Re: Soc, YA, Pol, Her: Sammelan Makeup - Sindhi Culture

[Gul Agha <agha@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

Avinashlal@aol.com writes:

 > According to me, both Muslim Sindhis and Hindu Sindhis know quite a
 > bit about  the ISLAMIC culture of Sind.

Saaiin muhinjaa,

I am not sure what you mean here.  First, I believe culture has no
religion, even though there may be strong religious influences on
culture.

But what precisely do you believe is "Islamic" about Sindhi culture?
Even popular Sindhi religious customs and beliefs, veneration of
saints, homage to ancestors, pantheism, non-violence, etc., suggest a
continuity in evolution from the beginning of civilization in the
Indus Valley.

After spending years in Karachi, which is a different world [since
1948], I remember coming to Shikarpur (a small city in Northern Sindh)
at age 6 and discovering a whole new way of thinking.  Let me recount
a couple of episodes that made a distinct impression on me.

As a city kid, I had a strong aversion and fear of insects.  Once,
some insect went by and, freaking out I asked a servant to kill it.
The Sindhi peasant, normally obsequious fellow, ignored me.  As I grew
more authoritative, he finally muttered, it is a sin to kill, picked
up the large insect and laid it aside, which caused it to scamper
away.

At another time, a twenty something son of an older cousin showed up
and was ranting about something or the other (what it was, I can't
remember).  But then he loudly proclaimed, "I am not saying I am not a
sinner, for I have killed God's creatures needlessly.  I mean I walk
on ants even though inadvertantly, and in God's book I will have
answer for this.  But..."

What is this if not Jain values (even if Jainism is not theistic)?
Similarly, Sufi dhikr and Buddhist Zazen represent another continuity.
Moreover, it is not hard to see the heights of Vedic thought
reiterated in the poet-saints of Sindh, in a way in which, in my
personal opinion, it more completely reflects its origins on the banks
of the Indus.  Thus the Bhagats have made true Vedic teachings
accessible to the common people, rather than the corruption of
Brahmins reciting incomprehensible sounds to commoners and pretending
to be guardians of secrets while exploiting ignorance for personal
vanity or greed.

Many anthropologists have noted evidence of continuity of culture from
Moenjodaro to modern Sindh.. ranging from toys, jewelry, crafts,
masonary, etc.  It is hard to say much about the language, but Sindhi
is considered by some to be the purest of the Sanskiritic languages.
On the other hand, what little has been understood about Moenjodaro's
language by deciphering patterns in the script, suggests some
continuity from that time.

The oral traditions of nomadic Thari tribes (whom Shah Latif praises),
as well as the most oppressed Sindhis, those who have stayed out of
the ambit of power or manifest learning from centuries, retain an
ancient essence, like a diamond which gains its purity and lustre
under severe pressure over eons.

Here is a more "casual" observer, an American who grew up in Sindh:

"Local scholars, proud of the language, its literature, and its
history usually linked Sindhi to nearby Moenjodaro, "city of the dead."
... Some claimed that the Sindhi language had originated in
Moenjodaro..

"Closer to home, there was a strangeness and wonder in the mix of
Hinduism and Islam that we saw around us every day, in the customs of
a society that even the seemingly all-encompassing British Raj had
only superficially penetrated.  Sindhis never had the romantic appeal
of the "heroic" Afghans and Pathans, the warlike tribes..  Sindhis
were perceived as too passive, too rooted in the land, overly steeped
in old feudal traditions, utterly resistant to change.

"Ratodero, our first home, was a large village.. The more wealthy
Hindus -- landlords, merchants and moneylenders -- had all [Ed. note:
mostly] left for India at independence.  Low-caste Hindus -- the
untouchables, Gandhis harijans -- mostly stayed behind, sweeping
streets, cleaning drains, and washing toilets.  Although despised
because of their occupations, the remaining Hindus nonetheless seemed
to be keepers of a deep and mysterious spiritual tradition, with an
access to the ancient soul of Sind that somehow been lost in the
intervening centuries.  They had a link to Moenjodaro, a city built
before Christ and Mohammed even, a link that later generations of
Christians and Muslims could never fully understand.

"Years later, my parents told me that it was an old Hindu woman from
Ratodero who first announced my coming birth.  A snake charmer and a
cobra were also involved [the book relates details of the incident
where the old woman recognizes that Jonathan's mother was pregnant
before the mom or dad had realized].

               -- Jonathan S. Addleton, "Some Far and Distant Place",
                           University of Georgia Press, 1997 (207pp

"Seek and ye shall find."

Just my personal opinion which may be the product of my own
romanticism.

-------
haku mojuudu [the truth abides],

Gul Agha