Sindhis in the diaspora

[TSA321]

What's the reasons ethnic Sindhis (not Muhajirs from Karachi) seem to be so massively under-represented in the diaspora? I've noticed it's quite rare to encounter one in the UK, and I've also read they're quite under-represented in North America, and the Middle-East. I'm guessing it might partially be because their urban centres are dominated by Muhajirs, so these are the ones who'd mainly get the opportunity to immigrate abroad, but you also have hundreds of thousands of poorly educated Punjabis and Pathans from poor areas working in the Middle East, but not that many Sindhis amongst them from what I've heard.

Just to clarify I'm not including the Sindhi Hindus who left Pakistan in 1947, who are known for being all over the world.

 

[Nostalgic]

When we lived in Qatar, we had a few Sindhis at our Pakistani school, but yes, the numbers were not representative of their percentage in the national population.

I remember one gentleman from rural Sindh on an Umra trip. He wore a Sindhi cap, the one with the mirrors, and although at least twenty years younger than my father, kept calling him "tuu" instead of "aap," which for some reason we found hilarious.

 

[Deosai]

I think there are lots of Sindhis in Canada and America, but Sindhis don't really migrate a lot unlike Punjabis and Pashtoons, there's a stereotype that they're lazy, it's probably cause most of the wealthy and skilled Sindhi Hindus left

I read an article about that on dawn

 

[Deosai]

Another thing I've noticed is that we don't have any well known Sindhi cricketers even though their population is on par with Pashtuns, they're really laid back people from what I've noticed

 

[Bewal Express]

Most have been so oppressed by the Waderas/PPP that they have given up on looking for freedom.

 

[Laal]

Sindhi-speaking population is disproportionately concentrated in rural Sindh. Most are landless and work as tenant farmers. That may explain part of the puzzle.

 

[KB]

I can't answer definitively as I don’t know enough about interior Sindh. But perhaps we can speculate by looking at the Punjab as a comparison.

In British India, Western Punjab was transformed from 1890 with the commencement of the building of perennial, as opposed to seasonal, canals. This was a major event where vast swathes of arid land were transformed into areas capable of commercialised agriculture all year round. This was also accompanied with large-scale agricultural colonisation of previously uncultivated, or semi-cultivated, land. There was also considerable uprooting at the time of partition. Based on the 1951 census, of the 7.22 million refugees, 5.3 million settled in Western Punjab – mainly those that had been displaced from East Punjab. Therefore there was a relatively recent history of migration in Punjab and it might be argued that this ‘tradition’ made it more likely that some Punjabis would migrate overseas. This was a ‘tradition’ not so well established in interior Sindh.

In addition in the case of northern Punjab there was also a history of navy and army service abroad. Punjab was of course the key recruiting ground for the Indian army because of the perception that it contained ‘martial castes’. But there was also an economic motivation. Punjab's loyalty in the 1857 revolt and the fact that it was cheaper for Britain to employ Punjabi soldiers in the Frontier region were also important factors in the bias towards Punjabi recruits. The proximity of Punjab to the Frontier meant that compared with Indians from further afield - who had be paid extra allowances - Punjabi soldiers could be paid local rates to serve in the Frontier.

 

[Laal]

I can't answer definitively as I don’t know enough about interior Sindh. But perhaps we can speculate by looking at the Punjab as a comparison.

In British India, Western Punjab was transformed from 1890 with the commencement of the building of perennial, as opposed to seasonal, canals. This was a major event where vast swathes of arid land were transformed into areas capable of commercialised agriculture all year round. This was also accompanied with large-scale agricultural colonisation of previously uncultivated, or semi-cultivated, land. There was also considerable uprooting at the time of partition. Based on the 1951 census, of the 7.22 million refugees, 5.3 million settled in Western Punjab – mainly those that had been displaced from East Punjab. Therefore there was a relatively recent history of migration in Punjab and it might be argued that this ‘tradition’ made it more likely that some Punjabis would migrate overseas. This was a ‘tradition’ not so well established in interior Sindh.

