Part 21 - What are Sindhis?

The Chinese pilgrims and the Chinese travelers have described Sindh and Sindhi people in their records. Those travelers followed Buddhist religion and had a great respect for Lord Gautam Buddha.

India was considered as the Holy Land of East, where Buddha was born and Land of Bodhi Tree where he attained Nirvana and discovered the ultimate truth. It is believed that Buddha had taught in Sindh and a disciple of Buddha by name Upagupta had preached Buddha's teachings in Sindh. (Vaswani 2008:17)

The Chinese traveler Hiuen-Tsang (also called Xuan Zang) arrived in India in 7^th A.D. He took with him to China six hundred and fifty-seven Indian scriptures and some relics and idols of Lord Buddha which shows a high degree of respect for the culture and land of India. (Vaswani 2008:17)

In Chinese records, Sindhis are mentioned as honest and upright people. It is further stated that Sindhis are peace-loving people. In Sindh, Buddhism flourished side by side with Hinduism (Vaswani 2008:25). It is said that a Sindhi Scholar (Pundit) had taken two scientific books viz. Brahmasiddhanta^[1] and Khandakahadyaka^[2] to Baghdad in the eighth Century. These two books were translated later and influenced the astronomical thought of Medieval Europe (Vaswani 2008: 26)

Shri J.P. Vaswani in his book 'I am a Sindhi' calls Sindh a land of many faiths, and the land that opened its heart and doors to many faiths and beliefs. After Sind was conquered by Arabs around 711 A.D. for about three centuries of Arab rule three religions namely Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam existed side by side in Sindh.

The book ''Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics'' 1912 has stated that there was a spirit of unity and harmony among Sindhis, Hindus and Muslims and saints such as Raja Vir and Lal Shahbaz were honored by both the sects (Vaswani 2008:17) Sindhis have been broad-minded and ready to accept new ideas having an adaptive attitude and therefore they adjusted themselves to changed situations from time to time for many centuries. This would apply to Sindhi people from earlier times since Sindhi came under different rulers from 8^th Century onward and till the recent times of 21^st Century.

Sindhi society can be called casteless and as such ill effects of the caste system are not seen. Though the caste system was absent the people could be divided into two major groups viz. Lohanas and Bhatias. Both of these were expert businessmen and traders, their business acumen ranging from banking to supply of goods covering even the smallest things of everyday requirements. There was a further division in Lohanas based on their occupations, called Amils and Sindhivarkis. The Amils were good at administrative working for the rulers, initially Muslim rulers and subsequently for the British rulers. They acquired good administrative posts during British rule of Sindh. The Sindhivarkis were expert traders. They travelled to far off lands for business and their hard work, commitments and foresight brought them success and money. Today one can find successful Sindhi businessmen all over the world. There was a clan known as Bhaibands who were also businessmen involved in banking, trade and commerce. It may be mentioned once again there was no caste system and whatever division was seen was based on profession.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

A valuable work on Mathematics by Indian mathematician Brahmagupta around seventh century

[2]:

Another book by Brahmagupta on Astronomical Treaties