Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s casual, off-the-cuff comment that ‘civilisationally, Sindh will always be a part of India…….Who knows, tomorrow Sindh may return to India again’ made to a gathering of Sindhi Hindus in New Delhi on November 23rd has triggered an existential meltdown across the border and resulted in a hysterical outburst from the Pakistan Government that was more a jumble of words (delusional, revisionist and expansionist) than a cogent rebuttal.

A more balanced response emanated from Shafi Burfat, chairman of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), a Sindhi Nationalist organisation: “We consider Sindh not only the historical homeland of the Sindhi nation, but also the motherland of ancient civilisations. Sindh, from which India derives its very name, is the cradle of human civilisation and the birthplace of one of humanity’s oldest cultural identities."

Further, he added: “We firmly believe that the people of Sindh have never been historically connected to Arab or Turkic powers based on religion or ideology. Instead, our civilisational, cultural and historical roots have always been deeply linked with the land of Sapt Sindhudesh, India."

If India derives its name from Sindh, then why is it today a part of Pakistan? What is the civilisational and historical significance of Sindh to India? And do peripatetic Sindhi Hindus have a legitimate right to the Pakistani province of Sindh which is their ancestral homeland? These are the germane questions that will help elaborate on Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s terse remarks.

Sindh is derived from the word Sindhu (strictly a word for river in Sanskrit but also used interchangeably for the Indus river) and is the name given to a roughly triangular tract of land that approximates the current Pakistani province of Sindh. The Sindhu River or Indus is the defining geographical feature of this terrain making it a fertile land for agriculture. It was here on the banks of this mighty river that the Indus Valley civilisation first took roots and then spread out all across the subcontinent; it was along with Egypt and Mesopotamia one of the three known ancient human civilisations. Archaeological evidence for the Indus Valley civilisation was unearthed in the early 1900s in Mohenjo-daro located in Sindh.

A strong association between Sindh and the Vedic culture is clearly documented in our scriptures. The........

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