Secularism and Sindhis

The other day I was hearing Dada Ram Jethmalani's (dated) speech at a Sindhi event in Dubai. In his quintessential Sindhi style (which reminds me of my grandfather !) , he spoke about how Secularism is ingrained in Sindhis and that the community is a perfect example of  what it means to have "secular values". He goes on to elaborate about how during his days in Shikarpur (Sindh), Hindu children were presented with gifts and cloths on Eid and Muslim children on Diwali ("Dyaarih" in Sindhi). (For the interested, The link to his speech is given at the end of this post.)

Something similar is echoed by Steven.W. Ramey in his book " Hindu, Sufi, or Sikh: Contested Practices and Identifications of Sindhi Hindus in India and Beyond". In his interactions with various Sindhi Hindus in Lucknow , he mentions about how many respondents, when asked about their religious identity, mentioned that they were "basically Hindu". Ramey states : " The insertion of qualifying terms such as "basically" implies that they are not fully or truly Hindu and reflects the influence of the dominant understandings on Sindhi assertions".

At my home too, we have grown up with  Guru Nanak Baba Ji's picture along with other gods and goddesses in our "small" mandir. In-fact such pluralism is a normal way of life for most Hindu Sindhis. We always called our Dadi (Paternal Grandmother) as "Mummy-Ammi". Recently, at my sister's friend's wedding (also a Hindu Sindhi) the entire wedding was solemnized at the gurudwara according to Sikh rituals. Infact, Guru Nanak Jayanti is a much celebrated occasion in the Hindu Sindhi calendar as most Hindu Sindhis are "Nanakpanthis".

Our places of worship, Gurmandir ("Tikaano" in Sindhi) is actually an amalgamation of Gurudwara and Mandir and (until recently) generally had  a picture of Guru Nanak (and quite often even Guru Granth Sahib) in addition to Hindu gods such as Ram and Krishna. However I am told (unverified) that the new gurudwara legislation does not allow a number of "hybrid" practices which if true, is another testimony to the polarized world that we live in wherein identities have to be looked from a black/white prism ("either/or") rather than acknowledging existence of "grey" ("And") areas as well. Dada Bhaneja makes a mention in his book about his father's "Sufi" Spirit ; something shared by a lot of Sindhis especially the older generation. The much celebrated kalams of Bhagat Kanwarram have largely been written by Muslim sufis/saints. 

I believe it is this spirit of tolerance and adaptability that comes with it that has played an important role in the material success of the community. I hope that as a community we are able to carry forward this sense of inclusiveness which has helped us come this far.

Link to Dada Ram Jethmalani's video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxDJuRNX8a4

Reinventing Samaj(s).

I have previously written about the important role that Samaj(s) play in the community although its popularity has been facing steady decline over past few years. I consider myself fortunate that I live very close to Rajinder Nagar Sindhu Samaj which is among the oldest and well known Samaj in Delhi, having shifted to its present location from the Janpath Barracks in the early ’60s. As I understand, such community centers came up post partition in order to preserve Sindhi culture, language and tradition. 

Today, most Samaj's have turned into (largely) places of religious interaction and Jhule Lal worship along with running matrimonial services for the community. Whilst both these are important aspects and should be promoted, I think the larger community interactions that Samaj should promote has been ignored. This has over the decades led to minimal interaction between  younger Sindhis and as a result we now have an entire new generation which is largely unaware of their roots and identifies little with "being Sindhi" (other than the surnames!)

I have the following suggestions to offer in this regard:-

1. All Samaj's should ensure that they run classes to teach written "Sindhi" language. The emphasis here should not just me on teaching the language in isolation but instead should be to showcase to the students a glimpse of  Sindhiyat. Whilst teaching the language should be the primary aim , however in every class, there should be some time for general discussion on various aspects which may be of interest to younger generation such as a our ancestory, various Sindhi festivals, some insight into the works of Shah, Sachal and Sami etc.

The importance here is on delivery as a lecture format is unlikely to work. I must mention here about the wonderful work being done by Dadi Asha Chand of "Sindhi Sangat" (NGO) who have developed a number of Information Technology tools/apps/videos in this regard and are always eager to assist in using these.

2.  At regular intervals, Samaj should invite eminent local Sindhis to talk about topics of contemporary interest. The medium of the talk should not necessarily be Sindhi but could be local dialect (depending upon the location). The central idea being to encourage young Sindhis to start getting connected to their roots. Again, videoconferencing is an extremely efficient (and cost effective) way of getting distinguished Sindhis to interact with Sindhis living elsewhere. I rarely see lectures/discussions happening in Samaj's these days.

3. Samaj's should also introspect and see how they can involve more youngsters in their day to day affairs. They could perhaps ask a group of volunteers to perhaps assist them with automating some of their processes or helping create a web-site etc.
 
I end with the below video clipping of Dada J P Vaswani where he emphasizes the importance of preserving sindhi language - I found it to be a good watch and hence sharing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujCJ99A4zsU&t=116s