Volume 2, Issue 1
February 2014
SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
SINDH GUARDIAN
Sufi Sindh : A Letter from the UK
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Sindhi Language—National Language Awareness Drive (Movement)
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Pakistan’s Prime Minister & Congressman Brad Sherman’s Press Release Sindhi Hindu Diaspora—Historical Perspective Neglected Education System Undermines Sindh’s Development Contact Page
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Sufi Sindh A Letter from the UK Dear Friends, We belong to the Southern part of Pakistan, which is known as Sindh. We have our own culture and language, and our orientation has always been towards Sufism, which believes in secularism and pluralism. When Pakistan was carved out from the Indian subcontinent, Sindh was the only state where there were no religious riots, looting or killings unlike in Punjab and Bengal. Many Sindhi Hindus, Christians, Parsis and Sikhs and some Jews, who were mainly in Karachi, remained in Sindh until after the partition of India. It was only the influx of the Urdu speaking Muslim refugees from India, who started hatred and physical violence against Hindus, Christians and Jews that caused many Sindhi Hindus to leave Sindh. Sindhi Jews also went to Israel as late as the 1960s. In Israel their Synagogue still bears the same name as it did in Karachi. Sindh and Sindhis have remained non-aggressive and peaceful throughout the centuries and remain so even today. There are examples in Sindh
Dr. Hyder Ally Talpur
where a Mosque and a Hindu temple have a common entrance such as Uderolal. In Karachi, a graveyard called Meva Shah has graves and cremation areas for all religions including Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Jews. This must have been a rarity in the early 20th Century. Due to this fact, there are no Sindhi Taliban or any Al-Qaida members, unlike the Pushtoon and Punjabi Taliban. However, there is a concerted effort by extremist forces to get a foothold in Sindh and you are now seeing Madarssahs or religious schools springing up in Sindh to the horror of Sindhi speaking people, because up to now their pupils belonged to Punjabi, Pushtoon or Urdu speaking people. It would not be long before they would start recruiting from Sindhi people and we, the Sindhis in Sindh and the Diaspora, plead with the United States government to help us prevent depolarizing the secular status of Sindh. We please to you, the lawmakers of the United States, to make any aid to the Pakistan government conditional on the human rights situa-
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tion in Pakistan. They should be made accountable for whatever aid or loan they receive, they should be made to show the results, how they have spent the money, and very stringent site verifications should be carried out, in contrast to paper exercises which have been believed by aid agencies and lenders up to now. Sindh now has the largest number of people living below the poverty line in Pakistan; it has the highest number of uneducated people, highest infant mortality, highest maternal mortality and the worst infrastructure in the whole of Pakistan in spite of contributing 69% to Pakistan’s Federal budget. Most of the aid and loans are either eaten up by corrupt officials, or diverted to other provinces with Sindh getting a minimal amount despite it being the second most populous constituent state of the Federation of Pakistan. The United States is the single largest provider of military aid to Pakistan, which in turn is used to beef up the secret state agencies, which kidnap, torture, and kill citizens mostly from Balochistan and Sindh. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has on numerous occasions raised the plight of citizens of Pakistan against these criminal agencies who are not accountable to anyone.
We plead with the United States government to pressurize the Establishment and Armed Forces of Pakistan to behave like civilized people of the 21st Century and stop frightening, abducting, torturing and killing its own citizens. Sindh is suffering enormous environmental degradation due to less water flowing downstream from the Indus River. Millions of people in lower Sindh have lost their fertile agricultural land to salinity and seawater damage due to no freshwater in the Indus delta. The fishermen who relied on freshwater fish are now living a destitute life of hunger and are left to beg for one meal a day. As lower riparians, it is our right to know what is happening to the river upstream but perhaps with its might and military the Punjabi Establishment does not care about our plight. We hope and plead to the United States lawmakers that being the major donor of material and military aid to Pakistan with its strategic alliance, they should highlight and insist on the Establishment and Armed Forces of Pakistan to safeguard the lives and interests of its people and the secular orientation of Sindh as well as Pakistan.
