Sindh’s secularism fights for survival!

by Hasan Mansoor

   Sindh is rich in minerals, energy resources, forests, desert and sea, having a few high altitude places offering chilling temperatures. All these treasures merit a greedy stare from the suppressing centre, yet they are merely appendages – there re
mains a prized asset!

Holi celebrations in Sindh

   Unlike other assets this one is something that the right-wing establishment religiously despises and reckons as Sindh’s greatest sin and calls its inhabitants infidels and Indian agents.
   Sindh has seen little calm and rare self-rule on its soil since time immemorial, but it has been resilient enough so far to protect its most enviable treasure trove – something widely defined as secularism, the art of peaceful co-existence.
   Unlike the most of Pakistan, Sindh is still largely a pluralistic, secular and liberal society. People here too kill others on trivial reasons but at least politically aware Sindhis are not yet convinced to kill each other on religious grounds.
   That tradition goes on; but will it continue hopping like it did in the past centuries? There are serious doubts and concerns as well-laid grand plans are there to create smaller Taliban havens in parts of this land of Sufis – if not possible to fully convert it.
   The planners – well entrenched in the country’s ruling machine and their spare parts in apparently non-state junk – have particularly targeted Sindh’s upper districts, infested with tribal customs largely forced by the migrants from neighbouring provinces, the victims of blatant corruption and negligence by the parties they vote for and abject poverty which is increasingly reaching the tipping point.
   Past events show a disturbing increase in the migration of Sindh’s Hindus to India and elsewhere because of their systematic kidnapping for ransom and abductions and forced conversions of their girls by influential mullahs and feudal lords who blatantly preside over hordes of gangs of robbers in the region.
   Rights activists say hundreds of cases of kidnappings and forced conversions of Hindus and their girls have been committed in the past four years in the northern districts of Sindh, most of which have gone unreported and attracted little attention from the so-called national media, which itself boasted to be centre-right and custodian of the country’s ambiguous ideological borders.
   The events have forced Hindus to migrate in flocks from their soil, a further dent in Sindh’s pluralistic society, which had already suffered a great deal because of migration of its entire middle class – happened to be Hindus – to India in 1947 after the partition of the Subcontinent.
   The dilemma of Sindhi Hindus is that they are often ignored by the world in the times of distress. Pakistani Christians suffer religious indiscrimination and persecution as well, but fortunately the Mighty West follows the same faith and often raises voice for their rights. Our Hindus are already labeled by the patriots in the establishment and media as the Indian agents, thus find no brotherly support from anywhere except for sporadic faint voices from rights organisations and individuals having little influence in bigger arena to change their fate.
   The killing of three Hindu men in the town of Chak in Shikarpur district is considered as the worst incident in decades. Media reports splash several contradictory facts, ranging from personal enmity to the possibility of a victim’s affair with a girl of an influential tribe, but the fact remains that it is bound to accelerate Hindus’ migration. The fact is that this migration will further erode Sindh’s claim to be the country’s only hope for minorities; the land which has always soft spot for minority faiths.
   Whatever the reasons are claimed to have caused the tragedy; the ultimate beneficiaries will remain right-wing mullahs and feudal hypocrites – in terms of their influence and the booty they would ultimately own and share as they did during the mass migration of Hindus 64 years ago.
   These killings should be taken in line with several attacks on NATO trucks in the same district – Shikarpur – as was a suicide blast on Ashura at a Shiite mosque there last year, which fortunately killed just the attacker.
   Being optimistic helps lessening the intensity but pain remains until it is fully cured. The reaction against the Shikarpur killings shows a distinct majority still sides with Sindh’s pluralistic history with intentions to safeguard it. Several demonstrations in scores of towns against the killings are because people don’t want the land to be deprived of its habit to remain peaceful.
   But fear still remains inward as being liberal is something that deep state has little desire to let it go. Pakistan is the land where designs often mirror opposite to the desire of majority; where a tiny minority decides about the national interests and everyone has to follow the suit to remain a patriot – thus alive!

A Saint of Children!

by Hasan Mansoor
The Achchi Qabar (means white grave in Sindhi for its appearance) is a legendary monument in famous Mithadar area. This is the shrine of Hazrat Noor Shah Ghazi who is famous as Dada (grandpa) among Old Mithadarians.

The myth is that Dada Noor Shah Ghazi was a saint who had great affection for children. The children of Mithadar would go at his shrine and play there. People believe the saint would be playing with kids in the premises and some children, now in their 70s and 80s still narrate their childhood games at the shrine with firm belief that the Dada was among them.
“I still remember an incident that my living friends can corroborate,” says sexagenarian Mohammad Ali, “A woman saw his son sitting onto the grave of Dada in the shrine. She beat him and asked him not to do it again. The same night his son saw and neighbours heard the woman screaming wildly as if someone was beating her. She later said the Dada was annoyed with her for preventing her son from playing with him and warned her of graver consequences if she did it again.”
Equally important character of Mithadar was Aasoo Halwai, a Hindu confectioner having a monumental popularity in the little Karachi for his tasty sweets. Dada Noor Shah Ghazi, many old residents say, would be visible sometimes. He would often visit Aasoo Halwai’s shop in Sarafa Bazaar and take some platters of sweets. Neither Dada would pay Halwai anything nor the confectioner would demand the same. Dada would put something invisible in the money-box placed at a table and distribute sweets among children.
“Aasoo Halwai never stopped Dada from taking sweets for free, yet surprisingly he became prosperous and wealthier. Perhaps, it was Dada’s blessing that made him richer,” Ali says.
Now, when the twin neighbourhoods of Kharadar and Mithadar have changed altogether, the myths of Dada have become things of the past. Annual Urs at his Achchi Qabar still takes place but he is now merely a saint for the organisers and not of children.
In pre-partition days, Mithadar and Kharadar were mainly residential localities and were spacious enough for joy walk. Automobiles were rare enough space was there to walk and ride bicycles.
“Imagine, 60 years ago, I would go on bicycle from Mithadar to Kharadar to visit my aunt and would find no automobile all the way,” Anis Memon, an old resident, says.
“Now you see a maddening traffic here and people in hurry coming from all directions.”
Aasoo Halwai’s family had shifted to India after the partition and one of Dada's kids who visited Mumbai says Aasoo's grandchildren are engaged in the same business. They have many outlets in towns of Maharashtra and Gujarat states.
His shop is now owned by a family migrated from India and sells jewellery.
2011