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Sindhis

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This article is about the socio-ethnic group of South Asia. For other uses, see Sindhi (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with the Sindi people.

Sindhi
سنڌي / सिन्धी /
Total population
c. 39 million[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
 Pakistan29,500,000[1]
 India2,772,264[2]
 United Arab Emirates341,000[citation needed]
 Malaysia30,500[citation needed]
 United Kingdom30,000[citation needed]
 Canada11,500[citation needed]
 Indonesia10,000[citation needed]
 United States9,801[citation needed]
 Singapore8,800[citation needed]
 Hong Kong7,500[3]
 Oman700[citation needed]
Languages
Sindhi
Religion
Majority: Islam
Minority: Hinduism and Sikhism

Template:Contains Sindhi text Sindhis (Sindhi: سنڌي (Perso-Arabic), सिन्धी (Devanagari), (Khudabadi)) are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group who speak the Sindhi language and are native to the Sindh province of Pakistan. After the partition of India in 1947, most Sindhi Hindus and Sindhi Sikhs migrated to the newly formed Dominion of India and other parts of the world. Today, ethnic Sindhis are both in India and Pakistan. Indian Sindhis are predominantly Hindu, while Pakistani Sindhis are predominantly Muslim.

Sindhi Muslim culture is highly influenced by Sufi doctrines and principles.[4] Some of the popular cultural icons are Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Jhulelal and Sachal Sarmast.

History

Pre-historic period

Vintage group photo of Sindhi people

The Indus Valley Civilisation went into decline around the year 1700 BC for reasons that are not entirely known, though its downfall was probably precipitated by an earthquake or natural event that dried up the Ghaggar River. The Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic civilisation that existed between the Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BC. This civilisation helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia.

Historical period

For several centuries in the first millennium B.C. and in the first five centuries of the first millennium A.D., western portions of Sindh, the regions on the western flank of the Indus river, were intermittently under Persian, Greek, and Kushan rule,[citation needed] first during the Achaemenid dynasty (500–300 BC) during which it made up part of the easternmost satrapies, then, by Alexander the Great, followed by the Indo-Greeks, and still later under the Indo-Sassanids, as well as Kushans, before the Islamic invasions between the 7th–10th century AD. Alexander the Great marched through Punjab and Sindh, down the Indus river, after his conquest of the Persian Empire.

Sindh was one of the earliest regions to be conquered by the Arabs and influenced by Islam[5] after 720 AD. Before this period, it was heavily Hindu, and Buddhist. After 632 AD, it was part of the Islamic empires of the Abbasids and Umayyids. Habbari, Soomra, Samma, Arghun dynasties ruled Sindh.

Ethnicity and religion

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Sindh portal
Main article: Demographics of Sindh
"The Priest King Wearing Sindhi Ajruk", c. 2500 BC, in the National Museum of Pakistan.

The region is named after the river Sindhu (Indus). The people living in the region are referred to as Sindhi. The terms Hindi and Hindu are derived from the word Sindh and Sindhu, as the ancient Persians pronounced "s" as "h" (e.g., sarasvati as harahvati). In the same way, Persians called the people of this region as Hindhu people, their language as Hindhi language and the region as Hindh, the name which is used for this region since ancient times, and later for the whole northern part of the Indian sub-continent today.

The Ror dynasty was a power from the Indian subcontinent that ruled modern-day Sindh and northwest India from 450 BC – 489 AD.[6] The two main and highest ranked tribes of Sindh are the Soomro — descendants of the Soomro Dynasty, who ruled Sindh during 970–1351 A.D. — and the Samma — descendants of the Samma Dynasty, who ruled Sindh during 1351–1521 A.D. These tribes belong to the same blood line. Among other Sindhi Rajputs are the Bhachos, Bhuttos, Bhattis, Bhanbhros, Mahendros, Buriros, Lakha, Sahetas, Lohanas, Mohano, Dahars, Indhar, Chachar, Dhareja, Rathores, 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. However, tribes are of little importance in Sindh as compared to in Punjab and Balochistan. Identity in Sindh is mostly based on a common ethnicity.[7]

Sindhi Muslims

Abida Parveen is a Pakistani singer of Sindhi descent and an exponent of Sufi music.

