THE%20SINDH%20STORY

to convert them to Christianity. And so the girls started to hide under their string
cots, to avoid their dubious benefactors.
A leading Sindhi, Parmanand Mewaram, editor of Jyot and author of English-
Sindhi and Sindhi-English dictionaries, actually changed his faith.
Even more serious, however, was the challenge of modernity. Contact with
Bombay, Calcutta and London had shown what a stagnant pool was Sindh.
Those were the days when Sindhi women lived in purdah; you could see 12year-old
mothers. Young men roamed about the streets without any education.
Holi-time was taken up with drinking; Janmashtami- time, with gambling; and
filthy abuses filled the air the whole year round.
Sikhism, which had been the solace of Sindhi Hindus in the last days of the
Muslim rule, did not meet these new challenges. It continued to be very popular.
Thousands kept night-long vigil for Guru Nanak birthday --- something they did
not do even for Janmashtami. They would go vegetarian on Gur-Parbh (Parva)
days, when the Sikhs themselves take meat to “celebrate” the occasion. However,
Sikhism was not the answer to the new challenges. But an answer had to be
found, if society was to survive and grow.
Nobody faced up to these challenges as boldly as Navalrai (1843-93), the son of
Showkiram Nandiram Advani, Mukhi of Hyderabad. By sheer dint of ability,
integrity and devotion, he rose from a clerk to be deputy collector, the highest
office an Indian could hold in those days, Navalrai founded the Sikh Sabha,
consisting of leading Hindus, who all had faith in Guru Nanak. At the age of 26,
he paid an unannounced visit to Calcutta and met Keshub Chandra Sen. What he
saw in Calcutta, heard from Keshub, and experienced in the Bharat Asham, a
community centre of the Brahmo families, answered all his questions about the
reconstruction of Sindh. Navalrai returned home, the prophet of a New Sindh.
The result, in the words of Rishi Dayaram, was “the miracle of modern Sindh”.
Navalrai and his friends now renamed the Sikh Sabha as the Sindh Sabha. He
plunged himself heart and soul into the task of educating boys and girls. He was
so thrilled with the life and teachings of the Brahmos that he built a first-class
Brahmo Mandir with his own money in Hyderabad. He sent his younger brother
Hiranand (1863-93) to Calcutta, where he lived much of the time with Keshub
Chandra, as a member of his family.
In Calcutta, Hiranand was doubly blessed by the holy company of Sri
Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, who once said of him and of Vivekananda:
“Narendra belongs to a very high level. Hiranand too. How childlike his nature
is! What a sweet: disposition he has! I want to see him too.” On another occasion
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