Sindh is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province by population after Punjab. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan to the west and north-west and Punjab to the north. It shares an International border with the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan to the east; it is also bounded by the Arabian Sea to the south. Sindh's landscape consists mostly of alluvial plains flanking the Indus River, the Thar Desert in the eastern portion of the province along the international border with India, and the Kirthar Mountains in the western portion of the province.
Hyderabad is a city and the capital of Hyderabad Division in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the second-largest city in Sindh, and the eighth largest in Pakistan.
Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Pakistani province of Sindh, spoken by over 34 million people, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, without any state-level official status. The main writing system is the Perso-Arabic script, which accounts for the majority of the Sindhi literature and is the only one currently used in Pakistan. In India, both the Perso-Arabic script and Devanagari are used.
Sindhis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who speak the Sindhi language and are native to the Pakistani province of Sindh. The historical homeland of Sindhis is bordered by the southeastern part of Balochistan, the Bahawalpur region of Punjab and the Kutch region of Gujarat. Having been isolated throughout history unlike its neighbours, Sindhi culture has preserved its own uniqueness.
Bhatia is a group of people and a caste found in Punjab, Sindh and Gujarat. Traditionally, they have been a trading and merchant community. The Bhatias primarily live in Northwestern India and Pakistan. The Bhatias, Lohanas and Khatris were similar communities and were known to intermarry. The Bhatias recruit Saraswat Brahmins as priests.
Lohana, also referred to as Loharana, Thakkar and Lohrana, are a trading or mercantile jāti. Lohanas claim to be descendants of Lava, son of Rama, and to descend from the Raghuvamsha dynasty. The Lohanas are divided into many separate cultural groups as a result of centuries apart in different regions. Thus there are significant differences between the culture, language, professions and societies of Gujarati Lohanas, Sindhi Lohanas, and Kutchi Lohanas.
The history of Sindh refers to the history of the Pakistani province of Sindh, as well as neighboring regions that periodically came under its sway.
The Pashtun diaspora (Pashto: بهر میاشت پښتانه، comprises all ethnic Pashtuns and their more than 10 million Pashtuns descendants who are living outside of their traditional homeland of Pashtunistan, a historic region that is today situated over parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. While the Pashtunistan is home to the majority of Pashtun people, there are significant local Pashtun diaspora communities scattered across the neighbouring Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab, particularly in their respective provincial capital cities of Karachi and Lahore. Additionally, people with Pashtun ancestry are also found across India; particularly in Rohilkhand, a region in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh; and in the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Outside of South Asia, significant Pashtun diaspora communities are found in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Iran, Australia, Canada, and Russia.
The Sindhudesh Movement is a separatist movement, based in Sindh, Pakistan, seeking to create a homeland for Sindhis by establishing an ethnic state called Sindhudesh, which would be either autonomous within Pakistan or independent from it.
Bhaiband, meaning “brotherhood”, are a Hindu jāti within the Sindhi caste of India and Pakistan.
The Sikhs are adherents to Sikhism, the fifth largest organized religion in the world, with around 25 million adherents. Sikh History is around 500 years and in that time the Sikhs have developed unique expressions of art and culture which are influenced by their faith and synthesize traditions from many other cultures depending on the locality of the adherents of the religion. Sikhism is the only religion that originated in the Punjab region with all other religions coming from outside Punjab. All the Sikh gurus, many saints, and many of the martyrs in Sikh history were from Punjab and from the Punjabi people. Punjabi culture and Sikhism are mistakenly considered inseparably intertwined. "Sikh" properly refers to adherents of Sikhism as a religion, strictly not an ethnic group. However, because Sikhism has seldom sought converts, most Sikhs share strong ethno-religious ties, therefore it is a common stereotype that all Sikhs share the same ethnicity. Many countries, such as the U.K., therefore misconcievingly recognize Sikh as a designated ethnicity on their censuses. The American non-profit organization United Sikhs has fought to have Sikhs included on the U.S. census as well, arguing that Sikhs "self-identify as an 'ethnic minority'" and believe "that they are more than just a religion".
The Punjabi diaspora refers to the descendants of ethnic Punjabis who emigrated out of the Punjab region in the northern part of the South Asia to the rest of the world. Punjabis are one of the largest ethnic groups in both the Pakistani and Indian diasporas. The Punjabi diaspora numbers around the world has been given between 2.5 and 10 million, mainly concentrated in Britain, Canada, United States, Western Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.
Overseas Indians, officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are Indians who reside or originate outside of India. According to the Government of India, Non-Resident Indians are citizens of India who currently are not living in India, while the term People of Indian Origin refers to people of Indian birth or ancestry who are citizens of countries other than India. Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) is given to People of Indian Origin and to persons who are not People of Indian Origin but married to People of Indian Origin. Persons with OCI status are known as Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs). The OCI status is a permanent visa for visiting India with a foreign passport.
Pakistan is one of the world's most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries. The major Pakistani ethnolinguistic groups include Punjabis, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Saraikis, Muhajirs, Balochs, Paharis and Brahuis, with significant numbers of Baltis, Kashmiris, Chitralis, Shina, Kohistanis, Torwalis, Hazaras, Burusho, Wakhis, Kalash, Siddis, Uzbeks, Nuristanis, Pamiris, Hindkowans, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Uyghurs and other various minorities.
The Muhajir people are Muslim immigrants of various ethnic groups and regional origins, and their descendants, who migrated from various regions of India after the Partition of India to settle in the newly independent state of Pakistan. The term "Muhajirs" refers to those Muslim migrants from India, who settled in urban Sindh. The Muhajir community also includes stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh who migrated to Pakistan after 1971 following the secession of East Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War.
The Sindhi diaspora consists of Sindhi people who have emigrated from the historical Sindh province of British India, as well as the modern Sindh province of Pakistan, to other countries and regions of the world, as well as their descendants.
Sindhis in India refer to a socio-ethnic group of people living in the republic of India, originating from Sindh. After the 1947 Partition of India into the dominions of new Muslim-majority Pakistan and remaining Hindu-majority India, a million non-Muslim Sindhis migrated to independent India. As per the 2011 census of India, there are 2,772,364 Sindhi speakers in the Indian Republic. However, this number does not include ethnic Sindhis who no longer speak the language.
Sindhi Hindus are Sindhis who follow Hinduism and whose origins lie in the Pakistani province of Sindh. They are the largest religious minority in Sindh. After the partition of British India in 1947, many Sindhi Hindus were among those who fled from British Sind to the dominion of India, in what was a wholesale exchange of Hindu and Muslim populations in some areas. Some later emigrated from the subcontinent and settled in other parts of the world.
Sindhi Americans are Americans or residents of the United States who are of Sindhi descent, originating from the Pakistani province of Sindh. They are a subgroup of Pakistani Americans or Indian Americans.
British Punjabis are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom whose heritage originates wholly or partly in the Punjab, a region in the Indian subcontinent, which is divided between India and Pakistan. Numbering 700,000 in 2006, Punjabis represent the largest ethnicity among British Asians. They are a major sub-group of the British-Indian and British Pakistani communities.