With Sindh's stable prosperity and its strategic geographical position, it was subject to successive conquests by foreign empires. In 712 A.D., Sindh was incorporated into the Caliphate, the Islamic Empire, and became the ‘Arabian gateway’ into India (later to become known as Bab-ul-Islam, the gate of Islam).

Muslim Sindhis tend to follow the Sunni Hanafi fiqh with a substantial minority being Shia Ithna 'ashariyah. Sufism has left a deep impact on Sindhi Muslims and this is visible through the numerous Sufi shrines which dot the landscape of Sindh.

Sindhi Hindus

Read also Sindhis in India

Hinduism was the predominant religion in Sindh before Islamic conquest. According to the 1998 census of Pakistan, Hindus constituted about 8% of the total population of Sindh province.[8] Most of them live in urban areas such as Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpur Khas. Hyderabad is the largest centre of Sindhi Hindus in Pakistan, with 100,000–150,000 living there.[8] The ratio of Hindus was higher before the independence of Pakistan in 1947.[9]

Before 1947 however, other than a few Gujarati speaking Parsees (Zorastrians) living in Karachi, virtually all the inhabitants were Sindhis, whether Muslim or Hindu at the time of Pakistan's independence, 75% of the population were Muslims and almost all the remaining 25% were Hindus.[10]

Hindus in Sindh were concentrated in the cities before the creation of Pakistan in 1947, during which many migrated to India according to Ahmad Hassan Dani. Hindus were also spread over Sindh province. Thari (a dialect of Sindhi) is spoken in Sindh in Pakistan and Rajasthan in India.

The Cities and towns of Sindh were dominated by the Hindus. In 1941, for example, Hindus were 64% of the total urban population.[11]

Emigration

Main article: Sindhi diaspora

The Sindhi diaspora emigrated from India and Pakistan is significant. Emigration from the Sindh began before and after the 19th century, with many Sindhis settling in Europe, United States and Canada with a large Sindhi population Middle Eastern states such as the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Culture

Main articles: Sindhi poetry, Sindhi music, Sindhi literature, Sindhi cuisine, and Sindhi Cultural Day

Sindhi names

Main article: Sindhi names

Muslim Sindhi tend to have traditional Muslim first names, sometimes with localized variations. Sindhi have castes according to their professions and ancestral locations.

Sindhi Hindus tend to have surnames that end in '-ani' (a variant of 'anshi', derived from the Sanskrit word 'ansha', which means 'descended from'). The first part of a Sindhi Hindu surname is usually derived from the name or location 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'.

See also

References

  1. ^ CCI to consider releasing census results without 5pc audit Dawn News.
  2. ^ "Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength – 2011" (PDF). Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 29 June 2018.
  3. ^ Kesavapany, K.; Mani, A.; Ramasamy, P. (1 January 2008). "Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia". Institute of Southeast Asian Studies – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Ansari, Sarah FD. Sufi saints and state power: the pirs of Sind, 1843–1947. No. 50. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  5. ^ Nicholas F. Gier, FROM MONGOLS TO MUGHALS: RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE IN INDIA 9TH-18TH CENTURIES, presented at the Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting American Academy of Religion, Gonzaga University, May 2006 [1]
  6. ^ Kessler, P L. "Kingdoms of South Asia – Kingdoms of the Indus / Sindh". www.historyfiles.co.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  7. ^ The People and the land of Sindh Archived 14 February 2011 at WebCite
  8. ^ a b "Pakistan Census Data" (PDF).
  9. ^ "Partition and the 'other' Sindhi".
  10. ^ The foreign policy of Pakistan: ethnic impacts on diplomacy, 1971–1994, by Mehtab Ali Shah, published in 1997 by I B Tauris and Co Ltd, London PAGE 46
  11. ^ Proceedings of the First Congress of Pakistan History & Culture held at the University of Islamabad, April 1973, Volume 1, University of Islamabad Press, 1975

Sources

  • Bherumal Mahirchand Advani, "Amilan-jo-Ahwal" – published in Sindhi, 1919
  • Amilan-jo-Ahwal (1919) – translated into English in 2016 ("A History of the Amils") at sindhis

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sindhi people.
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