THE%20SINDH%20STORY

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Sindhi Society and Culture SlNDHI SOCIETY is an integral part of the great Indian society. And Sindhi culture is an integral part of the great Indian culture. And yet, because of local factors, it has a flavour of its own. The people are eclectic: not very profound, but very practical. As a wit put it: “The Sindhi rule of the thumb is to do whatever is convenient and profitable.” Their varied experience over the ages has given them a certain flexibility that makes for survival, even if not for glory. Added to the profundities of their ancestral faith, they have faced waves of foreigners and they themselves have travelled far and wide for trade. This has made them easy citizens of the world. All fanaticism becomes foreign to their nature. As H.T. Lambrick, ICS, has observed: “There is something in the air of Sindh which blurs the frontiers of ordinarily opposed creeds.” When Islam came to India, it had staged the usual scene of murder, loot and rape. However, before long, the mischief had been contained. The new Muslims adorned their graves with the old lingas and yonis and offered them incense and flowers. “The day of wedlock,” they said, “is more important than a thousand years of roza and namaz.” They dispensed with the Arab practice of female circumcision. They even moderated the harsh Muslim law. For example, they decided that saying ‘Talaq, Talaq” twice together would be counted as one and not two. Even the Arabs visiting Sindh --- which is about all the Hind that they knew --- were so Sindhized that, on return home, they were told: “O returner from Hind, renew thy faith.” The Sammas and the Soomras, who were native chiefs, ruled for 500 years. Even when converted, they remained more Sindhi than Muslim. No wonder Capt. Hamilton, who visited Sindh in the eighteenth century, recorded that until a century earlier, the Hindu population had been ten times the Muslim population. Today Sindhi intellectuals like G.M. Syed reject the “Arab Chhaap Islam”; they would obviously like to have the “Sindhi-Chhaap Islam” that very much prevailed until the late Mughal times. Ironically enough, this pro-Hindu situation changed during the Mughal period. Akbar initiated the policy of religious toleration. He gave more and more top jobs to the Hindus. This antagonized many Muslims, who now lost their monopoly of top jobs. Those who thus got left out, joined hands with the fanatical mullahs. It was this unholy alliance that helped Aurangzeb prevail over Dara. And so even while Akbar’s policy brought the Hindus into their own, the Muslim reaction to that policy strengthened the forces of fanaticism and launched a wave of mass conversions It was obviously this tidal wave that overwhelmed Sindh and converted it into a Muslim-majority province full thousand years after the Arab invasion. Al-Ghazali, the fanatic, who had The Sindh Story; Copyright © www.panhwar.com 119
attacked the liberal al-Farabi and Ibn Sina in the eleventh century, and who had abjured reason and divorced religion from science, now prevailed in the Muslim courts with a vengeance. The exponent of this new policy in Sindh was Mohammed Hashim Thattwi. His fatwa was duly issued as a firman of the Kalhora ruler Ghulam Shah. It read: “Let all functionaries of the state note that they have to make all efforts to implement the religious directives issued from time to time by Janab Makhdoom Mohammed Hashim. They should forbid the (Shia practice of) mourning and Tazias during Moharram. Women should he stopped from visiting gardens and graveyards. People should be prevented from mourning for the dead. Animals should not be painted. Hindus should be forbidden from wearing ‘choti’ or ‘dhoti’, or sitting in their shops with bare knees. Muslims should be told not to keep.moustache --- and not to grow their beard long. The beard should not exceed the size of a fist. Hindus should not be allowed to play Holi or sing with sarod, shehnai, drum or bugle. Hindus should also be stopped from bowing to the idols or to the river. Government staff must enforce the above orders strictly. Violation of any of these orders must be visited with deterrent punishment so that nobody dares indulge in these practices. In addition, people should be told to observe roza, namaz and other religious practices. Let there be no failure in the implementation of the above rules. Shaban 2, 1072 H.” The liberal religious policy of Abar, followed by fanaticism like this, led to the Hindus getting more jobs; but it also led to more and more Hindus at lower levels getting converted under official pressure. And thus one could see the two opposing developments at the same time. Gidumal and many other Amils became ministers in the court of Sindh. They were allowed to dress like Muslim aristocracy, charged no taxes, and addressed as “Dewan”. But Hindus could neither keep an idol nor ring a bell, in what passed for their “mandirs”. From Thursday evening till Saturday morning, they kept indoors --- for fear of some Muslim saying they had heard them say “Allah” or”Mohammed” on the holy day of Friday and that, therefore, they were now deemed Muslims. The Hindus would not touch any Arabic book --- for fear it might turn out to be the Koran, whose touch would make them Muslim in the eyes of fanatics. British visitors such as Richard Burton noted that the Hindus would never use the word rasso or rassi, for rope --- for fear somebody might say that they had uttered the word “rasul” (prophet); they would always call it “nori”. A Sindhi prince gave his watch to an Englishman for repair in Bombay, with instruction that it should not be touched by any idol-worshipper. This Englishman was presented with a sword with the Persian inscription: “I am light of weight, but l am heavy on the enemy. Warriors have used me to slaughter one lakh Hindus.” Even a veteran statesman like Gidumal, who had served the state with distinction, like a The Sindh Story; Copyright © www.panhwar.com 120
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THE THE SINDH SINDH STORY STORY A G
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Appendix: G M Syed’s Visit .. ..
