Sindhi

Sindhi 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 Sindhi.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 diasporaworldwide. 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.

 

Sindhi is also spoken in India, especially in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Majority Sindhi Speaking City Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jalore, Kutch. 'Kutchchi' which is spoken in Kutch and nearby towns is a dialect of Sindhi language. In the princely state of Jaiselmer in Rajasthan, 'Dhakti' is spoken which is also a Sindhi dialect. Similarly, in Barmer, Jalore and other  towns close to Tharparkar and Kutch, 'Thali' and 'Thareli' is spoken which too is a dialect of Sindhi language. It is also spoken inUlhasnagar near Mumbai which is the largest Sindhi enclave in India, Sindhi is also spoken as a minority language in several other countries where Sindhi people have emigrated in large numbers, such as the United States, Australia, the  United Kingdom, where it is the fourth-most-commonly used language, and Canada, where it is the fourth-most-spoken language. Total Sindhi population is over 75 million. There are 46 million Sindhi speakers in Pakistan, 26.5 million in India, 210,000 in the U.A.E, Half Million in the UK, 10,000 in KSA, 700,000 in USA, 31,000 in Canada, and 600,000 to 700,000 Sindhis in other countries.