Tribute to Comrade Sobho Gianchandani

Sobho Gianchandani is a prominent Sindhi revolutionary who remains a source of inspiration for many generations of Sindhi activists, writers and social reformers. Mr. Gianchandani, known lovingly as Comrade Sobho, has been associated with many political  and campaign groups, including the Indian National Congress and Khudai Khidmatgar and is the founder of many progressive, democratic and nationalist campaigns in Sindh. After the partition, Pakistani authorities pressured him – like millions of other Sindhi Hindus — to leave Sindh and migrate to India, but Sobho refused, and in consequence he was forbidden to travel abroad until 1998. Sobho was imprisoned for more than a year during the British rule, and after the partition, he fell under the wrath of Pakistani establishment and has many jail sentences to his credit, including one in 1971 for opposing military sponsored genocide in Bangladesh. Comrade Sobho and G. M. Syed were close associates and comrades in different aspects of the Sindhi rights movement. The G. M. Syed Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award is bestowed on Mr. Gianchandani in appreciation of his life-long struggle for emancipation for Sindhis and other oppressed peoples of South Asia and in recognition of his grass-roots efforts to promote tolerance, justice, communal harmony and peace. …..

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More » THE MAN FROM MOEN–JO-DARO – Interview with Comrade Sobho Gianchandani

Two Luminaries Honored for their Contributions to Sindhyat

HOUSTON, TX.- Sindhi luminaries, Naz Sanai (48) of Sann, Sindh and Dr. M. K. Jetley (79) of New Delhi, India, were conferred with the prestigious ‘G. M. Syed Memorial Awards 2010’ in recognition of their contributions to Sindhi identity, language and Sindhi Rights Movement.

These awards were announced during the 107th Birthday Anniversary Commemoration of G M Syed, held January 2011 in Houston, TX. These awards are jointly sponsored by the World Sindhi Congress (WSC) and the G. M. Syed Memorial Committee, a Houston, Texas-based educational group.

Hundreds of Sindhi-Americans Gathered in Houston to Pay Tribute to Their National Leader

– Condemned the religious intolerance and human rights violations in Pakistan

HOUSTON, TX, USA. Tens of hundreds of Sindhi-Americans gathered in Houston on Saturday, January 15, 2011 to commemorate the 107th birthday of Mr. G. M. Syed, a national leader of the Sindh who waged a nonviolent struggle against religious fundamentalism and for freedom.

Sindh is home to the ancient Indus (Sindhu) Valley civilization and is now a unit of Pakistan. A vibrant Sindhi-American community numbering in the tens of thousands lives in various U.S. cities. More than 30 million Sindhis live in Sindh today. Sindhis are supportive of democracy and secularism and have been marginalized by security establishment of the country and its religious extremist reactionary ideology.

G. M. Syed, a leader who waged a nonviolent struggle against religous fundamentalism

Huston : On Saturday, January 15th, 2011, the World Sindhi Congress and G M Syed Memorial Committee is hosting a gathering in Houston, TX to commemorate the 107th birthday of Saeen G. M. Syed, a leader who waged a nonviolent struggle against Islamic fundamentalism and strove toward the emancipation of Sindh. It is our pleasure to invite you to this event. Your participation would let Sindhis know that people around the world support their struggle for human rights, democracy and secularism.

For the last Seven years we have been arranging similar community events in Houston. In year 2005 Honorable Rick Perry, Governor State of Texas sent special greetings on this occasion. In his message, the Governor said:

Sindhi-Americans continue to play an important role in promoting peace, democracy, and human rights. By putting thought into action, you have reinforced the importance of being civic minded, committed citizens, and I wish you continued success.

Bill White, Mayor of Houston, proclaimed the January 16th, 2005 and January 21, 2006 as “G M Syed Day(s) for the City of Houston.” The program in Houston will be held at BBQ Tonite Restaurant, 4617 Beechnut St, Houston, TX, USA,

Losing Faith In Pakistan: A Nation Of Human Bombs

The War within Islam – Losing Faith In Pakistan: A Nation Of Human Bombs

By Aatish Taseer

These shrines are a memorial to the hybridity of the land, if not the state, of Pakistan. Until Partition, before the exodus of Pakistan’s Hindu and Sikh populations, they were places (as they still are in India) where Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims worshipped together. Behind each one—formed out of more than six centuries of religious reform, which created humanistic, more tolerant hybrids of India’s religions—would be some tale built around a local saint that celebrated the plurality of the land. To adhere to the spirit of these shrines was to know that deeper than any doctrinal difference was a shared humanity; it was almost to feel part of a common religion; the spread of this shared culture through Punjab, Sindh and Kashmir constituted an immense human achievement. And for as long as the plurality remained, the religion remained, seemingly immune to fanaticism, incapable of being reduced to bigotry and prejudice. But once the land of Pakistan, after Partition, was drained of its diversity (and this constituted no less a shock than if London or New York were suddenly cleansed of their non-white populations) , the religion lost its deepest motivation, which was to bring harmony to a diverse and plural population. The amazing thing was that even after Partition, when the land of Pakistan was no longer so plural, it was this religion, full of mysticism, poetry and song, that clung on as the dominant faith of the people of Pakistan. …

As the attacks on shrines like Data Sahib multiply, as the Americans discover that nothing will be achieved by throwing money at Pakistan, as India realizes that Pakistan’s hatred of it is not rational, that the border issue with Kashmir cannot alone be the cause of such passion, as the world begins to see that Pakistan’s problems are not administrative, Pakistanis will have to find a new narrative. The sad truth is that they are still a long way from discovering the true lesson behind the experience of the past 60 years: that it is of language, dress, notions of social organization, of shared literatures and customs, of Sufi shrines and their stories, that nations are made, not religion. That has proved to be too thin a glue and 60 years later, it has left millions of people dispossessed and full of hateful lies: a nation of human bombs.

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