Sind Club

The Sind Club is the oldest club located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It was started in 1871 as an exclusive gentlemen's club.

Name spelling

Although the province of Sindh is now spelled Sindh, the Sind Club still uses the old spelling given by its founders.

History

It was an exclusive club for the British colonists, and natives were not allowed inside, almost till the independence of Pakistan in 1947.

Design

A competition was held to select the best design for the club. Richard Burton had warned against the use of Gothic architecture for the club building. Having seen Frere Hall he had said: "the Veneto-Gothic, so fit for Venice, so unfit for Karachi. It is to be hoped that the new club will not adopt Veneto-Gothic." Since limited funds were available for the new club building, a design prepared by a committee member, Le Mesurier, was chosen. When completed, Le Mesurier's building was considered a "princely residence". The first of the Sind Club buildings, which now houses the ladies bar and the dining room, was designed in a southern Italian style. The building suits comfortably in its spacious grounds, its facade employing simple arcading which is composed of semi-circular openings on the ground and first floors, and terminates in pitched roofs.

Sindh

Sindh /sɪnd/ (Urdu: سندھ‎ ; Sindhi: سنڌ‎) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, in the southeast of the country. Historically home to the Sindhi people, it is also locally known as the Mehran. It was formerly known as Sind until the 1956 Constitution of Pakistan. Spelling of its official name as Sind was discontinued in 2013 by an amendment passed in Sindh Assembly. The name "Sindh" is derived from the Sanskrit Sindhu, a reference to the Indus River that passes almost through the middle of the state.

Sindh is the third largest province by size, and second largest province by population. It is bordered by Balochistan province to the west, Punjab province to the north, the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan to the east, and Arabian Sea to the south. The provincial capital and largest city of the province is Karachi, which is Pakistan's largest city and the country's only financial hub.

The province has a diverse industrialized economy which emphasizes on manufacturing, education and agriculture development. It is a major exporter of fruit and vegetables to other parts of the country.

Sindhi language

Sindhi /ˈsɪndi/ (سنڌي, सिन्धी, ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the historical Sindh region, spoken by the Sindhi people. It is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh. In India, Sindhi is one of the scheduled languages officially recognized by the federal government. It has influences from Balochi spoken in the adjacent province of Balochistan.

Most Sindhi speakers are concentrated in Pakistan in the Sindh province, and in India in the Kutch region of the state of Gujarat and in Ulhasnagar region of the state of Maharashtra. The remaining speakers in India are composed of the Hindu Sindhis who migrated from Sindh, which became a part of Pakistan and settled in India after the independence of Pakistan in 1947 and the Sindhi diaspora worldwide. Sindhi language is spoken in Sindh, Pakistan and Kutch, India as well as immigrant communities in India, Hong Kong, Oman, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, UAE, UK, USA, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka.

There are 46 million Sindhis living in Pakistan, with 44 million in Sindh, and over 2 million living in other provinces, Mostly in Balochistan. About 16% of the population of Sindhis in Pakistan are Hindus. Most of them live in urban areas like Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpur Khas, Dadu, Larkana and Jacobabad. Hyderabad is the largest centre of Sindhi Hindus in Pakistan with 100,000-150,000 people.

Sindh (disambiguation)

Sind or Sindh (Sindhi: سنڌ‎, Urdu: سندھ‎, Hindi: सिन्ध) can refer to:

See also