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Language is considered as the foundation of culture. The whole culture is learnt and transmitted through the language.
The Sindhi community has a rich cultural heritage. The Indus valley civilization is one of the most ancient and highly developed civilization. The community has a great feeling of pride in its origin, rich traditions and literature (oral as well as written). Apart from the language, its way of life, customs, beliefs and traditions etc are quite different from other communities.
Due to the Partition (1947), more than one million Sindhis were compelled to leave their homeland Sindh and as a result they were scattered in different parts of India. Thus they were uprooted from their natural socio-cultural environment and monolingual set up and were transplanted into a new socio-cultural environment having multilingual set up. In the short period they successfully adjusted in the totally new situations and joined the Indian mainstream in a real sense by using the local/dominant languages, taking active part in the social, economical and political life of the country. At the same time, they tried their level best to maintain their separate linguistic and cultural identity by adopting the positive outlook and constructive steps. Their family setup, religion, rites, beliefs, customs, festivals and socio-cultural organizations etc played an important role in maintaining their linguistic and cultural identity in India.
Family, as an organized social structure plays an important role in the transmission of moral and cultural values. The maintenance of a language is also achieved through the family set up. Some of its activities like kinship structure, household items, food habits, clothes, religious rituals, ceremonies, customs etc. show a conscious utilization of a set of structural lexicons. In India, Sindhi is used as the home language by the vast majority of the community members. It is used in the domestic domains and many formal ‘in group’ activities. It is also worth to mention that the kinship system, social setup, religion and other cultural patterns continue to exist and are less affected in comparison to language.
Religion is the most stable part of culture. The religion, beliefs, rites and most of the social customs of the Hindu Sindhi community are mainly based on the Vedic traditions. Like other Hindu Communities, the Sindhis worship Gods and Goddesses like Shiva, Shakti, Ganesh, Ram, Krishna etc and celebrate the major festivals related to them.
Some of the household articles used for storage and preparation of food grains like granary, winnowing fan, pestle, mortar, sieve and mill-stone etc are raised to the status of household gods and worshipped during the performance of birth and marriage rites.
Jhulelal - ‘the water god’ is considered the distinct religio-cultural identity of the Sindhi community. Sindhis worship Jhulelal during the festivals like Chetichand, Chaliho, Ekhans and all other auspicious occasions.
There is also a great influence of the thoughts of Sufism, Nanak panth and Arya Samaj which has made them very liberal and broad minded regarding the religion. The community has comparatively remained free from the rigidities like caste system, untouchability etc. The Sindhis visit all the Hindu temples, ‘Tikana’ - the Nanak panthi temples and Shrines of Saints and Sufis. There are a number of Sindhi religio-cultural centers in the country which play a very significant role for the unity of community and maintenance of its linguistic and cultural identity.
The domestic ceremonies, rites and customs help to preserve the language and culture. Enormous folk literature on these aspects is available in Sindhi. The Sindhi ceremonies, rites and customs related to birth, marriage and death etc are mainly based on the Vedic rituals with some distinctive features. Some major rites performed by the community are given below:
‘Tulu’ - the oiling ceremony is performed during the ninth month of pregnancy. ‘Chhathi’ - the naming ceremony is celebrated on the sixth day of the birth of a child. ‘The cradling ceremony’ is arranged on the twenty first day of the birth of a child. ‘Munaņu’ - Shaving off the first hair of new born baby is generally performed at the age of thirteen months or on the Dashera festival.
‘Jaņiyo’ - the sacred thread ceremony of a boy is performed between the age of five to twelve years.
After the betrothal, the date of marriage is fixed. About five to six days prior to the marriage, a small granary is prepared and worshipped as deity. ‘Saţh’, ‘Buki’ and ‘Tehi’ act are performed at the place of bride as well as bridegroom. They are not allowed to go out during the tabooed period. The clothes of bridegroom are torn by his friends and relatives.
After different rites and Dikh-the crowning ceremony, the marriage procession reaches the bride’s house where different rites are performed. ‘Hathiyalo’ - ‘Joining the hands of bride and bridegroom’, and ‘Phera’ - ‘the circuit round the sacred fire’ rites are performed by the priest. He also recites ‘Saptapadi’.
After the send-off, when the bride reaches her husband’s house ‘Luņu Maiņu’ - the salt measuring ceremony is performed; on the next day, ‘Dev Mokilaiņu’ - the rite of farewell to the household deities is performed.
Different rites are performed at the death of a person. When death approaches, the person is brought from the cot and placed on the ground. ‘Ganga Jal’ - ‘the sacred water’ is put in his/her mouth.