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Sindhi Language—National Language Awareness Drive (Movement) Yousif Sindhi, article written February 21, 2013 Courtesy of “Daily Sindh Express” (Translated)
It has been 67 years since the independence of Pakistan but like many other issues, the ruling elite of this country have also not been able to resolve language issues. Language has been a very sensitive issue in Pakistan. If we analyze the reasons behind the division of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh, language was an important issue. After the independence of Pakistan, when it was decided that Urdu would be the only national language of Pakistan, Bengalis strongly protested against it and initiated the Bengla language movement, which resulted in the killing of five students in Dhaka on the 21st of February, 1951. A national memorial was later constructed on the site where the first student martyr of the Bengla language movement, Abu Bakar, was shot, and it has turned into a symbol of the Bengali national movement. Bengalis have always been very sensitive about their language, noted by the founder of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur-Rehman, in his autobiography. The 21st of February was later declared an international mother language day.
After strong protest by Bengalis and other unrest, Bengali was also declared a national language of Pakistan alongside Urdu in the constitution of 1956. From the independence of Pakistan to today there have been strong demands to declare provincial languages, e.g. Sindhi, Baluchi, Pashto and Punjabi, as national languages of Pakistan. Various commotions were made and movements created in the past to create awareness in this regard. An example of this was Sindhi Adabi Sangat, which initiated the “Sindhi Language-National Language” movement from the 1stof February to the 21stof February. In this regard some members of the National Assembly proposed a constitutional amendment bill, which unfortunately could neither be discussed nor advanced. Many members of the intelligentsia also demanded the inclusion of a point about languages in the 18th constitutional amendment bill, but the government did not comply.
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It is very timely and effective to press for the “Sindhi language – National Language” movement, as well as demanding inclusion of all four provincial languages as national languages, because elections will soon be announced and all political parties will contact the masses for a new mandate in the elections. The masses, media and civil society must ask political parties and their representatives in the assemblies what role they have played in getting all four provincial languages declared as national languages constitutionally. On the other hand, besides the issue of dual local bodies in Sindh, the issue of declaring Sindhi and other provincial languages as national languages will also be highlighted. It would also put a responsibility on all political parties to include this important issue in their election manifestos. Let’s not talk about nationalist parties, for they are very clear on this issue. This issue cannot be resolved without efforts and support of federal political parties like the Pakistan Muslim League (N), People Party, JUI, Awami National Party and other parties. Provincial assemblies can’t resolve this issue by a constitutional amendment, although Article 231 of the Pakistani constitution, which gives provinces the power of legislation to form boards or establishments to promote provincial languages.
Sindhi and other provincial languages are now in conflict with Urdu. In fact we will appeal to parties representing the Urdu speaking community in assembly to step forward. Instead of limiting themselves, they should associate with people who speak other languages, like Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto and Punjabi, in order to promote unity in the future. Speakers of all the above-mentioned languages, especially Punjabi speakers, need to play a very important role. They must realize that although Punjabi is the most spoken language in Pakistan, primary education in Punjab is given in Urdu instead of their mother tongue Punjabi. Keeping in mind that, G.M. Syed advised to declare Punjabi as a national language in 1972. In 2009 almost one hundred thousand cards were sent to the Cochairman of the People’s Party and President of Pakistan Asif Zardari. Demonstrations, conventions and conferences were held, as well as signatures taken all over Sindh. We will repeat all our efforts once again from the 1st of February. All our friends should also contact and encourage scholars and literary organizations of other languages to be part of this movement so that it can be more effective and result oriented.
