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.

Sind Province (1936–55)

Sindh was a province of British India from 1936 to 1947 and Pakistan from 1947 to 1955. Under the British, it encompassed the current territorial limits excluding the princely state of Khairpur with the capital at Karachi. After Pakistan's creation, the province lost the city of Karachi, as it became the capital of the newly created country.

Location

The province was bordered by Karachi (within The Federal Capital Territory after 1948) and the princely states of Las Bela and Kalat on the west. To the north were the provinces of Baluchistan and West Punjab. The province bordered the princely state of Bahawalpur on the northeast and it enclosed on three sides the princely state of Khairpur. The nation of India's states of Rajasthan and Gujarat bordered to the east and south. On the southwest lay the Arabian Sea, with the Sind's coastline consisting entirely of river deltas, including the Indus River Delta up to Sind's border with the city of Karachi, now the capital of modern Sindh.

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