Re: Sindh Through Centuries!
Reality of Talpurs rule - - DAWN.COM
I would like to say that originally Sindhi lacked an authentic script/alphabet. It was written in more than eight different scripts, i.e. Thattai, Khudabadi, Luhaniki, Memonki, Khojiki, Devnagri, Gurmukhi, Hatkai (Hatvaniki).
When the British arrived, they found the pandits writing Sindhi in Devnagri script. Traders, including Khojas and Memons, were using a variety of ‘Modi’ or ‘Vanika’ scripts, without any vowels. Hindu women were using Gurmukhi and government employees were using some kind of Arabic script.
In 1849 the British produced an English-Sindhi dictionary in Devnagri. A year later they translated the Bible in Sindhi, again in the Devnagri script. Majority of government servants were Hindus who favoured the Arabic script because they did not know Devnagri, and had to learn a new script.
A big debate started, with Capt Burton favouring the Arabic script and Capt Stack favouring Devnagri. Sir Bartle Frere, the then commissioner of Sindh, referred the matter to the British East India Company’s Court of Directors, who ruled in favour of the Arabic script on the ground that Muslim names could not be written in Devnagri.
Thereafter, Sir Richard Burton, an Orientalist, with the help of local scholars Munshi Thanwardas and Mirza Sadiq Ali Beg evolved a 52-letter Sindhi alphabet. Therefore, my giving credit to Sir Bartle Frere in development of modern Sindhi script is not without basis.