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Pakistan’s Prime Minister Tells Foreign Affairs Committee He Would Welcome Voice of America in Sindhi
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Sindhi Hindu DiasporaHistorical Perspective Independence from the British brought about the partition of the country and we came to India because we were Hindus. We came as escapees, as refugees, as immigrants who settled in various parts of India and some spread out to various other countries in the world. We have imbibed Hindi and English as our major languages with Sindhi remaining largely our spoken language. In India, Sindhi has been recognized as one of the 20 official languages in the Indian Constitution. The Institute of Sindhology and the Sindhi Academy have been established and many Universities have departments of Sindhi. All these efforts have been to preserve the heritage of the Sindhi language. We had fought nonviolently for the liberation of Mother India as much as any other community or region of India. After coming to India it has been because of our hard work, perseverance, entrepreneurship, educational and industrious capabilities, as well as good fortune that we have done well settling in India and elsewhere in the world. The financial clout of Sindhi Hindus, be it in India, Hong Kong, Singapore or London, is well known. The late Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, had at one time euphemistically complemented Sindhi Hindus, stating that they could buy the whole of Sindh as real estate if it was available! Traditionally, before the partition, we Sindhi Hindus had two major sections in the community, namely Amils and Bhaibunds, categorized differently in various parts of Sindh In the south of Sindh, around Hyderabad, were Amils who were also called Dewans and Kamoras in other parts of Sindh. Amils were largely well-educated intelligentsia, administrators in government service.
Dr. Niranjan Dudani
Bhaibunds were also called Seths, Wanias, business people, traders, shopkeepers, skilled workers like goldsmiths, coppersmiths etc. Of course now these distinctions have faded though not disappeared totally. Mr. Bherumal Meherchand Advani, in the year 1919, published a privately circulated manuscript in Sindhi, wherein he traced the ancestry of every Amil family. It was translated into English by Awatrai Advani and published after the partition. Amils had come about 250 years earlier from Punjab and Rajasthan, initially at the invitation of Sindhi Muslim rulers to run their administration and treasury. Mr. Tekchnad Tarachandani published the history of earlier Sindhis, mainly Bhaibunds who came from Kutch, Gujerat, and Marwar 900 years earlier. They came with the Rajput princes, namely Samas and Soomras, who had converted to Islam. These rulers revived and re-established Sindhi rule in Sindh that had been in chaos since after the Arab conquest in 711 AD. In and around the year 938 AD Sindhi Hindus, namely Luhanas, originally Rajput princes, now sailors and traders under the rule of Marakshah in Thatta, resisted the ruler's efforts at conversion to Islam. Thus was borne the legend of Jhulelal Uderolal, the patron saint of Sindhi Hindus. It would be pertinent to recall that with the Arab conquest in 711 AD, Sindh was ethnically cleansed of Hindus. They were massacred, forced to flee to other parts of India or were converted to Islam. From the 10th century onward, when Rajput princes re-conquered and stabilized Sindh, Hindus came in at the invitation of rulers to revive the Sindhi economy and the social structure of Sindh. Gradually Hindus came in as traders and businessmen to revive the economy and develop trade routes
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SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE Vol. 2 Issue 1 from Sindh to the northwest into Central Asia and further to China. The peace and prosperity of Sindh has been profoundly acknowledged by Shah Abdul Latif, a prolific, supreme poet and Sufi Saint, who lived from 1689-1752. In his composition of Sur Sarang, the poet metaphorically alludes to thunder, lightning, rains full of laughter that bring prosperity to the lands all the way from Istanbul, China, Samarkand and Rome to the lands of Delhi, Girnar, Jaisalmir, Bikaner, Deccan and Bhuj in India and so on to bless Sindh, bringing prosperity to all the world. Claude Markovitz in 'Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947, published in 2000, and Scott Levi in 'Indian Diaspora in Central Asia, published 2002, narrate these achievements of Indian merchant diaspora in their publications. Their findings, largely based on Russian archives, describe the traders from Sindh and Multan. During Shah Latif's time was probably the peak of these successful trades. From the 17th century onwards, the Sindhi Muslim rulers, Kalhoras and Talpurs invited Hindus, from Multan, Punjab and Rajasthan, to run their administration, giving them the title of Amils-the educated. These Hindus within one or two generations became well versed in Sindhi language, imbibed Sindhi
