SINDHI PEOPLE

SINDHIS

SINDHI PEOPLE

Sindhis  are a Sindhi-speaking ethnic group primarily ofIndo-Aryan origin native to the Sindh province of modern-day Pakistan.

Sindhi culture is highly influenced by Sufi doctrines and principles. Some of the popular cultural icons are Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Jhulelal, Sachal Sarmast and Shambumal Tulsiani.

After independence of Pakistan in 1947, most Hindu Sindhis migrated to India and other parts of the world, though, in 1998, Hindus still constituted about 5% of the total Sindhi population in Pakistan.

There are 40 million Sindhis living in Pakistan, with 39.5 million in Sindh, and over 500,000 living in other provinces. About 5% of the population of Sindhis in Pakistan are Hindus.Most of them live in urban areas like Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, and Mirpur Khas.Hyderabad is the largest centre of Sindhi Hindus in Pakistan with 10,000-50,000 people.

Prehistoric period

The original inhabitants of ancient Sindh were believed to be aboriginal tribes speaking languages of the Indus Valley Civilizationaround 3300 BC.

Meluhha is the Sumerian name of a prominent trading partner of Sumer during the Middle Bronze Age. The location of Meluhha, however, is hotly debated. There are scholars today who confidently identify Meluhha with the Harappan Civilization, in modernPunjab Pakistan, on the basis of the extensive evidence of trading contacts between Sumer and this region.

The Indus Valley Civilization went into decline around the year 1700 BC for reasons that are not entirely known, though its downfall was probably precipitated by a massive earthquake or natural event that dried up the Ghaggar River. The Indo-Aryans invaded fromCentral Asia and settled in Indus Valley. Indo-Aryans founded the Vedic civilization between the Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BC. This civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia.

For several centuries in the first millennium B.C. and in the first five centuries of the first millennium A.D. western portions of Sindh, the regions on the western flank of the Indus river, were intermittently under Persian, Greek, Saka and Kushan rule, first during theAchaemenid Empire (500-300 BC), then, from 150 BC after the downfall of the Seleucids under the Parthians, and still later under the Sassanids, before the Islamic rule in Persia in the 7th century AD. Alexander the Great marched through Punjab and Sindh, down the Indus River, during his invasion of the eastern flank of the Persian empire.Because of its location at one of the more western edges of South Asia, Sindh was one of the earliest regions to be influenced by Islamafter 632 AD - as the Qu'ran was not written until then. Prior to this period, it was heavily Buddhist and Hindu. After 632 AD, It was part of the Islamic empires of the Abbasids and Umayyids. Fundamentalist rulers played an important role in converting millions of native Sindhis to Islam. Habbari, Soomra, Samma, Arghun dynasties ruled Sindh.