The challenge of how we connect the younger generation of Sindhis to " Sindhiyat " has been in existence for the last many decades and one where in my opinion , we as a community have failed miserably. Ask a young or even a middle aged Sindhi today to speak about his Sindhi identity for 5 minutes and they are most likely fail the test. A number of senior community members have tried in their own ways to connect the new generation of Sindhis who are spread across the world and growing up in multicultural environments with their Sindhi roots albeit with limited success. This has always concerned me as for the identity to survive , it is important that it is passed on to the next generation. We have the shining example of Sikh community in particular who have been doing an excellent job in passing on information about their history and culture to the next generation.
Whilst I can't pinpoint the exact reasons for our limited success, I think the community's emphasis on using Sindhi language as a medium for dissemination of such information probably needs to be relooked at. Whilst Sindhi language is best suited for engaging in conversations on such topics, the sad reality is that we now have an entire generation ( or maybe two) of Sindhis who are unable to communicate in Sindhi. Whilst some of them do understand the language in its very basic form, however, are unlikely to spend time watching / reading content in Sindhi. I have seen this happening in my extended household and am aware that the same is true for a number of other families too.
In such a scenario, it may be a good idea to start developing content in Hindi and English which are understood by a majority of the population. The easiest way to do this is to start adding English and Hindhi subtitles in Sindhi videos which can then be disseminated to a wider audience. In addition, there should be a distinct emphasis on creating programs where medium of discussion is English/Hindi. Prominent Sindhi organisations in USA/UK/Canada can good come together and create a series consisting of 15/20 minutes videos each which speak about the community's origins, history, current status etc suited to the requirements of the International Sindhi diaspora. I remember watching a couple of such videos in English produced by Sindhi Sangat where (Late) Mr. Kamlesh Moorjani from Canada used to be the host but unfortunately post his untimely demise such videos doen't seem to be produced any longer. As a community, we need to keep evolving with the changing times and hence need to keep reinventing to suit the needs of the globalized diaspora. As Shah Abdul Latif rightly said " Separation re-unites us even more warmly, than just being together ".
I end with this lovely Sindhi Kalam sung by Girish Sadhwani, a master of Sindhi and Sufi " gaiki". I hope you like it as much as I did.
Jai Jhulelal !