customs and kept a low profile of their religious practices so as not to offend the majority Muslim community. Thus, Amils with Bhaibunds became the backbone of Sindhi society, a robust middle class excelling as businessmen, industrialists, educationists, and intelligentsia. The partition deprived the Sindhi society of this robust backbone. The first Afghan war in 1839 by the British East India Company did not achieve their aims; hence they invaded and conquered Sindh in 1843. Gradually the British choked off these traditional trade routes, achieving their purpose in the Second Afghan war of 1878. Maybe the East India Company wanted to replace the Sindhi traders, but ended up totally closing these prosperous trade routes. From the latter part of 19th century enterprising Sindhi Hindus became Sindhwarkis to establish trade posts in the countries of Southeast Asia. Hindus in Sindh contributed to the development of Sindh in every sphere of society as educationist, building first class schools and colleges as well as developing Sindhi literature. At every critical juncture they kept the interests of Sindhi so-ciety foremost in thinking and in practice. Around 1858, a committee was set-up under British oversight to create an Arabic script for Sindhi that had multiple scripts. Hindu scholars
9 collaborated with scholars to create a modified Arab script even though out of 52 consonants, 40 were of Sanskrit and Prakriti origin and just 12 were of Farsi and Arabic origin (Prof.Anne-Marie Schimmel,' German Contribution to the study of Pakistani Literature-1981). In 1908, Mr. Harchan-drai Vishindas, a Hindu, and Rais Ghulam Mohamed Bhurgri, a Muslim, jointly sponsored a resolution as counselors making out a case for the separation of Sindh from a then very large Bombay Presidency. Sindh realized its identity as a separate province in 1936. When the British announced the transfer of power and created India and Pakistan, Sindhi Hindus were shocked into reality. Many affluent people left, all hoping to return when the dust settled down. The majority was getting reconciled to newly created Pakistan, somewhat assured by Mr. M.A. Jinnah regarding security and rights of minorities. But the events first in Hyderabad during December 1947 and in Karachi during January 1948 totally shattered such hopes. Businesses and residential areas owned by Hindus were marked, systematically ransacked and looted. Individuals were molested, beaten up, and some killed to spread the fear and panic. The object
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was to force Hindus to leave. Very quickly, Hindus from all over Sindh packed their essential belongings and left their ancestral land of Jeejal Sindh by sea, land and rail for India. Even now, a majority of Sindhi Hindus and new generations carry the grudge and anger against anything of Pakistan. However there are many who have nostalgia and love for Sindh in their hearts. It would be up to the people and leadership of Sindhis to work on these feelings to serve the interests of Sindh. As mentioned earlier, Sindhi Hindus have strong financial clout that can be directed towards the progress of Sindh.
Neglected Education System Undermines Sindh’s Development Manzoor Chandio With the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Goebbels, said, “The Polish nation is not worthy to be called a cultured nation”. Germans and Russians divided the country and established their brutal rule. But what happened in Nazi-occupied Poland could be compared with today’s Sindh. Germans closed down all primary and vocational schools from 19391945 because they wanted Poles to be their serfs. Later, some declassified papers revealed that Hitler wanted Poles to be illiterate to perpetuate the German rule over them. The same is happening in Sindh. Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, who belonged to the Indian state of Utter Pradesh, declared Sindhis as the nation of “herdsmen” and “peasants”. Asia’s model dictator General Ziaul Haq set up the Sindh Islamic Mission to teach Sindhis Islam and to open Masjid (mosque) schools with an Arabic language syllabus instead of modern schools with science and English as the main subjects. The dictator introduced the Arabic subject in schools that were opened by the British Raj. General Musharraf, the former Pakistani dictator who belonged to New Delhi, revived the policy of Liaquat Ali Khan and declared Sindhis as “incompetent” among other nationalities in Pakistan. The education system in rural Sindh deteriorated during General Zia's martial law regime. Because of the general's mission to promote jihad, attention was given to the opening of all-male madressahs with Saudi money. No new schools
