Daily Times

The Sindhi Cultural Day unites all Sindhis across the globe. This is the day when all Sindhis regardless of their political affiliation, celebrate the rich cultural and heritage treasure of Sindh. This is good to see that all parts of the country join the celebrations too.  The day was celebrated for the first time in 2009 when a TV anchor ridiculed President Asif Ali Zardari for wearing a Sindhi cap during his foreign visit. This triggered the Sindh people to come up with the culture day. What a cultured and calculated response the loudmouth anchor got from the culturally proud Sindhis. That is the beauty of culture. Since then, every year, the Sindh Culture Day is celebrated across the province and streets are filled with crowds wearing Sindhi caps and Ajraks. Popular Sindhi songs blaring out of houses and shops leave the people dancing.

Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, is lucky to have diverse social, ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural settings. Of the several settings, the more prominent are Punjabi, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Baloch, Pashtun, Seraiki and a lot of other groups. This provides us with several regional languages, cuisines, music, and lifestyles. It is, however, our bad luck that our part of the world has not been educated enough to celebrate and own our local cultures besides showing respect for other people’s culture. The power of culture has united both urban and rural Sindhis as Karachi and Hyderabad hosted a large number of culture activities. A section of the people believes that being Pakistani means that no local culture or language should be promoted or highlighted. Moreover, people are not ready to accept different cultures and their thoughts. This has created a sort of gap and a tinge of resentment among different cultural, religious and ethnic groups.

The world over belief that culture unites people should be applied in Pakistan too. Every group should arrange their cultural days with zeal as Sindhis exhibit. Similarly, the national media should project diverse social, ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural landscapes too. The government can work on the promotion and preservation of languages and culture. In recent times, Punjabi and Seraiki sections have raised their voice for classroom instructions in the native languages. The education departments should consider their demands. Happy Sindhi Cultural Day! *