Question

customs of province sindh

Answer 1

Sindh a beautiful province of Pakistan has a rich culture. The above mentioned verses of the raag (song) titled "Sarang" that peals a prayer for rain. And for three days the prayer reverberated all around. Nowadays Sindh and its inhabitants are suffering due to drought. The residents are leaving their native land in search of water. And the heart-wrenching roars for rain of the people for water were heard in the 3-day urs of great poet of Sindh.

Allan Faqir, Sohrab Faqir, Mai Bhagi, charismatic and powerful folk singers sing the poetry of Shah Latif and mesmerized the people. The folk musicians play an important role to universalize the Sindhi folklore. When folk singer Sohrab Faqir sang the song "Rano" with passion - more than 500 people were listening in a hypnotize manner there.

The canvas of Sindh is incomplete without the colors of poetry of Shah Latif who was a poet of love, peace and beauty. At the same time he was a poet of the poor, hungry, downtrodden and the suppressed. He embellishes his poetry with a rare beauty of language that is shared only by the greatest of the great poets of the world.

He believed in the persistent and eternal struggle. He was a saint but did not believe in sitting at one place for the worship of Almighty God. He was a walker, traveler, and a wanderer in the pursuit of 'truth and beauty.' He succeeded in his search of 'Ultimate Truth' and attained the sublime state of spiritual consolation as he says:

Those that seek, they are ones that meet
The Beloved at all times and in every street,
Those that to search him take to the road,
They will arrive at the Beloved's abode
The personality of Shah Latif as a towering poet has been so pervading and dominating that Sindhi poetry, from the last two and half centuries has predominantly been influenced by his diction, language, thought content, alliteration and style. The words, phrases and metaphors used in his poetry are identical to the land of Sindh, which Shah Latif has called 'sanneh' i.e. Homeland.

He has used the word 'saaneh' in a beautiful and immortal couplet as he says:

The Beloved and the Homeland, only the shamless can forget
Fie upon those who have forgotten their homeland.
There were so many saints and poets born in Sindh and every year a large number of people gathered at their tombs and celebrated their Urs (annual festival). Sachaal Sarmast is another saint poet of Sindh who served the humanity through his poetry. But it is very tragic that the homeland of Shah Latif turned in a land of hell for women of Sindh as a number of women have been killed in the 'name of honor.' They are victims of centuries-old customs like Karo Kari, marriage with the Holy Quarn and latter occur specially in the Syed (Upper cast in Muslims) or most conservative families.

Syed families do not want to marry their daughters or sisters with non-syed boys. They arranged a marriage ceremony of their daughters with the Holy Quran and the whole life woman read the Holy Quran. But it is very hopeful that this custom is very low.

Karo Kari originated from tribes of Baluchistan, has claimed the lives of 286 women in 1998.

If a woman having illicit relations with a male, according to custom of karo kari, she is kari and her punishment is death. But in a number of cases their loved ones - fathers, brothers, husbands and sons, kill innocent women for their own purposes like get rid of their wife, for property, for revenge, for defeat of enemy, for getting another woman from enemy tribe and for hiding any committed crime. They know that they are killing innocent woman.

In a village of Sindh, a man called Aslam reportedly vouched for his wife's innocence after she had been attacked by his brother who alleged her of having an illicit liaison. The husband took her to city for treatment when he was told that his wife would be permanently paralyzed from the waist down, he enraged, declared her as kari and murdered. He took a woman as compensation from the supposed karo's family.