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Sindh was a rich and important region of undivided India, which had strong economic and cultural relations with the neighbouring countries. It has a rich cultural heritage and literary tradition. During the British period, Sindhi was used in different formal language domains i.e. local administration, education, mass-media and literature.
The state of Sindhi underwent drastic changes due to the Partition (1947). On the one hand about one million Hindu Sindhis
who had played a major role in the development of the Sindhi language and literature were compelled to leave Sindh and on the
other hand a great number of non-sindhi speakers came and settled in Sindh which totally changed the demographic composition
of Sindh.
The Sindhi speakers living in Pakistan, India and other parts of world have common linguistic identity engulfing the realms
of politics, culture, language and literature and Sindhi Diaspora presents a unique profile. A culturally sensitive
diffused Diaspora (across two nations, Pakistan and India) has emerged from the pangs of sudden dispersal of a
well-knit community hitherto belonging to a relatively homogeneous region – Sindh province before the partition.
(Khub Chandani L.M., "Sindhi Diaspora", paper presented in the Seminar on Studies in Sindhi Heritage, Deccan college
post graduate Research Institute and Sindhi Documentation center, Pune, 1999).
In India Sindhi is a stateless language, which forms ‘a microscopic minority’ (Khub Chandani) in the context of total population and therefore it has a very limited role to play in the formal domains like administration and higher education. But due to the rich cultural and literary background the Sindhi speakers are very enthusiastic to maintain their linguistic industry.
On the basis of rural and urban settlements, the Indian Sindhi population can be divided into two groups: one, the Sindhi speaking communities settled in the kutch saurashtra region in Gujarat speaking Kachhi dialect and in the border areas of Jesalmer and Barmer districts in Rajasthan speaking Thari dialect. These communities are mainly settled in rural areas; and the other, migrated sindhi speakers who are mainly settled in urban pockets all over India who have joined the Indian mainstream in the real sense by using local/ dominant languages, taking active participation in the social and political life of the country. At the same time they have shown a great awareness about their identity. No doubt the Sindhi community does not form a significant numeral strength, but it has strong social and business contacts and great opportunities for the ‘in group’ communication. It is worth to mention that there is 100% literacy among them. Their percentage of bi/multi lingualism is also highest in comparison to all other Indian language communities.
Due to the Islamic rule in Sindh from 712 A.D. to 1843 A.D, a majority of Sindhi population embraced Islam and used Arabic
for the religious purpose. After some period, Persian became the language of administration and literature, therefore, a
great number of Perso-Arabic lexical items were borrowed from Sindhi.
During the British era, Sindhi was used for the local administration, school education, mass media and literature. English was
also introduced as a subject at the school level and medium of instruction for the higher education. Many English books were also
translated into Sindhi. As a result, a number of English works were borrowed in Sindhi.
During the post partition era, two varieties of Sindhi language developed: Pakistani-Sindhi and Indian - Sindhi.
Both the varieties have same basic grammatical structure, but Pakistani - Sindhi is overloaded with the Perso-Arabic lexical items;
On the other hand, Indian Sindhi is greatly influenced by Hindi and English. Some lexical items are also borrowed from other
regional languages.
Most of the Sindhi speakers in India learn Hindi and English during their formal education. They watch T.V. programmes and films
and read newspapers, periodicals and books on different subjects in these languages. In India, Hindi is a link language among
the common people and English is a status symbol and is useful for the job opportunities – Sindhi bilinguals have a habit of
code switching from Sindhi to Hindi/English. The same speaker uses Sindhi and other language/s interchangeably in the same
discourse or even within the same utterance.
It is worth to mention that the Sindhi - bilingualism in India is unilateral. It is a feature shown by Sindhi community of
two or more communities in linguistic contact; therefore the interference of English, Hindi and other regional languages
in Sindhi is also unilateral.
The Sindhi speakers often use the bi/multilingual facility, as a means of identity, manipulating language choice to their advantage as a common trait of pluri lingual societies in India. It provides opportunities for the active participation of the people in society which develops positive attitude, loyalty and awareness for their own language as well as favourable attitude towards other languages. Thus their language choice is based on the socio-political and cultural consideration.
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