Sindhi in India
70 years & Present Status
In the recent times Sindhi community has quite strong political leaders like Shri L K Advani, Shri Ram Jethmalani, and Late Shri Ishwardas Rohani and so on, but still the feeling of existence of Sindhi power in India is missing altogether. No one even the lowest level of government employees took a Sindhi in any kind of serious consideration. In the majority business-oriented cities all the commercial activities are controlled by Sindhis but still in the political arena, Socio – economic front and even on the cultural front Sindhi are miles and miles behind the development and progress achieved by other Indian community.
Before I turn to Sindhi history I would like say
“Those person & nation forget history are bound to live it again and again. “
We the sindhi are doing the same thing as we forget about the rich cultural heritage of Sindhi community hence, we are living in the status of being ignored. It is not today but since so many decades and centuries that economy is central axis of the life and being the controller of the economy Sindhi community was at the center of socio-cultural activities of human society for a long span of time of several centuries. This happened only after 1947, after the migration of Sindhi people from Sindh Pakistan to India that Sindhi community is at the status of being ignored.
Look at situations of these 70 odd years, happenings that has forced us to cut down from our social, literary and cultural roots, we forget about the rich heritage to be transferred from one generation to another and reached to this status of being ignored.
In the 1947 our Parents and Grand Parents were forced to migrate with almost bare hands, there was challenge not just of the survival but also of the regaining the central place in the society. As during the time money has started to be the more powerful central axis of social life in the India, hence our elders were concentrated at this point, Earning money, only. It leads to elopement of association with Sindhi language and culture to a great extant.
Do remember that migrant Sindhi people were allotted residence in different parts of India. This proves not just the seed for the lowering the social activities but also is the main reason which proved as the main cause for the loss of being political force [In India it is democracy and in this set of ruling number means a lot] of Sindhi community. The first impression of this scattered Sindhi population reflects in the form of adverse effect on Sindhi language & literature. Sindhi Schools started to close down just because non availability of students and for the Sindhi community process of being cut from rich heritage got launching pad.
“Awake! Awake! Sindhi in India.”
It is the need of time that for Sindhi people in India, to alter Guruwar Rabindranath Tagore’s words “Awake! Awake! Mother India” as
“Awake! Awake! Sindhi in India.”
This is often said if there is problem certainly there is also solution for it. We get worried just because we are failing in finding the solution. We need to forget certain things even some part of our history or rather we need to create a new page for the Sindhi history.
We Sindhi are successful not only in India but at every inch of globe just because “Adoptability” is unique and most prominent quality of the Sindhi community. Someone can also say that we Sindhi are like the water that gets the shape of utensil in which it is contained. Similarly, a Sindhi family gets easily mixed with customs, traditions, social environment and even with language of area or locality in which they live. The only thing which is creating crisis is that while using this “Adoptability” we are failing to pay proper attention towards preserving rich Sindhi literary and cultural heritage.
At this moment of time, I would like or rather wish to ask the Sindhi youth at only two things
[1] Remember it is not the grand style celebration of Sindhi festivals or arranging art of status social functions that will make Sindhyat live again but it is the Sindhi language which need an early attention so that we can preserve Sindhyat. Language is the only identity of any community of the human world and unfortunately Sindhi language is at the edge of vanishing. If Sindhi language gets eloped from our day to day on bases we would claim to be called and identified as the Sindhi?
A few pessimists might say that it is not possible to revive Sindhi language now because there are no schools and in modern times starting a new Sindhi school is like the turning the time wheel back, but who says we need Sindhi schools for revival and preservation of Sindhi language?
All we need to do is use Sindhi language at our homes. With the grace of almighty we are among the Indian communities which are most stable economically, all we need to appoint a Sindhi teacher, who during the vacation make our children aware about the Sindhi language at building of Sindhi Panchayat, Sindhi Dharamshala or any other community place, which are constructed in abundance in India by Sindhi community.
We need to forget about the Arabic script of Sindhi language as it creates a kind of confusion and disliking among our children who are getting education mostly in English medium schools. Being written in opposite direction of Hindi or English and even regional language our children are finding it tough to learn. So, we should adopt Devanagiri or Roman script for the Sindhi language to help our children from getting escape from learning yet another script. I will prefer Devanagiri script just because all most all Indian languages are using this script.
Our commercial mind set is also a hurdle in preserving Sindhi languages because it says we don’t need to know and learn Sindhi because it has nothing to do with our earnings. Remember we don’t need Sindhi language for earnings but it is essential for being identified as the Sindhi.
[2] Don’t fall prey to unpractical demands like 24 hours Sindhi Television Channel or minority status for Sindhis in India. A Sindhi Channel will may provide source of income for many Sindhi artists but what about the audience? Our kids are not going to watch it like the many other television regional channels of Doordarshan it will an un watched or lesser watched channel. It will also give government of excuse in the form of money spent on preservation and propagation of Sindhi language and Sindhi Culture.
What happen if Sindhi in India get minority status a few will get government jobs but look at the numbers of Sindhi interested in being an employee? As per our ancestral attitude and heritage we always like to be employer instead of employee. Be practical and ask for
[a] Reservation in Municipality or Local bodies for the area of the city with higher Sindhi population.
[b] In the cities like Ulhasnagar, Ajmer, Indore, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Raipur and many others where Sindhi population is around one lakh or more one seat for State Assembly should be reserved only for Sindhi people and if from any city two or more members are elected for Lok Sabha one seat should be reserved for Sindhi community candidates only.
Do remember we are living in a democratic set up and this is the only way of getting own share in the politics and powers.
Posted on 09 Jul 2016