Sindhi Hindus are Sindhis who follow Hinduism. They are spread across modern-day Sindh, Pakistan and India. After the partition of India in 1947, many Sindhi Hindus were among those who fled from Pakistan to the dominion of India, in what was a wholesale exchange of Hindu and Muslim populations in some areas. Some later emigrated from the Indian subcontinent and settled in other parts of the world.[6][7][8]
According to the 2023 census, there are 4.9 million Sindhi Hindus residing within the Sindh province of Pakistan with major population centers being Mirpur Khas Division and Hyderabad Division that combined account for more than 2 million of them.[3] Meanwhile, the 2011 census listed 2.77 million speakers of Sindhi in India, including speakers of Kutchi,[9] a number that does not include Sindhi Hindus who no longer speak the Sindhi language. The vast majority of Sindhi Hindus living in India belong to the Lohanajāti, which includes the sub-groups of Amil, Bhaiband and Sahiti.[10][11]
Prior to Arab invasions, majority of Sindh's population practiced Hinduism, although a significant minority adhered to Buddhism as well.[12] During the Arab invasions, majority of Sindhi Hindus were a rural pastoral population, who lived mostly in upper Sindh, a region that was entirely Hindu; while the Buddhists of Sindh were a mercantile population, who lived entirely in the urban areas of lower Sindh.[13]
Sindh, under the control of Qasim, saw a decline of Buddhism, as most Buddhists started converting to Islam. The later reign of the Delhi Sultanate, led to further decline, with both Hinduism and Buddhism becoming minority religions in Sindh. Buddhism later collapsed and ceased to exist in Sindh, while Hinduism remained persistent, managing to survive and flourish throughout the centuries as a minority religion. The consistency of Hinduism in Sindh is credited the dependency of the rural Hindu population on Brahmins.[13]
Partition and after
Prior to the partition of India, as per the 1941 census, the Sindhi Hindu population accounted for around 27% of Sindh's population, most of whom moved to India. Today, Sindhi Hindus in Pakistan number around 4.2 million, around 9% of the region's population. Sindhi Hindus are the largest ethnolinguistic Hindu group in Pakistan.[15]
Religious syncretism with Islam and Sikhism
Historically, Sindhi Hindus have embraced forms of religious syncretism, as a large proportion of the Sindhi Hindus have been close to Islam through revering Sufi saints at Sufi shrines as well close to Sikhism through the Nanakpanthi, an approach in which Guru Nanak's teachings are respected but without necessarily following the other gurus nor identifying as Sikhs.[16]
Groups and communities
Majority of Sindhi hindus belong to Lohana community who are historically traders, merchants and government officials, The Sindhi Lohanas are divided into different sub-groups for example Amils, Bhaibands, Hyderabadi Bhaiband (Sindhi Varki), Sahitis, Shikarpuris, Hatvaniya/Hatwara, Thattai, Bhagnari etc, these sub-groups have their own hundreds of surnames/castes.[17] Other communities are Bhatia (Larai) and Arora (Riasti) all of them are called as Wāniya and Deewan in Sindh and belong to Waishya Varna of Hinduism. There are also few Sindhi Brahmins for example Pokarno and Sarsat or Sarsudh.[18] Hindu Rajputs are mainly found in Thar region. The tribal groups like Dhed, Bhils, Meghwars, Kolhis etc form second largest group among Sindhi Hindus and are mostly found in Southeast of Sindh.
The Sindhi hindus do not have caste based division nor the concept of higher caste or lower caste, there is no evil of untouchability.[19]
According to the 2011 Census of India, there are around 2.8 million Sindhi-language speakers living in India, however, this number does not include ethnic Sindhis who no longer speak Sindhi and includes Kutchis who in some cases may not identify as ethnic Sindhis (especially those in Gujarat).[22] Sindhis formed a major-chunk of population of Ulhasnagar Municipality (Mumbai Metropolitan Region), Maharashtra. The population of Ulhasnagar city is 500k, out of which 400k of the residents are Sindhis, thus constituting 80% of the city's population as per 2011 census report. Ulhasnagar is also known as India's "Mini Sindh" due to having the highest concentration of Sindhis in one city in India.[23][24][25]
Family names
Conventions
Most Sindhi Hindu family names are a modified form of a patronymic and typically end with the suffix "-ani", which is used to denote descent from a common male ancestor. One explanation states that the -ani suffix is a Sindhi variant of 'anshi', derived from the Sanskrit word 'ansh', which means 'descended from' (see: Devanshi). The first part of a Sindhi Hindu surname is usually derived from the name or location of an ancestor. In northern Sindh, surnames ending in 'ja' (meaning 'of') are also common. A person's surname would consist of the name of his or her native village, followed by 'ja'. The Sindhi Hindus generally add the suffix ‘-ani’ to the name of a great-grandfather and adopt the name as a family name.[26][27][28]
^Includes speakers of the Sindhi and 1 million speakers of the Kutchi language; some Sindhi and Kutchi speakers, especially in Kutch in Gujarat and in western Rajasthan, are Muslims while many ethnic Sindhi Hindus no longer speak the language.
References
^Centre for Land Warfare Studies
https://archive.claws.in › roots-of-si...
Roots of Sindhi-Hindu Exodus from Pakistan
^Burton, Sir Richard Francis (1851). Sindh, and the Races that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus. W. H. Allen. p. 310. As usual among the Hindoo race, wherever it is settled, they have divided themselves into different tribes. The Satawarna, or seven castes of Indians in Sindh, are as follows:--1. Brahman; 2. Lohano; 3. Bhatio; 4. Sahto; 5. Waishya (including a number of trades as Wahun, grain-toaster; Khatti, dyer, &c.); 6. Panjabi; and 7. Sonaro. Five of these belong, properly speaking, to the Waishya (the third, or merchant) division of pure Indians. The seventh is a mixed caste, descended from a Brahman father and a Shudra mother.