In addition in the case of northern Punjab there was also a history of navy and army service abroad. Punjab was of course the key recruiting ground for the Indian army because of the perception that it contained ‘martial castes’. But there was also an economic motivation. Punjab's loyalty in the 1857 revolt and the fact that it was cheaper for Britain to employ Punjabi soldiers in the Frontier region were also important factors in the bias towards Punjabi recruits. The proximity of Punjab to the Frontier meant that compared with Indians from further afield - who had be paid extra allowances - Punjabi soldiers could be paid local rates to serve in the Frontier.

Good post, KB. However, there was a significant out-migration of Sindhi Hindus at the time partition. A related question is why is the urbanization rate so low among the rural Sindhis?

 

[Ambi]

Sindhi-speaking population is disproportionately concentrated in rural Sindh. Most are landless and work as tenant farmers. That may explain part of the puzzle.

I read somewhere that people living in rural areas are suffering due to extreme poverty, most of them looked like lower caste hindus, I also read many stories about religious tolerance of sindhis.

 

[Laal]

I read somewhere that people living in rural areas are suffering due to extreme poverty, most of them looked like lower caste hindus, I also read many stories about religious tolerance of sindhis.

It remains a very feudal society. Most of the Muslims and Hindus work as indentured servants. As far as the low-caste Hindus are concerned, it mostly comes into play when the Federal Government mobilizes resources. Most is captured by the local Hindu and Muslim elite. Hardly any trickles down to the low-caste Hindus. They are the 'poorest of the poor'.

 

[Deosai]

Not all Sindhis poor though, there are plenty of affluent ones in Karachi

 

[Slog]

Not all Sindhis poor though, there are plenty of affluent ones in Karachi

ofcourse the not all caveat is there for every group in the world

 

[Slog]

Broad generalization but in my book 2 main reasons are that Sindhis are either:
a) too rich that there is no reason or incentive to leave for a different country. they have lands and a lot of wealth so no incentive to go elsewhere
or
b) too poor, persecuted and hence uneducated that it is not likely that the thought would cross their mind or for them to eveb have an avenue or freedom to contemplate sth like this

ofcourse these are broad groups and I know some educated Karachiite sindhis working in the gulf etc

 

[Deosai]

ofcourse the not all caveat is there for every group in the world

Do you think Sindhis would be even poorer if there was no quota system, and if Bhutto hadn't nationalized all the businesses in Karachi and gifted them to the waderas?

Some times I think we should reverse Bhutto's policies, but then I think about the Sindhis who might get into an even worse position

 

[Slog]

Do you think Sindhis would be even poorer if there was no quota system, and if Bhutto hadn't nationalized all the businesses in Karachi and gifted them to the waderas?

Some times I think we should reverse Bhutto's policies, but then I think about the Sindhis who might get into an even worse position

they would be the same. Quota system is a sham and is used by the sons of rich waderas who own acres upon acres of land and have hundreds of haris working for them as modern day slaves. it has no positive (or for that any effect) on poor Sindhis

 

[Deosai]

they would be the same. Quota system is a sham and is used by the sons of rich waderas who own acres upon acres of land and have hundreds of haris working for them as modern day slaves. it has no positive (or for that any effect) on poor Sindhis

well it benefits some middle class people from interior sindh who get jobs in the govt, and then build up their assets by stashing away funds in their accounts

 

[Slog]

well it benefits some middle class people from interior sindh who get jobs in the govt, and then build up their assets by stashing away funds in their accounts

its mostly political appointments,

quota system is a farce and if anything has played a part in sunjugating the poor people of Sindh even more. it ws axtended for further 20 yrs recently

 

[DW44]

its mostly political appointments,

quota system is a farce and if anything has played a part in sunjugating the poor people of Sindh even more. it ws axtended for further 20 yrs recently

Quota system is a joke all round. Public sector positions in KPK almost always have higher quotas for Punjab than KPK. Does that happen in Sindh too?

 

[Slog]

Quota system is a joke all round. Public sector positions in KPK almost always have higher quotas for Punjab than KPK. Does that happen in Sindh too?

yea.

the civil service of Pakistan has only 7% spots on merit lol. 93% is quota based. that's all there is to say.

but in Sindh the problem is apart from dealing with the federal quota there is a quota system within province too with vast majority of spots in education, public sector going to rural Sindh population. don't think any other province has this

 

[Nikhil_cric]

yea.

the civil service of Pakistan has only 7% spots on merit lol. 93% is quota based.

