Not many of us, as well as sections of Sindhi community, are aware of the history of our Sindhi-Punjabi community. It is worth looking back at the origin of Sindhi Punjabis.
Mistakenly some Sindhis think Sikhs speaking Sindhi are the Sindhi Punjabis. That actually is not the situation.
The lineage of Sindhi-Punjabis dates back to 1750 or 1800 when en-masse migration of a section of population living in Punjabi province took place.
History says that repeated invasions by the Mughals caused a lot of bloodshed in the region and that led to mass migration . The migrants moved to two small districts – Dera Ismail Khan & Dera Ghazi Khan situated near Multan, now in Pakistan.
My father, a Sindhi author and an Ayurvedic doctor, Dada Jethanand, told me there are two versions as to the origin of Sindhi Punjabis.
In the 17th century, after 9th Sikh Guru Teg Bahadur was executed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, many Punjabis migrated to the two towns. The other version is that some of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's troops settled down in Sindh in the 18th century after capturing the two towns of Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan. They were subsequently called Sindhi Punjabis
Historically, Dera Ghazi Khan & Dera Ismail Khan are situated on the western bank of the Indus River. Dera Ghazi Khan was founded in 1476 by a Balouch ruler, Nawab Haji Khan Mirrani also called Mirani Balouch and named the town after his son Ghazi Khan Mirrani. In those days, Dera Ghazi Khan was known as “Dera Phoolan Tha Sehra” due to plenty of gardens and Kasturi canal, supplied by the Indus River. And so Haji Khan Mirrani, a great cattle owner, was attracted to the site. Years passed and peace prevailed.
Because of the geographical location of Dera Ghazi Khan & Dera Ismail Khan, the whole vicinity was ruled by many Islamic rulers and Mughals were not far away. The Punjabi Hindus, fearing religious persecution , migrated to the two towns in Sindh, and the migrants chose to call themselves as Punjabis and retained a separate identity in Sind. These migrant Punjabis took little time to settle down in their new homes. They adjusted to the new environments, adopted the Sindhi culture, Sindhi language and customs of the land while maintaining their distinct identity. Soon they spread over 36 towns in Sindh.
No sooner had they settled in their new homes, came the the Partition of India. As many as 776,000 Sindhi Hindus and Sindhi speaking Punjabis were uprooted from their settlements and forced out of the country. Nowhere else to go, each one migrated to India and from there some moved to other parts of the world as well.
The initiative to organise Sindhi speaking Punjabis was taken by the community in India and is now considered a sub-community of Sindhis.
As such, there is no difference between “Sindhi-Punjabis” and Sindhis as a whole. Just like there are Sindhi Brahmins, Sindhi Bhaiband, Sindhi Shikarpuris, in the same way, there are Sindhi Punjabi’s. For all practical purposes, they are no different than any other Sindhi .
A small community of around 3500 families is now spread all over the world.
Sindhi-Punjabis found difficult to connect with each other and in 1960s, a registered all-India body named ‘Akhil Bharat Sindhi Punjabi Welfare Association’ was formed as a nucleus to promote the formation of Puj Sindhi-Punjabi Panchayats all over the world. Today, Puj Sindhi-Punjabi Panchayats exist in every city and town of India and a few countries abroad.
Panchayats aim at preserving culture & customs and promote brotherhood amongst community members. Every year Sindhi Punjabi Panchayats in India arrange social gatherings and festivals in different cities.
In Hong Kong Sindhi Punjabi women took the initiative some 40 years ago to hold social gatherings and now, they meet occasionally from time to time.
It is for the first time, a major step of establishing a platform for Sindhi Punjabi families is being taken. I belong to the second generation of pre-partition Sindhi Punjabis and hope the fourth generation is made aware of the community's enterprising spirit.