SUMMARY
Sindhi is an ethnic community that lives in, and is native to, present-day Sindh province in southern Pakistan. Historically, the region was ruled by different dynasties until the British took over Sindh in 1843, and made it part of the so-called Bombay Presidency – an administrative sub-division of British India – in 1847. Later on, with Pakistan’s independence from India in 1947, Sindh became one of the four provinces of Pakistan.
The Sindhi people speak the Sindhi language, which is one of the recognized official languages in Pakistan as well as in India. A majority of the population lives in the rural areas of the Sindh and their livelihood mostly consists of farming and fishing. Islam is the dominant religion of the Sindhi, followed by Hinduism. Until the partition of India in 1947, Muslim and Hindu Sindhis shared Sindh as a unified ethnic identity. After the partition, a majority of Hindu Sindhis migrated to India, whereas a majority of Muslim Sindhis stayed in Sindh. The estimated total size of the Sindhi group is 39 million, 29 million of which are believed to reside in Sindh, Pakistan.
During the Bombay Presidency, Sindhi nationalism emerged and it inspired a revolt against British colonialism, with the group seeking independence. However, as the influence of Islam became more prominent, the idea of Muslim unity grew and became a part of Sindhi nationalism through G. M. Syed, who is considered the father of Sindhi nationalism. In the name of Muslim unity, Syed in 1943 invited minority Muslim population in other provinces to Sindh, subsequently making the Hindu Sindhi a minority in the region. This initiated a migration flow of Hindu Sindhis to India, while Sindh province received high numbers of Muslim immigrants, especially Mohajir and Punjabis, who were modern, urbanized, and educated.
Over time, the Muslim immigrants became dominant in society. Mostly living in the urban parts of the province, they started to dominate the economic and commercial activities. Subsequently, the fear caused by economic and social downturn of indigenous Sindhis accelerated the Sindhi ethnic nationalism. The polarization increased as the Sindhi faced the threat of losing their language and their jobs. As a result, the region has seen violent clashes between Sindhi and non-Sindhi people – mainly the non-state conflcit between Mohajir and Sindhi.
