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688 SINDHIS
for forgiveness. After death the body is washed, its big toes tied together, and
it is prepared for burial by being wrapped in a shroud called a kaffan. The body
is placed on a bier and covered with a shawl and then carried to the graveyard
by four of the deceased's nearest kinsmen. Mourners follow reciting the creed.
At the graveside, after prayer for the peace of the departed soul, the body is
laid in the grave on its side with the face towards Mecca. On the third day after
death, a Soem feast is given at the home of the deceased after prayers and reading
of the Quran. This is repeated on the tenth day; a feast for all relatives on the
fortieth day marks the end of the period of mourning.
The traditional role of women in Sindhi Muslim society has been one of
subservience, and while this persists in the rural areas, it is changing in urban
areas as women gain education and become wage earners. Also with the increasing
emphasis in Pakistan on Islamic law, which recognizes female inheritance
and property ownership, the position of women is improving. Formerly,
under customary law, inheritance rights of women were not commonly honored.
The custom of veiling is also undergoing some change. Formerly the women of
the upper classes were the strictest observers of this custom; now it is more the
women of the middle classes. Veiling is still observed in the villages in the
families of the land-owning elite, but it is not followed by the women of tenant
and tiller (hari) families who work in the fields.
In the rural areas the structures of zat and biradiri still retain their force, and
there continues to be interaction within these structures and the extended family.
In the urban areas these structures are breaking down, and interaction between
these groups is less. For instance, a generation ago a father would typically have
a son or two living with him in the home, but today, if this is the case, it is
more for economic reasons that out of kinship obligations.
Considerable change is taking place in Sindhi society as a result of such factors
as an increase in the number of educational opportunities and an increase in the
number of industrial and commercial enterprises in rural as well as urban areas.
These factors have worked to speed the rate of urbanization, and they have
played a role in the rapid growth of such cities as Karachi and Hyderabad. During
the last decade the population of Karachi grew by 31 percent from 3.5 million
to over 5 million (placing it in the top 20 of the world's most populous cities)
and that of Hyderabad by 21 percent from 630,000 to almost 800,000. A similar
trend is true for the other major provincial towns of Sukkur, Nawabshah, Larkana
and Mirpurkhas. This movement of people from the rural to the urban areas
exacerbates a serious problem present in Sind throughout this century—an inadequate
agricultural labor force, which places restraints on Sind's agricultural
productivity and contributes to a breakdown of the extended family.
The majority of Sindhis—almost 70 percent—are engaged in cultivation. Most
are cultivators (haris) who rent the land they till (over 70 percent). Some 15
percent are land owners who till all the land they own, 8 percent are land owners
who till part and rent out part of their land, 3 percent are agricultural laborers
and 1 percent are those renting and also working for hire.