THE%20SINDH%20STORY

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And Muslim backwardness in the field of business is traditional. Both the Mughlas and the British recognized the Hindu superiority in trade. As the “Mirza Namah” of Aziz Ahmed advised the Muslim aristocracy in the sixteenth century: “If he needs to borrow money, he should borrow it from a Hindu Mahajan, whom he should prefer to a Muslim Mughal merchant, e-en though the latter lends money free of interest. He should totally avoid purchasing from the shop of a Mughal, as it means paying four times the cost of the thing purchased and suffering great loss, and in the end it means listening to fourfold harangues of these merchants in the market-place. On the other hand, a Hindu is content even if he reduces the interest, considers the little he gets as plenty and is thankful for it.” Robert Clive had the same experience. He wrote: “These fat expensive Moormen (Muslims) spend Government’s revenue in luxury and assuagements. Indeed in my opinion none but Gentoos (Gentiles, that is Hindus) ought to be renters of counters who always spend less than their income and can, when called upon, make good any deficiency in the revenues.” Some leaders did try to mend the Muslim matters. G.M. Syed told them not to overspend on wedding ceremonies. He advised them to reduce the size of salwar and patko (turban) from 20 yards to 3-4 yards. He even begged of them not to bathe just once a year. As president of the Sindh Provincial Muslim League he conducted a regular campaign for the Muslims to take to trade. But all this takes a long time. As Maulana Abul Kalam Azad put it, “lt takes a whole generation even to learn how to wear a shoe properly.” Pir Husamuddin Rashdi ridiculed the extremes of puritanism and profligacy in Muslim society. On the one hand they observed such strict purdah that even a pregnant woman was not allowed into the zenana --- for fear she might be carrying a male child, who might cast a glance on the secluded beauties. On the other hand, one could see any number of them twirl their moustache with one hand and feel their private parts with the other hand, on seeing a winsome lady. The major responsibility for the backwardness of Muslim society lay with the mullahs. Too many of them were as ignorant as they were fanatical. Knowing nothing about religion, they often divided over non-issues. One would pronounce the hooka un-Islamic, another would declare snuff Islamic. They would argue endlessly whether red or black would be Islamic for dyeing a greying beard. Others would discuss whether hands should be folded or separated at namaz time --- and if folded, should they be held above the navel or, below it. Professor Hotchand Gurbuxani had edited an excellent edition of Shah’s works. To this day it is recognized as a classic. But Maulana Nizamani The Sindh Story; Copyright © www.panhwar.com 125
ejected it --- on the ground that no Hindu (polytheist) could possibly enter the spirit of a monotheistic Muslim poet! It was this stupidity and ignorance of many mullahs that roused Shah and Sachal, the two greatest poets of Sindh, to denounce them in no uncertain terms. Said Shah: “Don’t call the mullahs: they are stooges. They would barter pearls for a pot of flesh. . . With open eyes they would dive in a sea of sand.” (Sujani Allah, tubbi dinaoon dhoor mein.) Sachal had only one solution for the unreasonable mullahs. “Beat the mullah on his head” (“Kutt mian ji thorh”). G.M. Syed now has suggested a legal ban on mullahs issuing fatwas, doing communal propaganda, or taking part in politics. The progress of the Hindus during the British rule was dramatic. To begin with, the upper castes of Brahmins, Banias and Kayasthas had remained Hindu, only landlords, peasants, artisans, soldiers had become Muslim. So the earlier caste differentiation was now compounded by creedal differentiation. With modernization, the caste-community difference was reinforced by class differentiation. The fact that the “higher” caste-class Hindu was also urban, only further heightened the difference --- and widened the gulf. This irked many Muslims. Leaving aside the mullahs, who were congenitally anti-Hindu, even Khuhro once said: “Today Muslim women are washing. dishes in Hindu homes. I look for the day when Hindu women will be washing dishes in Muslim homes.” But G.M. Syed, after his experience in the Muslim League --- which made him sadder but wiser said: “Why blame the Hindus for Muslim backwardness? Every morning when the Hindu child takes his bath and goes to school, the unwashed Muslim child is seen playing marbles in the dirty by-lane.” Syed once even suggested that all government jobs should be given only to the Amils; he found them so good. While Premier Allah Bux was positively nationalist, even Premier Sir Ghulam Hussian Hidayatullah was non-communal. He was the son of Duhlanomal of Shikarpur, who had married Hur Bibi, a Pathan girl. The two wanted to live in peace, but the shortsighted Hindu society would not let them. They, therefore, shifted to the holy peace of Hardwar. After some time, however, the pull of the home-town brought them back to Shikarpur, But once again the Hindu society would not let them live in peace. Duhlanomal, therefore, became Muslim --- to escape the Hindu taunts. Although Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto made himself infamous as Dewan of Junagadh in 1947, when that state acceded to Pakistan, he had never been communal in Sindh. Indeed the communalists thought him so much pro-Hindu that they used to say he must have been fathered by a Hindu. While this statement seems The Sindh Story; Copyright © www.panhwar.com 126
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THE THE SINDH SINDH STORY STORY A G
Page 4 and 5:
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
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Freedom Movement in Sindh “NADIR
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When Tilak visited Sindh in 1920, y
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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 120 and 121: Sindhi Society and Culture SlNDHI S
Page 122 and 123: Cardinal Wolsey, was murdered in th
Page 124 and 125: Panhwar, Malah, Mangta, Sodha, Dhat
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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THE%20SINDH%20STORY

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