By Popati Hiranandani

Sind has always been in the distant corner of India (now Pakistan); hence Indians don’t know much about it. Iran attacked Sind many times, but was defeated. At that time, Sind was called Hind because the Iranians could not pronounce ‘Sa’ for Sind! Those days, Hindu kings ruled Sind. The capital of Sind was Neranqote (Narain’s Fort).

Once the Khalifa of Iran shouted in his court, “is there no one so brave to conquer Sind?” A boy stood up. He said, “I can do it. But it is not bravery that is required. We have to be clever to arrange our plans with devices like bribes, lies, deception, and such things. I want your help in doing this.”

So, the boy, Mir Kasim, arranged plans. He bribed Sindhi Brahmins, and told the Buddhists that it is a great sin to fight and kill people. Be religious and please your God and be virtuous.

When he came back to attack, many Sindhis did not go to the battlefield. The king was told that his planets were not in his favour. That confounded and confused him. The soldiers too were not in a good mood, after hearing that the king was keeping away from the battlefield. When the king went on to the fourth day, Mir Kasim captured him and sent him to Iran. There he was blinded. Then his queen wanted their son to carry on the battle but the lad was killed. Thereafter, the women of Sind decorated themselves and jumped into the fire. This was the first ‘Johar’ system of India. Rajputs followed later on. The two daughters of the king were captured and sent to the Khalifa as gifts. But the girls told a lie about Mir Kasim, that he had raped them before sending them…and then they killed themselves. By an order of the Khalifa, Mir Kasim was put alive in a donkey’s stomach – or so the legend goes.

Now Muslim rule started in Sind. The capital Neranquote’s name was changed to Hyderabad, which remained a prominent city (and does so to this day).

The Muslim rulers were uneducated! Some Hindus carried on the administration on their behalf. They were called Amils, who were well versed with Persian. Those Amils were called Kudhabadi Hyderabadis. Among them there was a proverb “Farsi Gore Charihas” (If you know Farsi, you can get a high position).

But among those Amils, there were families where the sons didn’t pursue education. These uneducated boys were taught trade. In the days of the British, they sold some specially embroidered cloth pieces. English men called those boys Sindu workers. But the family members called them Bhaibands.

Now Hyderabad had sects of classes like Amils and Bhaibands. Later on these became disconnected. Generally, a boy of seventeen or so, among Bhaibands, went abroad for some time. That was called his first tour. When he finished his tour he came back to Hyderabad and was married. Earlier on the Pashim Bhaiband men went to different lands: Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Saigon, Jawa, Sumatra…even the remote corners of the world and did business. They suffered many difficulties. They had to learn the language of the place and eat food they didn’t like, but they learned the tricks of the trade! Most often, they established their own firm. The members of the firm were brothers or cousins only. Each member set up base in one country. The system of demand and supply used to send these members to different countries and lands in order to spread their network far and wide. Perfumes, cloth, almonds, pistachios, and such goods, bought cheap in one land were sold expensively in other lands and all the partners of the firm became rich! So, Kishchand Chellaram’s firm was richer than Assoomal’s firm because they sold more goods than the other!

Muslim Sindhis are not so strict about the rules of Islam because most Sindhi classical poets were Sufis. One Muslim poet wrote, “You see lakhs of different waves on the river but there is only one thing, and that is water.” Another Muslim poet wrote: “If the Peepal tree has God in it, who else is there in the Babul tree?” Actually, some Amil Hindus worship certain Muslims they consider their Gurus. Very often, the same person had a Sindhi and Muslim identity. If the Muslim name of a holy man was Khuda Bax, his Hindu name was Gur Bax.

Alexander, on his way back to his country, was crossing Sind. He died enroute. Hence some Greeks stayed behind in Sind and married Sindhi Amil girls. So Amils have got Greek blood. They were good in administration. They were chiefs, chairmen, presidents and governors. Amils used to send their sons to England to study. Even the girls were sent. But this doesn’t mean the Bhaibands were illiterate.

The river Sindu flows from North to South. On one side of the river there were Amils and on the other side there were Sahiti-a-ja. They were also educated like the Amils.

The most important thing is that women were not treated badly amongst the Sindhis. Particularly among the Amils, the woman was always equal to the man. The wife was respected. Among the Bhaibands, the husband left for foreign lands while the daughter-in-law was at the mercy of her mother-in-law! Before Partition, daughters-in-law were sometimes not happy with this arrangement. After Partition, the wife started leaving with her traveling in order to stay with him.

Sindhis in Sind have mostly never had any social evils like child marriage or bad treatment of widows. After Partition, the status of women was raised further because Sindhis started getting more educated.

The Shikarpuris lived in Shikarpur city. They were the first people to carry on the ‘Hundi’ stystem. They carried on their trade with Baghdad and Basra in Iraq. After Partition, the court of India could not understand their system. Because they possessed cash in lakhs of rupees, they were asked from where they got so much money? They were unable to explain. Therefore they were treated very badly. There were raids on their houses. The tins of grain and their sofa sets were torn. So most of them had to close their businesses. Now they educate themselves and go to America.

The Shikarpuris’ language is closely connected with Sanskrit. They were the Ahujas, Rahejas, Hindujas, etc… ‘Ja’ means born from. In Sind, they were far away from modernity, and their wives were treated as workers.

However, things have changed drastically over the years. Then there are Larkanis i.e. the people are from Larkana city. Prof. Ram Panjwani and the national poet, Hundraj Dukhayal, are from Larkana. There is a saying: “Hujeyi nyano, ta ghum Larkano”, meaning if you have got money then go to Larkana.

The people of Larkana are intelligent. They keep a girlfriend beside their wife! Then there are other cities. Near Larkana there is Sukkur city, then Dadoo, Jacobad and some other towns also. How does one write the geography of Sind in one article?

There are Bhagnarees also. They speak half Sindhi and half Punjabi. One Mr. Kataria was a famous Bhagnaree who formed the Sindhi Panchayat in order to connect all Sindhis.

Then there are towns like Hallan. Hand printing on wooden pieces at Hallan is very famous, particularly the hand-printed ‘Peengho’ (big swing).

Though the Amil boys studied in England, there was no modernity. An Amil girl was not allowed to fall in love with even an Amil boy (it was always an arranged marriage). And she was never married to a non-Amil. But after Partition everything has changed. Now Sindhis prefer to live in Dubai, America, Spain, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Their birthplace was snatched away from them and they are just vagabonds. Now you cannot find any differences between the sects, it is very difficult.