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The Sindhi Revival<br />
IN OCTOBER 1983, a Sindhi conference was held in New Delhi. It had the<br />
unusual distinction of being addressed by both, the President and the Prime<br />
Minister. Both of them indulged in fulsome praise of Sindhis for their<br />
“intelligence, enterprise and adaptability”. Mrs. Gandhi recollected that way<br />
back in the Nineteen Thirties she had noticed a Sindhi shop even in an obscure<br />
village on the island of Sicily. Others had found a Sindhi enterprise even on<br />
Falkland Islands near the South Pole.<br />
Zia-ul-Huq, the military ruler of Pakistan, denounced the conference as an<br />
attempt to aid and abet the revolt in Sindh. The fact is that the conference had<br />
been announced a whole year earlier, when nobody had imagined the 1983<br />
upsurge is Sindh. Zia even went on to say that the Sindhis in India were not<br />
“Sindhi”. One of these days he might even decree that the Sindhis in Sindh are<br />
not Sindhi either --- having opted to become “Pakistani”!<br />
However, the response of the leaders in India and Pakistan alike, to the Sindhi<br />
people, underlines one fact --- that the ten million Sindhis, of whom only one<br />
quarter are in India, are a significant factor in India, in Pakistan, and in Indo-Pak<br />
relations. The emigre Sindhis are a lively little Sindh --- Sindhuri --- in the Iap of<br />
Bharat Mata.<br />
Immediately after the Partition, Sindhis concentrated in Jodhpur and Ajmer,<br />
hoping that an unnatural thing such as Pakistan could not go on for long, and<br />
expecting to get back home quick from the proximity of Rajasthan. Bombay was<br />
considered too big, too expensive and too far away.<br />
However, as the possibility of early annulment of Partition receded, they began<br />
to look for alternatives. One of these was Kandla Port, where the Sindhu<br />
Resettlement Corporation had been given land to build the city of Gandhidham.<br />
However, Rome was not built in a day; nor could even Gandhidham be built in a<br />
day, or a year, or even several years. And the impoverished refugees were in a<br />
hurry; they could not afford to wait for years. They, therefore, began to gravitate<br />
more and more towards Bombay. Here the barracks of Kalyan Camp, built to<br />
house the Italian prisoners of war during World War II, and now renamed<br />
Ulhasnagar, came very handy. The refugees could live here economically --- and<br />
make money in nearby Bombay.<br />
The Sindh Story; Copyright © www.panhwar.com<br />
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