Heritage: "Sindhi will survive"

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

"Adam Nayyar" <nayyar@isb.compol.com> writes in sindhorg@egroups.com:

I humbly ask permission to submit a few opinions to what [has been]
written [by saheras@super.net.pk]:

"Since prehistoric times, Sindh was geographically isolated from all
the four directions namely thar and rann kuchh on its eastern and
south-eastern side, huge wasteland desert between ghotki and Multan on
north, pat and khirthar on west and Arabian sea in south."

Excavations of the Harappan Culture (or the Indus Valley Civilization)
do not bear out the northern argument. The Indus Valley exhibits a
continuum of culture deep into the mountains of Central Asia, as the
petroglyphic evidence in Chilas (south of Gilgit) clearly shows. The
"huge wasteland desert between Ghotki and Multan" is very small and
cannot provably constitute a cultural obstacle in "prehistoric times".

[.. I might add Sindhis in ancient times were also expert mariners who
reached at least as far as Southeast Asia and Arabia -- Agha].

"We have been overwhelmed by hordes of people unrelated to our
cultural heritage and language. During last fifty years we have been
subdued politically, economically and liguastically. Except for far
flung areas Sindhi is no more ligua franca, urdu is. We are on loosing
ground."

Sindh (and the NWFP) are the only parts of Pakistan that have retained
their script and language at the primary school level, and the only
newspapers and journals in Pakistan that are not in Urdu or English
are in Sindhi (or Gujrati). The rich-textured fabric of Sindhi culture
is alive and resilient despite all challenges and provocations; and
this gives hope to the other languages and peoples of the Indus
Valley. Sindh leads the way and Sindhorg is a hi-tech example that the
rest of Pakistan must follow. Do not be despondent and do not
underestimate the depth of Sindhi culture.

"This age of information and globalization will lead us to anywhere
but keeping our sindhi identity intact. Next fifity years we could
still be knwon as sindhis but what sindhis will we be then? Sindhis
who couldn't understand laguage of shah, sachal, sami, ayaz."

Sindhis must adapt to survive, but Sindh and the people who live there
can never forget the core of Sindhi identity that Shah Latif created,
and the bridge to the north [Ed. note: Seraiki poetry.  Seraiki is,
linguistically speaking, a dialect of Sindhi spoken mostly north of
present day Sindh] that Sachal Sain gave us:

Sachal saro sach

[Sachal is all truth]