SINDH THROUGH THE CURRENT CENTURY.
Before
the World War II when the grip of the British colonial rulers was still very strong and
there were hardly any signs that the foreign occupants will leave the Indian
sub-continent, it was the Sindhi leadership which rose against the imperialists and
launched a multi-faceted freedom movement. On the one hand Pir Sibghatullah Shah Rashdi
launched a militant revolt, called "Hur Movement", against them and on the other
a peaceful Pan-Islamist campaign paved the way for the independence of Sindh from the yoke
of the Bombay Presidency. The people of Sindh also taook active part in Khilafat Movement
and other such movements launched by the people of the Sub-continent. In fact, certain
historians believe that the movement for the separation of Sindh laid the foundation stone
throughout the sub-continent for a greater homeland for the Muslims of India. This
campaign for the separation of Sindh succeeded in 1936 and provided impetus to the Muslim
league which was again led by a democratic statesman from Sindh widely known as
Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It also want to the credit of Sindh province that its
Provincial Assembly first ever resolved in favour of Pakistan. Although Jinnah could not
survive long after the inception of Pakistan, yet he strongly spelled out broader
democratic and human principles to be followed by his successors in the newly created
state of Pakistan. Although, soon after his death the reigns of the county were usurped by
the vested interests and in the coming years the people of Pakistan had to undergo longer
spells of sufferings.
Today
the province of Sindh is an amalgam of various sub-continental and middle-eastern
cultures. It was specially after the independence that millions of Indian Muslims from the
minority province migrated to Sindh and made it their permanent home. The amalgamation of
their culture into the rich Sindhi traditions has progressively assumed a new complexion.
Both the communities of Sindhi and Urdu-Speaking inhabitants of Sindh have, during the
last half-century, shared their values and traditions, literature and Language, entered
into inter-marriages and lived in harmony for the progress of their motherland.
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