Who are Sindhis
Who are Sindhis
Imagine you are on tour with family, which language you will use for conversation with each other? The most common answer is Mother tongue and it leads to yet another question, which langue holds the status of mother tongue? Especially if we took the question in the context of cosmopolitan and world’s most scattered Sindhi community with very less population in any given part of globe.
The adaptive Sindhis are the masters in adopting the language, customs and traditions of the surrounding communities, hence you can see if a Sindhi, from Maharashtra, he/she sure to know Marathi, Gujrati, in Gujarat, Urdu, in Gulf Countries and German in Germany ——-.
In short Sindhi knows and hold a good command over the language of geographical region of which is native of. As at all places Sindhis are very less in numbers hence it is not possible for all to learn read and write Sindhi language. They are forced to take primary education in other than Sindhi language medium of instruction.
Here the question arose about the mother tongue? Will you identify Sindhi as the mother tongue in such situation? If not, again a new question will raise head before you “WHO ARE SINDHIS?”
Various Definitions for Sindhi
If we go by geographical and historical way, we can say the community lives on the bank of river Sindhu [in the ancient times was known as the Indus and you might be surprise to know that in world’s oldest written knowledge books Vedas reference of Ganga, the holly river comes only twice, whereas, there are more than thirty places where name of river Indus is mentioned] holds the common name Sindhi for them.
In the views of our elders, native of Sindh are the Sindhi, but as at present ancestors of those forefathers are spread all over the globe and are the citizen of numerous other countries hence this become irrelevant.
Sindhi is community in the Hindu religion with faith in Jhulelal as their deity. With the present time this also seems irrelevant as Sindhis, who opted to live in Pakistan after 1947, most of them have adopted Islam as their religious faith, others who are scattered all over the world and are Hindu, they also adopted various Panths.
Though most of them had do not discard Lal Uderolal from their life but it is hard truth that they don’t look towards Jhulelal as their religious God. The ceremonial procedures and rituals of the Nirankari Sindhis are a bit different from the rest of Hindu Sindhis. For example, they don’t need traditional Brahman [Priest] for marriage and Agni Sanskar [Funerals] these duties are often performed by the head of Nirankari Bhavan in the city, even at many places Nirankari have either altered or discarded tradition of Bariho (12th day from death) but still they are called Sindhis.
If we look at our literature and try to define Sindhi, we can say that a community, which use language Sindhi to converse with each other, to express their thoughts either in written or verbal format is called Sindhis.
After 1947 ,a new dispute is in the air about the script of the Sindhi language. In India and many other geographical places, we are having a negligible population hence due to lack of facilities, our younger generations are deprived of learning Sindhi language.
Who are Sindhis
Many Sindhis of under 30 years of age are not in the position of pronouncing some typical Sindhi words properly.
With keeping scope for being disagree, I dare to suggest that
Sindhi is the community, which is among the ancient and most civilized cultured human population since the first step of human beings on the earth. We can’t give any more evidence, which can prove this with more clarity than the Mohenjo Dado and Harappa.
Sindhis are the among the most adoptive communities of the world, In the Maharashtra Ganpati festival become a part of the life of Sindhis there, Garaba dance had the same status for the Sindhis in Gujrat and Karva Choith holds the same importance in the Sindhis of the North India. What it tells? Nothing but the adoptive nature of Sindhis. We always welcome good traditions and don’t hesitate to adopt them. This is one of the many fundamental & unique qualities of Sindhis.
Sindhis are the most adjustable persons of the human beings; we always believe that adjustment is the key to success. We know that human life is running on the wheels of adjustment and it is nearly impossible to live without this art, hence slowly and gradually we become master in it.
Sindhis are the one of the intelligent communities. We have an inherent habit of looking the dark side of the situation first; this has helped our community to be among the most successful communities of the globe.
Sindhis are the hard-working people. We love to work and, in our vision, work is not lesser than the worship of God, hence throughout the world it is hard to find unemployed Sindhi.
Sindhis are strong believers of the peaceful coexistence. It is really hard to find any Sindhi as the counterpart of the disputes arose due to life style or way of thinking or religious faith. Our ideology says that a mother is always a mother, irrespective of whose mother she is? We respect others and wish the same for our self.
Sindhis are the community with urge for the learning; hence you can see them as the front leader for using the technologies and modern equipment.
Sindhis have the tendency to reach the top, I think the two examples, from the younger generation, of Narendra Hirwani and Pankaj Advani will be sufficient to support my point, both are in the non-traditional field of sports for the Sindhi community. Former one has equalized the world record of taking 18 wickets in the debut test match, where Pankaj Advani is the teen age World Champion. Though in India Sindhi population is less than 2% of total population of the country but still Shri L K Advani, a renowned politician, the B J P’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the General elections to be held in 2009.
Sindhis are with the quality of coping with the given situation and finding solutions within their limits. Consider the situation in the 1947, Our forefathers were forced to leave their ancestral properties and migrate to India almost empty handed. Today in India Sindhis are among the most successful business communities of the country.
Sindhi is a patriotic community. We are being brought up in the atmosphere, which helps to develop attitude that “My motherland is one, where I born and brought up”, Hence you see Prem Ramchandani [during the 1965 war with Pakistan] was determined not to die on enemy’s land and had scarified his life for the mother India. Who can ever forget Sahid Hemu Kalani, Teen age Sindhi freedom fighter, hanged till death by British government.
Conclusions
As the conclusion we can say
Sindhi means one among the most culturally civilised human societies.
Sindhis are most adjustable persons
Sindhi community is most adoptive.
Sindhi is intelligent, knowledgeable and one who interprets situations correctly
Sindhi is hard working community.
Sindhi community is admirer of peaceful coexistence and masters of practising it.
Sindhi is one who are with desire for use of technology.
Sindhi one with tendency of reaching to top position.
Sindhi is a patriotic community.
Famous and popular Sindhi folk singer Bhagwanti Navani is eventually immortal as she even after losing the physical existence still alive at hearts of thousands and thousands of Sindhi music lovers. Often called as Sindhi Koyel Bhagwanti was born on 01 Feb 1940 at Nasarpur. Undisputed queen of Singing Sindhi Lada (marriage ritual songs) Bhagwanti will always be remembered for singing Sukhamani Sahib (Guru Bani) in Sindhi. She also acted in Sindhi film Sindhua Je Kinare. On 22 Oct 1986 she left for heavenly abode.