act would cause too big a reaction, so they changed their mind. Later, Mir Murad Ali regretted the incident and ordered that my father be set free at once. That’s when he was finally let go.”
Nevertheless, the more common understanding in Sindh remained that Hotchand had been circumcised. The incident has been described in detail in Seth Naomal’s memoirs.
[HR][/HR] On the lower social status of minorities [HR][/HR] Before Partition, the Hindu community of Sindh was among the wealthiest in the region. Not just the landlords but the very rulers of Sindh were often in debt toward the Hindus for large sums of money. Yet, Hindus struggled to achieve the same social status that Muslims enjoyed.
Sharing what he saw during his days in the region, James Burns notes:
“Hindus in Sindh are banned from riding horses. That is why even the wealthiest of Hindus are seen riding donkeys instead. It is also a custom for Hindus to respectfully give way to any Muslim rider while on the road.”
Renowned intellectual and historian Dr Mubarak Ali writes in his book Sindh Khaamoshee Kee Awaz that Seth Hotchand’s was one of the most respectable families of Sindh. That is why the whole episode… left a huge impact on the Hindu community of Sindh.
This surely acted as a catalyst for the sense of insecurity that Naomal and his likes felt in his times.
[HR][/HR] Also see: ‘Harchand Rai Vishan Das: Karachi’s beheaded benefactor’](http://www.dawn.com/news/1095266/harchand-rai-vishan-das-karachis-beheaded-benefactor)
[HR][/HR] It must have been a huge blow to Naomal’s ego. It seems this was the episode that became the prologue to the tale of his treason. However, it is unjust to claim that only Naomal was responsible for the end of the Mir dynasty’s rule over Sindh.
The rulers, who controlled the three regions of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Khairpur, were always indebted to Hindus for even basic state machinery, meaning they never had enough resources. On top of that, the Mirs did not have a well-trained army. This allowed the British to easily overcome the once-mighty dynasty of rulers and their supporters in order to conquer the Mehran Valley.
The British acknowledged Naomal’s services to the crown by awarding him with a title. Khudadad Khan, a servant of the British Raj, writes in his book Taareekh-e-Sindh (first published in 1900, reprinted in 2009 by the Sindhi Literary Board):
“The badge for the CIE title was awarded to Seth Naomal Hotchand in a grand event in his honour, held at Frere Hall. The Briton who had handed over the badge spoke of how grateful the British government was for the immense help Naomal’s information and recommendations provided in securing Sindh in the 1843. He said the Great Queen (Victoria of Great Britain) was proud to award him with the title of CIE (Companion of the Most Exalted Order of Staff of Indian Empire). It was also announced that property and pension both are awarded to Naomal henceforth.”
Dr Mubarak Ali writes in his essay titled ‘Kia Naomal Ghadaar Thaa?’ (Was Naomal a Traitor?):
“The role minorities play in a society is a highly sensitive one. The more financially well-off the minority is, the more enemies it creates. More often than not, members of the minority communities are pronounced traitors or national enemies. In such cases, society falls prey to schisms and minorities become disconnected from any kind of national spirit. In the annexation of Sindh and India to the British, the insecurity which the minorities lived in had a huge role to play.”
Naomal died aged 73 on September 16, 1878 in Karachi. His memoirs were published by the Oxford University Press in 1986.

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Re: Sindh Through Centuries!

So, how come Mirs (Talpurs) could retain such larger areas (land) in Sindh, even they were defeated by British. Mughals got no such land in Delhi?:hmmm:

Do you know the terms ‘Aamil’ and ‘Bhai-Band’ for Sindhi Hindus?

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Re: Sindh Through Centuries!

Good thread :k: let me have a read