At the time of disposal of the dead, the Brahmin performs different rites. The body is bathed and clothed. After that it is placed on the pier kept outside the house. It is taken to the crematory with the feet in the direction of his or her house under the belief that the spirit still hopes to return. When the procession reaches outside the cremation ground, the body is placed down on ‘Thikraţo’ - 'a place of earthen pieces’ where ‘the pot breaking rite’ is performed. The Brahmin again performs some rites. The corpse bearers change their place and the corpse is taken with its feet to the crematory as the spirit has no hope of returning. After some rites the corpse bearers fire the funeral pyre.
On the third day, ashes are collected and thrown in a river. In the evening ‘Pagiŗiyoon’ - ‘the turban wrapping ceremony’ is performed.
There are no particular rites about the disposal of the children under the age of two. On their death, they are taken wrapped in cloth and buried in the graveyard without any rites.
Every year, ‘the Shradh Ceremony’ is performed for all the dead ancestors.
The celebration of festivals ensures the communication and social contact.
The Sindhis celebrate most of the Hindu festivals with some distinctive rites and customs from the other communities. Main festivals celebrated by them are : ‘Chaliho’ - worshipping the water god and observation of fasts for forty days’; ‘Thadhiri’ - the worship of ‘Shitala Mata’ - the goddess of small-pox; ‘Gogiŗo’ - the worship of Gogal Vir - the lord of all snakes in the world; ‘Mahalaxmi’ - the festival celebrated in the honour of Laxmi, the goddess of wealth; ‘Rakhiŗi’ - the festival when sister ties sacred thread on the wrist of the brother and the life long protection is guaranteed ; ‘Janmathi’ - the birth day of Lord Krishna; ‘Tijiŗi’ - the festival of goddess ‘Gauri’ or Parvati’; Ganesh Utsav - the Ganesh festival ; Ekahaņa - the corn festival or Navratra - the nine nights of the Goddess Kali; ‘Dasahiŗo’ - the Dashera festival; ‘Diyari’ - the festival of lamps; Nanak Jayanti - the birthday of Guru Nanak dev ; ‘Tiramuri’ - the day of transition when the sun enters the mansion Capricorn; ‘Shiv’ - the festival of worshipping Lord Shiv; ‘Lal loi’ - the festival of fire; ‘Holi’ - the festival of colour and ‘Chetichand’ - the Hindu New Year day.
Chetichand is celebrated with great jubilation as the birthday of ‘Jhulellal’ - The water god. It is also called ‘Sindhiyat Day’ to proclaim the distinctiveness of the community. The Bahranas (offerings of the water-god) are taken out by installing a picture of Jhulelal in a temple structure with a perpetual light. The procession with the ‘Chhej - dance’ and music passes through all the main localities and reaches on the bank of a river. ‘Panjara’ - the five line devotional songs in praise of the water-god is sung. After the offering of ‘Akho’ - whole grains of rice mixed with sugar and the perpetual light is floated in the river. The cultural and entertainment programmes are organized in the different localities. Now- a-days a large number of non-Sindhis also participate in the celebration.
A common socio-cultural background facilitates the social cohesion and language use.
The tradition of ‘Panchayat’ system is still maintained by the Sindhi community in India. Generally, there is a separate ‘Panchayat’ in each Sindhi locality with a ‘Central Panchayat’ for a whole town/city. These Panchayats play an important role to discuss and solve different social problems and maintain the unity among the members of the community.
‘Nev Yuvak Mandal’ - the youth club is formed in almost every Sindhi pocket to organize different socio-cultural programmes and work as a link for the social upliftment. There is a strong business link among the members of the community. Sindhi saints and their religio-cultural centres are also playing a very important role for social reforms and enriching the linguistic and cultural identity.
In India, the Sindhi migrants have lost their rural environment, have raisen the educational background (almost cent percent literacy) and have become bi/multilingual. They have become cosmopolitan in the outlook, which is reflected in their lexical choice and language use. A number of Kinship terms, traditional words for different household items, food, dress and ornaments are not used in the language. Due to the progress in science and technology and modern way of life, many lexical items from English and other languages are borrowed in Sindhi.
The remigration of Sindhi speakers from the colonies by their own choice and the new settlements of non-Sindhi neighbourhood has drastically changed the social structure of the Sindhi community. In such a situation, a number of Sindhi speakers have become pessimist about the Sindhi language in India. They feel that Sindhis have no political strength as there is no separate statehood for them in India. On the one hand, the community does not form a significant numerical strength in any part of India and on the other hand, there is a very limited Geo-political contact with Sindh. Due to different socio-economic reasons, a great number of Sindhis are leaving their colonies and settling down in the cosmopolitan cities or abroad. Thus they are becoming global citizens. In such a situation they will stop using their mother tongue and loose their cultural identity.
But the facts and figures show that the element of maintaining their linguistic and cultural identity is stronger than assimilation. There is a vast scope to channelise the energies and resources of Sindhi community in a common direction of preserving and enriching its cultural heritage and linguistic identity.
Copyright CIIL-India Mysore