Next question one may ask Who is Sindhi?

Whom we can call Sindhi?

The children who are born and brought up in India after partition and have never seen Sindh, can they be called Sindhi? And those who can not speak, read or write Sindhi, should they be accepted as Sindhis?

The simple answer to the above question is YES! The essential condition is not to be born in Sindh or know the Sindhi language, but to feel oneself Sindhi, recognise oneself as a Sindhi, and being recognised by others as a Sindhi. Other people will call us Sindhis when they find the difference in our living pattern, in our customs and tradition, in our thought and action, which are quite distinct from their way of living.

Thus we may conclude that "SINDHIYAT" is the emotion which makes a person feel that he is Sindhi and also enables other to recognise him as Sindhi.

"SINDHIYAT" is thus the mirror of Sindhi Society."

(b) CULTURAL IDENTITY
"Every dark cloud has the silver lining" holds true for our present struggle to keep our Sindhi identity intact. It is a well known fact that education in Sindhi language as well the readership of Sindhi literature is on decline. On the other hand, it is also an established fact that more and more Sindhis are feeling the urge to preserve their cultural identity.

Till recently, members of the younger generation who felt shy of disclosing their Sindhi identity have started asserting it again. Their inferiority complex has given place to their eagerness to know about their roots. These healthy signs are quite pronounced for everyone who wishes to see. Many Sindhi families (previously without Sindhi surnames) are now adding the customary suffix of "ani" to their fore-father's name.' in order to have the sense of belonging with their clan. Many Sindh leaders of all India stature who till recently shunned the community are eager to seek fresh allegiance. Few of them even took oath in Parliament in Sindhi, to show their kinship with community.

India is a cauldron, which has held hundreds of communities for thousands of years together without anyone loosing its distinct identity Sindhis after the initial bonhomie have learnt this hard fact of Indian life. Even in villages, where they live in small number, they have formed their associations and celebrate "ChetiChand" and other Sindh festivals, to proclaim their distinctiveness. It is therefore reassuring that the future of Sindhis in India is not so bleak as it was commonly believed. There is however a vast scope to channelise the energies of Sindhis in a common direction of preserving their cultural heritage.

Indian Institute of Sindhology, established at Adipur, is established to achieve this goal.

(c) CULTURAL SUICIDE
The nature has bestowed on us life and environment with two options. Either we roam around freely like other wild beasts in search of food, or make good use of environment by applying our mind to create happy social life for ourselves.

For thousands of years, man too lived in wilderness like other mute creatures on earth. He, however, gradually developed his intelligence and started living in groups, to harness the hostile surroundings, for their collective benefit.

The knowledge and experience gathered by these societies in the process formed the basis of their social practices. It was also codified into Sanskars (rituals) for the benefit of future generations. For example, our ancestors observed that shaving off the first hair of new born babies was good for the better growth of their hair. This knowledge was soon turned into a sanskar of "Munanu". In this manner, every society developed many of their social practices, rituals, customs, beliefs, and they were collectively called the culture of that particular society. Today's world is inhabited by innumerable societies of myriad cultures having their distinct ways of living (identities) which they have developed over thousands of years, based on their knowledge, experience and beliefs. This applies to Sindhi or Sindhu culture as well, which is the accumulated wealth of knowledge and experience gathered by Sindhi community. This inheritance rightfully belongs to the new generation of Sindhis, in the same manner as father bequeaths his property to his offsprings.

To deny this cultural heritage to new generation is a cultural folly which we are unwittingly committing. We should make amends without further delay, otherwise our coming generation, would curse us for having committed such a cultural suicide.

 It is however never too late!

Indian Institute of Sindhology has shouldered this responsibility on behalf of Sindhi community. You too have to share this responsibility by coming forward and strengthening the hand of "SINDHOLOGY" in order to handover our cultural heritage to our future generations.

(d) CULTURAL BYPASS SURGERY
Bypass Surgery is very common remedy for those who suffer from heart trouble. What do we mean by Bypass Surgery? As to avoid the heavy traffic or congestion on the main road a bypass is constructed to divert the traffic, similarly when the veins carrying the blood to the heart are choked, a bypass is made by connecting new arteries through which blood can easily pass.

Sometimes society, like men, needs a bypass surgery. Today, Sindhi Society is passing through a crisis, which can be overcome only through a bypass surgery.

We know, language, literature and culture are inter-related. Literature, which is the manifestation of culture, is created by the language. Thus it is the language and literature which transmit the culture and civilisation from one generation to another. Thus the process of handing over the cultural heritage to the successive generations is by means of language to literature and literature to culture.

Due to some historical events this normal channel of cultural transformation is blocked for Sindhi community. Today Sindhis are scattered throughout India and all parts of the World. Everywhere Sindhis have adopted the local language. In Gujarat they speak Gujarati, in U.F. and Delhi they speak Hindi and in Karnataka they speak Kannada. Because at many places they do not have the facility to learn Sindhi, children are deprived of learning their mother tongue. With the result they have no access to Sindhi literature and no knowledge of Sindhi culture. The new generation of Sindhis, due to lack of the knowledge of their language and literature, feel that Sindhis do not possess the culture of their own. These youngsters are therefore not emotionally attached to their own roots, feel shy to be recognised as Sindhis, and suffer from inferiority complex.

As this channel of access to culture through language and literature is blocked, what is the alternate course to reach the destination? We need a bypass to ferry the finer features of culture and reach the goal of cultural identity, without loosing time. This bypass can be through the process of vocal culture. Our youngsters can be linked to their cultural roots through dance, drama and music initially and imbibed with the love for language and literature later on.

This is the suggested bypass surgery for Sindhi Community for its healthy growth.