Report on the Sindhi Association of North America Annual Meeting

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

Excerpted from the Report by Khalid Hashmani.  See full report at:
http://www.sanalist.org/Convention_2004.htm


SATURDAY, JULY 3, 2004 - GUEST SPEAKERS  (2:15 PM to 4:30 PM)

A strong group of 150 persons attended this very informative and
interesting session addressed by two American scholars.

DR.  ALLEN KEITH is a Secretary General of World Health Association and
associated with many international organizations active in education,
global health, and medical field.  He has published a book "Politics of
Sindh and Muslim Identity in Pakistan - 1907-1940) and visited SaeeN
G.M.  Syed (considered by many Sindhis as the father of Sindh
nationalism) in his hometown called Sann several years ago.  He knows
Hindi, Urdu and other Indo-Pakistani languages.

He started his address by asking audience several questions "What does
Sindhi mean to you? What does it represent to you? What does being
Sindhi means to your children? Without waiting for the answers from
audience, he went ahead and explained the peaceful nature of Sindhi
folks, they have rich history, they have selfless culture, and strong
identity.   He added that he will never forget his visit to Sindh and
will always cherish those memories.  He said "There is something unique
about Sindhis, that you just don't find in other Pakistani
compatriots".  When you meet Sindhis, they always want to talk about
heritage and civilization.  In contrast, the people of Punjab are more
interested about places and features of their province.

Talking about his book, he mentioned that the Sindh's decision to join
Pakistan was strongly influenced by the success of Sindhi Muslim
politicians in separating from Bombay.  This troubled the Hindu Sindhi
politicians and the two sides were never able to fully bridge that gap
after that.  He said he awarded a Fullbright scholarship to do
research mainly about who were leaders of the movement to create
Pakistan and what contributions were made by Sindhi leaders in
creating Pakistan.  During his research, he met several English
scholars (Francis Woody, Hugh Dow, and others) and traveled to Sindh,
where he met Hatem Alvi, two Rashdi brothers, and other scholars and
leaders.

During that visit, at the invitation of G. M. Syed, he went to Sann
and stayed with him for few days while he was under house arrest.  He
recited a very interesting story that while SaeeN G. M. Syed was
showing his library, he noticed several areas in book shelves no
books.  Upon his inquiry, SaeeN G. M. Syed said that because he was
not sure about the next actions of the government, he had arranged to
store some of the sensitive and important papers buried underground to
be opened only after his death.  He added, he recently asked SaeeN G.
M. Syed's grandson about this and was surprised to learn that he had
not heard anything about that.

DR. JONATHAN MARK KENOYER is a professor of Anthropology at the
University of Wisconsin and a co-director of Harpa project.  He made a
slide presentation titled "Sindh and the Indus Valley Civilization:
Textile and Ornament Traditions".  He has lived in India for 18 years
and speaks Hindi, Sindhi, and Urdu very fluently.   Through the story
of textile and ornaments found at Moen-jo-daro and Harpa, he
demonstrated the rich culture and heritage of Indus valley
civilization.  He said that Sindh was far more advanced center in
textile and ornament technologies than other civilizations of those
days including Europe.  Sindh was one of the most important trading
centers of the world.

Tracing the roots of the Indus River, he said in old days there were
actually two rivers flowing in the Indus valley - one was called
Sindhu and other the Nara River and Indus valley's fertile and green
regions were twice as large as is today.  He added that some of the
old methods for making garments and ornaments are still practiced by
"Kanbiri" or "Jogis".  The region was an important source of quality
wool and silk and producing coloring dyes extracted from plants (for
example, indigo plant).  The trade practices and advanced
manufacturing methods made Sindh a very large importer of raw
materials and exporter of finished goods.  The people of Indus valley
had a common and uniform weighing system.  In contrast in most other
parts of the world, individual cities had their own weighing systems
makes inter-regional trading rather difficult.  He added there is no
evidence of people killing people, something akin to the sufi thinking
prevalent in present day Sindh...

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

During ancillary discussions, the following two questions were raised
that led to discussions.  A synopsis of those discussions is as
follows:

WHY SANA DOES NOT CONTACT OTHER NORTH AMERICAN HINDU SINDHI
ORGANIZATIONS ON CULTURAL COOPERATION?

In the past SANA has tried several times but it appears that there is
some reluctance on both parties due to lack of confidence and trust.
Where as, SANA is a secular organization and open to all Sindhis, many
of the Sindhi Hindu organizations have some religious activities as
well.  Other reality is that some of SANA members erroneously assume
that SANA is an organization of only Sindh-based Sindhis and/or want
to limit SANA membership only to Sindh-based Sindhis.  However, there
are signs of progress as Sindhis both sides now see other communities
(Urdu speaking and Punjabis) conducting joint gatherings and working
on common issues.  Recently a joint get-together of Sindhis from both
sides in Toronto shows that trust and understanding is taking hold for
common cultural heritage.  We are hopeful that sooner than later all
Sindhis will be eager to work together for the preservation and
advancement of language and culture.