Sindhi History
Sindhis are basically people originating from Sindh and speak Sindhi language.
Sindh, derived its name from the Sindhu river now known as Indus River. Sindh was known to the Assyrians (as early as the seventh century BCE) as Sinda, to the Greeks as Indos, to the Romans as Indus, to the Persians as Abisind, to the Arabs as Al-Sind, and to the Chinese as Sintow. To the Javanese the Sindhis have long been known as the Santri.
In Sanskrit, Sindhu generically means river, stream, ocean, probably from a root sidh meaning to keep off.
- As a matter of fact SIndh and India both derived their names from the Indus River.
The Greeks who conquered Sindh in 325 BC under the command of Alexander the Great rendered it as Indós, hence the modern Indus.
When the British conquered South Asia in the 17th century, they expanded the term and applied the name to the entire region of South Asia and called it India.
Sindhu, found its mention even in the Rigveda, The Rigveda refers to the Ganges only twice; but it makes as many as thirty references to the Sindhu.
Interestingly, Sindhu river was mentioned as "He" rather than "It" in the text.
Sindhu in might surpasses all the streams that flow.... His roar is lifted up to heaven above the earth; he puts forth endless vigour with a flash of light .... Even as cows with milk rush to their calves, so other rivers roar into the Sindhu. As a warrior-king leads other warriors, so does Sindhu lead other rivers.... Rich in good steeds is Sindhu, rich in gold, nobly fashioned, rich in ample wealth.- Rigveda
Mohenjo-daro
Sindh was home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization . The ancient city of Mohenjo-daro ( Mound of the Dead ), was also found here.
Mohenjo-daro was built around 2600 BCE and abandoned around 1500 BCE. It was rediscovered in 1922 by Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay, an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India.
In the 1930s, massive excavations were conducted under the leadership of John Marshall, K. N. Dikshit, Ernest Mackay, and others. Further excavations were carried out in 1945 by Ahmad Hasan Dani and Mortimer Wheeler.
It was the most developed and advanced city in South Asia, during its peak. The planning and engineering showed the importance of the city to the people of the Indus valley.
Mohenjo-daro has a planned layout based on a street-grid of rectilinear buildings. Most are of fired and mortared brick; some incorporate sun dried mud-brick and wooden superstructures. The sheer size of the city, and its provision of public buildings and facilities, suggests high levels of social organisation.
- At its peak of development, Mohenjo-Daro could have housed around 35,000 residents.
The city had a central marketplace, with a large central well. Individual households or groups of households obtained their water from smaller wells. Waste water was channeled to covered drains that lined the major streets.
Some houses, presumably those of wealthier inhabitants, include rooms that appear to have been set aside for bathing, and one building had an underground furnace (hypocaust), possibly for heated bathing. Most house have inner courtyards, with doors that opened onto side-lanes. Some buildings were two-storeyed.
Time Line
Sindh was attacked and conquered by many empires. A brief time line of Sindh is as follows:
Partition of India
In 1947, Sindh province became part of Pakistan. There were around 1,400,000 Hindu Sindhis, Many of them decided to move to India after partition.
- According to the census of India 1951, nearly 776,000 Sindhi Hindus moved into India.
In India, Hindu Sindhis were rendered homeless, They scattered all over India during time to come.
Many cities in India, including Ulhasnagar, Gandhidham, Ahmedabad, Bhopal and Pimpri-Chinchwad, served as refugee camps for Sindhis who fled from Pakistan and now house a large number of Hindu Sindhis.
- The Sindhi Hindus in India as per 2001 census of India were at 2.57 million.
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