Part 13 - Sindh and Sindhi people

Lord Jhulelal is the Community Deity of Sindhi and Lohana Community. His birthplace is a town by name Nasarpur in Sindh region which is a part of Pakistan today, though it was a part of undivided India before partition.

Nasarpur is a town in Sindh as mentioned in the Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency, Volume XXVII published in the year 1904 by the British rulers of India. The longitude and latitude of Nasarpur are 25.5152 ° N, 68.6231 ° E.

It is also mentioned in the Commemorative first-day cover (FDC) postal stamp of “Jhulelal Sahib” issued by the Department of Post, Government of India that he was born in Nasarpur. The stamp was released by Indian Government on 17^th March 2013.

To understand the Sindh region and origin of Sindhi people one must take a look at the history of Sindh. Sindhis are a Sindhi-speaking ethnic group native to the Sindh province which is a part of modern-day Pakistan. (Joshi 1976 Vol 9: 798)

In the year 1947 India achieved independence from British rule and in the subsequent partition, it was divided into two parts and Sindh became a part of Pakistan. After partition, most of the Hindu population comprising of Sindhis migrated to India and also to many other parts of the world. As of now, Sindhis form a very small percentage of the population in today’s Pakistan. (Joshi 1976 Vol 9: 798)

The great culture which flourished on the banks of Sindhu and other tributaries between 2800 BC and 2500 BC is known as the Indus Valley Civilization. This culture which was at a Chalcolithic age and prospered for a considerable time in India. It has been assigned the date by experts somewhere between 2800 B.C and 2500 B.C. though its prior levels of development would push its date back by a few centuries more. It extended to the whole of Sindh, the Punjab, Kutch, Kathiawar and other parts of India and embraced a larger area than contemporary civilizations to the west. Its trade communications appear to have existed with Southern India, Kashmir, Mysore and other parts of India, and with the centre of contemporary civilizations in Sumer, Egypt and Crete by land and sea. (Thakur 1959: 1-2)

During somewhat similar period i.e. during the third millennium B.C. (circa 2700-2000 B.C.) a highly developed civilization known as Harappan Civilization existed along the rivers Indus and Sarasvati, Western Uttar Pradesh and other parts of western India all located in the North-Western part of South Asia (Sharma 2007: 39).

After sustaining it for many centuries there was a decline and fall of Indus and Harappan Valley Civilization around the year 1700 B.C slowly and gradually. The reasons for this downfall are not clearly known. Some believe that these were threatened by heavy floods in the river Indus or drying of river Saraswati or suffering of heavy losses in trade from ports like Lothal and Dholavira etc. or interference of man with the environment by cutting trees for fuel and grazing land indiscriminately. (Sharma 2007:85). It appears that either these or some other catastrophic reasons brought an end to this great civilization.

Subsequently, around 1500 B.C., it is believed that a Vedic civilization existed which was founded by Indo Aryans and they were responsible for laying the foundation of Vedic civilization which existed and flourished between the river Saraswati and Ganges.

Coming back to the thread of why the name of the region is Sindh and people are called Sindhis. It is the same land on the banks of Sindhu River where a civilization flourished in the later period which was inhabited by peace-loving people. Since this was on the banks of Sindhu river and the land Sindh, the people living there were called Sindhi people.

The name of this region Sindh has been derived from the River Sindhu (Indus). The people who lived on the banks of this river and in this region were known as Sindhi. The origin of terms Hindi and Hindu come from the word Sindh and Sindhu respectively. In the Persian language, the “s” is pronounced as "h".

Accordingly, the Persian people pronounced them as Hindi people and language as Hindhi. This region was called as Hindh. Thus, this name Hindh or Hind has been used to describe this region since ancient times.

Sindh region was also known by the name ‘Meluha’ (Ratnagar 2006:53). Sindh is situated on the western side of India and surrounded by Rajasthan, Rann of Kutch and the Arabian Sea, Baluchistan and Punjab. It has a very large area of approx. 75000 to 78000 sq. km. The main districts on Sindh are Hyderabad, Thar Parkar, Larkana, Sukkar, Nawab Shah and North Sindh etc. (Thakur 1959: 12)

The rains are scanty; however, the land is very fertile because of river Sindhu. Due to the prosperity of the region, many foreign powers invaded Sindh from time to time. These were Palhavs, Shakas and Kushans. Though they established their kingdoms in that region, in due course of time they assimilated and became a part of the local culture. Along with Hindus, Buddhists and Jains were also found in this region.