If true that is quite pathetic. Any sort of quota system should only have max 25 % reservation and remaining 75 % at least on merit.

 

[Deosai]

Quota system is a joke all round. Public sector positions in KPK almost always have higher quotas for Punjab than KPK. Does that happen in Sindh too?

In Sindh most of the quotas are for people from rural Sindh, people from Karachi and Hyderabad don't benefit from the quota system

 

[KB]

I am reading Jonathan Addleton’s well researched book, Undermining the Centre, published in 1992 and which examines Pakistani migration to the Gulf between 1971 and 1988, a process which had dramatic consequences for Pakistani society.

His explanation supports what others indicated here:

“One obvious explanation for the low level of ethnic Sindhi involvement is the limited mobility which had always characterised the area. Relatively few Sindhis have ever migrated to the urban areas of the province, much less abroad. The tradition of migration which featured so prominently in the history of the barani - and even irrigated - areas of Punjab and the NWFP was largely absent in Sindh. The province has been much less affected by military recruitment and by the century-long colonisation process which brought thousands to the owner-operated irrigated farms of the ‘canal colony’ Punjab; canal colonies which did develop in Sindh province were in fact often populated by farmers or retired military men from outside the province. In contrast, rural Sindhis were often tied to the land by share-cropping arrangements which made migration of any kind difficult. As a result, Sindhis were largely excluded from the Gulf migration, particularly in the early years when the returns were highest. Perhaps partly as a result, the non-agricultural sector of Sindh’s rural economy remains to this day much smaller than in Punjab or the NWFP.”

As an aside, it is interesting to note that of the fifteen districts that Addleton labeled as high migration districts to the Middle East between 1971-88, twelve were those with significant levels of unirrigated tracts (that is at least thirty per cent of cultivated areas being rain-fed). These districts were: Kohat, Bannu, Dir, Mardan, D.I. Khan, Swat and Abbottabad in the Frontier, and Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Gujrat, Attock and Sialkot in the Punjab.

 

[Bewal Express]

The lack of migration is the single biggest reason the evil and crooked PPP have stolen from the poor without any consequences

 

[KB]

The lack of migration is the single biggest reason the evil and crooked PPP have stolen from the poor without any consequences

There is a quite an important point to make in this respect. As Addleton quite correctly emphasises, remittances represented a decentralised form of development where the state’s priorities were in some ways marginalised.

First it is important to remember that 1970s and 1980s - especially in the early 1980s - the impact of remittances were astonishing. In 1982-3, remittances exceeded foreign exchange earned through exports - they were 121% of exports, of which 90% was derived from the Middle East. Remittances constituted 12% of GDP, far in excess of any other country in Asia outside the Middle East. Remittances during this period also exceeded foreign aid in most years.

It is important to remember that remittances were far harder to capture within the bureaucratic net than export income and foreign aid. Exports might be “managed by a parastatal trading corporation or ‘rationed’ by the government.” What sectors to prioritise was also influenced by lobbying. More obviously, foreign aid was controlled directly by the state and subject to the plans set by the government as well as any stipulations defined by foreign donors. Moreover, implementation was in the hands of a “bureaucracy with little credibility and poor performance at the local level.”

However, migrants and their families exercised greater control over remittances and were able to decide for themselves how best to utilise the money. It also in many ways benefited the less well off. Addleton quotes Ijaz Gilani - a man who by the way has done remarkable work on public opinion research in Pakistan over a number of years. Gilani writing in 1984, states that:

“labour migration from Pakistan has been one of the few resources whose allocation has not been strongly biased in favour of the privileged classes. It has benefited the rural areas, and even within the rural it has benefited more the residents of those areas whose lands were less fertile (the rain-fed lands). It has benefited the unskilled and semi-skilled more than it has benefited the highly educated class.”

But sadly rural Sindh largely missed out. It meant that Sindhis had to rely more on politicians and bureaucrats for development. The outcome of such reliance has not been fruitful.