Sindh connection: Life after partition

Sixty years after partition, NDTV brings you some of Partition's untold stories.

They came as refugees when Sindh became a part of newly created Pakistan. Many headed for Bombay and started their lives all over again. But their success over the last six decades has come at a price.

Every Sindhi wants to fit into the shoes of the czar of construction, Niranjan Hiranandani, who in many ways personifies the Sindhi success story.

Just 60 years ago, his community, mostly of rich landholders, came as refugees from Sindh in Pakistan.

''I think Sindhis as a community are very entrepreneurial. You find a Sindhi anywhere in the world who is able to be businesslike, thrive and adapt. They just put their noses to the ground and get to work. Beyond a point Sindhis didn't look back at all,'' said Niranjan Hiranandani. MD, Hiranandani Group.

Prosperous past

But for 75-year-old Anjana Tejwani, it is a different tale.

Barely 15, she was a child bride when her zamindar family fled overnight from Sakkur in Sindh leaving behind a three storey house and a lifetime of riches.

All that to start a new life as refugees in army barracks of Ulhasnagar, just outside Mumbai. Despite the hard work, the family has not been able to regain its prosperous past.

''The rich somehow got lost in the race when they came to India. We were ashamed to do hard work, unlike the poor who just did what they had to and are now more successful than us,'' said Anjana.

Her 32-year-old daughter Julie Tejwani desperately tries to keep alive pieces of Sindhi culture.

She is part of a young Sindhi theatre group that is struggling to revive interest in her mother tongue through drama.

''It is difficult to get a crowd. We barely manage 4 to 5 shows of one play, that also because it is totally sponsored. But no one is willing to buy a ticket for this kind of theatre,'' she said.

Many debate that this erosion of culture and tradition is natural because they do not have a state or even a piece of land to call their very own to preserve and nurture their distinctive identity.

Sindhis may have prospered in their many adopted countries and as the popular Sindhi saying goes ''have made gold out of ashes''. But this hardy and affluent community is slowly losing out on something even more precious- its distinctiveness, its culture, language and music.