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Preface to Reprint “The Sindh Sto
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My grateful thanks are due to Prof.
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information. In this connection I m
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Mr. Malkani’s book is a book of h
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--- “Employment of appropriate ph
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effort had been made to synthesise
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Long have we suffered; see how grie
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Sindhu is Divine IN THE BEGINNING w
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Interestingly enough, the Bhagvad G
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Sindhu Mata THE VEDAS and the Puran
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to Encyclopedia Britannica, “the
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no lime in the area to use as cemen
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Alexander’s Waterloo in Sindh EVE
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The philosophers in turn posed him
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Truth about Dahir Sen THE PROPHET o
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next 80 years, led by Hakam, Abdull
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army of Islam became irresolute and
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order to meet the financial deficie
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priest would not agree to Sita beco
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“Jhoolay Lal” WHEN Mahmud Ghazn
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of the Khaljis. But more revealing
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The Umar Marui is one long paean of
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OH LORD of Sindh, Jhoolay Lal, and
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Napier had written off all the pre-
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loosely knit system that could be a
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Dayaram helped set up the Nari Shal
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when Gandhiji wrote his autobiograp
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muttered “lainat! lainat!” in r
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to convert them to Christianity. An
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anybody else. Colonel Trevor, the C
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The theosophists also joined hands
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“Sangathan”, and “Sanskriti
Page 70 and 71: Freedom Movement in Sindh “NADIR
Page 72 and 73: When Tilak visited Sindh in 1920, y
Page 74 and 75: of 40 women satyagrahis. Many young
Page 76 and 77: Ahmedabad municipality and Subhas C
Page 78 and 79: “I am a Sindh” -- Gandhi “EVE
Page 80 and 81: consider him a Mahatma. He used to
Page 82 and 83: On one occasion not only was a saty
Page 84 and 85: not anti-Muslim. I decline to think
Page 86 and 87: wrote to Sucheta in 1945 to ask Kri
Page 88 and 89: able to admit of inter-migration, s
Page 90 and 91: Thrown to the Wolves INDIA BECAME F
Page 92 and 93: sessions judge of Hyderabad, an Eng
Page 94 and 95: Hindus were, if anything, even more
Page 96 and 97: esolution. “He just allowed us to
Page 98 and 99: from 30 to 400. During this one Lea
Page 100 and 101: Nehru declined the offer --- even a
Page 102 and 103: In January, 1948, Government of Ind
Page 104 and 105: The Sindhi leaders in their goodnes
Page 106 and 107: language of Sindh, Bhutto had the p
Page 108 and 109: and destiny. In the process it has
Page 110 and 111: ealization, and not in hatred and v
Page 112 and 113: Allah Alone Knows SINDH’S REJECTl
Page 114 and 115: Baluchi guerrillas and 3,300 Pakist
Page 116 and 117: It will thus be seen that the democ
Page 118 and 119: G. M. Syed Or Sindh has said that a
Page 122 and 123: Cardinal Wolsey, was murdered in th
Page 124 and 125: Panhwar, Malah, Mangta, Sodha, Dhat
Page 126 and 127: And Muslim backwardness in the fiel
Page 128 and 129: malicious, Sir Bhutto’s wife, who
Page 130 and 131: Muslims believed that marriages sol
Page 132 and 133: Shah, Sachal and Swami LANGUAGE AND
Page 134 and 135: Sindhian ra istalah Sindh madah; Hi
Page 136 and 137: you want to be a yogi, follow the g
Page 138 and 139: Mohammed Khan Sewhani, Bherumal Meh
Page 140 and 141: Even as they tried to lift themselv
Page 142 and 143: Individual Sindhis have also made a
Page 144 and 145: just dubhashis, bilingual; they are
Page 146 and 147: Appendix: Report on G M Syed’s De
Page 148 and 149: The Bar Association of the Supreme
Page 150 and 151: Q. Why are you more opposed to Bhut
Page 152 and 153: (English) Bibliography Ahmed Q.: Th
Page 154: Sheikh, M. Somar: Kachyun Ja Qaul S
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