Heritage: Some aspects of Sindhi culture

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

"Before Islam came to Sind, the Buddhist monastries were spread all
over Sind and the [Sindhi] fondness for self-resignation and
self-annihilation are partly traceable to that epoch as well.  It is
no doubt that with the Arab conquest of Sind the human relations and
attitudes towards cosmos received a new impetus for change... Yet it
is not strange that the average Sindhi today seems more drawn towards
the mystic-saints than to the scholars of [religious] jurisprudence.
The mystic had no rigid rules.  Their message was Love... mysticism is
always a rebellion against the rigidities of jurisprudence and the way
Kabir, Mira and Tulsidas have ruled over the hearts of Sindhis speaks
volumes of their capacity to be won over through love...

"Hence love, tolerance, catholocity and non-violence--as is customary
in regions where mysticism or Bhakti movement was popular, are the
cornerstones of Sindhi culture with a difference that Sindhi's love
for their land is a paramount feature and even the mystic-saints of
Sind have referred to the sand dunes, shrubs and berries of Sind as
something heavenly-sent.  Some of the lines of Shah Latif will
eminently serve as the leitmotif of patriotic mysticism."

             -- M.A. Siddiqui, Some aspects of Sindhi culture
                in "Sind Through the Centuries: an introduction to Sind"