were opened in response to the increasing population. Some 7,500 schools, a majority of them all-girl schools, were found closed when the World Bank conducted a survey in the province in 2003. The previous civilian government reopened 2,000 schools. However, more than 5,500 primary schools are still closed in Sindh because of the indifference of government officials, teacher absenteeism, and the prevalence of poverty. Well-aware Sindhis say education is being destroyed through a conspiracy of sorts. Pakistan Rangers have taken over hundreds of schools and colleges to establish their camps. Violence and copy culture are being patronized under the nose of government authorities to keep Sindhis backwards in comparison to other nationalities comprising the Pakistani federation. There is a decline in enrolment in schools while madressah education is flourishing in the province. The number of out of school children (OOSC) has reached alarming proportions in Sindh because of the indifferent attitudes of government officials who are corrupted by the subsequent governments. More than 5,500 primary schools, a majority among them girl schools, are closed in Sindh because of the government apathy and other challenges to reopening them. For example, QuambarShahdadkot, which is a rural district in upper Sindh, has a literacy ratio of 58% for males and only 25% for females. Girls that have never
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attended school, in rural areas of the other rural districts, according to government figures include Khairpur 24%, Sukkur 21%, Benazirabad 16%, Noushahero Feroze 31%, Ghotki 12%, Jacobabad 7%, Kashmore 10%, Shikarpur 20%, Larkana 25%, Dadu 49%, Jamshoro 20%, Hyderabad 25%, Matiari 28%, Tando Allahyar 23%, Tando Mohammad Khan 22%, Badin 19%, Thatha 13%, Sanghar 24%,Mirpur Khas 24%, Umerkot 19% and Tharparkar 12 %. The total literacy ratio in rural Sindh, according to the government figures, stands at only 22%. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), through collaboration with the South Asian Forum for Education Development (SAFED), conducted a survey in 17 rural and one urban district in Sindh in 2011. They found that "the province stands out when it comes to provincial comparison of out of school children among other provinces of Pakistan. About 29.5% of the province's school going population [children up to 5 years old are school going children] are out of school, this number is larger than the one shown by tribal areas of the country." Raising literacy ratio is the state’s responsibility, but they have failed on this front. Pakistan may even fail to meet the millennium development goals by 2015. The country, which is a nuclear power, spends only two percent of its GDP on education. Sindh claims to be the first province of the country to make education free and compulsory. However, this has not changed the situation on the ground. The Sindh government's claim is not true. The first law for compulsory education was passed in 1917 by the Bombay Legislative Council. Then Sindh was part of the Bombay Presidency. Article 25-A (the Right to Education) has been inserted in the chapter of the fundamental rights of the Constitution as part of the 18th Constitutional amendment in 2010 under which "the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to 16 years," says Asghar Soomro, an education campaigner from Dadu. [This interview was taken during a face-toface meeting in Karachi] "By 1930 all the legislative councils passed the same law," he said. "We've very beautiful laws on paper. The problem is the lack of implementation. I think that there are four essential elements of right to education; availability, access-
ibility, acceptability and adoptability," Mr Soomro said. "Serious efforts should be taken to introduce a uniform education system across the country," he said. "The main problems ailing the education system in rural areas could be the poor quality of teachers, unavailability of female teachers, financial mismanagement and irrelevant education," he said. "Kashmore and Thatha, the two rural districts present the highest number of OOSC when compared with other rural districts of the province. 55.7% of their school going population never enrolled in school besides the two districts have alarming trends of school dropouts, 73.7% and 61.5% respectively," says ASER 2011. About the standards of education, the report says, "94% of grade III students in Sindh are not able to read a sentence in English." There is a need for changing the state attitude towards Sindh. Since the people of Sindh believe in non-violence and follow the Sufi code of life, the establishment’s agenda for Islamisation will not work. The secret funding for religious parties from Saudi Arabia and Iran should be stopped because such parties are promoting madressah education and fomenting sectarianism, which has hampered development. The modern education system with English and Sindhi mediums of instructions is the only way forward to bring Sindh at par with modern nations.
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SINDHI AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
SAPAC SAPAC is an organization, which works to raise public awareness about issues relating to Sindh and the Sindhi people throughout the world. SAPAC emphasized the significant link between the Sindh region and U.S. national interests. For this purpose, SAPAC aims to advocate on behalf of the Sinhis and to positively influence American policies toward Sindh.
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The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of SAPAC
Contact Info: Phone: (202) 496-5300 E-mail: sapac.sindh@gmail.com Web Site: www.sindhipac.org
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