Growing Concern For Sindhis

Hi all,

I'm not too sure if everyone is aware of the Sindhi sub culture. Basically, Sindhis (before the partition) resided in present day Pakistan. After the partition, the Sindhis that moved out of Sindh did not have a home state in India.

As a result may of them scattered away and moved out of India. May settled in Hong Kong, and USA.

The growing concern is that our generation is loosing it's identity. We had not home state that we can call our home. We have been scattered everywhere and the new generation doesn't understand who we are and where we originate from.

We are similar to other Indian sub cultures yet very unique in some aspects, even in out religious beliefs.

I for one have taken an interest and done my homework about my family roots. I love my culture and speak the language. I will make sure that my kids know who they are as well.

But I am sad that I don't see this will be the case for many other Sindhis. Sindhis don't seem to have a unity among themselves, and I feel that the new generation will no longer be able to identify with who they are.

Thanks

 

Peaches, this is excellent question. I would think that Sindhis living in India (as I was brought up in India I only know about Sindhis residing there) are not confused about their roots. Infact, my bestest friend is Sindhi and she speaks in the language at their home. We are from Gujarat and she does not know much of Gujarati though majority of us friends are gujarat accept her. There are lots of Sindhis in Gujarati and our close neighbour were also Sindhi. They think India as their place of origin and homeland. Nor are they descriminated at all...

All my first cousins were born and brought up in US and they have been to India couple of times in their lifetime. They still don't know much about their origin and there are few who don't talk in Gujarati. However, one of my cousin she speaks fluent Gujarati and knows lot about Gujarat and our origin. I think it totally depend upon family and how much importance and time they spend to educate about ur culture. Infact, from lot of Sindhis I have seen there is lot of unity. If you go to Kenya or some of AFrican coutries wehre some Gujju community 've migrated from generations you will be amazed. They not only speak amazing gujju but they know minute and smallest details about community that I don't know though raised in Gujarat. They still have preserved their culture like precious diamond.

You are correct, Sindhi's should remember history and from where they are orginally from. And we have history books in India for that explaning partition and about Sindhu Valley. But as far as kids are concern, we are the one responsible to make them aware of our culture, tradition, values, langaute, civilization specially when we live thousands of miles away from our country. Infact, me and my husband were talking other day that if we decide to have 2nd kid we probably won't be able to take my first one to India every year for vacation 'coz then we need 2 job and tickets and stuff but if we stick to one i can take vacation for 2mths every year and take our daughter to India every year so she can stay close to culture. well that's a whole different topic but...

will atleast u know were u come from . my grandfather was brought from under (some kidnapped some misguided etc)the indenture system to work in fiji is. (late 1800's to early 1900's)

about half of them returned back n the other half stayed back. for some reasons ( one of the common one  was relatives asking for money)communications stopped  between the relatives in india n fiji. for most , probably 90 % of those who came under the indenture system n stayed back dont know the exact location of their roots including me .  but we have mainteained our traditions, culture n we do speak hindi .

people mostly gujratis who came after the indenture systems know n frequntly visit their villages . all i know about my paternal grandfater is the location of his regional area but not the exact village . no one in our family has ever been to india including my cousins, aunts an uncles.