Sindhi Hindus


Sindhi Hindus are Sindhi people who follow the Hindu religion and who originate from the Sindh region of modern Pakistan, which was previously a part of pre-partition India.
The Sindhi are known as سنڌي, सिन्धी. After the Partition of India during 1947, many Sindhi Hindus were among those forced out of Pakistan, which was predominately Muslim, to India, in what was a wholesale exchange of Hindu and Muslim populations in some areas. Some later emigrated from the sub-continent and settled in other parts of the world.. Even though there 2011 census listed 2,772,364 speakers of Sindhi in India, however the total population of is likely to be mucher higher as many people have Either switched to other languages or have stopped speaking it.

Hinduism in Sindh

in the Sindh region, as in other areas of the Indian Subcontinent, was the earliest religion predominantly practiced. Later the area and much of the north of the subcontinent, became dominated by Muslims. The region of Sindh has historically been and still is, home to the largest community of Hindus in Pakistan.
Following the Arab Muslim conquest in the 8th century, Islam spread throughout the region and became the faith practiced by the majority of Sindhi people. Islam, coupled with traditional influences and interaction with Hinduism, has shaped the diverse Sindhi culture. Starting with Muhammad bin Qasim and Habbari dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughal Empire ruled the region.

Partition of India

After the partition of India in 1947, an estimated half of Sindh's Hindus migrated to India, often forced by the religious-based persecution of the time. They settled primarily in neighbouring Kutch district of Gujarat, which bears linguistic and cultural similarities to Sindh, and the city of Mumbai. As per Census of India 2011, there are around 2,772,264 Sindhi speakers living in India. There are also sizable Sindhi Hindu communities elsewhere in the world, sometimes termed, the 'Sindhi diaspora'.

Family naming conventions

Most Sindhi Hindu family names are a modified form of a patronymic and typically end with the suffix "-ani", which is used to denote descent from a common male ancestor. One explanation states that the -ani suffix is a Sindhi variant of 'anshi', derived from the Sanskrit word 'ansh', which means 'descended from'. The first part of a Sindhi Hindu surname is usually derived from the name or location of an ancestor. In northern Sindh, surnames ending in 'ja' are also common. A person's surname would consist of the name of his or her native village, followed by 'ja'. The Sindhi Hindus generally add the suffix ‘-ani’ to the name of a great-grandfather and adopt the name as a family name.

Notable Sindhi Hindus